Trying to get Jamstix up and running
Hello All,
I haven’t posted in awhile because I had switched over to Mac/PT awhile back. I’d like to give N-track another whirl and see if I can get a prog I had purchased (Jamstix) to make some trax for me.
Anyway, I’m having a problem running jamstix and N. It says my computer resources are overloaded and stops the track. Here’s my specs:
Chipset: Intel i810E
RAM: 512
Dual HDD w/ one dedicated solely for N
Intel PIII
Sound Card: MAudio Delta
Anyway, I’ve played with the buffer settings and still cant get it to not lag so far behind that i can play. Jamstix has to run with N in “live” mode.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
p.s. I"m running ver 4.04 build 1811. I"m not against using an older version if there’s one out there thats more suited for running a vst program just so i can get jamstix to run and make drum trax for me.
the only way to resolve this is to have a look inside your PC to see what is happening CPU and RAM wise - many people are now running a free aplication called CPUmon - it shows how hard your CPU is working and the ammount of RAM that is being used -
unlike the usual CPU use monitors CPUmon shows the CPU use that WINDOWS uses, so you get a very accurate display of whats going on inside your PC - when you have it running it will show a squigly line that is your CPU use and a long bar across the display which shows how much rAM is in use - with nothing but Windows running the cpu use will be low and the memory use wil be constant - watch what happens when you open N - CPU may hit 100% for a while, (this is OK) and your ram use will increase, now insert a track and see what happens -play track back see what happens, then open jamstix and watch everything grind to a halt -
1… your CPU is hitting 100% for to long -
2… you have used up more RAM than you have available so windows is swopping between physical and virtual ram -
3…most likely you are using a PRE.NET version of N - pre .NET, if any application claimed RAM for itself but then forgot to release it, then that RAM was locked out for other apps to use -with .NET all RAM use is monitored by Windows and unused RAM is constantly being recycled -
here is the link to get the free CPUmon application - its a good place to start -
http://www.den4b.com/projects.php
Dr J
PS to above -
as a tool for solving various problems with plugins in N or sharing settings Bill (WOXNERW) and myself send each other screenshots with CPUmon in view - if a plugin doesnt seem right i can download the plugin myself and based on the information i see in CPUmon from his screenshot i can compare on haw the plugin works on my system (which is slower and has less ram thsn his does) sometimes the plugin will work beter on my system than his because i am using a different version of Windows - it has become the standard reference point for everything we do eith N -
another thing it can show is how efficient your Soundcard drivers are - on a track i just played back using my Realtek AC97 WDM drivers on my onboard sound chip. i saw it was 50% more efficient in CPU use than the WDM drivers for my Soundblaster Augigy USB unit - so going by this if i stay with the onbosrd sound chip i can play more tracks without clicks -and pops -
Dr J
DR J,
Thanks for the response (and the link). I’ll definately give it a whirl tonight.
On a slightly different subjetct, if there was an upgrade I could do to this machine (soundcard, motherboard, ram, etc) I’d certainly be openedminded. However, I’m about the most “non-tech” conversant person around. I’ve done some searching through the forums for the “ultimate” config for a machine that’s dedicated for using N, but it seems as if there’s a thousand different possibilities. Is there one specific set up that’s recommended for N?
thanks for the input,
gunner
i am working on a new topic right now on how to get more tracks to playback without dropouts - at the moment there is a “BUT” to this - what happens is that i ask N to bypass a function, the bypassed icon is lit but when i close the function panel the bypass is reset to normal, hense nothing happens and the expected gain in performance does not take place - there is a workround but its a bit messy - Flavio has said he will make it stay bypased in the near future - so i may wait till then before posting - just to give you an idea i have taken this old and slow PC from struggling to play 3 tracks to playing 23 tracks (quite a boost) -
if you really want performance then you have to put your hands deep in your pocket and pull out wads of spending stuff - my studio PC runs a P111 at 2 gig with 1 gig of ram on WIN 2K it uses a 24 in 24 out ADAT system to pass audio data from the PC via fibreoptic cables to my digital mixing consol - this system puts ZERO load on the PC as all the audio is generated and controled in the mixing desk - i can easily get 80 tracks to playback on that PC with no dropouts at all - with the little tweak im hoping Flavio will do i should get it upto 100+ tracks easily -
Dr j
Jamstix is a VSTi,
you could try running it in Chainer
to cut down some of the overhead
http://www.xlutop.com/