[ardour-users] Terrible pain with Jamin

[Heikki Pernu]

Marukqs wrote:

>Hi,
>
>
>
>My PC is Fedora Core 4, Athlon +3000, 512RAM, 7200rpms ReiserFS disk.
>  
>

You do have swap partition somewhere, don't you?
This would help with the amount of memory you have as less
used parts of applications and libraries would be moved out
of the way. This could also explain why applications start
crashing: when memory runs out some processes will have
to be killed to reclaim memory for whatever is considered more
important. However, if there is enough swap space, and it is
not running out, then this is not a problem.

Suggest also that the sound data (i.e. all session files) be on a
separate physical disk. Although this is unlikely to be the only
problem you describe, having a separate disk helps. This way
any activity on disk caused by the operating system loading
libraries, swapping etc. won't interfere with the read/write operations
performed on the sound data. I gather this is also the recommended
setup on Windows platform especially when you are using many
tracks. Physical I/O speed(especially the seek time) being the
limiting factor here.

Otherwise, also, and foremost, increase your main memory.


>The hardest part now is mastering (it kills me as applications crash and
>crash all the time), so I want your advices and opinions on my workflow:
>
>1) create some basic beats and synth bass lines
>
>Thanks god I have a drum machine with 4 outputs and CS1X synthesizer, so
>they reduce CPU overload a little. My soundcard has only 2 inputs it's
>M-Audio Audiophile 2496
>
>When I use a sequencer I need to sync it with ardour. Rosegarden default
>note lengths and segment editing completely suck (especially Copy/Paste
>annoyances as it is impossible to Paste at the start of the measure easily).
>
>And I cannot get into seq24 as it is does not work like regular STANDARD
>sequencers like Cakewalk and Cubase.
>
>
>
>Muse has some troubles too:
>f.e. fast snare notes are not played in equal intervals for bigger jack
>buffers - the smaller jack buffer is the notes are more precise. So when I
>work with muse I MUST set jack latency at least 1ms, cause with 5ms latency
>I get 16th length snare sounds like
>t-da-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-t-da-ta-tda-ta-ta-ta, but not
>ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.
>
>Muse does not allow to select bassdrum or snare in a drum track and move it
>to another track - this is quite painful when I want to record bassdrum,
>snare and hihats separately.
>
>Again - segment stuff in Muse kills me too, but it is works better than in
>Rosegarden.
>
>2) create ardour project and record the drums to separate tracks - this is
>easy
>3) record guitars, bass and vocals - this is easy too
>
>and now comes the hardest part:
>
>
>4) do the first mixdown.
>
>THIS IS TERRIBLY HARD
>
>I need to restart jack with higher latency so the applications do not crash
>as I use many LADSPA plugins.
>
>I start Jamin and then problems appear:
>
>Jamin is terrible slow. I have 512 RAM and it is all busy. It seems that for
>this reason CPU usage jumps to 99%. 
>
>The sound in ardour dissapear - JAMIN multiband compressor dies. I have to
>restart JAMIN - so I need to close Ardour session (or else Master Output
>will be disconnected from Jamin), close Jamin, start Jamin, open the session
>again.
>
>Ardour starts to behave very strange - X windows does not respond to
>keyboard or mouse, NumLock key does not swithces LED on the keyboard - so It
>means extremely heavy CPU usage.
>
>Today I restarted the computer 5-6 times for this reason.
>
>5) burn cds to band members and producers and wait for their opinions - this
>is easy
>
>6) change rythm, change some fills, add some synth effects, change synth
>line
>
>THIS IS TERRIBLY HARD
>I need to change JACK parameters to get 1ms latency to play notes in Muse
>without drifting. 
>
>I start Muse.
>
>I cant listen to the voice, guitars and the MIDI synths at the same time as
>LADSPA plugins take too much CPU and with 1ms they kill either JACK, Ardour
>or Muse applications. 
>
>So I must create a new ardour project and record synths separately and then
>export them to WAVs:
>
>Change JACK latency to higher value (f.e. 5ms), open ardour project with
>voices and guitars, delete synth tracks from it, import WAVs with a new
>synth lines and then drag them to a synth track in ardour project.
>
>WHAT TO DO IF I JUST WANT TO ADJUST A VOLUME OF A CRASH CYMBAL ???????
>
>It sounds like a suicide. 
>
>
>How can I make my system stable, CPU load MAXIMUM 50%?
>
>I hate closing and opening applications all the time - is there any stable
>as an atomic clock sequencer so the drums sound like a real techno and which
>stability is not dependent on JACK.
>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>mArukqs
>
>
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