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03-08-2015, 05:35 AM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 628
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Do You Tweak WINDOWS 7 And 8 For Audio?
O.K. This is generally for newbies and people who can's afford expensive machines. So, recently, I bought this core 2 duo laptop to replace the similar one that died and I need it for the internet, mainly. Off course it has REAPER and the plugs installed but I never thought of doing something seriously on it.
When I got my first WINDOWS 7 machine years ago it worked so good right out of the box that the only thing that I did was to disable onboard sound card in Device Manager and that was it (I probably wouldn't have even done that but DPC Latency Checker showed some spikes and for me the onboard sound card is always the first suspect). But a couple of days ago I was forced to use this new laptop that came with WINDOWS 8.1 on it and I decided it to do a couple of tweaks. Long story short I managed to get, according to REAPER's performance meter, around 30% better plugin performance within a couple of minutes and I only did the most common tweaks. So, later I found this. I didn't do half of the tweaks the guy does there and some I did slightly different, but I find this to be a good video for people with weak machines. So, that's it.
Cheers,
Alex
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03-08-2015, 06:46 AM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 635
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There is no need really for Windows 8 or 10.
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03-08-2015, 06:55 AM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 628
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulheu
There is no need really for Windows 8 or 10.
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In general, I agree with you, but, in this world there's a whole lotta people who can't afford powerful machines and for them, those tweaks could make a big difference
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03-08-2015, 07:20 AM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alex1073
In general, I agree with you, but, in this world there's a whole lotta people who can't afford powerful machines and for them, those tweaks could make a big difference
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Disagree.... Regardless of how powerful a computer running Windows 7, 8, or 10, in my experience (I've actually benchmarked...), most tweaks actually negatively affected my Windows 7, 8, and 10 rigs. Disable/remove real-time anti-virus, disable all "speed-step" functions of CPU (in bios), and disable on-board audio if you have a dedicated soundcard. Other than that, leave it alone and make music.
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The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-08-2015, 07:41 AM
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#5
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 628
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richie43
Disagree.... Regardless of how powerful a computer running Windows 7, 8, or 10, in my experience (I've actually benchmarked...), most tweaks actually negatively affected my Windows 7, 8, and 10 rigs. Disable/remove real-time anti-virus, disable all "speed-step" functions of CPU (in bios), and disable on-board audio if you have a dedicated soundcard. Other than that, leave it alone and make music.
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Well, that's actually what I did and couple of more things, but it helped a lot. Again, you're right - some tweaks do negatively affect or better said did it to Windows 8.1 (that's the only one I tried to tweak a little more). Anyways whoever does something should be able to undo it if it doesn't help, so, some basic knowledge is required (OTOH, shouldn't be to hard for anybody - I'm by no means a computer genius).
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03-08-2015, 07:46 AM
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#6
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 635
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richie43
disable all "speed-step" functions of CPU (in bios), and disable on-board audio if you have a dedicated soundcard. Other than that, leave it alone and make music.
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THIS.. ^^
Optimizing the hardware for audio use is a definite yes, the OS really does not need any.
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03-08-2015, 08:44 AM
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#7
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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Whatever works for ya...
In regards to being able to undo tweaks..... Many people make these changes without being careful to even leave a way for themselves to undo them, especially if you do many in a row. Back in the day of XP and lesser computers, more of these tweaks made more sense (I guess). But unless you are still on XP and using a dual core 32bit machine with 3GB's of ram, there really is no point in messing with much. I know this isn't how it happened, but I like to pretend that Microsoft made me a better audio-centric OS, it's how 7 and 8.1 have been for me.
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The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-08-2015, 09:15 AM
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#8
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 989
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Originally I did nothing to W7; even left the security stuff running, and everything worked great. Then one day it developed a bad case of the Rice Crispy's, so I went and did some basic tweaks and defraggled the HDD's. Nary a hiccup since.
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03-08-2015, 07:17 PM
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#9
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,725
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulheu
THIS.. ^^
Optimizing the hardware for audio use is a definite yes, the OS really does not need any.
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Maybe a dumb question but does an i7 2600 have speed step?
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03-08-2015, 07:34 PM
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#10
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Brown
Maybe a dumb question but does an i7 2600 have speed step?
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Most likely has some sort of "CPU Throttling" feature, it's named differently depending on the computer, I think. If you are not familiar with booting into the bios, you may want to read up and look into it. Once you get into the bios, you just need to peruse through some options (and not change anything unless you know what you are doing!!). PM me Doc, I can walk you through it. Definitely worth it.
If you bought the computer from a builder who makes audio rigs, I am 99% certain that it's already done. If it was off the shelf from Best Buy/Micro Center, etc, I am betting that this "feature" is enabled...lol...
It "reads" when your computer is idle and throttles the CPU down to save energy...not a good thing for audio.
__________________
The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-08-2015, 07:48 PM
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#11
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,725
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richie43
Most likely has some sort of "CPU Throttling" feature, it's named differently depending on the computer, I think. If you are not familiar with booting into the bios, you may want to read up and look into it. Once you get into the bios, you just need to peruse through some options (and not change anything unless you know what you are doing!!). PM me Doc, I can walk you through it. Definitely worth it.
If you bought the computer from a builder who makes audio rigs, I am 99% certain that it's already done. If it was off the shelf from Best Buy/Micro Center, etc, I am betting that this "feature" is enabled...lol...
It "reads" when your computer is idle and throttles the CPU down to save energy...not a good thing for audio.
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Thanks Richie.
I actually bought the parts and assembled it but my buddy did all the OS install and bios tweaks. Now that you mention it it does have cpu throttling as its 3.4-3.8 GhZ if I remember correctly. I think delete gets me into the bios on startup... I'll have to look that up.
That might have something to do with crackling I experience when I get around 13% on cpu. I haven't been able to figure that one out for the life of me.
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03-08-2015, 07:50 PM
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#12
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 5,220
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I optomized my computer in general just because it has an SSD, but not much for audio. When I do mobile recording I turn off my wireless card with a handy button on my keyboard, and close any unnecessary processes which includes freezing the process for my trackpad guesture tracking which takes 2-5 cpu any time I brush the touchpad.
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03-08-2015, 07:54 PM
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#13
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Brown
Thanks Richie.
I actually bought the parts and assembled it but my buddy did all the OS install and bios tweaks. Now that you mention it it does have cpu throttling as its 3.4-3.8 GhZ if I remember correctly. I think delete gets me into the bios on startup... I'll have to look that up.
That might have something to do with crackling I experience when I get around 13% on cpu. I haven't been able to figure that one out for the life of me.
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Let me know if you need any help. Oh yeah.....Where's that album....?
__________________
The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-09-2015, 04:10 AM
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#14
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 499
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richie43
Disagree.... Regardless of how powerful a computer running Windows 7, 8, or 10, in my experience (I've actually benchmarked...), most tweaks actually negatively affected my Windows 7, 8, and 10 rigs. Disable/remove real-time anti-virus, disable all "speed-step" functions of CPU (in bios), and disable on-board audio if you have a dedicated soundcard. Other than that, leave it alone and make music.
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I agree here. Even the old tweak of setting it to give more CPU to backround tasks, which you used to need to do to get good ASIO performance, actually has a negative effect on 8 and 10. It actually works correctly on the default setting to give more CPU to programs now.
I will check out the video though because there may be something good in there.
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03-09-2015, 04:49 AM
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#15
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fergler
....and close any unnecessary processes which includes freezing the process for my trackpad guesture tracking which takes 2-5 cpu any time I brush the touchpad.
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I use a laptop with a wireless mouse and have 2 questions for you, would a wired mouse make any significant difference and does the touchpad still eat processor cycles even if not swiped, just by being active ?
Thanks
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03-09-2015, 06:38 AM
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#16
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 499
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Well I just looked at his video. Pretty good basic stuff. I had already done all of this on my system. Disabling core parking is no longer needed as windows 8 and 10 disable this anyway. He acknowledges this and just goes through the process to make sure it is in fact off.
Nice and simple list of tweaks. I'd recommend these, especially the motherboard BIOS CPU power saving disable tweaks.
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03-09-2015, 06:41 AM
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#17
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Superfly76
Well I just looked at his video. Pretty good basic stuff. I had already done all of this on my system. Disabling core parking is no longer needed as windows 8 and 10 disable this anyway. He acknowledges this and just goes through the process to make sure it is in fact off.
Nice and simple list of tweaks. I'd recommend these, especially the motherboard BIOS CPU power saving disable tweaks.
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Never mind......
__________________
The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-09-2015, 07:14 AM
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#18
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 628
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Superfly76
I agree here. Even the old tweak of setting it to give more CPU to backround tasks, which you used to need to do to get good ASIO performance, actually has a negative effect on 8 and 10. It actually works correctly on the default setting to give more CPU to programs now.
I will check out the video though because there may be something good in there.
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You see, that tweak meant a lot on my laptop. Probably various machines require different tweaks. Anyways it was interesting for me to tweak WINDOWS 8.1 because since Windows 7 I thought I was never gonna do it again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Superfly76
Well I just looked at his video. Pretty good basic stuff. I had already done all of this on my system. Disabling core parking is no longer needed as windows 8 and 10 disable this anyway. He acknowledges this and just goes through the process to make sure it is in fact off.
Nice and simple list of tweaks. I'd recommend these, especially the motherboard BIOS CPU power saving disable tweaks.
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Exactly. That's what I said in the OP - basic stuff that could help newbies and people with weak machines. Didn't want this thread to become arguing if something should be done or not. Just, wanted to find out about other users experiences and thoughts about this and hopefully learn something.
Cheers,
Alex
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03-09-2015, 08:24 AM
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#19
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 9,090
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No arguments intended. I guess I am assuming that if a computer has the specs to even run Win 7 or 8, then it should not be a "weak" machine anyway. And again from my own experiences, many of the old tweaks while were supposed to 'save resources", they did so by altering the OS in ways that Win 7 and 8 just may not respond well to. If the machine is weak, the "fix" is in upgrading the machine, unfortunately.
__________________
The Sounds of the Hear and Now.
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03-09-2015, 09:31 AM
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#20
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Norway
Posts: 140
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Yep, turning off Windows time internet syncronisation will certainly speed up your workflow in windows. What a silly, pointless "tweak".
And turning all the stuff off under Visual Effects in the performance tab. The UI in Windows, from Vista onwards, has been driven by the GPU, not the CPU, so turning those options off will have absolutly zero impact on CPU performance.
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03-10-2015, 12:50 PM
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#21
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Belgium - Gent
Posts: 709
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