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Old 10-24-2017, 03:53 PM   #1
Reaper25
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Default Too many plugins starts to screw up playback

I use a lot of plugins and this starts screwing up the playback of a lot of my projects. I know I need to do something with the buffer size / block size (whats the difference?) but don't know exactly what.

Also got 8G RAM rather 16G RAM. Can this also be a factor?
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Old 10-25-2017, 04:17 AM   #2
Futur8me
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You really need to tell us what the specs of your Mac are.., put it in your sig like I have.., and what type of plugins are you using..?, plugins use cpu.., so maybe your cpu is not powerful enough???.

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16" M1Pro MacBook Pro, 32gig ram, 1TB ssd, macOS 14
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Old 10-25-2017, 04:13 PM   #3
Reaper25
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Originally Posted by Futur8me View Post
You really need to tell us what the specs of your Mac are.., put it in your sig like I have.., and what type of plugins are you using..?, plugins use cpu.., so maybe your cpu is not powerful enough???.

.

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2015 MacBook Pro, 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, macOS Sierra 10.12.6, Macintosh HD startup disk.

The audio interface I use doesn't matter cos I don't record with plugins or even have it connected to my macbook, only mix with after. I will start doing that though, and gonna upgrade my Boss BR-800 USB to probs a Focusrite Clarett thunderbolt.

Theres a few plugins that defo can be more draining than others, I think on the last project, I copy and pasted the FX chain on a few different tracks to double track certain parts and the plugin that is screwing up there is Harmonic Adder by Anarchy Effects (amazing free plugins by them btw). But theres projects with so many plugins that it actually take a ridiculous amount of time to find which one and even if I do I dont want to not use them, I got that sound from that plugin so I want to use it.

To update: I increased the media buffer size to its max which is 6000 and the block size to 1024, and it helps SLIGHTLY but the projects still lag heavily. Should I just upgrade my MacBook? If so, what part of my Mac should I upgrade and will an Apple store do that for me? I'll upgrade to 16GB RAM, but what should I do with the CPU's?

Last edited by Reaper25; 10-25-2017 at 04:30 PM.
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Old 10-25-2017, 07:19 PM   #4
RDBOIS
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I'm just throwing this out there, it may not be your case, but,

1) do you have many plugins on the MASTER track? --> I have had some issues when I do this, especially when I RENDER. The solution for me is to create a new track that I call PRE-Master and send everything there, not to the Master track. Then I only send the Pre-Master track to the Master. On the Pre-Master I can put as many plugins as I want and I don't have any problems. And... the Master can therefore serve for Mastering (i.e. one last EQ and/or compressor/limiter.

2) Are you connected to the internet? Do you have many apps running and/or other programs? On my PC it helps a lot if I, not only do NOT connect my WiFi to the router, DISABLE the wifi adapter all together. ---> You really need to let the computer focus on Reaper, nothing else.

3) Sometimes running many instances of the same VST can cause problems.

That's all I got, I'm not a MAC user so I can't really help at that level.
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Old 10-25-2017, 09:22 PM   #5
Reaper25
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Originally Posted by RDBOIS View Post
I'm just throwing this out there, it may not be your case, but,

1) do you have many plugins on the MASTER track? --> I have had some issues when I do this, especially when I RENDER. The solution for me is to create a new track that I call PRE-Master and send everything there, not to the Master track. Then I only send the Pre-Master track to the Master. On the Pre-Master I can put as many plugins as I want and I don't have any problems. And... the Master can therefore serve for Mastering (i.e. one last EQ and/or compressor/limiter.

2) Are you connected to the internet? Do you have many apps running and/or other programs? On my PC it helps a lot if I, not only do NOT connect my WiFi to the router, DISABLE the wifi adapter all together. ---> You really need to let the computer focus on Reaper, nothing else.

3) Sometimes running many instances of the same VST can cause problems.

That's all I got, I'm not a MAC user so I can't really help at that level.
Yeah having multiple of the same plugins might definitely be the problem for a lot of my projects, but like, its what the track needs.

I'll try disconnecting from the wifi and closing everything else but its gonna be real annoying having to get rid of all those tabs on safari.
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Old 10-29-2017, 01:32 PM   #6
Reaper25
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After having nothing running on the in the background and turning wifi off, still had it screwing up, but then I turned down the sample rate from 96k to 48k and it is solved. My only question is, how much of a difference to sound quality would this make mixing in 96k compared to mixing in 48k?
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Old 10-29-2017, 07:16 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by Reaper25 View Post
After having nothing running on the in the background and turning wifi off, still had it screwing up, but then I turned down the sample rate from 96k to 48k and it is solved. My only question is, how much of a difference to sound quality would this make mixing in 96k compared to mixing in 48k?
I can't hear the difference.

Ponder these questions:

- Who do you know listens to music with top of the line quality monitors?

- who do you know could actually tell that something was 48 vs 96k?

I suspect you don't know many people. In fact, if you are like me, you probably know people who listen to music with rather cheap earbuds, an I-pod dock connector speaker system (that has two speakers really close to each other, so not really stereo...), the speakers of a laptop or smartphone, and the car stereo (probably the system that came with the car).

Heck, until very recently I was guilty of listening to music with cheap playback devices. Now, because I'm recording I got "entry-level" monitors and studio-headphones. But can I tell the difference bewteen 48K and 96K? Nope. Not even sure I can tell the difference between WAV and a high rate Mp3... But that's our little secret.

To be perfectly honest i have a hard time hearing the differences that small cuts or boosts make with EQ plugins or small ratio's with compressors. So many subtleties need great attention and knowing what to listen for.

Back in the days I couldn't really hear the bass notes on most songs. Well, I could hear them, but my mind was not really paying attention. Now, I hear every single note, always, all the time.

Anyway. I'm curious to know if other can hear 48 vs 96.
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