Sluggish noisy playback with saturation

[staticmaker]

OK... Sorry if I put this in the wrong category. Not sure where it goes:
I"m having a sluggish, distorted playback under certain circumstances. it acts like a lack of memory issue when it isn't.
Scenario:
*Badass PC- lots of power and memory.
*About 40 tracks (9hvy guitars/guitar rig -which I know is a memory hog),
ezdrummer, RefxNexus, Schepps(on all ch's)
*I put Kclip, Aphex, Lexicon, Maserati,on aux busses (about 8 total)

EVERYTHING runs flawlessly UNTIL one of two things:
Either when I "copy" a plugin to another track (by holding "ctrl" and dragging to next channel)...causes staticky noise from the new channel...usually this happens with Guitar Rig.
OR
I save the project as a template and then use it for a next project. When I open a flawlessly working project template for a new project ....even when I record the first track in the new project the project barely plays....and acts like i've maxed out the memory. i.e. Playback is slow and distorted.

Each time I make an improvement on the previous project template, I resave it and rewrite the previous one. I believe that this act alone is creating the issues but why is the template holding onto certain info (like mem allocation or something) that's making the system believe that there's more going on than there actually is.....thus causing slow distorted playback.

The overall distorted sound I"m getting kinda sounds like a combination of all my saturation instances being too much but it's not

Hope someone can help.

[domzy]

Might be useful for you to say what soundcard / driver / buffer settings you are using? Does the problem abate when you increase the buffer size, for example?
Also, what is your RT CPU (in performance meter) when this is happening?

[staticmaker]

Originally Posted by domzy

Might be useful for you to say what soundcard / driver / buffer settings you are using? Does the problem abate when you increase the buffer size, for example?
Also, what is your RT CPU (in performance meter) when this is happening?

Buffer size doesnt seem to be related....but its at 2.0... on a scarlett 4i8.

[domzy]

Originally Posted by staticmaker

Buffer size doesnt seem to be related....but its at 2.0... on a scarlett 4i8.

buffer size is normally in samples, what do you mean by 2.0? (i'm not familiar with the scarlett) Do you mean 2ms latency? this would equate to quite a small buffer - i'd think it'd definitely be worth seeing what your realtime CPU is when these problems occur.
Do you have any tracks armed for recording when the problem is happening, and if so, do they have plugins on?

[staticmaker]

Originally Posted by domzy

bDo you mean 2ms latency?

*i'd think it'd definitely be worth seeing what your realtime CPU is when these problems occur.

Do you have any tracks armed for recording when the problem is happening, and if so, do they have plugins on?

*See attchd img for CPU usage. It seems to be being pushed to the brink of death. But Why? I don't see anything else hogging power?
*Interesting you mention the "armed" issue. ..this sometimes happens.

[domzy]

everything you mentioned are the typical signs of an over-taxed CPU.
Things that may help (other than a better computer) are to
increase your buffer size
use less plugins
organise your plugins differently (so that you are not stressing one particular core of your processor, having a sub-master bus can help with this, for example)
avoid using (uneccessary) plugins when recording

[domzy]

and i forgot to ask what sample rate / bit-depth you are at? the higher the sample rate the more CPU use etc.

[MarkFromHawaii]

Originally Posted by staticmaker

Buffer size doesnt seem to be related....but its at 2.0... on a scarlett 4i8.

I ran into the same problem when I switched to a new PC platform running W10. I have a first generation Scarlett 2i4 which is USB powered. The work around seems to be: unplug the 2i4 before powering up, then plug in the Scarlett, then launch Reaper. YMMV but this works for me.