Major Riffworks Issues

[GuitarSlinger]

It seems to me that 5400 should do just fine, after all, Riffworks is only recording(writing) one layer at a time and the rest of the time it's just reading. Processor speed and memory is going to be more important when using Riffworks effects on multiple layers because those effects are not printed. The CPU is calcuating them everytime you play them? So having a ton of layers with tons of effects is the equivilent of having tons of VST's on in another program. At some point you have to freeze some tracks but Riffworks doesnt do that. It would be like mix to riff and print those effects.

I think the Sonoma Team could shed some light on this.

Needless to say I do have a P4 3.2 with hyperthreading(turned off of course) 2 Gigs of memory and two 7200 sata drives. I never see a hicup.

[pooterpatty]

After years of messing around with computers, I've come to learn that it doesn't make sense to buy from big guys like Dell, Gateway, etc. As with music gear, a lot of what you're paying for is the name. I'm sure I've got some flaming arrows pointed in my direction now

The past few graphics workstations I've bought have all been from a place called Micro Center. They have their own line of "branded" PCs that are (in my experience) rock-solid reliable, and cheap to boot. You can get a system that has enough horsepower to run Riffworks (and most of your other audio apps) for less than $400. Check it out here. Basically the only major part in this machine that doesn't come from the same third party vendors that the big guys use is the mobo, which I've had no problems with to date. With the money you save on the system, you can easily update the soundcard or add more ram.

[ShredRex]

See now my experience with discount boxes has been vastly different....hence my going with something a little "better" this time around. I agree basic boxes have a purpose, and the value is undeniable....but the MC box would be useless to me.....again it all depends on what YOU need form the machine right? There is no cookie cutter solution, lots of cheap stuff, lots of expensive ones too. I am in the mindset currently where I get what I want, and build something that will last say 3-5 years, and then pass it down to the kids.

But to go back to the original issue, there are better systems out there that will help Chip run RWS and make it a more pleasurable experience. Sounds to me like the laptop he is using is not going to cut it.....sure it may meet minimum specs.....but that is about it. Lots of layers and effects are bound to be more labour intensive compared to say 3-4 per riff. There are other variables as mentioned earlier, but sometimes it just comes down needing a little more on the hardware side of things.

Either way, what ever you decide Chip, I hope you can get it resolved!

[scott]

I'm with Shred on this one. I've only ever had DELL machines. The main reason was, in a previous job, it was my responsibility to equip over 60 schools with IT hardware. DELL won the contract and we never had any trouble with any of the machines, despite them being used 'heavily' by over 12,000 kids. They've always been robust and reliable.
My home network has two desktops and a laptop and I have yet to need any form of support from them. Like Shred, one of the desktops and the laptop are fast becoming 'vintage' so they're used by my kids and wife. DELL's 'build to order' system is faultless as far as my experience goes.

I'm sure that for every plus comment on the OEM front, there will be a counter plus comment from the other 'self-build' camp.

Let's hope you get your problems sorted and that shelling out more money will only need to be a last option.

[Timejunkie]

Ok now I'm really confused! LOL

[Timejunkie]

I just ran another song that has at the most 10 layers in the chorus section and nothing in the song layer. It ran fine....

The problem song has a similar amount of layers per riff but also has vocals (6 - 8 layers) in the song layer and it still freezes my system.

I am not much of a techy guy so I don't know why the song layer would cause the system to bogg down and freeze.

Any thoughts......

[Muddhole]

I have an over two year old PC I built myself and I have to say that it is doing quite well. When I first installed RW I didn't see any problems what so ever. The studdering thing started gradually and I wasn't sure why, but after doing a chipset/audio driver upgrade everything is pretty much back to normal.

AMD 64 3200 (754)
2GB RAM PC3200 400MHz
On board audio (Realtek)
WD 100 GB HD 7200RPM
Abit NF8-V MB

Timejunkie; try upgrading your HD and memory and doing an update of the chipset and audio drivers. If you did the audio drivers and it didn't work, try it again, it worked for me the second time.

[Timejunkie]

My IT guy at work is gonna lend me an external USB hard drive at 7200rpm so I'll see if that is the probelem before I dish out any substantial cash.

Hopefully this will resolve the issue and still keep my system portable.

I'll let you all know if this fix works...may solve problems for others as well.

As always thanks for your support!

[meesh]

My IT guy at work is gonna lend me an external USB hard drive at 7200rpm so I'll see if that is the probelem before I dish out any substantial cash.

Hopefully this will resolve the issue and still keep my system portable.

I'll let you all know if this fix works...may solve problems for others as well.

As always thanks for your support!

Looking forward to see if that cures it. I'll have to do the same if it does.

[meesh]

ShredRex is right, an external drive is the way to go. It's NEVER a good idea to store songs, content, or anything else you create on the same drive that an operating system resides on. If you have an external drive, your songs will be in a safe place even if your computer completely crashes. It's saved my hiney on many occasions.

Plus, if you go external, you don't have to worry about cracking open your laptop to install a new hard drive, which depending on what kinda laptop you have, may void your warranty.

New USB hard drives are getting cheaper every day too. You should be able to get a nice 200-gigger for about a C-note.

Hey pooter, are the USB connecting models sufficient enough to not have to go with firewire?

They are definitely better for the wallet...

[ShredRex]

USB 2.0 external drives are still very nimble....no worries using them compared to firewire.

[meesh]

^^ thanks ShredRex

[davenz]

Hi folks,

I am having major (and I do mean major) problems with Riffworks....

Sorry if some of these have been addressed elsewhere in the forum, I don't have the time to search for the answers... if there are any.

So...I'm in the middle of a very creative session with an artist (thank god he is patient) and the audio suddenly starts popping, crackling and ultimately feezing my system completely.

Also, when using the song layer often playback is not sync'd to the rest of the song.

Yes...I thought maybe it was just my computer, so I transferrred the riffworks file to the artists' system and had the same problems... and he has a brand spankin' new system with 2 gig of memory!!!

I've tried all of the usual optimizations for audio tweaks... with no substantial performance improvment.

It seems anything over 7 - 10 layers per riff craps it out. Maybe it is overloading memory when adding effects, Eq etc.. to layers. If that is the case why have'em??

2 gig of memory should be sufficent to handle what I am doing with the program.

Don't get me wrong I love using riffworks but can't seem to complete a song without major issues.

Is anyone else having these issues under similar circumstances?

Any thoughts....???

Cheers,
Chip

Hi Chip.

I thought it time to inject my 2 cents into this post. As far as I am concerned hard drive speed is the least of your issues. Sure, it's nice to have the fastest of everything, but cracking and popping is more likely to do with CPU than anything else. The sample rate of audio is easily handled by even the slowest hard drives. And while RAM plays a big part too, if your CPU isn't cutting it, then no amount of fast drives and huge ram values will make any difference. The more layers, the more CPU hungry any DAW is, and RW is no exception. Chuck a reverb or what-not into the mix, on any layer, and suddenly your poor old CPU is choking to death. As has been mentioned, Intel chips are apparently better for this kind of work, though any Dual Core chip *should* do the job. As far as brands go, it's a personal choice. As a repair guy, I see lots of Dells, Compaqs and HP's that are so underwhelming in their performance they evoke much comment from my guys. They also contain a lot of proprietary hardware that is often expensive and/or time consuming to replace. Your best bet in my opinion is to make a box yourself with a good local computer guy and stipulate a dual core chip of at least 2.0ghz, 2 gb dual channel ram, a western digital SATA 2 Raptor main drive with a 400 gig or so SATA2 slave drive. Mount it all in a good case with plenty of cooling, a decent 450watt power supply and a Gigabyte or similar motherboard. Sound card is open to debate, and I don't know enough about them in this context to advise, but by the looks of it steer clear of Creative due to driver conflicts with RW.
It sounds like a lot, but really you would only pay a hundred to a hundred and fifty bucks or so more than a 'standard' machine with those extra frills and you would have a machine that would rip the pants off anything out there.

You should also avoid any background processes that eat up cycles for no good reason; for example, there is a windows service running on XP that is for automatically connecting a wireless network. No wireless? Why have it running? There are a dozen or so services like that, and various other tweaks and performance optimisations that can have XP screaming like a schoolgirl at a Muddhole concert. Let me know if you want more info on those services, I wrote a tweak guide that's around here somewhere.

Just my two cents.

Dave.

[bluesydude]

Just my two cents.

Dave.

Dude, that is a lot more than 2 cents. Kudos and thanks for taking the time.

[scott]

It must be the Kiwi exchange rate but your "two cents" buys one helluva lot of good advice!