A new partition just for recording... good idea?

[ishtar2020]

Hello Everybody

After much tought I've finally sold my 8-track recorder and started
the long overdue task of mastering Cubase and recording on my
PC. Right now I'm using an Athlon 64 3200 with 1GB of RAM and a 200GB
Disk, with a recently purchased M-Audio Audiophile 2496
(I know, hardly the cutting edge, but that's it for me at the moment).

The thing is, since that has been for a long time my computer for general usage, I have my windows literally flooded with various apps, and some programs running in the background (like the anti-virus) that usually take a bit of processing power. Since I'd like to have the system running as fast as possible, I'd like to ask you experts if it would be helpful to create a new partition with a freshly installed Windows just for cubase and recording in general, and using the old messy one just for the rest of applications.

Also, I'd like to know if, in your experience, you consider 1 GB of RAM a sufficient amount of memory to do the task of recording and mixing on a PC, using VST effects and some instruments, or would another GB of RAM be a critical upgrade to the system?

Thank you very much in advance guys.

[Audio~Geek]

I second drive is always preferable.
The drive actually has to work harder when partitioned.
A clean windows install is recommended.

I use 4GB of RAM in my PC.

[fmw]

A second partition wouldn't accomplish anything. Audio Geek's comment about a second drive is good. There is real value in separating the recording files from everything else physically.

Another thing you want to do is to defeat as many background tasks as possible. Computers use a thing called "interrupts" which do what you think they do. They interrupt the processor from whatever it is doing to attend to whatever is interrupting it. As an example, you don't want to be connected to the internet while you are recording. An automatic software update in the middle of the job could ruin it. Ideally you want nothing going on in the computer at all other than recording and mixing.

You don't have to disable things permanently. You just turn them off when you record. When you're finished, a reboot will put things back the way they were for other activities.

Is 1 MB enough? Maybe, maybe not. It would depend on the operating system and the complexity of the mixing you do. For an XP-based machine mixing a handful of tracks with a few VST's, it is more than enough. For a pro studio dealing with more complex mixes, it isn't enough. You already have the equipment so you can answer that better than I can by simply doing it.

[ishtar2020]

Hello Guys,

Thank you very much for your kind answers. I will follow your advice and try to separate my regular computer work from the recording, and also try a little upgrade (a new drive and some RAM) just to be sure I won't be having problems too soon...

Thank you again for your help guys, it really means a lot to me.

[tacman7]

I concur.

A dedicated machine is the best choice. Doesn't do anything but music and is not connected to the internet at all.

Keeping control of your machine: I use Mike Lin CPLstartup, a free program to control what runs when you start your computer. Programs like AOL are the worst, they want to take over your computer, they leave TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs running all the time watching, stealing cpu cycles. Why should your ##!!!! internet program want to play your cd for you? I hate that.

grumble.

You don't say your OS, Vista says it needs 2GB to work right. But I wouldn't use Vista anyway. If your using big VSTi drums you might run into trouble with 1GB, I did.

That's two matched sticks of ram?
So your running Dual DDR to get the fastest bus speed you can?

[pauljo7878]

Hi all,

I would suggest a second hard drive, even a second hand one rather than a partition as with multiple partitions on the same hard drive its a bit like having to look in two libraries for one book. There's still only one seek head.

By far the best thing you can do is to back up all the stuff you want to from your existing set up. Then reformat your hard drive/s and while re-installing your operating system create three partitions or logical drives. This could be three partitions on one drive or it could be two on one drive and a third on another physical hard drive. It is best to make the partitions different sizes as it aids identification when re-installing. You can easily recognise each partition by it's used/free space later on if needed.

Then install your operating system on to one of them and let's call this drive 1 INTERNET AND GENERAL.
Then install your operating system again on to drive 2 lets call this STUDIO. I happen to like Flight Simulator so I have installed the OS a third time lets call that 3 Flight or Games or whatever.

Now install all your general stuff Anti virus etc internet, office or whatever on to drive 1 internet. You can put anything you want on here and it wont interfere with your recording system.

When that's done install only those programs that you will use on your DAW on to drive 2 STUDIO. Don't install anything like spyware etc only the studio/recording essentials.

Leave drive 3 free if you wish.

You will now see a choice when you boot up. Just before windows starts there will be a list of operating systems, in the above case 2, and using the up down arrows you can choose which OS you want to enter.

This method also stops the problem so many people have about whether to use windows XP or Vista. You can install both. My advice is defo XP PRO for studio/recording work but if you have and like Vista then you can use that for internet and general work.

Another point for anyone having a dual or quad core processor, use only XP PRO on your studio drive. Some programs that you might have/use on your studio system may not be able to take advantage of multi core processors i.e. you could have Sonar and three plug-ins all using core 1 and nothing using core 2 (and 3 and 4 in a quad). However in windows XP PRO you can assign programs to cores quite easily if the OS doesnt do this automaticaly.

If you want to assign programs yourself and you have a multi core processor then go in to task manager/processes/ right click on a process such as Sonar then click "set affinity", then check/uncheck each core.as required for that process.

On the subject of RAM, it's cheap and it's effective get at least 2GB RAM. If you can afford more and your M/board will take it then buy it. If you can manage 4GB that's great because then you can set your page file to zero.

Windows will always try to use a page file, i.e. an area on the hard drive as ram. Not quick enough for recording and effects so setting to zero will force it to use ram, providing you have enough of it.

Your operating system may well not "see" more than about 2.5GB Ram even if it's there but it will use it if you make it use it.

The beauty of this method is you can have say Vista and all singing all dancing graphics etc on your general and gaming systems but keep everything simple and easy on your studio setup. Also if you are in to games or whatever you can have the third setup just for games with graphics set to max etc.

The down side is you have to make your mind up when booting what you are going to do i.e. internet or recording before the operating system starts but hey, isn't it worth it?

Also you can go into control panel/system/advanced/startup and you can specify which system to open on the next boot.

Anyways, hope this helps,

kindest regards

Paul

[Audio~Geek]

Now that is WAY too much work.

I have 1 operating system, 3 internal drives and 2 external.
Drive 1 - system: programs, documents and plugins
Drive 2 - Stuff: My Pictures, Video, My Music, Sample library
Drive 3 - Recording: Pro Tools Projects, FL Studio Projects, Sonar Projects

External drive 1 - Backups and portable recording drive
External drive 2 - System drive from last computer, once in a while I need stuff off it.

Sonar 8 takes advantage of my 4 cores very nicely.

[spaceatl]

My DAW machine is very dated...

ASUS A7N8X running a K-7 Barton at 2.01 gHz...3 GB RAM and 1 TB of drive space accross 3 drives (OS, Audio and eSata backup drive)...Audio Hardware is an EMU 1820 and a couple of UAD-1 cards...

The machine is completely dedicated to being a DAW. I have two hardware profiles. One called DAW where all the network, anti-Virus, wireless config and all those other junk services are disabled...The other has that stuff turned on so I can connect to the net and update stuff when I need to...

When I boot to the DAW profile and hit the XP desktop only 95 MB of ram are utilized...That jumps to 105 MB when EMU Patchmix loads...