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Need help.
Finally getting back into recordin After getting life in order etc etc.
My prob is I need a pc oodles faster for biab track generation cos I go bonkers if
I have to wait for track genning cos I like to work fast on a song….while ideas flow.
Thus could folks tell me their fastest set ups please n time for biab track generation.
For example youve loaded in real traks for drums/bass/geetar n piano etc etc …
How fast do you take ??.
I’m wondering if a new pc with amd fx octo core cpu might speed things up.
Cos cheaper than intel i7 3770. Etc.
All the best.
retd puter engr. daft songs at www.motagator.net/bmanning(songs no 9 n higher use new biab2011.) what is the black art of audio engineering ?. all puters get obsolete in the end..lol.
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Even if we had a sample project we could all use as a benchmark, the same song takes different amounts of time to regenerate on my system.
As far as I can tell, BIAB is not coded to run in more than one processor core.
The single greatest change I have noticed when running BIAB occurred when I changed from running it on a hard drive to an SSD.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Even if we had a sample project we could all use as a benchmark, the same song takes different amounts of time to regenerate on my system.
As far as I can tell, BIAB is not coded to run in more than one processor core.
The single greatest change I have noticed when running BIAB occurred when I changed from running it on a hard drive to an SSD. Matt, Just how much faster is the SSD? Is it a very noticeable difference? Regards, Bob
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If you want instant generation of the style when writing so the ideas stay fresh..... use a midi style. It's instant.
I don't think that having a 10 second or even a 15 second regeneration time is too much. Really, When I'm writing, I;m thinking about the song, the ideas, I have, the arrangement of the verses and such so 15 seconds isn't long to wait. I will normally use that time to check tuning or change a word on the verse....
If you lose your train of thought or even the groove of the song during a regen, it's probably safe to say that you didn't have a good one to start with.
I will often work on a song for 30 minutes or so and then shut the DAW completely down and not return to it until the next day or perhaps a few days. I can recall the song, the groove, the melody with 99% accuracy. If I can't remember the melody, I simply work on another melody. Often the ones I don't remember are not worth remembering anyway and the second shot is normally better.
For what it's worth, yes, there is a difference in the regeneration speed between processors. On my laptop with a duo-core the generation took ...lets say 20 seconds. On the custom DAW I built using the i5 Intel chip, the same song regenerates in less than half the time. It was a noticeably shorter time.
My suggestion, just buy the best processor with the fastest processing speed you can afford. With the prices today on computers, that is almost a given that you will see very short regen times.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 06/06/14 03:35 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Bob, yes, very noticeable.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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That looks fine. I chose a drive with 160, and it was about six times that price! Amazing how prices have fallen. Today I saw an ad for a ten year warranty on an SSD, so concerns about reliability have lessened as well (though mine is over two years old, and still runs great).
I have the SSD as my boot drive, and install all applications to it. I keep data on another traditional hard drive. BIAB is the exception: I keep the BIAB data (songs)on the SSD in the /BB folder on the SSD. I just am careful to back up the songs to another drive (and a few other places).
Manning is building new, but Bob, if you are replacing a boot drive, you will need to turn off Defrag in Windows 7 or 8 for the new SSD drive. Very important.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I was planning to keep my C drive for the boot drive, like normal, and load BB/RB on the SSD. Can it be used like any other external drive?
Thanks.
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Sure! You'll love it.
In general, SSD drives are best for reading from, less so for writing to, because they have a finite life for the number of writes. This is becoming less of a concern now though. That's why you do not Defrag an SSD.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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thnx for the comments.
if I don't reply quik its cos now on a snrs pension thuso every few days go to library to use net.
sounds to me an i5 intel with lots of ram , say 12 gigs.
then ssd for biab plus a regular hd might be way to go n save moolah over i7.
here in Canada i7 prices atre way over top imho.
other reason I don't wanna spend lotsa quids is cos tablets
r gonna get way more powerfull I hope over next few years..
HOPEFULLY..(he grins).
best to aLL.
PS...GOT A NEW INTERFACE I'M TESTING OUT..
Steinberg ur22 with biab n reap.
so far pretty impressed considering price point.
I used to make me own mic preamps..but now no point cos
the ur22 are pretty good.
Last edited by manning11; 06/07/14 11:07 AM.
retd puter engr. daft songs at www.motagator.net/bmanning(songs no 9 n higher use new biab2011.) what is the black art of audio engineering ?. all puters get obsolete in the end..lol.
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Welcome back Manning
Thanks for the comments on UR22
appreciated
As for system question, you didn't mention the specs of the system you have, so it's hard to say what's causing your 'slow generation', thus hard to recommend biggest improvement.
Good chance the drive speed is slowing things down, but that may be because you are using the USB external drive for track generation.. or maybe your OS drive is full with little room to operate.. or ..
Let us know your starting point and we can better recommend the most cost efficient changes.
CPU, RAM, USB vs SATA, SATA vs SSD, lot of scenarios for conjecture.
Plus you may be better off just getting a MB/CPU/RAM kit and keep other existing parts. With no starting point it is hard to guess.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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cheers. hi rharv . i'll prolly get a new system. (also looking at these.. http://www.adkproaudio.com/purpose built for studios .. but I'm on snrs pension..baH humbuh..lol.) but I'm curious bout 2 things. 1. whats best ssd drive brand. ? 2. usb 3 drives are now here. 5 gps specs. thusly whats faster ?? for biab , ssd or usb 3. ???? greetings to all from an old rocker...lol.
Last edited by manning11; 06/09/14 12:05 PM.
retd puter engr. daft songs at www.motagator.net/bmanning(songs no 9 n higher use new biab2011.) what is the black art of audio engineering ?. all puters get obsolete in the end..lol.
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Manning, these are two different things. The fastest you can get is an SSD drive running on an SATA interface (and there are different speeds of that). Putting a solid state drive on a USB interface, even USB 3, is crippling it.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Manning
1. Where I work we habe a separate MSP/IT department. They've been using Samsung SSDs as a goto brand (usually EVOs) without any issues.
I'm sure other brands are as good or better, but that's what the guys we pay to know these things have settled on.
Just my input. I'm sure others have suggestions just as valid.
2. See Matt's comment above. Unless you were thinking of a USB 3 drive for storing realtracks .. faster than USB 2 but my gut says with the initialization time, and other factors, a SATA drive for these (internal) would be fine for most users.
Of course SSD for realtracks would also be nice.
You mention USB3 at 5GB/s but I'm looking at the box for a new SSD that says 6GB/s SATA compatible .. and SATA 3GB/s compatible .. and .. USB 3/2 compatible (with adapter) ..
This particular Samsung Evo 250GB SSD was $135 very recently.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Bob is right about the Samsung brand. It's always the top or second highest rated in Maximum PC charts every month.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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USB3 is rated at 5Gb/S, USB3.1 is 10Gb/S
SATA I is rated at 1.5Gb/S
SATA II is rated at 3Gb/S
SATA III is rated at 6Gb/S
So theoretically USB3 is just slower than a SATA III interface, but I believe that many SSD's don't actually have the performance to reach the full 6Gb/S capacity of SATA III - they reach just a little over 5.2Gb/S andthat is only for sequential reads and writes - really I'd think the difference is getting pretty academic unless you are using RAID arrays that can read from multiple drives to make up the shortfall.
OTOH, Thunderbolt is rated at 10Gb/S and Thunderbolt II is rated at 20 Gb/S. Expect to see more Thunderbolt in Wintel boxes.
It is also interesting to note that Thunderbolt is the successor to mDP (Mini Display Port) and adds PCI Express support to the interface whilst retaining backward compatibility with mDP.
--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya  --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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Good points Lawrie. I am not aware of any USB 3 interface kits for drives, either SSD or normal, so I was assuming USB 2 speeds.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Suffice it to say if you are currently on an IDE drive and are moving to SSD you'll notice.
However since the request mentioned a limited budget, you'll also notice a nice difference between old IDE and new SATA. How much it is worth in the world of diminishing returns is your call.
I appreciate the speed of the SSD system I use, but I also have another system with 6 SATA drives in it that I wouldn't want to trade for SSD considering the cost of 6 equal size drives; the SATA II dives are fast enough for what they are needed for in my opinion, and I'm the final judge!
For cost/GB, using fast SATA drive may be a better choice for you so you can afford more RAM.
It's all about the choices .. and nowadays we got plenty of 'em.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Hey 90DB, I bought a 250 Gig SSD drive very similar to the one you linked above during the past year. In my case I made the SSD drive my primary C:\ drive for Windows 8.1 so I could also get better performance out of Windoze. Of course this involved reinstalling Windows. I run all applications on the SSD and use my 500 Gb hard drive D:\ for storing all my music files after they have been created on the C:\.
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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