How powerful is Vegas, really? And what about these bugs?

cosmo wrote on 4/7/2003, 10:28 AM
I'm interested in hearing how involved your vegas projects are getting and how your pc(s) are handling them. I have a brand new dell pc w/P4 2.4ghz, 256ram, M-Audio Delta 410 and ATI Radeon 9700. 30GB main drive, 80 in second. I just yesterday re-installed a fresh copy of XP Pro as well so everything is running very well, or should be.

If I track out 5 tracks in Vegas - my processor runs at 60-70% on average while mixing - and after about two minutes of playback the processor hits 100% and starts stuttering for like 15 seconds before resuming normal play, then it's at 60% again. Obviously the more tracks I add, the more resources will be used. So the question here is JUST HOW MUCH pc power is need to use Vegas effectively??

As for bugs - I read about some here, popping hissing etc. What about while recording, the input monitoring. If I arm a track, I immediately hear what is coming through the board. If I then add an effects chain, as soon as I click OK on the chain dialog, the input monitoring all of the sudden sounds terribly noisy and strange metallic-y. If I uncheck the EQ and Compressor in the chain, and leave only the reverb checked - the noise goes away. Has anyone had this problem??

Comments

RobSoul wrote on 4/7/2003, 10:59 AM
Right now I've got a song with 61 tracks and at least 30 plug-ins (Mostly EQs, compressors and verbs). It is just now starting to stutter on playback.

I have a P4 2.0 GHz machine running WinXp Home with 1.0 GB RAM. It was built by Scott at Advanced Design KY, who I highly recommend. (www.advanceddesignky.com)

On your system I think a RAM upgrade would give you the biggest improvement in performance.

As for the bugs I am VERY frustrated with them! They are new to Vegas with the release of version 4. (V3 ran like a race car for me.) My guess is it was the introduction of ASIO to the equation which has caused a lot of this. I understand that an upgrade is due out very soon, possibly this week, which should address these issues. All I can say is the sooner the better!!!

Rob Solberg
Hypersound Music + Audio Design
www.hypersound.net


JoeD wrote on 4/11/2003, 7:43 PM
This question is a bit general as there are too many variables with track count, plug-ins on busses? tracks?, kind and make of plug-ins used, vol/fx envelopes. The variables would make for poor conclusions.

But 5 tracks in V4 and you're hitting 60-70% usage (any plug-ins)?
Something is wrong (you're system setup or V4??).
Your system should be more than adequate for 50-60+ trks.
More ram is nice, but it isn't going to make the largest difference in track count.
I would look into your I/O, XP optimizations, driver used in vegas.

You should be A/Bing Vegas 3.0c with 4.0b yourself (with the same test projects).

Ya gotta ask yourself, are the added features in 4 worth the loss in speed/power when compared to v3c?
**until this issue has been resolved, I'd stay with v3. There are too many people quoting lower track counts/poor performance when A/Bing the same projects.

I didn't move to V4 based on all the feedback I've read (DVD arch looks very nice though).
No need to even load the demo.