iMac, Cubase 7 and metal mixing problem

[otero1st]

Hello everyone. My equipment is:

- iMac i5 2.8 quadcore late 2011
- 12 Gb Ram
- New Duet 2
- Cubase 7 Artist

As I've been learning how to mix, I use more plugins that increase CPU consume to the point of having a lot of peaks. Since I have kemper, the thing improve but unless I set the buffer to the maximum, I cant mix without cuts and pops. The number of tracks that I use isnt excessive (about 25/30, SD 2.0 with drmagog, waves plugins...). Is this normal? My iMac isnt enough and I need more CPU? Someone in the forum with the same problem or similar equipment? Thank you!

P.D.: the computer is recently formatted and I know that have been some problems with Cubase 7 and OSX in reference a CPU usage, but something similar happens with Reaper to me.

 

[Bmenz]

The first thing I can think of is print the SD tracks and whatever Fx tracks you can - SD is a hog. Even then.. you have a lot of juice there so I don't know if there's something else going on in the settings or workflow?

 

[otero1st]

Many thanks for answer me. Print the SD tracks was I thought about this morning. If in addition you advise me the same, I will do tomorrow for sure. If I find out how to do it, I'll upload a screenshot of the Mix Console of a full .cpr to you take a look.

Thanks again, mate!

 

[Matula]

Use the Freeze function on Cubase.

 

[otero1st]

Use the Freeze function on Cubase.

Yes man, I know, but that is precisely what I would like to avoid if was possible, I want that it was my last option. Maybe I'm too picky with my computer...

 

[otero1st]

Hello again, mates! I made a couple of screenshots of the Mix Console if you could do me a favor and take a look them and tell me what do you think.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57572184/Captura de pantalla 2013-10-16 a la(s) 14.43.39.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57572184/Captura de pantalla 2013-10-16 a la(s) 14.44.02.png

All help is wellcome! Thanks in advance again.

 

[Cephara]

I'm not sure how Cubase is in OS X, but I know with Logic Pro, you have to manually enable 64-bit. I know its obvious, but make sure you're running 64-bit. Also with logic, to avoid artifacts, I manually adjust latency to provide a clean mix. I'm sure Cubase has a similar function.

I run on a 2011 MacBook Pro (8gigs) Windows 8 with Studio One with no issues when running a plethora of plugins. SD doesn't use up that much memory I believe (1.5gigs @ most). Amplitube uses quite a bit, even more so when in listen mode. Still, I can run more than 7 Amplitubes in a mix, and have no issues. Your rig is more powerful than mine, so I would keep investigating.