Is this normal?

[Uros]

The other day I used my MSI laptop (Athlon64 X2 Dual Core TK-57@1.90GHz, 3GB RAM, haven't optimized/tweaked my Win7 for audio production tho), through M Audio Project Mix I/O, to run a DI guitar tracking session. Software used - Cubase 5.

We quadtracked the guitars. So, when we had finished, I pressed the playback button for guys to hear it, along with previously tracked drums, bass and keys.
So there was like an instance of Lepou's Legion & LeCab on every guitar channel (6 total - 4 rhythm gtr channels and 2 lead channels), along with IK CSReverb as fx channel, another Legion/LeCab combo on bass guitar channel, and a couple of instances of Aptrigga on drum channels (I think there were two - for kick and snare).

I didnt print out the tracks for playback, they were all running with direct monitoring on (plugins in real time), and I got some nasty clicking and glitching and slowing down during playback. I did increase the buffer size to max (4096 samples). So, is this normal - pc with these specs unable to handle 16 plugins in real time plus reverb, or should I be worried about my laptop perfomance? Also maybe worth mentioning is - I tracked all instruments on internal hard drive.

 

[Scottxx]

I don't know how much memory you have. 4gb may be enough but, for what you say, your procesor can't handle all the stuff you are throwing to it.

 

[deLuther]

If same impulse is using on all guitar tracks, you can place convolution plugs (like LeCab) on stereo bus and route all ampsim to that bus (of course, LeCab must be setup for stereo processing). Convolution is linear process so this can work and help to reduce CPU consumption.
How high is CPU indicator in your host?
I found that such amount of ampsims can cause some instabilities and memory is not significant factor there, more CPU cores are better.
At least on quadcore CPU, 4 instances of LeGion consumes same as one instance, additional instances increasing CPU consumption.

 

[AHChris]

Try a firewire express card.... laptop firewire chipsets are not suited for recording mostly.

 

[AHChris]

Try a firewire express card.... laptop firewire chipsets are not suited for recording mostly.