Lightweight plugins - Reaper or third-party

[Wise_One]

Hey guys, today a friend came by and we jammed a bit on my computer. With a distorted guitar track and a bass track armed at the same time, my system couldn't handle it for long.

Then I wondered, could it be the plugins? Currently, I don't use any Reaper plugins, all of my chains are third-party based.

So my question is, are Reaper plugins more lightweight than let's say Gvst or others? I don't use too many plugins on my tracks, but I intend to swap the third-party ones with the Reaper ones if the former are more heavyweight. Generally I use delays, reverbs, a little bit of compression...

My pc is a single-core 3.2Ghz with 2Gigs of RAM and it's for everyday use so yes, it's not "stripped" for recording purposes alone...

 

[CAlexanderParra]

My pc is a single-core 3.2Ghz

That would be your main problem. A new quad core or even dual core processor would be a major improvement.

 

[Erkan]

I use a quad core for everyday purposes and it kicks some serious fuckin' ass for recording as well.

 

[Wise_One]

OK I'm ridiculous. I have a perfectly cool laptop (dual @ 1.8, 3gigs, win7) and when I started the thread yesterday, I completely forgot about it. Funny thing is, some days ago Creative announced win7 beta drivers for my EMU0202 and with a friend, we were discussing about it, me giving it a try.

It completely slipped my mind, sorry. I know that my laptop isn't an actual speeder but for sure it's better than my desktop... I'll see if I can setup the interface, last time I tried it acted funny.

Thanks for the reminder you guys \m/

 

[Wise_One]

OK I did it and I'm pretty psyched! Everything worked fine and was setup fine. I didn't add many tracks with plugins, just jammed a bit. Tomorrow the heavy testing

Anyway, I plugged in my desktop monitor and now I'm in dual! It's awesome! Working on my laptop is awesome (and without the XP crap) and I think this bad boy can handle anything I throw at it.