Cubase and i7 multi processor support.

[hesnotthemessia]

Hi there PeteG - long time no speak!! I bought a SCAN 3XS system back in July 2009 after much helpful consultation with yourself (I was the one with the Sonic Core). Anyways, I know you are a long term Cubase user and I was just wondering how well you found Cubase used the i7's multi processors? I have found that the Task Manager can show something like 20% usage whilst the Cubase ASIO meter shows 50% when using Cubase (versions 5, 5.5 and 5.5.1). I know this can often have something to do with the soundcard. I have tried both the Frontier Dakota and MAudio 2496 both running at 256 samples buffer size. The Dakota is an old card and the driver has not been updated in a long while (July 2007) and their website states "Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP and Vista (including multi-CPU support)". MAudio 2496 driver is recent.

I know Cubase 5.5 was supposed to provide better support for multi CPUs. Are my findings unusual?


All the best.


Nev.

[hesnotthemessia]

Just a quick update - if anyone else other than PeteG can provide any info then please do......................................

[PeteG@Scan]

Hi Nev,

Sorry, you've I've not had chance to check this forum much as I've only really been lurking in the aftersales section and managed to miss your post. Drop me an E-mail if you want to catch my attention quickly

Anyway onwards. I sure do remember the system (I still have nightmares about that sonic core unit ) but that one you have there sounds like an odd one.

Stright off the bat... I don't know. The ASIO reading supposed to be the same as the cpu load as it indicates a number of things happening at the same time.

In fact rather than try and explain it all half cocked, I'm going to post a link to a Q&A artical Mr Walker over on Sound On Sound wrote last year :

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct0...s/qa1009_1.htm

Hopefully that will go someway to explaining it.

Something else that cropped up whilst I was looking for that was another artical which is a review of an older UAD card. Whilst I know it's another brand althrogether it might be worth a read as a pointer.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov0...laudiouad2.htm

Check the section labled " So How Many Plug-ins Can I Run?" for a simular issue on the UAD hardware. No idea if it's related but it may help you work out what's going on.

What I would try is disconnecting the sonic core and doing a quick project with system based plugs. That will at least take the extra asio considerations of the external unit out of the loop. It does sound like the p.c. isn't being pushed through, and as ASIO is more related to measuring the bandwidth and capability of the audio subsystem it could just be that the is a bottle neck somewhere in the drivers.