What I do to optimize Win-7 64 Bit for audio.

In no way I’m I claiming this is a best practice. I’m just saying this is what I do.

I run Malwarebytes full threat against the entire computer.

then reboot.

I then run CCleaner against the registry.

I load Win Patrol. Run it and get rid of all the BS that applications place in the startup section of windows. (iTunes updater, Java version update checkers, etc.). Then I uninstall Win Patrol (careful not to replace those startup apps during the Win Patrol uninstall).
http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html

Then I make sure my settings are optimized for Audio recording in an ASIO enviornment.
http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/pc-optimization-guide-for-windows-7/
http://us.focusrite.com/answerbase/optimising-your-pc-for-audio-on-windows-7

I don’t use any virus protection do to they generally are resource pigs, and fail to catch anything worth catching, but that personal choice, your results may vary.

After all of this, I usually find things run faster and better.


good luck.

thanks.

i keep it off the net its never even had browser open, clean install, only my media apps on it,eg cubase, never use it to “test” something, keep an image of the boot drive fully configed ready to go. never install ANY questionable software on it (i even pretest trusted apps on another box first) keep it clean and defragged. it will run for years like that ive never had a crash or bsod…ever. if im starting a new project for a client i reload from image so i start with fresh clean daw with all plugs etc ready to go it only takes minutes.

works for me… i got tired of the 24 hour marathon reload of daw

ps because its never on net i dont need to run ANY cleaners/virus checkers/etc including windows update
no net = no security updates/patches required

cheers

Many of those so called “optimization” are counter productive on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
Especially all those examples on the Focusrite page and links. Some of the recommended tweaks can or will make Cubase PRO 8 not launch or work at all on those systems. It even degrade the performance of the computer instead of boosting or fixing anything. Just so you know.


Best regards
Freddie

Freddie,

All of those examples on the Focusrite page? How is power options are set to “Never” a problem for example?

Hi.

Power shall be set to full performance but many of the other recommendations are counterproductive.
Here you have a few good recommendations from me instead if you are interested?

I have used a dual boot system system for many years, one for general use and one for dedicated DAW, and have always had internet access enabled for both.

I used to install all the DAW software on the general boot as well, to use as a test bench. However, having now basically determined what software we’ll stick with and stopped testing out alternatives, I no longer keep the DAW test stuff. That saved a whole lot of unnecessary overhead.

Basically, W7 onwards is pretty DAW-friendly out of the box, with W8 especially focussed on reducing the numbers and duration of interrupts, ostensibly to reduce power consumption, but obviously also less likely to disturb multiple real-time streams.

It is non-OS services and utilities – especially for video and motherboards – that are likely to upset DAW operations. A reason why I let Windows install drivers, as it tends to only install the bare minimum, rather than full bells and unnecessary whistles of the full OEM driver suites.

The main things I do these days are:
a) Disable powering down of USB ports, both in the power plans AND individual ports and hubs (in Device Manager).
b) Disable file content indexing on all drives.
c) Disable HomeGroup, but only because I want to control what networking happens.
d) Minimise the Recycled bin sizes on all drives, only to prevent large deleted audio/video files from causing excess usage of SSD drives.
e) Reduce the maximum page file size, if the RAM size is far too large to ever be exceeded, again to prevent SSD space being excessively used.

Hi all, my very first post as a Cubase convert.

There are 2 modifications i’ve done over the years which have shown to be rather successful. However, 1 is a Registry Hack and the other is only for AMD Graphic Cards.

Please be very careful when working inside the Registry, as with any Registry Hack, there is always the chance that something goes wrong and renders the system inoperable - meaning to say the system may not even boot; so please, please, please be extra careful.

Please DO NOT ATTEMPT if unsure.

************* WARNING REGISTRY HACK **************

Before doing the Registry Hack, ensure that at BIOS, any on-board sound card is disabled.

  1. Open the Registry using the Windows RUN command > regedit
  2. look for the lines (one at a time)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\HDAudAddService - set Start to 4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\HDAudBus - set Start to 4

  1. Their current default value is 3. [For info only]
  2. Close the Registry Editor
  3. Restart the system

************* WARNING REGISTRY HACK **************

On the next restart, check in the Control Panel > Device Manager under System Devices, there should be a yellow mark on the High Definition Audio Controller. [All is well]

What this does is that it forces Windows to disable any rouge audio devices which may persistently run especially HDMI Audio Drivers. As we are using ASIO, it may seem unnecessary however, there are several benefits especially to latency and system load issues.

The 2nd modification is to do with AMD Graphic’s card overdrive. Within the:

Catalyst Control Centre > Performance > AMD Overdrive

  1. Set the Clock Rate to the lowest setting.
  2. Click on Apply and Restart the system.

What this does is, it will prevent any so called “performance boost” when the GPU is under load. As with most DAWs, there isnt a need for this boost as it is only useful for games. (I discovered this after working on Cubase for several hours and there was a sluggish response on the Control Room Loudness Meters. There is also a discovery that on the launch of Cubase, my clock speed jumped to 800Mhz for a brief moment and then returned back to 500Mhz. After lowering the above clock rate setting, i havent had that problem since.)

Hope this helps and please again be very careful when editing the registry. Cheers!!!

Patanjali (or anyone else that can point me in the right direction), I am interested in your dual boot setup. I would like to do the same, and see plenty of explanations floating around for setting up two different operating systems. But I would like to stick with 64 bit Win 7, and do like you are; one for my Cubase 6 use and one for general pc use. Can you help me out?

Thanks

Ok.

Technically, mine is not so much a dual boot, as two separate boot drives. I do not use Boot Manager per se.

To elaborate:

  1. Each OS is on their own drive. 128GB each is plenty.

  2. Each OS is a completely independent install. That is, the only drive during installation is the drive being installed to.

  3. I use a multi-drive bay to hold all the drives.

  4. Windows remembers the last drive booted from, so to change boot, I unlock the drive door for the OS last booted to, boot, then close the door. Same to get back.

  5. Both share the same data drive D:, to which I point each’s Documents, Downloads, Music, Picures and Videos folder links (right-click folder, say Documents, select Location panel, type new path, or click Find Target… button and navigate, click OK button, and OK moving existing files) to common folders there. Each OS’s Desktop goes to a separate folder.

  6. Drive setup is:
    _ C: = current OS running. When not the current OS, G: = General. R: = Recording.
    _ D: = general data drive.
    _ M: = DAW drive.
    _ P:, S: = samples drives.

I backup my data drive D: automatically during idle (only when using general OS, using SyncBack Free) to my NAS box, as well as to another local drive ad-hoc.


If you need clarification on any of these, or have other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
PM me if you do not want to take up more space in this thread.