4 Hidden PC Settings that Boost DAW and OBS Performance

Stop stutter, dropped frames, and lag while recording, mixing, or streaming.
Building on my previous "7 Crucial Tips to Optimize your PC for Music Production in 2023" this video dives deeper into configuring specific performance enhancements at the application or service level that can be configured automatically each time at launch with my tip including a Free PC Utility that runs as a service.
Check out my "7 Crucial Tips" tutorial here: • 7 Crucial Tips to Opti...
...and learn how to capture and control application audio in OBS Studio with one of my other tutorials here: • Capture and Control Ap...
Download Process Lasso here: bitsum.com/
If you find these tips helpful, think about liking and subscribing for more tutorials and gear reviews available each week.
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Do This First:
To get the most out of your recording or streaming space, I recommend sound treatment including acoustic absorption panels. This is the single biggest way to improve your audio before investing in other gear. You can make your own, or I highly recommend GIK Acoustics as they manufacture some of the best quality panels available at an excellent value.
Check out GIK Acoustics here: www.gikacoustics.com/ref/131/
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Book a One-on-One Zoom Appointment with me for assistance and recommendations to help you create or upgrade your home or project studio. I help musicians, producers, and content creators! Visit my website for more information: askdrtk.com/coaching/
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:53 Initial Configuration - Start Here
02:34 Setup Your PC for Maximum OBS Performance
05:36 Setup Your PC for Maximum DAW Performance
07:08 Make Windows Audio Maximum Performance Permanent
08:34 Bonus Tip - Manufacturer Specific Audio Interface Performance
#homestudio #homerecording #obsstudio
(Some links are affiliate links that may provide a small commission to askdrtk without cost to you or influence of my content or opinions. Thanks for clicking! askdrtk is a member of amazon associates and other affiliate programs.) Disclaimer: askdrtk.com/disclaimer/

[@JohnJuddMusicStudio]

It’s super rare to find a channel that is all killer, no filler. Thank you for the excellent high value videos!

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, much appreciated!

[@KinkyReeferProject]

Feeling the same. Just straight up sound knowledge from a straight up sound, and knowledgeful guy. Top notch!

[@Don_Inkshot]

Thank you so much. These tips helped me to configure Process lasso the right way and solved the crackling issues i had with my DAW and plugins.

[@askdrtk]

Glad I could help out!

[@mendiapodaca]

Both videos on optimisation were great. Thanks for that, pal. You got me subscribed.

[@jameswilkerson8873]

My work pc is a refurbished, about 10 yrs old, still chugging along. This Process Lasso breathed some new life into it.

[@majordrumkill]

Informative, straight to the point, easy to follow instructions. Well done sir! Excited to see if this helps the issues I've been having! You have earned my sub!

[@GauLB66]

Thank you so much for the tips!

[@manuelmarino56]

Great i only had to update one more setting on OBS for better performance now all 4 settings are up to date.. Thank you..

[@mirothedjplaylist]

One of the best tips ever, this is an issue for so many and process lasso is a winner. TY

[@rockporttigger7138]

Excellent! Have already shared your channel and links! Highly Recommend! A++

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, I appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed the video, Cheers!

[@CineTracks911]

Thank you for the Process Lasso tip! Been running for a few months now, no more cpu meter jumping around in Studio One and Ableton. 👍

[@askdrtk]

That's great to hear and thanks for the follow-up a few months in! Cheers!

[@oriseon83]

Amazing content! Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge here with us :)

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, my pleasure to help out!

[@JustinEstep]

Man. Thanks so much. This solved my Ableton 11 audio glitch issues!! ❤

[@askdrtk]

Great to hear! Glad I could help out…Cheers!

[@VentureNW]

Love this info... thank you sir!

[@askdrtk]

Glad it was helpful!

[@homeofcreation]

Just bought my first DAW pc and I find this extremely helpful. Thnak you very much. Alsdo for the 7 tips video.

[@askdrtk]

Congratulations on your new system and I'm glad the videos helped out. Cheers!

[@ChrrZ]

fantastic video! thank you very much!

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out! Cheers!

[@williamtrahan4717]

Superb. Thank you for sharing your expertise! *subscribed*

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! Cheers!

[@Paganisma]

from long time I search for similar video the options you are show main was off some and some plugins on Waves hit my CPU with 10% load. Excellent video thank so much !

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out!

[@TheGospelGuitarist]

Again, super job here. Thanks.

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!

[@PlectrumShorts]

Amazing tips! Thanks.

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, glad it was helpful!

[@dilexit45]

Omg finally my apollo twin running properly for 30minutes straight for the 1st time in 2 months. i hope it will continue working, thank you so much for these videos, very helpful!!

[@DavvolinniTheDude]

thank you for this video! selecting disable smt will quickly uncheck all of the odd numbered cores. i assume intel may have disable hyperthread option?

[@navneet4489]

Hi, very informative, I am using I7 700k will it work...? As your example shows, an AMD processor. I sometimes get audio drops while using OBS along with Studio One and usually it is in vocal capturing, which i directly route to OBS from my audio interface...i have disabled other audio drivers which are not needed.

[@lousekoya1803]

Wow ! Thank you , I hope this will solve the crakling noise I get when recording guitar in Protools. Well you have a new sub here from Quebec ! Thanks again Sir !

[@askdrtk]

I hope this helps clear up your recordings in PT. Let me know how it works out. Cheers!

[@lousekoya1803]

@@askdrtk Well it really did ! very happy and will watch more of your work.

[@lousekoya1803]

@@askdrtk I replid too quick after being on a honeympon ! Tonight I have some crakling and it's bad ! , nothing opened in the background and all my light dimmers are off and the usb cable and port is fine on the card so I might trow everything out the window because I spend more time trying to figure out what's going on with issues than having fun playing guitar through a Marshall amp. Thanks for your help though , I appreciate !

[@MrOmri321]

Hi thanks you so much!

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out! Process Lasso only needs to be open when you make changes, otherwise it uses a service to maintain the configuration.

[@JUICE-wk2tz]

with the i9-13900k it shows E Cores, is it good to select these as well for ableton live or only the main "p-cores"? I assume as long as theyre even numbers theyre all physical cores right? Great video, thank you!

[@askdrtk]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Yes, even numbers are the physical cores, by I would recommend using a p-core for Ableton as it will provide more performance, particularly when using a number of plugins.

[@zionesterhuizen4728]

Hi, this is awesome man, my pc daw runs smooth now. I can work in midi all the way to mixing now. 1 question though, any audio outside my daw has crackles and pops now like windows media player or youtube etc. do u have any idea why it would be doing that now? Even though the DAW is not running

[@jitendrasinhthakor]

Hello Sir, How are you? Good to see you after long time. Thanks.

[@colonelporridge8974]

If you wanted to run obs for live-streaming and a daw on the same computer (i know its not recommended) would it still be advisable to use these settings on both programs or just one of them? Thanks

[@themathrock1607]

Awesome!

[@exitthelemming145]

There's a lot of bogus information out there on the internet about optimising your PC for audio production but these tips really work and you will notice a demonstrable improvement in your DAW's performance. Kudos to askdrtk

[@Tal-xi1ll]

Thank you so much! I have intel 12900k processor... Which method will be the best for me when it comes to CPU Affinity vs CPU sets? And how many cores should I give to my daw , according to my specific processor? Thanks again!

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out. With you processor I would start by using an app such as Latency Monitor to check which cores have the most interrupts / DTC latency (it is often core 0). Then check to see if any other price cores have considerably more processes executing. Leave out these cores and allocate the remaining p cores to your DAW. Try starting with this setup and see if it impacts how low you can set the buffer for recording with minimal latency. I hope this helps out!

[@Baddy1900]

It really helped me , less cracks in voice recording. Still doubt if MacOS is a better choice for voice recording and editing. lol

[@dazeja]

Process lasso is a savior for me. I’ve purchase the pro version (twice) It’s that good. I do exactly what you do with NI Maschine.

[@duboracle]

I think ASIO4ALL does also things in your windows settings, after i run cubase with ASIO4ALL the audio service is reset to the normal setting with all CPU's selected. Maybe it overrules that lasso program as well.

[@2550marshall]

Thank you very much for this vid. I have 3 computers now with windows 11 and all of them have issues with audio crackling. I think there is an issue with W11 and audio. I have usb interfaces but this also occurs using integrated audio. Your steps from the "7" vid did the trick but like you said after a reboot it comes back.

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out. I will be doing a W11 specific video, but in the meantime I’m glad you found my tip on Process Lasso…

[@VentureNW]

@@askdrtk Thanks for posting this... I was thinking about upgrading, but may hold off... don't want to create headaches. @askdrtk I will wait patiently. Haha

[@vasileiospgr]

same with a Asus Rog Strix Scar III laptop (i7 9750H, RTX 2070) both one win 10 and win 11... i tried like everything. i'll give it a shot just to see if this fixes it, but it needs to do this every time you reboot?

[@askdrtk]

The idea of Process Lasso is so you don't have to reset priority and affinity after a reboot. Driver issues are a real hassle with so many hardware configurations and every time Microsoft reworks Windows it seems to cause issues with real-time processes such as audio (why I am slow to adopt updates on systems I need for production). Of course this doesn't help with new PCs coming with 11... I hope PL helps out.

[@JokerMansBeats]

Same here with constant audio crackle.

[@lnxguit]

Thanks!

[@askdrtk]

Thanks again, much appreciated!

[@andivax]

Thank you! Why not to disable hyperthreading in BIOS? Or AMD doesn't have this option?

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out. Disabling hyperthreading (also can be done on AMD) can be helpful in some cases (there is still controversy around this in 2024!), particularly high core count CPUs. Also depends on which DAW(s) you use as some are specifically coded to support HT cores... Of course things continue to change on the CPU landscape. I'm waiting for a (full) next gen Intel CPU (not a refresh) release to do some testing. Cheers!

[@manipicao]

Should i set my priorities for RTK Audioi Service be set to high? What about my x-Air interface?

[@manueldesilva]

Hi, 👏👏👏 excellent

[@AloneOnTheIsland]

Applied all, thanks for Tips! I’ll test the shit out of it today

[@AloneOnTheIsland]

It worked! I have a project in works in Bitwig 5. Had problems with clicks and lags, just opened it up, tinkered there quite a bit aaaand no stutters, no delay, nothing! Thank you very much, both of your videos I think are crucial for windows DAW users.

[@askdrtk]

That’s great to hear! Glad I could help out, Cheers!

[@ArtGurkhas]

Previous video was helpful but I did exactly as you have instructed on this video but my DAW was almost frozen, audio not working so I had to uninstall the Process Lasso and revert back to original setting.

[@askdrtk]

Could be a conflict with Process Lasso and another app on your system. It is possible to make the CPU priority (from the first video) permanent by editing the Windows Registry, but I only recommend doing that if you are "very comfortable" tweaking those settings. It is more of a convenience feature than anything else, but I have to reset the priority after rebooting a few times...

[@KinkyReeferProject]

Heya bud, first of all thanks so much for this channel. Really appreciate it. I am currently trying to find the services process for my boss rc 600 audio driver. Could you please explain how one would work out which one it is. Also, on a separate note. I am using Ableton Live as my DAW and in the processes there is one named Ableton index. Currently this one is set to below normal priority. Would it be wise to change any settings in here? Again thanks so much. It i so rare to find such a good hit of knowledge without a good saturation of rubbish. Best regards

[@askdrtk]

Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying my videos. I try to keep the "rubbish saturation" to a minimum, but like anything I'm hopefully improving with time lol. The Ableton index process is normally set below normal so as not to impact real-time audio performance if Ableton starts indexing files (and it does) at an inopportune time. Unfortunately the issue with this is that it can cause delays if you are using a lot of samples during a live performance. You can increase its priority to normal as long as you assign its affinity to a core other than the one used for the main DAW process. As far as the RC 600 driver when I am having difficulty finding a process I open the task manager - details tab and sort by CPU usage in descending order. I then start or access the hardware and look for a spike in CPU. I believe the Boss driver name starts with RD... but I could be mistaken. Hope this helps out, Cheers!

[@KinkyReeferProject]

@@askdrtk Thanks so much for your reply bud. Again, all very useful information. Gonna find that driver now. All the best

[@lnxguit]

Has this video made it to the Presonus people? I also use Studio One and have a Quantum interface. This is the most information I've ever seen regarding computer optimization for Studio One. Process Lasso is a wonderful help, too! Thank you!😀

[@askdrtk]

Glad I could help out! There is no “one answer” for every system, but I hope this provides a place to start and a few ideas. Cheers!

[@jerryhill8281]

Studio one it works nicely. Ableton using only even number CPU cranks up usage around 20%. Just heads up for people looking

[@owenchaim610]

is the CPU Affinities for DAW process not changed at all? Only the CPU Sets?

[@MrOmri321]

Hi. thank yo sou much!

[@worthey0846]

will this work for soundbriidge thank

[@rudymisek6032]

Thank you so much for this :D Using a X32 with Cubase and setting XUSBAudioCplApp.exe to Affinity or CPU Set to Core 2 Made the biggest difference! Setting it in Windows 10 (Windows 11 is not supported) would always set it back to all cores when rebooting, which was super anoying

[@lnxguit]

Windows 11 is now supported

[@J-DUB-F1]

Thanks so much!........I've never heard of this. I'm running Win10 Pro. My CPU is an old intel i7-8700k and 64gb ram. My DAW is Cubase Pro12. I regularly run out of juice with numerous vst instruments running. Sometimes running the buffer at 512 and higher won't even help. I'll give this Lasso a try. I'm curious to see what my settings actually are.

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out! I would appreciate if you could let me know if you see an impact after applying a few optimizations.

[@ElectroIllusion]

@John Wells - your DAW set up sounds similar to mine. I'm also running Win10 Pro. My CPU is a (2016) - intel i7-6950x @ 3.0 GHz, and 64gb Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM. I'm just curious, what is the brand and speed of your 64gb RAM? My DAW is also Cubase. For my sound card I have a Universal Apollo Quad Silver (Firewire) which I use for some plugins, and that helps reduced the load on my PC and allows me to run more plugins. My motherboard is an ASUS X99 Deluxe ii. Which motherboard are you using? Also - helps to use multiple internal solid state hard drives. I had read articles a while back that it will increase the processing power of a DAW computer by using separate hard drives, such as: *(1)* a separate "System files" hard drive where Windows 10 PRO + and all software, such as Cubase PRO is installed --- (but no audio "samples") *(2)* a separate "Audio Recordings" hard drive for Cubase project files, vocal recordings, guitar recording, and any other "audio recordings", or WAV files. *(3)* multiple separate "Samples" hard drives for instrument VST plugin samples. All hard drives should be solid state. Mine are Samsung Pro and 2 hard drives are the solid state Crucial MX500 4TB. + *M.2* I have some of my large orchestral sample libraries installed on a M.2 Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

[@askdrtk]

I am running Corsair Vengance 3200 ram. I like to use ram from the QVL for the motherboard which in my case is a Gigabyte B550 Vision D. I chose the board as it have integrated Thunderbolt and is rock solid with my Apollo, Motu, and Quantum interfaces. I went with AMD for this last build as at the time it was a good choice for my overall workflow with includes Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc. Today for a DAW PC I would go with Intel for the slightly higher single thread speed, but in the end with todays CPUs there is plenty of power. Having separate SSDs with as many of them being NVME is great for DAW performance in large sessions with big sample libraries. It follows a similar principle to setting up storage for a video editing PC. Puget systems has a lot of excellent resources on the topic. Sounds like your storage is really well optimized! In the end, I like to create in a session without having to think about the PC which sounds like what you are going for as well. Cheers!

[@punitparmar00024]

I have Acer Nitro 5, i5 with 8gb ram and 4gb GTX graphic card, recently when I updated my obs to 29 ( latest version) in noise suppression there is a warning ⚠️ that please update your both nvidia video and audio sdk, your audio sdk is out dated, and there is crackling or poping sound started, I updated my nvidia thrice but nothing solved. After I uninstalled obs and download older version of obs which runs perfect without crackling. So have you any solution regarding this matter? Also when I used croma there is thin white out line on my body sepcially on my hair, what to do. There three lights one on front and two are at sides with downward 45 degrees, what to do?

[@askdrtk]

The thin light line down the middle sounds similar to the "fixed screen" tear issue that was common for a while. To test this, try changing the refresh rate back and forth. For example, if you are running at 60Hz, switch to 30Hz and then back to 60Hz. Then see if the line remains. If it is gone at either 30Hz or when you switch back to 60Hz, the solution has generally been to completely uninstall your video drivers and then do a clean install. If this still doesn't make a difference, if you are using the game-ready driver, try changing to the studio-driver, it is generally more reliable. For the noise suppression in OBS29, if you have the GTX1650 in your Nitro, there could be a conflict with the new NVIDIA Broadcast SDKs. While NVIDIA added support for GTX cards to the RTX Voice app, GTX cards, including the 1650, are still not officially supported on the new SDKs. While the 1650 does have Tensor cores, there still may be an issue as NVIDIA has not specifically indicated support. The good news is that this is a known issue with the OBS29 update that will likely be resolved in the near future. I generally wait (often 4-6 months) before updating to a new version of OBS (at least on my production computer) to allow issues with plugins to be resolved. I don't know that NVIDIA will resolve this with official support in the SDK, but OBS devs generally clean these issues up within a few updates after release. Hope this helps out!

[@iamgeraldmusic]

I was trying to find my interface in Lasso - Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 USB, I can't find the process name there.

[@BoReynolds]

DO YOU have any of these for WINDOWS 11?

[@IMJUSTWANTTOTALK]

Hi all is fine but i can not fine that windows audiodg.exe in lasso :c theres any other way?

O meu só aparece de CPU 0 a CPU 3 , o que devo selecionar ?

[@pepedecoatza]

Audiodg.exe is not available in my windows 11. Any idea why or what to do? I think is being host by a svhost service

[@michelsen2297]

Just turn on youtube and play some video, it will open audiodg.

[@Lexxo777]

Does the app remember the settings each reboot, or is there an option to save ALL Settings and recall them at once?

[@askdrtk]

Yes it does. This is why I recommend using the "Always" setting for the various parameters I showed in the video. You can always change this or even mix and match always and temporary settings.

[@footballtalk4857]

It should save it

[@user-im7pv3yn5x]

I thought I had windows audio all figured out till recently. You have shown me how ignorant I am Thank you so much

[@askdrtk]

Glad I could help out! More coming on DPC latency, drop outs, etc… Cheers!

[@chrisrambow4367]

I don’t show audiodg on my hp laptop is omething wrong?

[@bartoliblue]

I use Reaper/Cockus Daw and I can't find it in Process Lasso.

[@frankstijnen1910]

Great tips! I don't see audiodg in Windows 11. Anyone an idea?

[@askdrtk]

The audiodg.exe process may not be visible if Windows audio is not in use. It should show up if you play a video with your browser or with the Windows player. Hope this helps out!

[@frankstijnen1910]

Thanks for your answer! Does that mean if it isn't showing when the DAW is in use, that it isn't running?

[@askdrtk]

Yes, since your DAW is using ASIO instead of Windows audio. The issue is that if Windows decides to play audio such as a notification chime while you are in your DAW, audiodg will automatically start which can cause a sudden drop out if your DAW is using the same core.

[@mass-1128]

Thanks for an insightful video, but I have a question. I'm using an Intel 13700K. If I do CPU sets for my DAW, do I only select the even p-cores or should I select the even e-cores as well for best performance?

[@askdrtk]

Great question (which I should have included in the video…)! Use only p-cores for your DAW set, your 13700K has enough of them that you will not need “help” from the e-cores. Cheers!

[@mass-1128]

@@askdrtk Thanks so much. I genuinely appreciate your advice and your video has helped so much already!

[@rudymisek6032]

The anoying thing I have now is that Cubase says the CPU is maxed out when Task manager says that Cubase is using less than 50%. It's tought me more about how to get similar results with less plugins (better audio enginerring I guess), but the learning curve takes time. If anyone knows how to solve this please post it :D I and probably a bunch of other people have 50% CPU that's not being used, I've gone through this and the 7 Steps prior to this video. If I find a way to do this, I'll post it here for someone else. Peace!!

[@saber5401]

What was missed on this video was that Process Lasso creates a new power plan in control panel power settings.

[@tri-unetrl3966]

What do you think about the Windows Optimizer application???

[@askdrtk]

I think optimizers can be useful, but I am always a bit cautious about "optimization" utilities as I like to know exactly what settings (particularly registry, etc.) have been changed. I'm a bit old-school on this...I make changes manually and keep a log of when / what I did. I find this helpful if I need to go back or if a Windows update (or other installer) changes something. Before I decided to use PL I did a thorough before/after comparison of a few key files including the registry.

[@tri-unetrl3966]

@askdrtk Oh okay 👍🏼Thanks

[@Gooden_Eye]

I find myself really disappointed in DAW technology and how it destroys my laptop, but this kind of video can be really useful to boost the lag & freezing issues I'm having...thanks

[@askdrtk]

Glad to help out!

[@maxmillan4681]

i use Cubase, and it doesnt show up in Proces lasso........?????

[@alfaPop]

Leave it open and it will show you

[@kAPNAk]

Correct, Cubase and other DAW software don't need Windows audio (audiodg.exe), with a good sound card it is recommended to use the ASIO driver which comes with it. I wonder if audiodg.exe is in fact actually interfering when set to high priority.

[@thedjnamedves]

Great tips! Sadly they made Memory Priorities a Pro feature.

[@DjSh0kwave]

I've been fighting this dragon since I started streaming and recording in 2017; if this doesn't work I don't know what will!

[@askdrtk]

I hope it helps out! There can be other issues, especially power management settings as I went through in my 7 tips video, that can cause dropouts and other performance problems as well. Also, if you are running an additional anti-virus such as McAfee or Norton, these will cause real-time audio issues.

[@1wibble230]

Cubase ASIO Guard uses virtual cores so setting it to only use the physical cores is a bad idea.

[@sergiofalaguerra1873]

wot a leggend