Optimize Your Windows PC for DJing & Music Production Pt. 1

Article by DJ Endo the Dubspot blog - bit.ly/htCV0b
Native Instruments product specialist and Dubspot Instructor Mike Henderson aka DJ Endo dispels a common myth about PC's and Windows in this article and two-part video tutorial on how to optimize your Windows PC for DJing and music production. In part one, Endo takes you through a step by step process on how to turn your Windows PC from an average computer to a music production and performance machine, offering you optimization tips from updating your BIOS and downloading updates to selecting ASIO drivers and preventing CPU spikes.

[@bobbywright6062]

I’m watching this in 2019. Holy moly.

[@nathan2278]

I only did a few of the steps listed while I watched and I can actually tell my laptop is running more smoothly by the end of this tutorial! Thank you so much.

[@8poundstar]

Thank you so much for both videos. With the help of this video, I just stopped every problem I was having with my pc using virtual dj. I can now run six tracks at ultra low latency without one hiccup in sound (Went from 80 percent rom/ processor usage, to less then 5 percent).

[@XFAiDERse]

Thanks a ton DubSpot, this saved my christmas! I was afraid that I'd never get my Traktor kontrol S4 running on my Win7 64bit. I had huge problems with dropouts and pop-sounds. Thanks to your hints, especially with latencymon, I started to troubleshoot for real. I followed all the other hints too of course, just to get things bulletproof. Many S4 users have had, well- long story short -seemingly unsolvable problems with the S4 and Win7. I'm very happy that I can use my S4 without compromises

[@davemoore3707]

Very helpful, thanks for taking the time to do this.

[@DJSpecialSauce]

Wow, and here I thought I made most of the adjustments possible. Turns out you have shown me a whole bunch more. Thank you

[@MartinSomewhere]

Thank you i was searching for this fix for like 6 months.

[@CHRISDJS72]

Thanks did most of this apart from updating bios and going to dell web sight for driver updates and my laptop is running ableton live without a glitch using asio4all before i couldnt use some VSTs without it stuttering to the point of wanting to smash the thing up now its sweet as a nutt using 40 tracks big up the dubspot for these vids

[@Phonamana]

Thanks for the tutorial and tips here! I wish I had seen this sooner! It's hard to believe you made this video over 10 years ago and the tips are still helpful today! I had trouble between my HP Laptop and my Denon MCX8000 controller and I've tried to tweak my laptop many times before but, I missed a few things that you added. I DJed a good 4 hour set today after following your tips and making the tweaks and I never heard the buzzing popping sound that I a lot of times heard after about an hour of playing. Hopefully your tweak suggestions have fixed my issues! Thanks again! Is there a pt. 2 somewhere?

[@WaterFawcett]

Thanks for this. I'm able to use my new monitor setup now freely without popping some popcorn. Now I'm boomin' like metro! esketit

[@JonoMakesBeats]

This is AMAZING. Thank you!

[@atabeylive]

@mattrozak for sure it has save me time and headache problems when I switch from PC to Mac.

[@kb1629]

@atabeylive I'm happy for you. I've used PCs since 1995 and of course sometimes have some issues but nothing major. I'm sure Mac is great but I really like the freedom to choose the components I want for my pc. And I can update more easily too. But, as they say, YMMV.

[@DeeJayEndo]

@IEatHarlots Thank you for pointing this out. I just contacted Dubspot and asked them to put a warning in the video so people don't go updating their BIOS. The reason I put that in there is because it is recommended by Native Instruments to update your BIOS.

[@djmiglita2018]

BLUETOOTH was my problem. Thank you for the video! ;)

[@minersson]

Check in your power options for the Recomended settings option ( Default option ) aslong as you have this option you can go back to the original settings if you change anything.

[@dastoybuzz]

great tut sir

[@BappinProductions]

The connection can be re-enabled manually in Network Connections or you can just write (and run) another batch file using the same command but substituting enable for disable.

[@garethmillers5453]

Hi Endo. Thank you for this. Any chance of an updated one for Windows 10?

[@b0ks296]

Nice Video!

[@jermz2]

Thank you

[@wax83]

Pleae tell me which font type (& size) your system was set to, cause i've noticed that is much more readable and easy oon the eye than the default one! Thank you very much for the useful video by the way!

[@whinchacha]

Thanks it helped!

[@MaestroDraven]

Make sure to check your latency settings, too. I've had differing initial results with different DAWs because they weren't set up properly. Once you do, that won't happen anymore. Very few DAWs require a heavy slice of the CPU or RAM, at least by today's standards.

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@astropolia Absolutely, go into control panel, then users and create a second account for music. Actually I'd really recommend to do so.

[@Amg123june]

this is very helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@koudy38]

As I read somewhere, the best solution is to download Game Booster program. This one makes all of this for you. It can make virtual desktop ect... It help me so much.

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@atabeylive P.S: You don't need to do any of this to use a pc for audio, it's just tips for getting it to run even better. You can also optimize a mac, there is plenty of videos on how to do it. This is not necessary.

[@statuseight]

Hiya nice video can you tell me if after changing all the power options if I will ever need to change them back again? Do I need to write down all the current settings before changing it all?

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@StrictClubBouncer Yes you will, the fast track pro for example comes with Asio drivers that are top notch. On a 2 year old windows computer that hasn't been optimized I can still get 8ms latency. I've drove mine down to 2 or 3ms with mid range sound cards, anything below 8 or 9ms really is unnoticeable. Check out the saffire usb 6. I'd actually recommend it over M-Audio.

[@BappinProductions]

..important as this instructs Notepad to save the doc as a Batch file rather than a text file. It doesn't matter where you save to as long as you remember the location of the directory. Locate your newly created file and drag it into the Startup folder, which is located in the list of All Programs in the Start Menu. Now everytime you boot up, Windows automatically disables the Wireless Local Area Network connection for.

[@DeeJayEndo]

Make sure your limiter is turned off in Traktor. That could cause the bass to decrease when the volume gets loud.

[@Whirlee79]

@StrictClubBouncer read the manual ;) i think u must klick the button on the upper left side in the Programm to enable the sound !

[@BappinProductions]

If you don't think you'll remember to switch off your WiFi before every gig, you can tell Windows to do it automatically every time you boot up by writing a simple BAT file and placing it into the Starup folder. Create a new text document and type the following: netsh interface set interface "Wireless Network Connection" Disable . Then click File>Save As and choose All File Types form the drop down menu. For the file name choose Disable WLAN.bat . The " .bat " bit is super......

[@mrukfdrumandbass]

hii great vid helped me allot but when using the latency checker should u bee running music production programs or should u shut down all apps?? because im a little unsure on using it as my latency mon shows up weird stuff that the numbers keep rising to like 50!!!!? but this is a fresh wiped computer which i dont understand why it does thiss thanks allot!!! JKB UK

[@Manc-fh5we]

Disabling microsoft acpi-compliant control method battery setting turns off battery charging status for me. This is a vital visual tool for me when giging.

[@peterrees4568]

Amazing vid, my laptop is so much much quicker at loading beatport link tracks now - thanks so much

[@JurritL]

@Daluxer yeaaaaaah

[@carlosherrera2321]

hey wass up dj endo... wen using software serato dj intro and i load a track it slows down or the sound become distorted & crackling. It comes and goes but is happening quite often.

[@Whirlee79]

@StrictClubBouncer or ... you must select the ASIO driver as default output in your music programm ...

[@atabeylive]

@kb1629 No I have not updated any drivers for my m-audio profire 610, I dont have to use ASIO drivers and Macs are way more stable for sound production. Believe me I use to own a pc for 10 years and for producing music it was a chaos, I switch to mac in 2006 and Never had to deal with all the problems a PC has to go through.

[@reel9]

If you have a Hercules or which ever controller that you use per say, and you are going through the USB hubs to disable the power saving, would you disable that as well? Thanks!

[@RenZaBoy1990]

thanks man i bin looking for somthing like this for a while .. but yh im pretty sure we have the same pc .. have you noticed using the dell .. whilst listing to songs with bass ... the sound kinda decreases in volume .. is that meant to happen can i change it ?? .. thank you

[@MartinUlikhanyan]

I have some distortions.the latency mon identifyed that some drivers from the windows 32 folder are the cause of distortions. What shall I do in this case? And another question. I use both the embedded sound card and the connected sound card for music. Is that make sense to disable the embedded one from the BIOS? beforehand thanks and many thanks for such a helpful video :)

[@DJTHERIDDLER]

I don’t get WI FI is important when you DJ with online record pools plus my question is my pc has a clitch problem like if I was playing scratch vynel how can I fix this

[@tinytab]

do u recommend to do this everytime u start any music production or dj programs and put it all back again or do it once and leave it for ever

[@eatshitgoogle]

@kb1629 I know it's possible. Only very recently I've become a (rather underwhelmed) Mac user. I used to do all my music and videos on Windows, but I got tired as the years passed. Windows is just too anti productive. The Macintosh is also far from the ideal computer but I found it to be overall a far nicer experience.

[@g4mmo]

hi dj endo!!! one question , can i use this tutorial for a windows 8 lap? thanks!

[@apsjr1]

sir i did everything you did on my pc now when i go to traktor on my pc my music is not formatted please help

[@minersson]

The issue with wifi useually relies with laptops and often causes audio drop issues , never heard of it being a issues with a desktop computer

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@atabeylive I have been using Windows for 6 years for audio. If you are having headaches and problems then to be honest you don't know how to use windows and probably should use a Mac. Although you could buy some top notch gear with the extra 1000+ that you save. At least you'll look stylish though.

[@kb1629]

@atabeylive You don't need to update audio drivers or operation system on mac?

[@smeeeeth]

Where is part this was really useful.. I urge you all to follow the steps...EXCEPT BIOS

[@dtwistrewind7361]

I go straight to device manager and disable wifi and Bluetooth, the Bluetooth draws power from the USB 5v source.

[@djdvnr]

can you do one for windows 8 acer

[@DJVitoRSantoS100]

Hello, I did everything you told on both pt.1 and pt.2 videos but i still have cpu spikes... i closing everything i can on the processes, downloaded the latest updates for my computer, turning off my wifi and everything else. The only thing is that my traktor 2 is cracked. the basic specs of my computer are these: 2nd Gen Intel® Core™ i5 processor; 14" display; 6GB memory; 640GB hard drive. What else can I do? Great video by the way

[@Dariovalli]

But whas even more weird is when i switch to just djing off my computer, i use realtek audio option and plug my headphones in and just dj like that to see if its a software issue. But everythings been fine and Ive had the s4 for about only a year

[@micika069]

I have tried everything you said, but I still have crankles. One thing I could not try is that MS Hotfix, when I try to install it - it says - The update is not applicable to your computer. Traktor Audio 2 works OK on my desktop, but my HP laptop makes crackles. Personally I think this soundcard has bad hardware. They have boosted sound performance but they did not do galvanic isolation between the USB and the analog circuits - no noise from the computer will be transferred to your amplifier.

[@MrSlomotion007]

DPC tells me to disable my battery device, however, I have disabled in accordance with this video. Is there something else with the battery device that should be disabled? It also tells me that I am experiencing buffer underruns..how do I adjust the buffer settings?

[@walmartninja]

Endo ur the best though

[@FiftyPlus973]

Hello I am djing music on ustream and my audio has a hissing sound and I cannot figure out where it coming from I am using a dx EQ an s-com aduio compressor and the volume is set to the requirements I am using the db audio meter and the hissing sound is there there can you help me with the problem.

[@elanggosoundaraju2299]

Sometimes when you dont have good electric grounding, you can hear the buzzing noise. Try to use any DI box. I've experience this before and my issue solve after using DI Box.

[@minersson]

Carnt seeing there being any point to be honest as the conection still comes through the intergrated hub in your pc or laptop.

[@DJRentz275]

Have you figured out how to find the ndis to disable it?

[@lucasray8723]

Should do one on windows 10. =)

[@RollerRoller235]

@PBmusic95 I have the same problem But my execution is 26.8760 My dpc latencey checker has only high red bars and my system seems to bee even more problamatic then before?? I need help too... Very Badly :(

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@sonnybrown To be honest that's just stuck in people's minds from years ago. I have not had one single crash in 6 years. No lies. I have had Macs crash on me in that time period, it can happen to both to be honest. Just like a string can snap on a guitar, any live gear can give up. It's inherent. Windows based computers these days are very solid and run extremely well and tight IF the user treats it well [the same applies for mac].

[@MrSlomotion007]

The latencymon tells me that my ACPI.SYS is at about 3.1. What do I disable to correct that?

[@doc1c70]

I've got to go and change everything back it slowed my computer to such a crawl Ican hardly type this message I can barely watch the video to return everything back to how it was Live and learn Igues..

[@JavierRsBrKholemusic]

Should i disable the NDIS.sys driver?

[@Phyco_Smash]

with wifi off can you change your computer to flight mode instead?

[@BiggestLewbowski]

My computer is working now but should I be worried since I updates the bios?

[@duxiew]

When i turned on latencymon its telling me that acpi driver for nt is affecting latency. it cannot be turned off in device manager. what now?

[@iisFRESHness]

When i use Maschine the lil CPU meter that looks like a battery raises red and distorts my sounds quite abit. How can i stop this?

[@benbol1364]

My problem is with the M1 Legacy software. I try to use asio and it's digidesign driver but it shuts down every time, so I seem to be stuck with driver type "direct sound". I'm using windowa 10, 64 bit. Can anyone please help out?

[@benbol1364]

Ok I needed to download Asio4all, and now I got it sorted out after about three days. Anyways thanks and I'm so happy now

[@Dariovalli]

Ive turned off my wifi, Ive updated all possible driver, and my latency is fine. yet while im running traktor, theres still patches in my audio or one second pauses in the audio. Is this a glitch in the traktor ive downloaded or am i missing something?

[@gigahertz_1911]

What if I have a wired internet connection and not wifi?

[@PBmusic95]

my ndis.sys system has an execution of 13.187 which is REALLY BAD but it's an invisible program so i have no clue how to find and fix it... also i think it might be an important program if i do find it... help??

[@justjaysen9]

what about WindowsDirectSound? because I have that specified sound card

[@TheBudgie29]

Only for Windows 7

[@DeeJayEndo]

@StrictClubBouncer Did you download ASIO4ALL ?

[@MaxiCrows]

and for mac mini?

[@ankverm8376]

if i update the BIOS will it affect my traktor softwares sound in any way?

[@klubrav]

This affected my sound too

[@smeeeeth]

Part 2^

[@joegreve6585]

BIOS update improving performance? Unlikely. Like a 1/10000 chance unlikely. Source: Computer technician.

[@djestrela2]

A BIOS update will give you more stability, and possibly the opportunity to turn off features. For example turbo boost is on 8th gen intel cpus is incompatible with ddj-1000, it affects the usb clock: forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360002318683-Any-USB-C-Thunderbolt-3-Windows-10-success-stories-

[@chuckles1252]

holy shit, u get to use traktor 2 before it comes out, no fair!!

[@BiggestLewbowski]

I just updated my bios on my Dell and during the reboot would not completely start up. I checked the comments after that and all I see is DO NOT UPDATE bios. Super. It has finally turned on normally but should I still be worried? Should I even go through with the rest of the advice on this video? I just got my Dell xps laptop back and I have USB dropouts now. Trying to fix the problem but I don't wanna fuck it up more.

[@sadinoki]

I cant go to the ASIO website. Is it because of my internet?

[@MattRozak]

@atabeylive yeah, taking 15 minutes to save a grand. what a headache lol.

[@JurritL]

Hey, the site of ASIO is [asio4all . com] , not [asioforall . com] as it says in the video, isn't it?

[@HeadsetHistorian]

@kutyusz1 Ahahaha, Windows is grand for audio. Bloody Beetroots use windows for example.

[@Djsnow128]

i had to do 23 downloads for my dell inspiron 2009

[@Redman_player]

i cant in on BIOS

[@lsw19830]

Збс I mean nice

[@DeeJayEndo]

Nope, if it aint broken you are good to go and have an updated Bios :)

[@matsuz100]

I struggled with this for ages making sure in my bios the CPU was not throttling back, checking all my drivers could not find anything wrong. Until in window 10 settings/system/power & sleep click on Additional power setting create or make a plan high performance & change power setting, under "Processor state management" set "minimum processor state" to 100% this stopped my 4.7ghz cpu throttling back to 800mhz problem gone. the location of these setting may well change with time as Microsoft are for ever tinkering with W10. Microsoft I hate you this should be much easier to find put in on the desktop, what possible use is 800mhz on a performance PC. This may also help www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-power-throttling-windows-10#disable_powerthrolling_settings

[@DjKingMico]

Cant Disable wifi if you use it with touch osc for wireless controls.

[@ryanauburn]

+M.R. Carter no

[@ronnietan3482]

can i use Windows 8 for Djing?

[@yabo_san]

Ronnie Tan Yes. It's literally the same thing as windows 7, just with the dumb start menu.

[@CHOPPERSUlT]

i was updating my bios and it caused my computer to brick.. i can't even get it to turn on at the moment. i didn't know that was going to happen. FML

[@mikelo303]

Why not simply just run script to optimise PC before running Traktor?

[@BiggestLewbowski]

Someone help me out here