CPU Performance vs. Real-Time Performance in Digital Audio Workstations (DAW)

Here are links to the latency tools used in this video:
DPC Latency Checker (Win7 only): www.thesycon.de...
LatencyMon: www.resplendenc...
Subscribe here: www.youtube.co...
Connect with me on Facebook: / richardamesmusic

[@oridoron7]

End of 2024, 10 years in audio softwares, and you SHOOKED MY WORLD. Thanks!

[@AgimLubonja]

You are not alone. 😀

[@meisterton_]

2024 and this 8 years old video got more quality than 90% of todays' videos 🤣

[@VultureCulture]

This is by far the most lucid discussion of one of the mysterious aspects of home recording.

[@JohnJuddMusicStudio]

Insane amount of valuable information in this video. Thank you Richard!

[@RichardAmesMusic]

John Judd Music Thanks!

[@hazybrain7]

+Richard Ames Music I totally agree. Great stuff, many thanks

[@rumtrax]

I have to agree, great video still on 2019! Thanks Richard!

[@heitor5998]

I feel like I have to pay something to this guy. Freaking awesome video.

[@Patrick-vv7cn]

Hei Tor pay attention. He deserves it!

[@jonathanroe3944]

Great video. A must watch if you have a DAW.

[@MelodyMonroe]

2019, just found this. THANK YOU.

[@No-to4kd]

same here, but it's 2021

[@mellowords]

Wow. I feel like I just had a college course. Killer editing and presentation, totally straightforward....thanks Richard.

[@colinb.4236]

Came here through Guy Michelmore, and I am simply blown away. After so long of dealing with DAWs and Computers, finally someone explained that topic to me in an easy to follow manner. I have never seen an explanation as good as this one ever. Thanks so much!

[@dbdesignsolutions]

Richard, your point about CPU probably not being the main reason is so clearly explained, thank you. My one ask however is that you go a little deeper into defining 'real time performance.' You identified potential device issues that can affect real time performance, but what should we looking for when looking at acquiring a workstation, to maximize real time performance - bus speed, buffer size, RAM? These are things I'm sort of familiar with but would love to know how they could help improve RTP.

[@finlayfatknees]

i reeeeeally wish i found this vid 3 weeks ago...so much navigation of bogus info. this was refreshingly concise. bravo. 👏

[@yahushuafukushima3494]

F**king eh!!! This is one of the most useful, concise and information packed videos I've ever come across....great piece of work!!! And yeh I've just started to investigate the best hardware for a music PC.....whoosh....jobs a goodn ;D

[@LaFaveBros]

This is such a well-communicated video about a cloudy subject, thank you for taking the time to make this.

[@williammonk1020]

well met

[@sonneoanderthal2982]

This has probably saved countless musicians, engineers, system integrators for daws save a lot of money and make very wise choices instead, like it did for me. Thank you so much for this. Hats off to the patience and diligent attention to patiently explaining the details required! Cheers!!! 🎉

[@PixelGod240]

Omg you just answered something that I’ve been researching for ages! Thank you for teaching me about real time vs non real time. I’ve gone into the realm of testing with “mouse feeling” vs hard data, and it was making me crazy! Now I understanding why the windows timer tool makes such a huge difference with certain buffer settings in game. One setting allows for real time sound through memory, and the other is non real time through pre loaded data prior to the round starting. Sorry this is all related to competitive gaming in counterstrike, and sound directly equates with hit registration in that game! If you ever wanted to get huge(even bigger) on KZbin... if you jumped into teaching DPC latency reduction, and other informational videos like this, but instead directed at esports, it would be massive! Everything you speak about directly correlates, probably much more than you could imagine. When it comes to competitive games tweaking is the name of the game and there is a huge community of people searching for this information. They are ignorant to the audiophile community and all the work that has been done with latency reduction. Not even the KZbin tech community talks about this at all. You are a Gem Sir!

[@GjerrusAllMighty]

Incredible.. In 2020, this is by far thee most useful and coherent explanation, on this potentially daunting subject matter Ive seen to date. Many thank you's sir. Impact of this information is otherworldly, and probably saving many people lots of money. Cheers

[@4breakdance]

Awesome, after months finally understand this things happening in DAW's !

[@michaelwarren824]

Wow, this is one incredibly valuable discussion! Once upon a time in my career I was a designer of 8 and 16 bit systems, and now this topic makes complete sense to me! Thanks!

[@ironmaiden12369]

This is perfect and its 5 years old. GOOD STUFF!! THANK YOU :)

[@luishv8029]

Lo mejor que me pudo haber sugerido el algoritmo de KZbin. Suscrito!!

[@c00lkatz]

Excellent video Richard, cleared up a lot of confusion for me! Information on this particular topic is very hard to come by, it seems, when compared to video editing and gaming. I have been building custom desktop PCs for 15 years now, but never understood why my laptops (and friends' laptops) would not perform well with real time DAW recording/instruments, despite having a well rounded system on paper with i7 CPUs that don't show super high CPU usage. Running latencymon definitely shows issues with real time latency, and now I know why, how, and where to investigate. Probably just saved me a bunch of money in "upgrades." Feel like I just sat in on a legitimate school course on the subject. You are the man!

[@No-to4kd]

i've been searching for this info and level of detail for ages. thanks man

[@JohnWatilo]

Well done! This should be required viewing for anyone who runs a DAW.

[@Slammo]

I wish my mom explained all this shit to me when was 5. Seriously: Great explanation! Thanks for creating and posting this.

[@jonstone8110]

Just stumbled upon this video while troubleshooting some issues after updating to Monterey on M1 Mini, Logic 10.7.4. I am astonished that this video was created in 2015 yet it is absolutely relevant and frankly invaluable in October 2022. As another commenter said, this is a college level education right here. The information provided is essential, yet in all my years I've not once heard this subject matter discussed like this anywhere. Thank you @Richard Ames, your wisdom spans across time.

[@newdeep19]

this is so true my playback pc came to life after i adjusted the ram timings they were too loose the pc wasn't responsive because of this after adjusting for a long time and a lot of reboots my pc sounds amazing thru coaxial to a receiver.

[@jaseyn]

Best video on this subject. Great explanation. Thank you so much. Still relevant in 2021.

[@EuSouDJCuco]

How much mindblowing information you can learn in 28 minutes, huh?

[@thefunkfactory]

Richard, this is the best explanation of this I have seen anywhere. I have a highly spec’d laptop that was working great with Cubase for a year and has just started dropping out in the last few months and I have been unable to locate the culprit so far. This video has given me more insight into how I might be able to do so, so thanks so much for making it!

[@masonarcher2998]

I honestly wonder how many people bought new PCs or upgraded their PC because they run their DAW with the wrong settings, as you described. This info TOTALLY changed my DAW performance and all I had to do was raise the sample block size in my settings. I can’t tell you how much better everything runs now. Thanks good sir!

[@melthornley]

I chanced upon this video after spending days trawling through well intentioned, but mostly unhelpful and misleading information sources. I've just purchased a new desktop and I noticed that audio playback was full of pops, crackles and gaps, so this will help me get to the bottom of the issue. I've never experienced this before in the last 25 years of using a DAW. Thanks for an excellent and well thought out explanation!

[@drhardlove]

Thanks a lot. Never seen anything this good on understandig the problems of real time audio performance. You just took me lightyears ahead of the dark ages I have walked trough. I can't thank you enough. 🙏🙏🙏

Wow. This was the ultimate lesson for understanding the everyday-issue on most prosumer audio setups. And I've have searched a lot. Can't thank you enough!

[@homebrewinstrumentals7700]

I can't thank you enough! This remedies some hardcore frustrations. This is such valuable information that is not touched on nearly enough!

[@BOTPlayingBlackOPS6]

We need more channels like this and less pensados and tips and tricks of how to use a compressor or eq! Thank you so much!

[@RichardAmesMusic]

Re: Tim's question below: yes, I've found that some setups are very sensitive to the specific video driver. As I mentioned in the video, sometimes the latest driver is not the best and you have to hunt around to find a good one. Also, if the DPC Latency meter is staying in the green then you're probably still OK. Once you get your drivers/hardware "good enough", driving the DPC latency even lower doesn't seem to provide much practical benefit.

[@timbesamusca]

Richard Ames Music Thanks for the reply! It's probably not worth it for me then to mess with the system as it is running quite stable now although sometimes I wish that I could squeeze a little more juice out of my i7 4790k!

[@bmyregaard]

So, the answer to my pops and crackles is: my plugins. Kinda knew that. But some good additional info. Would love a vid on how to creatively deal with that:)

[@davek6989]

I'm about to buy a new system that I am about to set up strictly for home recording, glad I saw this video first!!!

[@Hi-xs7wm]

One of the Best videos on the internet.Thank you Sir !

[@rogberube6422]

Thank for sharing, Richard.

[@mirzaaljic]

This was such an amazing revelation for me. I am planning to build a new PC for audio production and I'm happy I have this knowledge now. Thanks Richard!!!

[@hp_onceawake]

Wow!! If teachers in schools were as good at explaining things as you, one year could probably be cut down to a month or so....exelent video!!!!

[@gizmoriderfulye8007]

Wow. It is rare to have pleasent guy giving actual good information to the point in KZbin. Subbin

[@StefanPersson-xg3fv]

This is so useful and your explanation is excellent. Thank you so much! It turns out one USB-C hub/card reader, when plugged in, was causing audio glitches for me in Davinci Resolve when it jumped to new clips. I tried firmware updates, driver updates, ASIO buffer settings, sample rate settings, Davinci Resolve upgrade, reboot - but when I unplugged that device, the problem disappeared. Thank you once again for sharing your knowledge!

[@taleman1944]

Richard Ames, R U a teacher? UR presentation is similar to me sitting in a university and listening to an instructor there. UR presentation is top-notch and info is masterful and extremely informative. Were u teaching in a school and u were giving an exam on ur presentation, I'd fail. Too deep and/or over-my-head for my simple brain. However, don't stop giving us ur teachings, as we who R serious about music, NEED what u have to offer. I feel for presenters like u, that has to put up with commenters to ur work with unnecessary, rude, offensive and illogical remarks. Do it for those of us who believe in what u do for us! Yay. Thanks again for ur excellent video, albeit, not for newbies like myself. lol

[@AdamRochelleMusic]

WOW this video is exactly what ive been looking for forever thank you so much! still relevant in 2021!

[@GabdaG]

That's what I was hoping to learn going to RECW. 😀 Could've asked but didn't know how to form the question, thank you so so much!

[@PeterJaquesMusic]

This is probably the most informative video I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much!

[@djrximenes]

Thank you!!! This is the kind of information and knowledge you usually have to pay (and it's not cheap) for.

[@IamMusicSauce]

You have answered SO many of my questions! Thank you!

[@SPIRIT706]

That was an incredibly useful video, thanks so much! Also, that shirt is off-the-hook awesome.

[@chrisemoosik]

Beautifully explained, simple but effective graphic depictions thank you so much Richard.

[@The_Catalyzt]

I just learned so much in this video. Thank you!

[@SiliconRoFoundation]

Here Here! most logical explanation on KZbin of what kind of processing power a DAW requires

[@mikey.audio.]

I'm convinced this video is the most helpful & well explained source of information on this topic the internet has to offer. Thanks!

[@mober5969]

6 years ago -- still perfectly explained for nowadays! Thanks a lot! Thumbs up! :-)

[@KozmykJ]

An excellent explanation. This might be seven years old now but the principles described are still current. 👍

[@warrenhorakh9074]

I’ve been waiting for this thorough, granular, and understandable discussion since I started using a DAW about 7 weeks ago. Thank you!!!

[@bardicdad]

Consider all the links in the chain.

[@LiamGaughan]

Never thought i'd see an NVMe drive cause more problems than a SATA drive, I guess it is because of PCIe lanes of the CPU being shared across NVMe and other devices on the laptop? Amazing video. I'll never give up my PCIe RayDAT :) The state of drivers for interfaces is abysmal for so many products. I have no issues using NVMe drive with my RayDAT (I write to a SATA SSD) but I'm now going to double check my PCI lane configs and make sure my NVMe isn't shared with the RayDAT. Thanks for the great video.

[@haidem5179]

Finally - correct & useful explanations in full sentences! Thank you, thank you, thank you

[@SalomonAbiassi]

Thank you so much!!! For this video litteraly solved my problems of audio drop outs in cubase after having freshly assembled my new computer (10700k & 64GB RAM on Z490i MEG). And as it turned out, it was the LAN PCIe 2.5G controller that was the culprid. Before this video I spent 3 agonizing days or more thinking it was the CPU's features (like SpeedStep, SpeedShift or Turbo Boost) constantly turning them on or off. Thank you Richard Ames for sharing that crucial knowledge about realtime performance.

[@ManuelKorrigan]

Why PciE SSD behave in such a way? I thought pcie drive would be better due to super fast reading speeds? Great video and info!!!!!!!!!!

[@MoonhareStudio]

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you! Following your steps I have discovered that it was the WLAN adapter that was locking up my CPU. I just couldn't understand why my much more powerful machine with twice as much RAM was performing so poorly against my old laptop. Your straightforward approach and explanations really helped. Subscribed.

[@aleksandarstojceski3139]

How did you find out it was the WLAN? How did you fixed it?

[@lordofstringss]

Thank you Richard! You have shared something very relevant to music producers of today. Sensible planning coupled with your knowledge can help folks like us spend wisely and have a system that we can count on.

[@gpmastering]

Thank you so much Richard, this video was a lifesaver! 💎

[@quigleyjamesmusic]

Thanks so much Richard. You have opened my eyes! Great presentation on a seldom discussed topic! I look forward to diving in some more of your videos in the very near future..

[@donnythompson408]

This is a great video; an easy to understand, lucid presentation. While I did already know some of what was discussed, I did pick up a few new things, along with having a few of my previous “understanding” of certain facets corrected. Well done, Sir. 🙏

[@riccardomalberti4268]

This video is pure gold. Thank you so much.

[@drewg3087]

Life changing and time saving data and research here. Thank you.

[@agentcalm]

Wow ... awesome doesnt quite say how fantastic this vid is.

[@alistairdimmick2886]

Listened to 'Abstract Melancholy' from your wesbite, and oh my can you compose. I imagined distorted guitars in place of the strings and you blow a lot of metal compositions out of the water. Excellent as a composer and producer. This is the most informative video i've seen on what to look for in a computer for audio production, thank you so much.

[@rickbiessman6084]

Finally I’m getting somewhat close to an explanation of why my powerful CPU sits around yawning while I still can’t get my round trip latency as low as I’d need for playing guitar through amp sims. THANK YOU.

[@jamesa.musicproductionsand497]

Very nice I have been working with Windows pcs and pro tools for 18 years. I'm glad you made this video to clarify realtime system load. Which many don't understand.

[@Abbaddonna]

Thank you very much, sir! Much valuable information!

[@demonduckie-247]

Very good explanation, much appreciated! Thanks a lot!

[@jacobsmithjr]

Thank you for this info because I can't afford to update anything. I can't wait to get home and start trouble shooting.

[@skip741x3]

Absolutely superb presentation and content!!

[@jjm9741]

Richard ! what a great presentation and your ability to convey so much information so fluently on a deep pressing subject for us producers... I have to tip my cap to you. Professionally done.

[@KetogenicGuitars]

Also switching NVMEs to other slots sometimes has huge effect. My two brand NVMEs triggered different drivers in Windows 10 in different slots.

[@VideoRevealed]

Still relevant info today. Thanks Richard. Now I need a new computer. 😝

[@nickheymann5517]

Thank you Richard, you helped me a lot (and saved me money)

[@nativeindian]

by far the best video explaining this subject. I have been trying to figure this particular bit before building my audio workstation and I've found little to no information on this subject. A few places like soundonsound and scan, all have this video linked to their articles anyway. Thank you for making this.

[@dami-fm]

Faaaaantastic!!!!! it solves my worse problem, I Always knew that i'm slow. Looks like the only thing I have to do is change the drivers!!!! or the video card, or the audio card, or most probably de hard drive!!! Truly, a perfectly clear and better than that, a Really Usable Explanation.!!!!!

[@GregRband]

Super useful info here to help understand the confusing world of performance and supposed spec sheets (marketing)… as I try to figure out why it seems my old 2008 iMac runs just as efficient, if not better, than my newest replacement Win 10 desktop with loads more specs.... I think I get it now. Thanks so much Richard! What a great video tutorial and examples! Rock On!

[@CastalianVisions]

Thank you! This is finally the explanation I have been looking for, and you explain it extremely well.

[@dnaldoog3114]

I just wanted to say thank you for a very informative video. I have a new (very old RME PCI setup) and when just recording one track it was dropping out all over the place (on Cubase 11 PRO) even at 512 buffer size. Disabled the firewire card and I am even able to record at 64 buffer size now. DPC Latency checker immediately showed the problem with a red bar off the charts.

[@GiovanniPuocci]

WOW. Thank you very much Richard. It was fantastic!!!! Now I understand what's the problem in my DAW. THANKS AGAIN

[@Apalamaris]

Thank you for these extremely valuable pieces of information!

[@deltavistastudio124]

Thanks Richard. You nailed it!

[@hammerfall321]

18:50 Why is the dpc latency bigger with the bootdrive connected through PCIe instead of SATA? I thought PCIe is way faster than SATA? I wanted to buy a PCIe SSD for my DAW and OS, because I thought it would be faster.

[@BlackMetalAlchemy]

I cannot thank you enough o have put the time to create this video!

[@kevinauger1051]

This was the best video I've seen in a long time--really helped me understand what's going on with my system. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all of this!

[@DVTOM]

Incredible information, thank you!

[@yeaaudio2023]

I sort of had that hunch rambling my curious mind as to best narrow down the facts. Wow, yeah, super great info much needed, thanks!

[@carloschafin9144]

Excellent Richard, a very good explanation of an important group of issues everyone who runs DAWs eventually run into. I'm trying to figure out the exact same problem on a Mac which of course is a little bit more obscure to troubleshoot. Thanks,Carlos

[@grBUGi]

Thank you so much for this video. I have serched this kind of information aroud a year! And now I know what is a reason of clicks! Thank you thank you thank you!

[@millsmixx5080]

That is the most brilliant presentation and wealth of knowledge I've ever seen in a KZbin video. Thank you! and please keep these professional type of videos coming :--)

[@sicknoterecordings]

Brilliant stuff, given me hope after woefully depressing system upgrade. Thanks

[@pandavaas]

Thanks a lot... Wow....

[@tetramusicstudio]

Amazingly said bro! Thanks for your time!