Windows 10 is a multi-purpose OS. It may be not as friendly to 'start audio recording and forget about drop-outs' as MacOS. But there're a lot of things user can improve to get a more stable DAW environment. Some are mentioned in guides from PreSonus, Focusrite, Steinberg, etc. But some are not. And I'm starting to record my steps not mentioned there just not to forget. Feel free to share yours as well.
So my essential steps are: 1. disable swap 2. disable SysMain service (previously SuperFetch) 3. disable or pause Windows Defender (exclusions are not enough) 4. disable the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry in task scheduler 5. disable auto-updates (Windows Store and vendor-specific stuff; also be sure the Windows Update has a schedule not to interfere your recording sessions) 6. pause OneDrive/Dropbox/etc. while running your DAW More to come, probably. |
It's a long time since I was doing this kind of thing, but it's worth doing.
I can't remember ... is there a way to save this startup configuration, but switch back and forth to "full" Windows for when, say, you want to connect to the Internet and update stuff? |
vasilykorytov wroteWindows 10 is a multi-purpose OS. It may be not as friendly to 'start audio recording and forget about drop-outs' as MacOS. But there're a lot of things user can improve to get a more stable DAW environment. Some are mentioned in guides from PreSonus, Focusrite, Steinberg, etc. But some are not. And I'm starting to record my steps not mentioned there just not to forget. Feel free to share yours as well. Thanks, I do believe that there are some tweaks that can improve the performance. I have great specs but it often happens that the cpu meter in S1 goes to 100%, with a simple instance of Pigments (itself is known for causing some issues but still) while the task manager doesn't show the same. Sometimes I encounter some visual lag or stuttering while scrolling or working on a project with a few automations or gain envelopes. And I have a RTX 3060.. Just some very weird things that shouldn't be happening with my specs. Btw, what do you mean by swap?
Presonus Featured Artist (Italy)
My Latest Feature Requests ![]() https://answers.presonus.com/73692/s1-essential-feature-plugin-racks https://answers.presonus.com/72506/zoom-to-selection-improvement-vote-if-you-agree Studio One Pro 6 Win10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - 32gb ram DDR4 Gigabyte RTX 3060 Interface: Focusrite 18i20 3rd gen Prophet XL + KeyStep Pro Atom SQ Revelator |
kisnou wroteBtw, what do you mean by swap? it's also known in Windows as 'paging file' or 'pagefile.sys' |
Couple of issues with this just from my perspective.
Paging - generally it's best to let Windows handle it automatically nowadays, tweaking with paging was worthwhile a decade ago but I think things has moved on. If you do want to tweak it's generally best to assign the smallest swap file possible, that is assuming you've got enough memory to handle it. Antivirus - I always exclude processes/folders/files rather than disable, too risky. Bitdefender works for me fine. If you really want to disable your antivirus (not recommended) write a batch file to turn it off and turn it on whilst using Studio One, but do avoid browsing the internet in the meantime, you might want to get the batch file to temporarily disable your network/wifi cards as well which should improve latency anyway.
Intel i9 9900K (Gigabyte Z390 DESIGNARE motherboard), 32GB RAM, EVGA Geforce 1070 (Nvidia drivers).
Dell Inspiron 7591 (2 in 1) 16Gb. Studio One Pro 6.x, Windows 11 Pro 64 bit, also running it on Mac OS Catalina via dual boot (experimental). Presonus Quantum 2626, Presonus Studio 26c, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, Faderport Classic (1.45), Atom SQ, Atom Pad, Maschine Studio, Octapad SPD-30, Roland A300, a number of hardware synths. |
Not really a tweak per se, but it's a good idea to invoke "airplane mode" when recording. Easy to toggle and has great benefits on latency.
gabo
ASUS laptop (AMD 5900HX), 32G, 2x2TB SSD, Win11-64, RME UFX & BabyFace, Studio One Pro 6, Addictive Drums2, Izotope 11, Soothe2, Waves, many plugins, Melodyne Studio 5, all versions updated frequently
The Moderns, https://open.spotify.com/artist/1x6Fd133GftlRyRYl0xgjf |
I dont see a need to dissable swap files. With large libraries, it's simply going to be a ram support and if you have fast throughput, it shouldn't ever be an issue. It wasn't on my HDD's on my old computer, nor SSD, and M.2 on the new. So I kind of don't get that one.
Unless I'm missing some reasoning there. It's just never been an issue. It would have to be a real age old computer so I think that was some ancient advice many moons ago. Agree, disabling Antivirus, and avoid background streaming and turning off Internet entirely for the period of time you are actually working on songs will help maintain efficiency. A batch file to set all this up with one click should make that very easy to switch on and off.
S1-6.2.1, HP Omen 17" i7 10th Gen, 32 GB,512 GB TLC M.2 (SSD),1 TB SSD. Win10 Pro, Audient iD14 MkII, Roland JV90, NI S49 MkII, Atom SQ, FP 8, Roland GR-50 & Octapad. MOTU MIDI Express XT. HR824, Yamaha HS-7, NS-1000M, Yamaha Promix 01, Rane HC-6, etc.
New song "Our Time" https://youtu.be/BqOZ4-0iY1w?si=_uwmgRBv3N4VwJlq Visit my You Tube Channel https://youtube.com/@jamesconraadtucker ... PA5dM01GF7 Latest song releases on Bandcamp - Latest albums on iTunes All works registered copyright ©️ |
Lokeyfly wroteI dont see a need to dissable swap files. With large libraries, it's simply going to be a ram support and if you have fast throughput, it shouldn't ever be an issue. It wasn't on my HDD's on my old computer, nor SSD, and M.2 on the new. So I kind of don't get that one. to be frank, I've never ran into a situation, where swap was in way of my recording, but one of the first things I do on Windows machines is disabling the swap. this might be more a habit from many years ago, but my reasoning is Windows uses aggressive strategy for swap, unlike MacOS or Linux. that is: it's constantly writing things to swap albeit not required to. I've verified it last year, this behaviour is still there. why I don't like it: 1. unneedingly wearing out my SSD (I have enough RAM not to swap, why should I constantly write memory pages to my disk, if I don't need to) 2. last time I checked (last year) system with disabled swap had slightly better results in latencymon. very slighly (less than having installed Hyper-V or VirtualBox), but it still was there YMMV |
Intel i9 9900K (Gigabyte Z390 DESIGNARE motherboard), 32GB RAM, EVGA Geforce 1070 (Nvidia drivers).
Dell Inspiron 7591 (2 in 1) 16Gb. Studio One Pro 6.x, Windows 11 Pro 64 bit, also running it on Mac OS Catalina via dual boot (experimental). Presonus Quantum 2626, Presonus Studio 26c, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, Faderport Classic (1.45), Atom SQ, Atom Pad, Maschine Studio, Octapad SPD-30, Roland A300, a number of hardware synths. |
vasilykorytov wrotekisnou wroteBtw, what do you mean by swap? I have no paging file set, I believe that's what you mean, however something between the sysmain and the task scheduler was making my computer quite slow, especially when using chrome. Though I am still willing to try any other tweaks. I would like to see if there is a way to improve the way graphics are processed, since I have a 3060 and scrolling isn't that smooth when working in projects that literally have few plugins active..
Presonus Featured Artist (Italy)
My Latest Feature Requests ![]() https://answers.presonus.com/73692/s1-essential-feature-plugin-racks https://answers.presonus.com/72506/zoom-to-selection-improvement-vote-if-you-agree Studio One Pro 6 Win10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - 32gb ram DDR4 Gigabyte RTX 3060 Interface: Focusrite 18i20 3rd gen Prophet XL + KeyStep Pro Atom SQ Revelator |
vasilykorytov wroteLokeyfly wroteI dont see a need to dissable swap files. With large libraries, it's simply going to be a ram support and if you have fast throughput, it shouldn't ever be an issue. It wasn't on my HDD's on my old computer, nor SSD, and M.2 on the new. So I kind of don't get that one. I get the precaution part. I'm that way with turning the things off I mentioned, so be it habit, or otherwise there's nothing wrong with siding on caution. Drives will also have plenty of activity even with FAT, and optimizing, so they'll always be mostly continued activity. Sure, likely more than from MacOs, but how much is negligible as coming from both worlds. Still, I get the whole feel better thing, and do some of those as well. ![]() It's a good post anyway, helping make people be efficient when running their DAW. @ Kisnou, Swap files act as RAM overhead on your system. Even 32 or 64 gigabytes will always run out at various times, and a good percentage of swap files will manage that extra memory being shuffled. It's not a bad thing, and on the contrary very necessary, or you're RAM as fast as it is, still wouldn't be efficient enough. There are many programs and bench tests that view such swap activity. As to your 3060, and scrolling in S1, I'm sure it's not something a 3060 is going to do any smoother. I have a 2060, which is ridiculous overkill for DAW graphics. I only have it for 3D engineering purposes. I'm running Autodesk Inventor, with a slew of Autocad files open also in 3D literally all day long with 300hz refresh rate and lag just does not exist. I'm sure it's just a setting thing.
S1-6.2.1, HP Omen 17" i7 10th Gen, 32 GB,512 GB TLC M.2 (SSD),1 TB SSD. Win10 Pro, Audient iD14 MkII, Roland JV90, NI S49 MkII, Atom SQ, FP 8, Roland GR-50 & Octapad. MOTU MIDI Express XT. HR824, Yamaha HS-7, NS-1000M, Yamaha Promix 01, Rane HC-6, etc.
New song "Our Time" https://youtu.be/BqOZ4-0iY1w?si=_uwmgRBv3N4VwJlq Visit my You Tube Channel https://youtube.com/@jamesconraadtucker ... PA5dM01GF7 Latest song releases on Bandcamp - Latest albums on iTunes All works registered copyright ©️ |
kisnou wroteI would like to see if there is a way to improve the way graphics are processed, since I have a 3060 and scrolling isn't that smooth when working in projects that literally have few plugins active.. Well - I have NO video card - using the built in GPU here for several years now - and have never experienced any problems with smooth scrolling at any time. I find it interesting that I can literally spend zero on a graphics card and have no problems whatsoever ![]() Also agree on not touching the swap OR the AV. Swap file tweaks are Win XP/7 era hacks that may or may not have helped. With today's M.2 or SSD drives AND plentiful RAM - there is no point in trying to get some sort of meaningful advantage but hacking the swapfile or similar. I agree if you have 32GB of RAM - you might consider setting Min and Max swap size to be 1GB or something - but ended up leaving mine alone. AV is the same - I leave mine on (Defender) all the time. I just tell it not to scan my key apps, folders, samples etc. Have never noticed it being on or stealing any CPU time. Oddly - I just built a new DAW just three weeks ago and wandered thru a series of articles trying to find some decent tweaks/hacks applicable to the 2021 era - truth be told - I did not find much that matters. The biggest performance boosts come from making some key BIOS changes, enabled XMP memory profiles etc - that's where I saw some noticeable improvements. But today's modern CPU, motherboards and RAM will easily plow through anything that Windows 10 might out put in you way. VP
DAW: Studio One Pro 6.6.0.99237 | Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 | Motherboard: ASUS PRIME z790-A | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13600K | RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | Graphics: Intel UHD 770 (HDMI) | Audio Interface: RME UCX II (v1.249) | OS Drive : Samsung 990 PRO (1TB) | Media Drive: Samsung 970 EVO Plus (500GB) | Libraries: Samsung 970 EVO+ (2TB) | Samples : Seagate FireCuda (2TB) | Monitoring: Presonus Monitor Station v2 + Presonus Eris 5 | MIDI Control: Native Instruments Komplete S61 & Presonus ATOM
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oh, one more thing. disabling indexing for the projects' folder is definitely a good idea. until I did that I got unexpected crackles when I recorded some takes and was continuing to record more. it appeared that indexing kicked in for just recorded takes ang got in way of my DAW.
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Vocalpoint wrotekisnou wroteOddly - I just built a new DAW just three weeks ago and wandered thru a series of articles trying to find some decent tweaks/hacks applicable to the 2021 era - truth be told - I did not find much that matters. Then we can all agree on the fact that Presonus should improve S1 and it's not our fault? ![]()
Presonus Featured Artist (Italy)
My Latest Feature Requests ![]() https://answers.presonus.com/73692/s1-essential-feature-plugin-racks https://answers.presonus.com/72506/zoom-to-selection-improvement-vote-if-you-agree Studio One Pro 6 Win10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - 32gb ram DDR4 Gigabyte RTX 3060 Interface: Focusrite 18i20 3rd gen Prophet XL + KeyStep Pro Atom SQ Revelator |
kisnou wroteVocalpoint wrotekisnou wroteThen we can all agree on the fact that Presonus should improve S1 and it's not our fault? I am not following you. What exactly should Presonus be doing (Within this "hacks" context) to improve S1? I assume you are talking "scrolling/graphics issues"? As a counterpoint - I do not have any scrolling issues and as mentioned - I do not even have a video card. So on the surface - to me anyway - this would suggest that Presonus has it right. Also might give some thought to the fact that just because one has some super high powered video card that all apps out there should fall in line due to it. If I had a nickel for every thread I have read about someone using some ultra powered nVidia GPU (Or similar) and then blaming the app for display issues etc. Bigger is not always better...and let's be fair - Presonus can't/won't test with every possible graphics combo out there. This is one of the reasons I dumped third party graphics long ago - it's just one more thing to get in the way. VP
DAW: Studio One Pro 6.6.0.99237 | Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 | Motherboard: ASUS PRIME z790-A | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13600K | RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | Graphics: Intel UHD 770 (HDMI) | Audio Interface: RME UCX II (v1.249) | OS Drive : Samsung 990 PRO (1TB) | Media Drive: Samsung 970 EVO Plus (500GB) | Libraries: Samsung 970 EVO+ (2TB) | Samples : Seagate FireCuda (2TB) | Monitoring: Presonus Monitor Station v2 + Presonus Eris 5 | MIDI Control: Native Instruments Komplete S61 & Presonus ATOM
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vasilykorytov wroteWindows 10 is a multi-purpose OS. It may be not as friendly to 'start audio recording and forget about drop-outs' as MacOS. But there're a lot of things user can improve to get a more stable DAW environment. Some are mentioned in guides from PreSonus, Focusrite, Steinberg, etc. But some are not. And I'm starting to record my steps not mentioned there just not to forget. Feel free to share yours as well. https://youtu.be/3mPuh8AZDLg
I type in monotone.
Usage of caps, bold, italic, or underline intended as emphasis and not yelling. Yelling comes with angry emoji Always joking around and busting everybody's chops. It's not intended to be insulting OnStage AS800 FET Condenser Mic, SM57, AudioBox iTWO, Shure SRH440 monitoring headphones, CAD monitoring headphones, pair of 5" JBL LSR2325P, Studio One 5 Artist, Windows 10 64 bit HP Envy x360 convertible ***PLEASE speak slowly and dumb it way down. Total n00b here. No clue what I am doing, computer illiterate, and A.D.D.. Rock on, good people! ![]() |
All I do these days is make sure that power schemes are set to "high performance" and everything else is fine. As to S1 performing better, I do fairly well and have an older machine.
I probably should do more but my computer is a jack of all trades so I don't want to muck with it much. Audio/vst performance is fine (except for the extremely hunger bx Oberhausen. ) |
today I had a weird CPU overload while recording. it turned out, Windows synced the time via NTP when I was recording. to be frank, it's a rather rare situation, as I faced this first time in years of recording. for now I have two workarounds for this:
1. disabling automated NTP sync 2. manually sync time before I start a recording session (I believe, the automatic sync runs if it hasn't been run in 24 hours or something like this) not sure what happens if I manually sync the time in a safe timeframe (like deep at night when I'm not usually recording things). will it wake the machine and sync the time at that same time every day? I doubt, but I will check. |
Even with an average Windows PC you Have more power at your fingertips than almost any music producer ever.
If you run out of CPU or memory then take a deep breath, step back and ask yourself "how can I get this done?", because there is always a way. Live within your means. ![]() |
IanM5 wroteEven with an average Windows PC you Have more power at your fingertips than almost any music producer ever. Im aware that there is a way to... idk how to say it but... print your plugins as a permanent part of each individual track so that you can remove them from the track but still have the final result.
I type in monotone.
Usage of caps, bold, italic, or underline intended as emphasis and not yelling. Yelling comes with angry emoji Always joking around and busting everybody's chops. It's not intended to be insulting OnStage AS800 FET Condenser Mic, SM57, AudioBox iTWO, Shure SRH440 monitoring headphones, CAD monitoring headphones, pair of 5" JBL LSR2325P, Studio One 5 Artist, Windows 10 64 bit HP Envy x360 convertible ***PLEASE speak slowly and dumb it way down. Total n00b here. No clue what I am doing, computer illiterate, and A.D.D.. Rock on, good people! ![]() |
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