Optimisation tips for your windows laptop...

So many questions on here regarding the same old audio pops and crackles everyday ...!

We need to make a sticky on this subject to stop the forum repeating itself everyday..!...!

Read the article below to help set up your lappy to best run traktor and then use the search facility on the forum to search for audio issues as the same questions are coming up everyday...!

http://blog.dubspot.com/optimize-your-windows-7-pc-for-djing-music-production/

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar02/articles/pcmusician0302.asp

http://www.audiorecording.me/windows-xp7-audio-recording-daw-tweaks-optimization-tips.html

http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17322

http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=1071

Quick tips........

Turn off wifi

Diable anti virus

Remove battery or diasble in device manager

Disable network adapters in device manager

Update your drivers for all your devices on your laptop

disable all un-nessasary programs from the start menu

Go to: Start>Control Panel>Power Options
- Choose "High Performance"
- Click the "Change plan settings" button.
- Make sure both power options are set to "Never

loads more that can help.... if you find thread that may help people then add them to this thread...!

also add your own simple tweeks that helped you out solving your audio glitches...!

good luck....!

 

Check these two things also!

Some crackles for me turned out to be a Loose headphone jack! LOL
But really a loose cable or faulty jack and a slight bump or bass could be mistaken for a fault in software.

Also a less noticed or obviuos problem for some has been the Keylock, in prefs the keylock setting set at high quality caused a big jump in the cpu meter when using a lot of functions at once, mainly scratching with a jog. Setting to (eco) was much less stress and for me no obviuos loss in sound quality.
The keylock issue happened for me after all the tweaks and optimizing.

Just some things to check if you have done everything possible but still have issues.

 

I totally disagree with some of these tips and would not recommend them at all!

First off, If you are using a laptop to do a gig don't go get you the cheapest laptop you can find. that is like going into lawn care service and going out and getting the cheapest lawnmower at walmart that you can find. Seriously people. Spend around a grand and get you something decent. I have a HP Probook and don't have anything turned off.

I highly disagree with removing or disabling the laptop battery. Here is why. Say some drunk chick decides to trip over some random cord that happens to be powering your setup. your battery will save you valuable time from having to boot up if you lose power plus if you are using a controller like the S4 it will keep it up and running too.

Why have Wifi enabled, well, if that's your only way online and someone requests a song you might be able to DL it and play it. Just a thought. Works for me.

 

The whole "it works for me" is a bit of a silly argument..

I have zero issues with running traktor, but i also dont have any of the obvious issues, dell laptop, sluggish performance, nvidia cards etc.. HOWEVER

this is a thread for people who HAVE issues... so if you do, follow the advice, if you dont, dont bother (doh!).. for example, your comments on battery are absolutely fine and dandy BUT ONLY IF it is not causing a problem... a gig you dont have cos traktor wont run will definitely not result in drunk chicks causing power outages.

One extra recommendation is that in windows it is straightforward enough to establish a different hardware profile, so you do not have to do all of your changes at boot..

great condensed post Danny

 

not trying to argue or start anything but I'm not sure how a battery can cause a problem? can anyone shed some light on this? I am truly just curious.

 

The laptop has a jump in cpu usage for some users. Whenever the battery gets checked for its charge. That is the simplest way I can explain.
But it is an issue for some.

 

Wi-Fi can be the root of many audio problems. If it is a problem disable it while you play, enable it when you need internet.

 

WIFI was the source of a few clicks and jumps for me.

Also I had some audio quality issues when sending the midi clock to my MPD32. I had to disable it.

 

one more thang!

I also have heard pops from inputs that are enabled with nothing attached.
This was with the S4, I left the microphone adapter plugged in without the mic attached it made a buzz at times. Unplugged my kaossilator and had clicks such.
so it is a good idea if you use a controller with inputs to make sure anything not connected has the input in Traktor prefs disabled. The microphone input, maybe also a good idea to check any soundcard inputs on the audio 8 and so on.

 

Excellent guys .... and i don't mind if you' totally disagree' with some of the ideas but if it helps then it helps..!... buying a very expensive laptop is a great tip but it's not an option for some people.

Just tips on this thread please so people can try them and decide if it works for them....

we all know the pitfall of some actions but if it helps cure the cracks and pops then thats what this threads all about....

Keep the tips coming guys...!

thanks for the input...!

 

I think this thread is extremely helpful and can benefit many of us that experience audio issues. Though some of the information is somewhat questionable, it has its valid points and is the reason why some work and some don't. It's difficult to say there's one or two best methods to get things working when the hardware platform is massive. I'm neither for or against Mac computers, but one thing is for certain. With a significantly smaller scope of hardware specs for Mac, this greatly reduces the chances for such issues.

With that said, thank you dannybyrne29 for creating this thread. There are additional tweaks I've read that can help me out.

My laptop is a Gateway NV59C core i3-370M
8 GB RAM
500 GB hard drive single partition
Windows 7 Home 64 bit
Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
All Gateway bloatware has been either disabled or removed using msconfig or autoruns. Primarily power management and wireless. Kaspersky is always disabled prior to running Traktor Scratch Pro 2.1.1.

 

I agree.. many anti virus programs can cause no end of glitches especially the free ones like AVG... i would avoid these like the plague but if anyone knows of any that are glitch free then lets here about it please.....!

also the USB power management can be turned off in device manager as this can also cause issues..

see article below for vista which is similar to other windows versions.,, just get to device manager.

http://www.devicedriverfinder.com/b...to-disable-power-management-for-usb-root-hubs

http://www.ehow.com/how_6854952_disable-usb-power-management.html

 

my 5 cents

tried traktor scratch on some pc´s
last year my traktor 1.2.7 coreduo znote 2ghz laptop broke down after running 3.5 years. I had a special insurence for it which lasted 4 years. So it went on/off to service 4 times from august/december. I then got 1/4 the price it costed from insurence to buy a new laptop
In the period when it went to service I used diff laptops from friends & family when playing out, clean install&uninstall/collection erase after use tried install on two old desktops for home use.
So im somehow scared reading about tsp 2 only possible to install on 2 pcs

Anyway here are some tips

make sure you have the latest driver/firmware for kontroller/audiocard x1 driver 3.0.1, audio 6 driver 3.0.0 firmware version 37

find out which usb ports works best for specific devices and keep using same ports when playing out. also to avoid dobble controller mappings in traktor software

when playing out! dont load tracks that are not already analyzed by traktor & beatgridded to masterclock/bpm

external hdd for track collection can slow system down. Internal hdd will make system faster

Always keep a backup of C:\users\xxxxx\documents\native instruments & your track collection partition/hdd. some day your pc might mailfunction and mess around your track collection, there is no reason to take the risk. no pc will last foreveer


DJTT Pc optimizer v.130 page 2 in
http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sh...way or traktor will run from a smart phone :D

 

An overheating laptop can also cause issues after an hour or so in a club enviroment .... keep it cool if possible.
---
oh and there's this...!

http://www.native-instruments.com/knowledge/questions/847/Windows+7+Tuning+Tips+for+audio+processing

 

USB 3.0.... is not compatible with traktor... tick to USB 2.0 for now..!

 

Does anybody know if there's a knowledge article that explains what is considered a fast processor versus a slow processor? I searched the forums, and there doesn't appear to be a definitive answer on this. I use this link whenever I research CPU benchmarks. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
For my pc tuning, unless it's ranked on the High CPU benchmark, I set Traktor to slow processor.

 

For windows laptop use Readyboost


I used an Sdcard in one of my slots.
It is not too hard to set up and will(as it says) boost your ram
I have a 4gb ram system (max for me unless I go 64bit I have 32bit)
So with readyboost I get almost 4gb more.
I cant explain fully how this works but it will only boost max what you already have. And only works on a card or basically solid state. Thumbdrive,Sdcard, not another disk drive so a cheap 15$usd 8gb card worls fine.

Just search Readyboost it is already on any vista or xp and I think 7 system. The option usually shows up when inserting any external drive.

Most sdcards will work. If not you can format them to work.

Faster is better. And this method is cheap and quick. ++++++

 

Readyboost is effective on laptops with little RAM. I'm running 8 GB RAM and my paging filesize is 8 GB. Readyboost will have little to no effect on my pc.

 

readyboost didnt work for me, exept fast startup. traktor glitched and crashed once during a home test
my pc sd card slot is connected to a usb slot on motherboard and i think that may be the reason for slowing down system while using traktor + x1 connected to other usbs at same time

but maybe it works fine on other systems

 

@sengaia
@xman
Sorry to hear it is not for everyone.
But for me I only had 2gbram And maxed it to 4
And I do see a big improvement...
Just hope someone else gets help from this. Much easier for me than buying a mac or any new laptop but not 2gig anymore. Also added a 3.0 usb for my ext. Hardrive via an expresscard slot so that is fast and no freeze when loading tracks. All with vista and no need for a new laptop.