Powerbook help required

[BCopeBMus]

I normally use GPO on my PC at home with absolutely no problems. I also want to use GPO on my Powerbook G4 (1.3GHz and 1.25ram) but I've had no success whatsoever. I'm basically trying to run about 4 full instances of the players in GPO Studio and also using Sib 4. After about one bar all I'm getting is constant distortion - nothing is audible. Can someone please help as I do expect more with this Mac spec.

Many thanks

Brian

[Robert P]

Hi Brian,

Get 2Gb of RAM, that will definitely help a lot. I have a Powerbook 1.33Ghz with 2Gb and it's quite good.

The other classic tricks:

- reduce the polyphony of each instrument to your exact need.
- reduce the CPU/Quality factor from Ambience Reverb

Good luck
R.

[BCopeBMus]

Get 2Gb of RAM, that will definitely help a lot. I have a Powerbook 1.33Ghz with 2Gb and it's quite good.

The other classic tricks:

- reduce the polyphony of each instrument to your exact need.
- reduce the CPU/Quality factor from Ambience Reverb

I can load in about 5 full players but can only play about 4 instruments before things start breaking up. I appreciate that 2gb ram would be prerferable but surely I should get more than 4 or 5 instruments with 1.2gb? Something seems to be wrong.

[SteveHanlon]

i have PB 1 ghz with 1gb of RAM...trust me, it doesn't help a lot. so follow the advice above. I get about the same performance as you before all kinds of crackles happen.

My only solution was to buy a separate PC to run it. I use the internal PB GOP only if I need 1-2 instruments. And even with the polyphony count down it doesn't help once I get to 4 instr.

The other thing I can think of would be to stream it from a firewire ext. drive. I haven't done it, but anything is faster than the internal HD of a PB.

[BCopeBMus]

Thanks Steve

Looks like I will continue to use my PC for GPO.

Cheers

Brian

[Jerry W.]

Brian,

Do the following and you will be happier - I have MUCH lower specs than you on my powerbook, and I am pretty happy with it. (G4 Titanium PowerBook with 667mhz and 512 mb of ram.)

in GPO Studio, reduce the sample rate from the default to something lower - the lower you go, the more the sound quality lowers too, but it doesn't get bad till you go below 19,200 or so.

Also - raise your GPO Studio buffer to the highest.

Those two things are the quickest way to get a lot more instruments to play without the crackles and frustration. The best is still to get more RAM. (something I need). But in the mean time - you can save yourself a lot of frustration doing the above.

While I can TECHNICALLY load the enitre orchestra, (yes, I have done it with 512 MB or Ram), I can ACTUALLY PLAY 15-20 instruments at a time doing this. (Not piano, harp, or other long sustained release instruments) Imagine what you can do with YOUR faster Powerbook with more RAM!

Good luck and let me know if this helps you!

Jerry Wickham