Hi,
For some unknown reason, my current laptop which I thought had decent specs (i7-8550u, 16Gb ram, SSDs), is buggy for audio work. The CPU spikes at 100% for short bursts which will cause the audio to crackle badly for a few seconds and this with virtually nothing running!?
I'm a guitarist and I use it for looping with a band so my typical use is...a few drum loops running, my looping software with 1 or 2 extra plugins and that still seems to stress it!?
I'm guessing there is something wrong somewhere because it's just not normal but I have no patience to try and troubleshoot it so I'm looking to buy a new (or 2nd hand) laptop.

Are there any specs I should be looking out for that are known to work well for audio?
Thanks!

 

Those are good specs. Are you using an external audio interface? Either way, that could be the issue. edit: I'd also try a clean install of your OS.

 

Hi!
Do you use an audio interface?
Which DAW?
Your problem most likely seems to be a software issue or it's simply due to your interface driver, this has nothing to do with your hardware specs at all. Your specs are good, there's no need of buying a new laptop.

 

Last edited: Jan 2, 2022

Definitely the specs are more than fine for what you do. You should check possible junk software, services, and so on are running that you're not aware of.

Not to mention, the tech market is bananas at the moment for selling/buying.

 

Try disabling LAN or WLAN drivers. I had a problem with audio glitches using an RME Babyface with an Acer laptop (i5-7300HQ CPU), disabling the ethernet driver solved it completely.
Also buying a new machine doesn't guarantee you won't get any similar problems.

 

I would start the checking with https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

no needs pro version just follow its advices

 

Without knowing enough about your system & software setup. My recommendation is to buy an Apple M1 or M1 Pro based computer.
Efficient, powerful, cool running, solid driver & updates compared to Windows.

I personally use Window 10 21H1 (main desktop), MX Linux (MX-21/Debian 12 old laptop) & Mac OS Big Sur (MacBook Air)

 

The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your Windows PC for the Stage
https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html

 

Please delete if this has no relevance whatsoever. I had similar problems on my desktop with decent specs a few years ago. Tried so many things for months and DPC Latency Checker and Latencymon showed spikes but didn't really give any indication as to what was the culprit. In the end it turned out to be EASYTUNE which I'd installed from the Gigabyte utilities DVD. Uninstalled it, bingo! no more latency problems or spikes. Maybe you have the same or a similar utility installed which could be causing the problems. Good luck!

 

Sometimes just checking the programs/services that run when Windows boots does the trick.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied!
Following your observations that it probably wasn't down to my hardware, I investigated further and found this interesting thread on Reddit. I didn't mention it but my problem was specifically in Ableton and that Reddit thread discusses exactly the same problem and has over 170 posts!!
I tried some of the recommended Windows tweaks but those didn't help and finally what many noticed is that it started happening in Ableton 11 so I tried an older version (v10.x) and that seems to have done the trick!!
Cheers & thx again!

 

ableton was the problem?! It's a helluva daw! you are in time to change...

 

lol it's strange I have 11.1 and everything works fine, I had to turn off all the tinsel Defender, various interface effects, indexing files on the local drive, put the power to maximum performance and everything.

 

great!!

I used ableton for ten years but since going to reaper I can't even install ableton. it is just junk for me. I keep the installer for old shit but...

 

Hi, I am similar situation while having i5-6500U, Win 10 and Live 10.1.42 and started looking for a new laptop. I couldn’t use early versions of Live 11 due to CPU spikes. I assume that Live 11 needs really newer CPU. But I started getting CPU spikes in v10.1.42 in certain situations. This, I think, can be caused to using the second magnetic hdd in my dvd drive bay which is getting slower and slower. As well the system ssd drive is working slower and slower or the system itself. I think the fresh reinstall of Windows would help at first.
As for the new laptop, I got an advice in this forum before. This was AMD Ryzen7 5800H. But what I have read, some plugins don’t work. properly. Some processes can’t be executed or so, don’t judge me. So at this moment I am after Intel i7-11800H as those two processors are often comparable but can be little more expensive. However, Intel gen 12 has come out and gen 11 has dropped in price. I think this could be a good choice for next few years.
I am interested in HP Omen, MSI Pulse GL66 (two bays for ssd m2 drives) and GS66 Stealth in price around £1300.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2022

buy a mac or use reaper, cool beans.

do you guys listen to yourselfs sometimes?

 

I use to get something like the probelm your describinbg when I was useing a Native instruments Kontrol 1.

I probably still do? it's in the bag with my back up laptop that is never needed.

If I remeber right I could only use the sample rate of 44100 Hz and a process buffer of 256 samples or it cause that fault. Funny thing was I could set and USB buffer size to anything even as little as 1ms and it didn't make a differance, as long as it was 44100Hz 256 samples.

Now as for

I take it, that it's wrong I'm still using Cubase 5.