if you have a slow CPU (PII if you’re not using any VSTi, PIII otherwise),
you could find these ideas useful:
-
disable “pattern follow” option:
(just belowe the pattern list)
this will reduce the amount of CPU usage for video management, while prevent you from automatically follow patern, but you can survive to this -
always use the lowest sampling frequency possible:
This could sound obvious, but using a frequency of 33khz is sufficient most of times -
cut tracks that you do not use:
when you are focusing your attention on a track, but you can’t listen to it well because of CPU power shortage, muting other tracks doesn’t help because the muted channels are still rendered. So cut the muted ones and then use UNDO function before making the changes you need to the track you focused on.
this tip has become obsolete starting from ReNoise 1.27: now you can mute/disable each single note column or entire track by using the labels on the top of each track or by using the main track DSP element in the Track DSP section. -
Use 16 bit mode, when working in windowed mode
directX handles blitting a bit faster using 16 bits. (added by Pulsar) -
use the “working” quality level
From ReNoise version 1.25, using the “working” quality level (adjustable in the “Config=>Audio” menu) will not switch off VSTi support.
This is a great solution for a compromise between performances and quality. -
reduce the maximum number of voices when using polyphonic VSTi’s (added by Johan)
-
Render VSTI tracks to sample to reduce CPU consumption (added by Vv)
By selecting tracks that use VST instruments and then using the “Render to sample” feature inside Renoise 1.5 and higher upon the selection, you can reduce 20% to 70% or possibly higher (depending upon the VSTI cpu consumption efficiency and the amount of VSTIs you render to one sample) since playing samples won’t take as much cpu resources as when playing a VST instrument.
Insert a new track to play the rendered selection in, without effects and mute the original VSTI track(s).
You have now possibility to either mixdown your song or extend your mix with new instruments without cutting out possible important elements.
Don’t forget to mute the track playing the rendered sample and unmute the VSTIs when rendering to disk. Also don’t forget to apply any specific mixdown you did on the rendered items to the VSTI track(s) as well before rendering to disk. -
disable HyperThreading (P4/Win)
HypertThreading is a virtual multiprocessor technology for P4 class CPU’s. It creates a virtual second CPU which should improve multimedia performances.
If you have a P4 with HT, you should disable it when using ReNoise: DualCore and other multiprocessor technologies work fine with ReNoise, but HT doesn’t. If you use HT, ReNoise will be limited on one virtual CPU, thus allowing only 50% of CPU resources to be used.
Most likely you can disable HT via BIOS; you will then need to make a repair installation of your Windows.
If you can’t disable HT via BIOS (f.e. with ASUS p4V800-X motherboard), you can still edit your boot.ini file, adding a /ONECPU option to the boot entry you want to modify. You can also copy a boot entry, paste it on another line, and add the /ONECPU option to it, allowing your system to be booted in multiprocessor or single processor mode. This is not as performant as with BIOS disabling, but it’s still better than using ReNoise at 50%.
improvement to what’s written above:
changing Windows kernel to the single-processor one may increase general performances.
you can specify the kernel to be used by the /KERNEL option.
Make sure you copy the file ntoskrnl.exe from your Windows CD (I386 folder) or
C:/windows/ServicePackFiles/i386
to Windows’ System32 folder.
here it is a sample boot.ini file (it’s the one I use):
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="XP without HT" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /ONECPU /kernel=ntoskrnl.exe
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="XP with HT" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
this configuration starts Windows without HT after 5 seconds during which the user is able to choose Windows with HT enabled.
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… but maybe you are right …