CPU overload

[SmartyMRPL]

Hi and thanks for such a great application!

I have a tiny problem I'm sure you're able to help me with.

My laptop isn't uber powerful (celeron dual core 1.9 mhz + 2 gb ram running windows 7 basic) but it works well with other audio apps like audacity, foobar2000, aimp3, musicbee etc.

When I start MIxxx my CPU usage goes up to 50% and stays there playing a track. But when I try to add a track from a library to another deck the CPU usage goes up to 100% and Mixxx stops playing for a moment. Once a track is loaded the CPU usage returns back to 50%.

I optimized my laptop performace but it doesn't help: all visual effects are off, no hdd compression/contents indexing, my hdd is formated into NTFS, a power plan is set to high performance, no power saving on USB ports (I have my audio card connected to a USB port), my sound card uses original ASIO drivers (Behringer UCA202), latency is low (23.2 ms is said to be enough), no extra apps in the system tray/background except MS Security Essentials but it uses 3 mb working in the background (I doubt it can be the reason), wifi/realtek/ethernet/webcam/dvdrom etc are all disabled.

If a track is dragged and dropped from Windows Explorer, there's no any sound lagging/drop-outs.

Is it my CPU, OS, drivers, hardware or anything else? Please advise.

- - - - -

I do have the same problem with Virtual DJ Home but I do not take it as a pro app.

[rryan]

What version of Mixxx are you using?

[SmartyMRPL]

What version of Mixxx are you using?

sry for not mentioning it: 1.10.0

BTW ReplayGain is uncheked.

[MichaelJespersen]

I also had performance issues on my old laptop. We did not find any solution.
I guess the best thing is to buy a new laptop with sufficiant power.

[SmartyMRPL]

I also had performance issues on my old laptop. We did not find any solution.
I guess the best thing is to buy a new laptop with sufficiant power.

it looks like its the most obvious reason

thx!

[ifish]

Mmmhh..

the laptops power is OK, but the OS is really shit!

I can run mixxx 1.10 or 1.11 alpha without problems on an old IBM T43 Laptop, archlinux OS running.

Testing windows, the sound glitches and the waveform-building were very slow.

[SmartyMRPL]

Mmmhh..

the laptops power is OK, but the OS is really shit!

I can run mixxx 1.10 or 1.11 alpha without problems on an old IBM T43 Laptop, archlinux OS running.

Testing windows, the sound glitches and the waveform-building were very slow.

You're absolutely right! I have an old Toshiba Satellite m40 (7 yrs old). It runs Mixxx smoothly with no glitches and drop-outs though XP Home ain't a perfect OS and its hardware is old and weak for today's needs. I think I'll get an new laptop with no OS and install linux there.

Is there any online manual how to set up linux as a sound/dj workstation. I tested lots of distros on VirtualBox but I have no clue what updates should be installed, how to optimize OS performance etc. What's the best distro for a noob? I don't like Ubuntu (it's slow). I don't like Mint (its iterface looks outdated). Fuduntu is said to be perfect for netbooks and manages batteries pretty well. What whould you recommend?

Thx!

[ifish]

Hi,
i could help you installing an archlinux system.

You need the installer cd,
a partition of 4,5 GB,
a partition of 1 GB (Swap)

and you can go installing archlinux. The installation steps are really easy, i could give you a list of the packages you need for running or compiling mixxx. With the paket manager yaourt you culd build mixxx very easy from the bzr sources.

I've tested ubuntu, too, but always it's much slower than archlinux.

My environment:
IBM T43,
Maya USB Soundcard,
Numark Total Control USB Console

It need sometimes a few seconds, before i could see the waveforms, but the playback were without glitches...

[SmartyMRPL]

Hi,
i could help you installing an archlinux system.

You need the installer cd,
a partition of 4,5 GB,
a partition of 1 GB (Swap)

and you can go installing archlinux. The installation steps are really easy, i could give you a list of the packages you need for running or compiling mixxx. With the paket manager yaourt you culd build mixxx very easy from the bzr sources.

I've tested ubuntu, too, but always it's much slower than archlinux.

My environment:
IBM T43,
Maya USB Soundcard,
Numark Total Control USB Console

It need sometimes a few seconds, before i could see the waveforms, but the playback were without glitches...

I've already tried to install it on a virtual partition using VirtualBox but it didn't start. The list of packages will come in handy. Thx!

BTW what do you think about SliTaz?

[ifish]

Hi,
SliTaz look nice, i tested many distributions for mixxx, like ubuntu, debian, gentoo, slackware; i haven't so much time to test (3 childs at home), so it must run without wasting time for testing packages.

Ubuntu is very easy for install, but performance problems,
gentoo ist very performant, but there's no package for mixxx; i have to compile it myself, when i tried it, something goes wrong.. no time to fix,
with slackware I've had other problems. So i search i system with one of this characteristics:

- an actually mixxx is in package --or
- mixxx is simply to build from source and
- the system have to be very performant and
- it must be very actually

"My" archlinux OS system i could setup in 30 min, and.. it runs. I don't know, if SliTaz have the needed packages like Pulseudio, libs like faad or mpeg4...

I "must" compile my mixxx, because i have very much m4a files.. so i compiled it with some options.. and i can play those files

I send you a list of packages at this evening, now i'm at work...