Greetings, I’m prepping for my first performance with GP this Saturday. I’ve been fine tuning all the details but one thing just occured to me:
I’ll setup everything, sound check, confirm everything is working etc but then I have to wait for the first few acts to play while my computer is on stage. What are best practices for this situation, where you’ve sound checked but don’t want to unplug anything, or let your the audio interface and USB MIDI instruments from disconnecting from the computer?
It might make me nervous, but is there away to actually be able to close my PC, but keep everything totally activated so that when it comes time to play, I just open my laptop and hit it?
Thanks for the replies, really appreciate it. I’ll explore all these options.
I’ll definitely make sure that the laptop is plugged in. I don’t mind leaving the laptop open, but if I do that, should I go into power settings on my PC to prevent it from going to sleep? I’ve noticed, that if I turn away from my computer for awhile when it’s all hooked up, that there’s an audio pop when the screen turns black, and then again when I move the mouse. Is this because it is disconnecting and then reconnecting to my audio interface?
You really should apply @Npudar’s guide as he advises if you want to have a high-performance system that is, above all, completely stable and suitable for use on stage.
Right now, If you want to prevent your PC from going into deep sleep for hours on end, simply run the Windows Terminal as administrator mode and type the following command: powercfg -h off
Then you can close the PC cover, which I strongly recommend to avoid any worries when you’re not around (falling objects, clumsy technicians, etc.).
As soon as you’ve got the time, dive into the 138-page optimization guide.
Personally, by applying all the advice, I’ve saved 20% cpu resources, but above all I’ve gained rock-solid stability.
I would note, however, to us less computer savvy people, there are some judgment calls.
The biggest issue is what services to turn off and what apps to remove. There is always a concern you will disable/remove something that will cause a problem. And, unlike more knowledgeable folks, we will not know what to do (scary).
On the other hand, there are enough suggestions that are pretty straightforward. It is definitely worth reviewing the guide and implementing the suggestions where are have a comfort level doing so.
I would just keep it simple and keep it open. I’ve been using GP for close to 2 years now, I think and I run the sound check battery powered, and leave for an hour or so and then come back for show time without any problems. One thing that I make sure to change is the hibernation setting. I make sure that it never hibernates or push it to the longest duration. That way you are good to go even after check.
Make sure that a closed lid won’t ruin the laptop’s cooling! Some of them use the gaps of the keyboard as ventilation openings!
I killed the battery of my HP-Envy laptop with that practice, leaving the lid closed an running it for hours on high CPU load like that (at least i think that it was the cause).
Can’t knock Apple and their power distribution. I am brave but I get hours and hours of power from about 8:30 am Sunday Morning through the end of service, usually around 2 pm.
Don’t get me wrong, I have redundancy with my power block close by.