Optimising your PC for audio on Windows 10

Windows caters to many different types of users and applications. Here are some ways to improve your Windows experience for music production.

You may be viewing this article if you’re experiencing the following problems:

• Pops, clicks, humming and distorted sounds when recording or playing back audio
• A delay between playing your instrument, microphone or MIDI instrument and hearing the sound from your monitors (speakers). The technical term for this is LATENCY. 
• Your Windows machine is operating slowly or keeps crashing.

Basic Tips

Free up space. 

Don’t let your computer’s boot hard-drive get too full. Always make sure you leave about 20% of your computer's main hard drive empty. 

1. Perform a search in the menu for ‘Settings’
2. Select ‘System’ 
3. Select ‘Storage’ 

The bar will indicate how much storage has been used and is free. 

Use enough memory 

If you are running large projects* at least 8GB of RAM is recommended.

* Involving sample libraries and multiple plugins.

Use a suitable USB cable for your Hardware 

Make sure you’re using a suitably short USB cable, either the one that comes in the box or one that is shorter than 2 metres. 

Close all other background applications 

Whilst running your DAW, make sure you close any other third-party applications such as music streaming apps (Spotify etc.), web browsers (Chrome, Safari etc.) and Office applications (Word etc.). 

This will free up power for your DAW, preventing your system from running slowly when two programs are trying to use the machine. 

Main Tips

Optimise Focusrite Software

If you can’t see the Focusrite notifier in your taskbar:

1. Go to your taskbar (in the bottom right corner of your desktop). 
2. Click on the arrow facing up (^).
3. Locate the Focusrite notifier (presented as a small ‘F’).
4. Drag and drop the Focusrite Notifier into the main area of the taskbar.

Disable USB selective suspend 

This feature can sometimes cause problems with hardware connected via USB. 

1. Perform a search for ‘Edit power plan’ 
2. Select change advance power settings 
3. Select ‘USB settings’ 
4. Select ‘USB Selective suspend setting’
5. Select ‘disable’ 

If you have a laptop, two options will appear. ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’. Select disable for both. 

- Have you set processor scheduling to "Background services"?

To do this:
- In Control Panel select "System"
- Go to "Advanced system settings" and then the "Advanced" tab
- Click on "Settings.." under Performance to bring up the "Performance Options" window.
- Go to the "Advanced" tab and set processor scheduling as "Background Services"
- Click "Apply" then "OK"

Disable startup programs 

Sometimes your PC will launch programs automatically upon startup, this can negatively impact your computer's performance. 

1. Perform a search in the start menu for ‘Task Manager’ and open it
2. Select ‘Startup’ 
3. Select the ‘Start-up impact’ tab at the top 
4. This will re-categorise the programs in order of high to low 
5. Identify the programs you don’t want on startup 
6. Right-click on them and select disable

Disabled system sounds

Sometimes system sounds can interrupt your recordings. 

1. Perform a search in the start menu for Control Panel 
2. Select ‘Hardware and Sound’
3. Select ‘Sound’ 
4. Select the ‘Sounds’ tab
5. Under the ‘Sound Scheme menu’ select ‘No Sounds’ 
6. Click on Apply and then OK

High-Performance CUSTOM Power Plan 

Here we’ll be creating an additional CUSTOM power plan for your audio applications. 

A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your machine uses and conserves power. 

1. Perform a search for ‘Power and Sleep Settings’ 
2. Select ‘Create a power plan’ in the menu on the left 
3. Select ‘High Performance’ 
4. Give your plan a name: For example, ‘audio workstation’. 
5. Select ‘Never’ for both ‘Turn off the display’ and ‘Put the computer to sleep’ 
6. Select ‘Create’ 

You will now land on the Power Options page where your NEW custom power plan should be selected. 

1. Open ‘Advanced power settings for your NEW custom power plan 
2. Expand ‘USB settings’ 
3. Disable ‘USB Selective suspend’ 

If you have a laptop, two options will appear. ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’. Select disable for both. 

1.  Expand ‘Processor power management’ 
2.  Set the minimum and maximum process state to 100

If you have a laptop, two options will appear. ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’. Select disable for both. 

Additional Optimisation

USB Power Management Settings

This optimises how your machine uses your USB ports 

1. Perform a search in the start menu for ‘Device Manager’ 
2. Select ‘Universal Serial Bus Controllers’ and expand it
3. Right-click the first entry and select properties
4. Open ‘Power management’ 
5. Make sure the ‘Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power’ option is DESELECTED. 
6. Apply steps 3 – 5 to each entry

If an entry doesn’t have ‘Power Management’ visible, don’t worry, just ignore this and move onto the next entry.