making tracks in a daw

Question

I only use 1 track in reaper daw, with 30 vsts. Most are off some are on. But in reality all of them are on, cause i can here them as a build a bunch of vsts in a track strip. Which i like. Is it better to open 8 track strips, over just 1? esp. Because i use a 8 channel interfaces. Would it sound better to have more tracks with vsts spread around, over just using 1 track insert. Thakyou, michele v

Answer 1

Having 1 track and 30 VSTs results in high CPU usage - heavy load on one core. Distributing over 8 tracks is highly recommended as you are balancing across all cores. The latter method is much more stable at low latency. 1 track with 30 VSTs presents higher risk of audio engine "crash" - crackling and audio dropouts.

This is a discussion of serial VS parallel processing. If you have vocals on track 1, guitar on track 2, drums on track 3 etc. and they blend together at the Master / Reverb bus - the sounds are distinct and clear. You have better control over each inputs...... Serial processing where everything is on 1 track: VST 1 feeds into VST 2 feeds into VST 3 carries the risk of distortion. When one part is distorted, everything downstream becomes distorted.

Answer 2

In terms of Performance: Is it better for CPU to spread VSTs across tracks?

yes, especially if:

1. Some plugins (like reverbs or synths) are CPU-heavy, and you’re stacking them all serially.

Using 8 tracks might help REAPER and your system distribute the load more efficiently, especially if you’re using multicore processing.