Hey PD Forum peoples,

Being not so computer savvy as I would wish, I can't offer the most detailed information about the issue I'm having I'm afraid, but will do as I can. I'm working to create a multimedia installation piece with sound loops and video, including a few played video files, as well as some object rendering and change in real time. My GEM patch includes six video loops of variable lengths that are played and mapped as a texture onto some geometric objects (cube and rectangles) and blended via pix_mix object. I try to have no more than four videos playing simultaneously. I also have an audio file that reads several short (205000 sample length) files into arrays and plays them through a tabplay~ object and plan to incorporate several other short sound files that will be played through a similar means. I'm also running a macpro 2009 with OS 10.6.8, a duocore processor and 4 gig of ram. When I run one of these two patches on its own, the machine seems to be able to handle the load well (though the video seems to strain it a bit) but running them together is going quite badly. I've tried running one patch and opening the other in a separate copy of pd to lighten the load some, but my processor and CPU are being run up to about 96% capacity with the process and both the video and audio are extremely glitchy. Are there any ways that I might lighten the load on my CPU as an overall means, or does this sound like a process that needs to be run on a more powerful machine? Thanks much!