Instruction Manual

879
Improving Performance with Digital Audio
Improving Audio Performance
upgrade your computer hardware (see later items, below) or you can
simplify your project’s content so it demands less processing power.
If possible, try reducing the complexity of your project in any of the following
ways:
• Reduce the number of real-time effects used in your project. Instead of
generating the effects in real-time (nondestructively) during playback,
consider applying the effects offline (destructively), before beginning
playback.
• Reduce the number of distinct tracks being played back simultaneously.
Consider “sub-mixing” several of your audio tracks into one track (using
the Edit-Bounce to Tracks command), and then archiving the
individual tracks which were combined in the sub-mix. (Archived tracks
don’t use up any CPU resources during playback, leaving more CPU
resources available to properly play the non-archived tracks.)
• Where possible, record audio using a mono source, rather than a
stereo source. Mono clips require less processing power than stereo
clips.
• Avoid using overlapping audio clips. Where possible, combine/blend
overlapping clips into a single clip, which uses less processing power.
• Thin the amount of MIDI controller data and the number of SysEx
messages in your tracks.
• If you can't reduce your project's complexity, or if problems persist even
after the complexity has been reduced, proceed to the next step.
Upgrade your computer hardware: More RAM, a faster
CPU, and a faster disk drive
If your project makes extensive use of real-time effects (plug-ins), you
should consider upgrading to a faster CPU. If your primary concern is
playing or recording a large number of tracks, a faster CPU will help, but
you may find that adding more RAM, a faster hard disk, and/or an improved
hard disk controller may help even more.
The following are some tips on upgrading your hardware:
Audio problems are often caused by a hard disk which is transferring data
too slowly. The disk could simply be physically incapable of reading and
writing data fast enough, or the disk controller could be causing too much
CPU time to be consumed when transferring audio data to/from the disk.
Consider upgrading your equipment as follows:
• Ensure that your hard drive controller is NOT configured to operate in