Reference Guide

1202 Improving audio performance
Improving performance with digital audio
STB’s site) to see if they offer a driver update for the STB card. Computer vendors often will
customize drivers to their specific needs and you should use their driver updates.
• Try reducing the number of colors used by your video card. 16-, 24-, or 32-bit true color display
settings can severely hamper real-time audio performance on some computers; using fewer
colors allows your computer to spend more of its processing time on audio and MIDI.
You can adjust color depth by right-clicking on your Windows desktop, clicking Properties,
clicking on the Settings tab, and selecting a suitable entry in the Colors list. Also, try reducing
the display resolution. Re-test your audio playback/recording with these changes.
• If you have one of the following specific video cards, applying the following card-specific .ini file
settings can reduce PCI bus contention problems. Be sure to check out www.cakewalk.com/
Support/Docs/VideocardTips.html for more information about these and other popular video
cards:
• If you have a Hercules Dynamite 128 card:
Open the System.ini file in Notepad (or any text editor). In the section called [Hercules],
check to ensure that this line is present:
Optimization=1
(The default is 0; if necessary, edit the value to 1 and save the file. Restart Windows.
• If you have a Matrox Millenium card:
Open the System.ini file in Notepad (or any text editor). In the section called [mga.drv],
add the following line:
Pcichipset=1
Edit the file as necessary, and save the file. Restart Windows.
If you have an early Matrox video card, Disable Use PowerGDI acceleration:
(Start > Settings > Control panel > Display > MGA Settings > Advanced > Performance)
If you have a later Matrox video card, enable Use Bus Mastering and Disable use Automatic
PCI Busd Retries:
(Start > Settings > Control panel > Display > Settings > PowerDesk button)
• If you have a card based on the S3 chipset (S3, Inc. provides graphics chips for other
manufacturers; consult your card manufacturer’s Web site to see if that card is S3-based):
Open the System.ini file in Notepad (or any text editor). In the section called [display],
make sure the following line is present:
BusThrottle=1
Edit as necessary, and save the file. Restart Windows.
• If problem(s) persist, continue with the next step.