Reference Guide

1205
Improving performance with digital audio
Improving audio performance
Help is available on the Microsoft Technical Support Web page at www.microsoft.com/Support.
Click on the Support Online link and search for the phrase Troubleshooting MS-DOS
Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks. This problem can arise when installing a new hard disk in
your computer; if Windows cannot find a suitable driver for the disk, it installs a generic driver and
operates in Compatibility Mode.
• If you're using a hard disk controller that employs "programmed I/O", upgrade to a disk controller
that uses "bus mastering" instead. (This is sometimes also known as an UltraDMA IDE
Controller). The former technique relies on the CPU to transfer the data to/from the hard disk,
stealing cycles which the CPU could be sending audio data to/from the sound card. With the latter
technique, the hard disk controller itself is primarily responsible for transferring the data to/from
the hard disk, relieving the CPU of much of that burden.
• Install a faster hard disk. If you're using an IDE- or E-IDE-type hard drive, try to find one which has
a lower disk access time (e.g., less than 9msec). Use the Win Tune test application available at
www.winmag.com, this diagnostic tool measures your hard drive's uncached transfer rate.
Optimized picture cache redrawing
There are several options in the .ini files to speed up picture cache redrawing The biggest
improvement will be seen on machines with multiple processors. Parallel processing can yield a
significant boost in performance.
There is also an option in the Associated Audio Files dialog box to selectively redraw
waveforms for individual clips that may have a corrupt waveform display (see “To redraw
waveforms” on page 1206).
.INI file picture cache options
3 new INI file variables that are used by picture cache generation and display:
•In Aud.ini:
In the [Aud] section:
EnablePicCacheThreads=1 (default)
This option creates extra background worker threads for the generation of wave pictures when
you load a project. One worker thread is automatically created per CPU/core. Setting
EnablePicCacheThreads=0 reverts back to only using a single thread for picture
computation.
If you are running a system with multiple CPU's or cores setting this to 1 can greatly speed up
the computation of pictures.
Notes:
-These threads are only active while the picture is being computed.
-This option is only applicable on multiprocessor/multicore systems.
Also in the [Aud] section:
ComputePicturesWhilePlaying=1 (default)