Vision and Studio Vision Pro Version 4.1 Manual ... - House of Synth

PART 3: The Acadia Audio System
CPU Resources
The yellow CPU bar in the Performance
Window indicates the percentage of processing
resources in use by Vision. If you
are running low on CPU resources, there
are a number of things you should keep in
mind.
First off, make sure you are using a
PowerMac with Level 2 cache. With older
PowerMacs, this option was an actual
card; more recent PowerMacs usually
have this option” built in” to the
motherboard
If you are using lots of plug-ins and EQs
(you can check this in the Audio Instruments
& Routings Window), try using the
effects more economically. For instance,
instead of assigning up to 4 plug-ins for
each console channel, try bussing groups
of console channels to shared plug-ins
(see Chapter 10: Acadia: Bussing, Routing,
& Bouncing to Disk). And, although it
is tempting to use lots of EQ bands for
your audio channels, see if you can get by
with one or two bands per channel—or
even try disabling EQ on some channels
(this might just improve your mix).
One very effective way to preserve
resources is to “bounce” audio channels
to disk. If you have plug-ins and EQs on
your channels and are happy with the
mix, simply record the output of these
Audio Instruments (or groups of Audio
Instruments via busses). Once the audio
is recorded with the effects, there is no
need to process these channels further
(you should, however, probably keep a
backup of the original unprocessed audio
files). For details on bouncing audio channels
to disk, see Recording from Audio
Instruments, Busses, and Outputs (pg. 77).
Following are just a few more things you
can try to free up more CPU resources:
• Cut down on the number of control
panels and extensions that are
enabled—these can eat up memory
and CPU resources. Use the Extensions
Manager control panel to create
a “lean” start-up configuration for use
with Vision.
• If using a PowerBook, disable
(uncheck) the option for “Allow processor
cycling.”
• Reduce the number of colors you are
displaying in the Finder (Vision only
uses 256 colors). Do this from the
Monitors & Sound control panel.
• Make sure you aren’t running any
other programs in the background
while using Vision.
• In OMS Setup, make sure QuickTime
Musical Instruments are disabled.
• In Vision, close unnecessary
windows.
82 Opcode Systems, Inc.