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

CHAPTER 11: Acadia: Optimizing for Digital Audio
THE BUFFER SIZE DIALOG
File Buffers
There are two pop-ups that determine the
size and number of file buffers.
The File Buffer Size pop-up determines
the buffer size (256k, 512k, 768k,
or1024k) used for each Audio Instrument
channel. When using larger buffer sizes,
your Macintosh will store more digital
audio in RAM and will not need to access
your hard disk as often.
Figure 11.3: Buffer Size dialog
In addition to the RAM required to run
the Vision application, the Acadia audio
system also needs to set aside memory
for use as a RAM buffer. This buffer is
used to store digital audio temporarily
before recording it to your hard disk, or
before playing it.
IMPORTANT: Don’t confuse the digital
audio buffers with the Vision’s application
RAM. The audio buffers determine the
amount of RAM dedicated to temporarily
storing digital audio—the application size
determines the amount of memory dedicated
to Vision.
When you configure the Buffer Size dialog,
Vision attempts to use your System RAM for
the digital audio buffers, but if you ask for
more RAM than is available, it will use the
RAM allocated to Vision.
The File Buffers pop-up determines the
number of file buffers (2, 3, or 4) used for
each Audio Instrument channel. Again,
the more file buffers you use, the less frequently
the disk is accessed.
If you are running out of CPU or disk
resources, as determined by the Performance
Window (see page 81), try
increasing the File Buffer Size. If after
reaching a buffer size of 1024k you are
still encountering performance errors, try
then increasing the number of File
Buffers.
Still other users may find that they get
better results with a smaller Buffer Size
and more File Buffers. In these cases, you
might start out with a a Buffer Size of
256k and gradually increase the number
of File Buffers until an optimum performance
level is achieved.
You may even have to experiment with
changing the number of File Buffers for
each of the File Buffer sizes until you find
the combination that works best for you.
Vision & Studio Vision Pro — Version 4.1 Manual Supplement 85