What's eating my RAM?

M

microchip

New member
Moved from 16 bit recording to 24 bit multi-track recording, and now I am having trouble getting more than 6-7 tracks at a time.

I only have 128 RAM (and yes, I know I need more anyhow), but is it the low RAM that is causing me this particular trouble?

My full specs...
60G Hard drive
1.5G Processor
Pentium IV
Windows ME

PS-I am using Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 and there is a little bar graph that moves as I am playing and under it is says 'disk space'. When that gets too high, this problem happens, but again, I don't know if this is referring to my RAM or not.
 
When Windows runs out of RAM, it uses your HD as temporary memory which is called a swap file. If you are trying to record while your HD is swapping data, the data throughput/bandwith between the HD will be seriously affected and performance will suffer. There is considerably more data passing through the computer's data bus when recording in 24 bits over 16. I would get more RAM and move up to Windows 2000 or XP as well to make better use of your faster processor.
 
Are you running low on disk space? As your disk gets closer to capacity, fragmentation will become a more serious issue when writing new data. I am not familiar with cakewalk, so I'm not sure what disk space meter you're talking about. How much free space do you have on that drive?

With Windows ME 128MB is usually enough to work with on a limited basis anyway, and shouldn't be causing problems as severe as what you describe. Of course that depends on what kinds of programs are loading on startup, and what's leaking memory :) Bumping up to 256MB is very highly recommended regardless.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I have about 40gigs open on a 60 gig hard drive, and I do run a defrag about twice a week.

And, about the little disk meter I mentioned, it does fluctuate during useage. For instance, on one or 2 tracks it doesn't show much disk usage, but then if suddenly I have 2 or 3 more tracks come in, or I have panning data or something like that, then the disk usage meter jumps up considerably.
 
I think the problem you are having is because of the increase in file size when moving to 24 bit and not a memory issue. Your disk has to read more data and it is having a problem keeping up. I bet the disk meter you speak of is not disk space but disk throughput. What type of drive do you have, IDE, SCSI and what rpm's 7200, 10K?
 
HangDawg said:
I think the problem you are having is because of the increase in file size when moving to 24 bit and not a memory issue. Your disk has to read more data and it is having a problem keeping up. I bet the disk meter you speak of is not disk space but disk throughput. What type of drive do you have, IDE, SCSI and what rpm's 7200, 10K?
Click to expand...

There are two indicator's in HS2002. This is straight out of HS2002's help file:

Disk Space--This field shows how many megabytes of disk space you have left on the hard drive where your wave data directory is. It also shows this amount of space as a percentage of that drive's total space.

Disk meter--The Disk meter measures how much of the available time Home Studio is using to perform input/output functions on your hard disk. The size of your setup's I/O buffer (listed in the Audio Options dialog box, in the Advanced tab) determines how much time is allowed to perform disk operations and maintain uninterrupted playback. When Home Studio performs disk operations, the Disk meter jumps up in value and shows the percentage of the allowed time Home Studio is taking to complete each cycle of disk Input/Output.
 
Quote:

"And, about the little disk meter I mentioned, it does fluctuate during useage. For instance, on one or 2 tracks it doesn't show much disk usage, but then if suddenly I have 2 or 3 more tracks come in, or I have panning data or something like that, then the disk usage meter jumps up considerably."


I can't see a disk space meter fluctuating. It's gonna go down when recording. Or stay constant when playing back. Therfore, he must be referring to the Disk meter, because it fluctuates depending on how many tracks are playing at once Which is why I said it is the change of bit rate to 24bits and not lack of memory. It takes more time to read the larger files.
 
I seriously doubt that the drive itself is to blame here. 32 tracks of 24/44 audio only requires 9MB/sec throughput, which any 7200RPM drive should be able to deliver without much trouble. I would look towards the controller, and your overall system configuration.

Update drivers, look for IRQ conflicts. I'm assuming that the move from 16 to 24 involved both new hardware and new drivers. Look also at your soundcard driver configuration (buffering, etc) and at your settings in cakewalk.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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