Buffer sizes for HD access in Sonar?

[Skyline]

I'm using Sonar audio software and I wondered whether I should change my Playback/Record I/O settings now I have my 3XS. Sonar help says on this:

"I/O Buffer Size: This value determines the buffer characteristics for transfers to and from the disk. Changing this value does not affect audio latency, but will affect the disk throughput for audio tracks. The default setting is 128. A higher value causes more audio to be buffered from the disk ahead of the playback cursor. If you are hearing consistent dropouts/clicks in your audio and if your project contains high bit depth (32/64 bit) or high sample rate audio (88.2K or higher), it may be indicative of a too small I/O buffer size. If so try a higher I/O buffer size like 256 or 512. If audio problems persist, reset to 128 and try a different remedy. Also, if you are playing a large file, and using maximum latency, a too-small I/O buffer size may cause dropouts or crashes. Try increasing the buffer size by blocks of 128."

My old default settings were 256 for both. Lower seems faster I/O?

John

[PeteG@Scan]

Hd buffer settings like ASIO settings, are very dependent on how you use the system. If you play real time and need to keep everything responsive and tight then lower buffer settings are what you want, but they put more load on the cpu. If you slacken them off then the machine will not be as responsive but will handle more data and plugin's whilst your working.

It's very much a case of tweaking the buffer settings until you start to experiance break up and then easing them off a bit, until you have a happy medium.

The buffer setting does seem quite high for what the system can achive through, so you should be able to reduce it down a few more steps.

[Skyline]

Thanks Pete. Lowering the two buffers to 128 did indeed speed things up, with no adverse effects.
Many thanks!

John

[PeteG@Scan]

Good, good. I reckon if you needed too then a drop down to 64 would be viable, but if everythings running fine for you now then the's no need to add any more load to the processor by doing so.

Whilst I'm thinking about it, did you ever manage to track down those rogue isp issues you were having with the site infection?

[Skyline]

Pete

You were right. I dropped them down to 64 and everything loads like the wind now!

On my web site issues - well, I ended up having a lot of conversations and email exchanges with my 'service' provider or rather their Mumbai so-called help department and all they would say was change you passwords regularly (on one day I did it three times...) They still wouldn't own up they were infected even when I sent them precise details of the trojans involved which were tracked down by the most excellent Nod32 Anti Virus software on my 3xs. I can understand why they wouldn't want their customer base at large to know that their firewalls were permeable.

Needless to say I'm making arrangements to have my sites hosted elsewhere.

John

PS: The machine is running bootiful and I'm very pleased with it.

[PeteG@Scan]

John

That's good to hear, and i'm glad everything system wise is running smoothly now. Shame the same can't be said for the webhost, but hopefully you'll find a far better solution in no time

Pete.