Section 12 — Sequencer and Audio Track Concepts
About Audio Tracks
27
Memory Fragmentation
If you think of memory — either internal RAM or the space on a SCSI storage device — as a large
jigsaw puzzle, fragmentation can be thought of as missing pieces. Fragmentation occurs when
gaps in memory are left unused with data recorded on either side of the gaps. This can happen
as a result of erasing a file, and then saving a different file in its place. If the new file is larger or
smaller than the file that was erased, a gap in memory will remain. Fragmentation will adversely
affect the performance of any memory-based system, causing it to take longer to find each file.
The ASR-10 prevents fragmentation in its internal RAM by SHUFFLING DATA each time data is
added to or erased from memory. SCSI storage devices are unable to shuffle their data, and as a
result are prone to fragmentation. This fragmentation will affect DiskTrack performance. To
improve performance on a SCSI Storage Device and prevent fragmentation, start with a clean
disk, and don’t save Instrument files to the same SCSI Storage Device that you plan to use for
recording Audio tracks.
Memory-to-Recording Time — Conversion Table
The following table summarizes recording time for different memory capacities:
Recording Time (minutes)
Memory/Disk Space
44.1 kHz
29.76 kHz
Megabytes Blocks (approx.)
Mono
Stereo
Mono
Stereo
10
19,000
2
1
3
1.5
44
85,000
8
4
12
6
105
205,000
20
10
29
14.5
150
292,000
28
14
41
20.5
300
585,000
56
28
83
41.5
RAM Buffers
A RAM buffer is a temporary holding area in the ASR-10’s internal memory. Information that is
to be transferred to an external SCSI storage device is stored in this area. A large RAM buffer can
help the ASR-10 process greater amounts of information at one time, resulting in fewer transfers
to the SCSI storage device (which generally means a cleaner, smoother transfer of information).
Because of this, we recommend setting the SCSI BUFFER size to the largest amount available on
your ASR-10. The SCSI BUFFER size is set with the Command/System•MIDI,
CONFIGURE AUDIO TRACKS command (see later).
Preparing to Record Audio Tracks
There are four things that you must do before recording Audio Tracks in the ASR-10:
1.
Select the sample rate
2.
Configure the Audio Tracks
3.
Choose a Record Source
4.
Prepare the Audio Tracks
The following pages contain rules and steps that must be followed prior to recording.
