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Cool Edit Pro: Optimizing Multitrack
Performance
Background mixing
the process Cool Edit Pro uses to allow a large
number of tracks to play simultaneously
requires significant processing
power from your computer. With larger sessions, your computer may
become so occupied with mixing that you experience audio dropouts in
multitrack playback. This will usually happen because the background
mixing is not sufficiently complete (watch the
Mix Gauge
) before playback
is initiated. There are a few things you can do to help remedy this; however,
be aware that if you have a slower machine, you may still have to wait for a
time before hitting the
Play
button when working with very large sessions.
The settings in
Options
/
Settings
/
Multitrack
play a big part in optimizing
the background mixing processes. In particular, pay attention to the
Playback Buffer Size
and the
Background Mixing Priority Level
. The
key to determining how to adjust these settings is to watch the
Mix Gauge
.
As a general guideline, if you notice dropouts occurring even though the
Mix Gauge
seems reasonably complete (the meter is beyond ¾ of the way
filled), try reducing the
Playback Buffer Size
, and raising
the Background
Mixing Priority Level
(higher values reduce the priority level).
Conversely, if you notice dropouts and see that the
Mix Gauge
is hovering
around the bottom “empty”), try increasing the
Playback Buffer Size
and
lowering the
Background Mixing Priority Level
.
The goal in adjusting these settings is to achieve a balance between values
large enough for the program to work properly and low enough to conserve
the computer’s resources. The
Background Mix Priority
must be high
enough (lower settings produce a higher priority) to keep the mix ahead of
playback, but not be so high as to adversely affect performance (by
consuming too much of your computer’s resources). In short, the lower you
can keep this setting while still keeping the
Mix Gauge
reasonably filled
the better. Raising the buffer size consumes more of your computer's
memory, so setting this too high can negatively affect performance.
When adjusting these settings, do so by small amounts, using decimal
increments/decrements. Also, note that the settings will produce different
results from session to session. As the number of tracks and the number of
