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Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:03 am
by hollywood
With only 4 tracks of mono audio tracks (24 bit/ 96kHz), my G4 DP 1.25GHz now shows the Playback at 50%. This is with no plug-ins, VIs, etc.

It never used to be like this. I haven't changed anything lately either. Still DP 4.5 w/ OSX.2.8

I write to a separate firewire drive (7200 rpm, 200 gb).

I indexed both drives, ran disk utilities to verify and repair permissions...I still have to try zapping the p-ram...

Any ideas for settings?

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:13 am
by nixon72
Check your read and write buffer sizes. If the write size is too small, it would cause this meter to rise since it is a representation of the machine's ability to load ram with audio as it needs it.

Don't forget, at 96k, each track is double the data of a 48k track. And going from 16 to 24 bit adds another 50%.

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:13 am
by nixon72
Check your read and write buffer sizes. If the write size is too small, it would cause this meter to rise since it is a representation of the machine's ability to load ram with audio as it needs it.

Don't forget, at 96k, each track is double the data of a 48k track. And going from 16 to 24 bit adds another 50%.

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:14 am
by nixon72
Check your read and write buffer sizes. If the write size is too small, it would cause this meter to rise since it is a representation of the machine's ability to load ram with audio as it needs it.

Don't forget, at 96k, each track is double the data of a 48k track. And going from 16 to 24 bit adds another 50%.

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:44 pm
by studiodog
Hey there Nixon,

When you accidently post multiple times, as you did, you can use the "edit post" command to delete the extra ones.

It's the symbol above the text area that looks like a pencil and paper.

<small>[ August 04, 2005, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: studio dog ]</small>

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:08 am
by Saintmatthew
I've noticed the same thing with my playback meter. I hit play, even with just a few tracks and it jumps to halfway right away. Oddly, it STILL hovers at halfway with 16 tracks. Go figure.

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:10 pm
by dannyjm
it would be interesting to hear from a knowlegeable person: does the cpu usage meter accurately tell you . . what- that you should turn off plugins before the meter pins on 100 percent and the program crashes? does the meter know about dual processors and UAD/Powercore boards? It seems to me that as long as the program doesn't crash and performance is acceptable, who the hell cares how high the meter goes? It seems like the meter at half-way just means there is enough processing headroom, and that maybe it's somehow able to co-opt more processing power if needed. Has anyone actually run into processor overload, and did the meter indicate the overload?

Re: Playback meter hovers at 50%...solution

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:44 am
by Siryne
For what it may be worth. If you set the voice allocation in your settings to exactly the same number as tracks (audio) in your project, the playback meter will work correctly and display the filling of the casche (sp). This is not an athoritative answer, just something I have observed.
Peace!