|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
80.133.227.243
In Reply to: Loading entire music file onto RAM before playback posted by zarir on February 23, 2007 at 20:35:54:
Hi there.Get yourself a RAMDISK and copy the data over there!
http://www.ramdisk.be/Go for the "enterprise" solution.
Full file buffering under Foobar is actually working quite OK.
The problem: Loading the files into RAM takes some time. That is giving you some seconds breaks during the change of tracks.
Which is annoying on certain CDs.Full file buffering makes quite an improvement to you sound!
I do not run playback without full-filebuffering.Many players do not support this option! E.g. JRMC. They just
buffer a small amount (6s) within RAM. This way you still have
permanent streaming from HD ongoing. For these players a RAMDISK
pretty much makes sense.Copying 800MB to RAMdisc doesn't take longer that 15s, so it is
really an alternative if you want to enjoy a full CD Playback.You should have at least 1,5-2 GB of RAM for a RAMDISK if you want to copy the whole CD.
To me this tweak is a must, if we talk serious audio playback from PC.
Cheers
KLS
Follow Ups:
Even further to improve sound quality, I would suggest remove all motor pinning items:1. Remove all fans from PC -- No PSU fan, No CPU fan, No VGA card fan.
2. Remove all Harddisk/CDROM -- Boot from network, USB flash drive.
I agree with you KLS. I have tried the RamDisk from "SuperSpeed" and there is a noticeable improvement in sound quality. By using a RamDisk, you eliminate any moving parts (spinning drive) and power loads associated with using internal hard disk I/O. Of course, to be fully effective, make sure you are not using any other programs while listening to music (including Virus Scans) - nothing that will make the internal drive spin. Also, when playing music from a RamDisk, I set my playback buffers (in foobar) to 0. Sounds better to me.
Thanks KLSWhat buffer setting number do you use in Foobar? I cannot detect any difference in the time it takes to load a file regardless of the number I put into Foobar. Can one configure Ramdisk to directly accept the intended music files and how does one configure Foobar to play from RAMDISK automatically.
I've noticed a difference in HD activity (based on the HD activity light on the front of my computer) with different Foobar2000 buffer sizes. Indeed, with a very large buffer, it seems to have long periods of reading followed by relatively quiet periods.But I think the observation is moot. Many people claim that music sounds better when there is less HD activity. But there is no way to stop HD activity on a normal computer. And, when listening to music on your computer, are you doing anything with it while it is playing back (e.g. surfing the internet, playing a game, writing e-mail, etc.)? If so, you are causing additional HD activity.
I think what it comes down to is you only need as large a buffer as is necessary to prevent the buffer from running dry while playing back the music (and I'm sure the default buffer size ensures this, unless you have problematic hardware or are doing something hard-drive intensive in the background). To be safe, I've set my buffer to 16M, which seems to work well without causing Foobar2000 to take over my hard drive periodically with extremely large reads.
TIA.I do not use foobar any longer!
However:
Foobar loads a file into RAM, if the file-size
is smaller than the configured full-file-buffer.As far as I can recall it, you can check this with the
taskmanager. It'll show how much RAM is allocated by foobar.
If the file is loaded the shown size should have been grown accordingly.There were certain foobar revisions, which had a problem with
the buffer config. The buffer size had to be filled in in bytes instead of kbytes. Instead of e.g. 50.000 (for 50 MB) you had to fill
in 50.000.000 instead.
If you want foobar to run from RAMDISK. You need to copy your files
over there and you got to open up a new playlist.
Cheers
KLS
It turns-out that if you put in a huge number, it adjusts this to your available RAM size anyway.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: