Record Pre-allocate Setting?

Author
SteveFoobar
Max Output Level: -88 dBFS
  • Total Posts : 118
  • Joined: 2006/04/21 17:56:41
  • Location: Chicago, Illinois USA
  • Status: offline
2007/11/20 02:34:11 (permalink)

Record Pre-allocate Setting?

Has anyone figured out what the new Record Pre-allocate File (seconds) is really for and when and how to best use it? I've searched the entire thread archive and haven't found anyone mention it's function. It's under the Options, Audio, Advanced, Playback and Recording area.

Just starting to get my feet wet with S7...

Thanks!

Steve Veach
Chicago, IL USA
#1

11 Replies Related Threads

    RodC
    Max Output Level: -84 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 302
    • Joined: 2005/11/10 08:37:11
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/29 15:50:16 (permalink)
    Did anyone ever figure this one out? I have searched with no answer in the help file or the manual.

    http://www.beyondsanityproductions.com/

    'sorta like a peace rally fist fight'

    SPE X1c  MOTU 24 i/o,  AMD Phenom II X6 3.3 GHz 8G RAM, SSD OS HD
    #2
    SteveFoobar
    Max Output Level: -88 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 118
    • Joined: 2006/04/21 17:56:41
    • Location: Chicago, Illinois USA
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/29 16:11:59 (permalink)
    I never got a single reply from anyone, so I still don't know what this is for.

    Steve Veach
    Chicago, IL USA
    #3
    RodC
    Max Output Level: -84 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 302
    • Joined: 2005/11/10 08:37:11
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/29 21:14:46 (permalink)
    listens to crickets.... Sees a tumbleweed pass by....

    Must not fix any issues! lol

    http://www.beyondsanityproductions.com/

    'sorta like a peace rally fist fight'

    SPE X1c  MOTU 24 i/o,  AMD Phenom II X6 3.3 GHz 8G RAM, SSD OS HD
    #4
    altima_boy_2001
    Max Output Level: -55 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 2033
    • Joined: 2005/11/04 17:48:01
    • Location: Central Iowa
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/29 22:33:56 (permalink)
    ORIGINAL: SteveFoobar
    Has anyone figured out what the new Record Pre-allocate File (seconds) is really for and when and how to best use it? I've searched the entire thread archive and haven't found anyone mention it's function. It's under the Options, Audio, Advanced, Playback and Recording area.

    There seems to be no mention of it in the online help or the PDF that I can find.

    Pre-allocation just means reserving (allocating) a specified amount of space on the hard drive prior to recording (as opposed to "on-the-fly" which is what happens normally). Reasons for pre-allocating may include:

    1. More efficient writing with less interruption. The disk is freed from finding the next unallocated space, de-allocating it, and setting up the file links from the previous allocation to this new allocation (disk management tasks). Instead, the hard drive can just read the file links and tell the application where to write the next group of data.
    2. More contiguous file allocation on the disk. If more than 1 file is being allocated on-the-fly then it's possible that each file is becoming fragmented and interleaved with each other as they each continually ask for more space on the disk. With pre-allocation, file A asks for all its space, then file B asks for all its space, etc which can lead to more contiguous allocation depending on the fragmentation of the free space on the disk.

    There are some questions though:
    1. When the pre-allocated space becomes fully used, does the system revert back to on-the-fly allocation or does it perform another pre-allocation of equal size? (see below)
    2. If you pre-allocate for 60 seconds and only record for 30 seconds at the end of recording does it go back and truncate the file to 30 seconds or leave it as 60 seconds with 30 seconds of silence? Does using pre-allocation ending using a lot of hard drive to store a bunch of zeros? I suppose some experimentation could figure this out (set pre-allocation for like 5 minutes, record for 10 seconds, and see how big the file in the audio directory is afterwards).

    I could see pre-allocation being useful for very long recordings. If a live show will take about an hour, then pre-allocate for say 70 minutes. Then the files would already be created ahead of time and just need to be filled in with the sample data. However, if you run over the pre-allocation time and it attempts to pre-allocate another 70 minutes for each recording track you'd almost definitely get a dropout. If it reverts back to on-the-fly, then things would probably be ok.


    I suppose they added this advanced feature to help hard drives that have a difficult time switching between reading/writing and file/disk management functions since allocation procedures can be consolidated somewhat.

    But without any documentation all of this is just guessing on my part...
    #5
    Jose7822
    Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 10031
    • Joined: 2005/11/07 18:59:54
    • Location: United States
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/29 23:03:17 (permalink)
    I'm subscribing to the "Record Pre-allocate Settings" thread. Interesting stuff Altima.

    Take care!
    #6
    Rbh
    Max Output Level: -52 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 2349
    • Joined: 2007/09/05 22:33:44
    • Location: Indiana
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/30 01:21:13 (permalink)
    Someone here was talking about a feature in Cubase that let you capture recorded material before you actually punched the record button, for that chance when you wish you didn't miss a rehearsal take because it was way better than the real planned take. Maybe Cakewalk was putting some of the ground work for something along that line.

    I7 930 2.8 Asus PDX58D
    12 Gig
    Appollo
    CbB, Sonar Pro, Reaper, Samplitude, MixBuss
     Win7 Pro

    http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=902832
    #7
    CJaysMusic
    Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 30423
    • Joined: 2006/10/28 01:51:41
    • Location: Miami - Fort Lauderdale - Davie
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/30 01:41:58 (permalink)
    Rbh, i think you may be on the right track. Its kinda like the buffer in your tevo, it records everything for that channel your watching, even if its not recording, in the slight chance you forgott to record it at first and you relized it after the first 15 minutes of the show and press record and the whole show gets recorded from the beginning
    Cj

    www.audio-mastering-mixing.com - A Professional Worldwide Audio Mixing & Mastering Studio, Providing Online And Attended Sessions. We also do TV commercials, Radio spots & spoken word books
    Audio Blog
    #8
    rdolmat
    Max Output Level: -78 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 640
    • Joined: 2004/06/02 10:41:11
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2007/12/30 09:11:26 (permalink)
    ORIGINAL: Rbh

    Someone here was talking about a feature in Cubase that let you capture recorded material before you actually punched the record button, for that chance when you wish you didn't miss a rehearsal take because it was way better than the real planned take. Maybe Cakewalk was putting some of the ground work for something along that line.



    YES! That is mentioned in my uber-feature thread!
    Perhaps it's time for me to re-submit another feature request with Cakewalk?
    post edited by rdolmat - 2007/12/30 09:24:54
    #9
    altima_boy_2001
    Max Output Level: -55 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 2033
    • Joined: 2005/11/04 17:48:01
    • Location: Central Iowa
    • Status: offline
    RE: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2008/01/03 18:55:00 (permalink)
    I see a small blip about this in the help file now in update 7.0.2. It's used to lower disk activity during recording and they suggest a value between 600 and 1800 seconds (10 to 30 minutes) so it must revert back to normal allocation methods after the pre-allocate space is filled up.
    #10
    nathanscott4@gmail.com
    Max Output Level: -90 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 5
    • Joined: 2014/12/24 12:30:12
    • Status: offline
    Re: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2018/11/27 00:25:19 (permalink)
    This video (at(3:49) says it is a way of freeing processing on the CPU by recording the wave file of the time you set in this box.  At the end of that time the CPU will begin its processing.  Perhaps useful for a full song recording?    I am not sure if this is correct but will try it out.
    #11
    jimfogle
    Max Output Level: -81 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 463
    • Joined: 2007/03/14 10:08:19
    • Location: North Carolina USA
    • Status: offline
    Re: Record Pre-allocate Setting? 2018/11/30 20:48:57 (permalink)
    For What It's Worth I found an explanation in the Cakewalk - Sonar online documentation at this link:  https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Dialogs2.053.html
     
    I copied the description below:
     
    Record Pre-allocate File (seconds). When this option is set to a value greater than zero, SONAR will pre allocate the file to be recorded to the size specified (in seconds). This means that the file will not be resized while recording until it reaches the allocated size. The setting has the potential to reduce disk activity while recording and allows for more possible tracks. The valid range is 0–14400 seconds and the default value is 0. A reasonable setting would be 10 minutes (600 seconds) to 30 minutes (1800 seconds).

    Jim F
    Cakewalk by Bandlab (CbB)
    Sonar Home Studio V23.9.0 build 32
    Music Creator 6
    Band-in-a-Box, Audacity, ChordPulse
    Win 7, i3 cpu, 8Gig ram, 480 Gig Dell Laptop
    http://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
     
     
    #12
    Jump to:
    © 2024 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1