Re: [Audacity-devel] Priority of Process -- an observation

[CN <mi...@sc...>]

On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 16:05:17 -0400, Monty wrote:

>On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 11:19:11PM -0700, CN wrote:
>
>> Well, I do have a PCI bus with a PCI video card.  But I have not
>> experienced this interaction when using other recording programs,
>> perhaps because those programs put such a low load on cpu ...
>
>Load on CPU has nothing to do with it.  If the CPU usage is 0% and the
>sound card's record buffer is full, but it can't do anything because
>the IDE controller or the video card has the PCI bus locked during a
>busmastered burst transfer, you lose samples, period.  
>
>If PCI latency is the problem, the other programs may simply be using
>much bigger sampling fragment sizes.
>
>Second, Audacity does large screen refreshes, which other realtime
>apps don't.  It could be the video straw breaking the camel's back.

It would be very useful for the low power CPU users, if we can provide any relief here.  I did a small expt with turning all the timer based refresh in TrackPanel, when minimized.  It did reduce the average and peak load on the cpu considerably, very useful for long background record sessions.

I have not checked this code in, since I am not sure this might cause any problems anywhere.  If I get the go ahead from the experts here, I shall check this in.  This is only a couple of lines to be added in one place.  I had added the code for optionally turning off the VU meters and reducing its paint frequency, for similar reasons.

There may be other places also where we can turn off painting during idle.  Any suggestions?  

Also, like the various options we currently have to display waveform, spectrum, .., it might be very useful to have a simple progress bar for each channel.  I think this would be consistent with the overall GUI we have, and should be trivial for somebody who knows how to do GUI.

>>  My
>> usage with other programs had been for a very simple purpose: for
>> recording CDs and Vinyls to mp3.
>
>Ripping CDs doesn't use the sound card at all.  They're read directly
>as data.  With all the pops & clicks in vinyl, how would you even
>know? :-)

Yes, I knew ripping CDs did not involve the s. card.  Well, as for vinyls, that is a one time project to convert my collection.  I am from the previous generation, I had a large collection of vinyls two decades before there was any personal computers :)  I get rid of the noise fairly well with Aud, waiting for click and pop removal :)

>(I, for one, am very happy CDs replaced vinyl ;-)

Well, that is why I am putting everything onto DVDs.

Cordially, Chacko