fb2k - ramdisk - caching

2006-05-08 14:24:51

Hi there.

Usually I am running my .wav-files from hard-disk. I read somewhere that
running the files from CF/SD-storage-cards would improve the sound.
This is definitely the case. It's just a hazzle to copy the stuff back an forth.

To go a step further:

I configured a ramdisk at 100MB. And used it as a temporary drive.
The sound improvement was immediately audible.
Extremely natural, fluent sound. Sounds like a jitter issue doesn't it!?!

It takes 10minutes to try this option. I tell you its worth it!
You'll find a guideline here:
http://www.jsifaq.com/subh/tip3500/rh3515.htm
(You just have to adjust the disksize according to your RAM size, Windows will already slow down heavily
if you take 100MB out of a total of 512MB)

I expected not to see the system caching on the hardrive, while playing from ramdisk. It still was.
Can anybody explain if fb2k is caching on ../temp or so during playback?
By the way how is the cache function working in fb2k?

It shouldn't be so difficult to write a plugin using a ramdisk. The idea should be to copy temporary
complete tracks on the ramdisk to get rid of the permament streaming. It'd just give you a 3seconds
break while copying the data for a file of 40MB. But I guess there are smarter solutions to that.

Comments are welcome!

Cheers
\Klaus

My Gear:
Etymotic ER4S headset
Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA
MS Windows 2000
Compaq Notebook