I'll try to explain the inner workings as *I* understand them, and seems to be verified by testing/use ..

When using RB, you of course have the main OS drive (usually C:)
This drive is reading/writing everything going on with the OS (program updates, antivirus, Windows actions etc) as well as the program itself (if installed on C:).
Now you can run RB from that same drive, and I do quite often without issue.
But consider this:

When RB is reading (during simple playback) it is streaming audio multitrack data from a hard drive.
Now, if you record at the same time RB is also trying to 'write' to the same drive while 'reading' streaming multitrack audio. You've increased the load on the drive significantly. It is trying to read and write while jumping around and trying to keep things all lined up. This is called thrashing in extreme cases.

Also if you regenerate a section of track(s) RB now is trying to create the new generation (while reading the original designated PGMusic file and writing the new section) and ALSO writing the backup (or UNDO) file scrap so you can use the undo function. Again the drive is the most likely point of slowness if it is all happening on the same drive.

I find that
A. Using a separate drive to run RB from (and read the Realtracks from) has little to no negative effect. Especially if a separate internal drive
B. Using a separate drive to 'write' to (for both incoming audio recording and the backup of a regeneration and/or edits) speeds things up and causes less error.
I use a separate 500 gig drive (internal) for the "Temp Audio Directory". This is where all the 'chunks' of data get stored while working, for both edits and recording in RB. I can watch this directory change as I make edits and regenerate, so I know this is true.
I also know every time you save a SEQ file RB 'interweaves' the data to be streamed to make it more efficient for the drive to read.
If you don't 'save' and these chunks are spread across your C: drive it makes sense they are causing that drive to work harder. So the first message is to save often, though this can cost you sometimes in the number of 'Undo' options.

Eventually, after a period of time in a single session RB can end up working with many small chunks of audio all over. If one drive has to find and handle all of them it can decrease performance, whereas if multiple drives are handling the load it is more efficient.

YMMV of course, just rharv's point of view

Mind you, this is not a knock on the software; they design it to work on every system, even if the only drive available is a cramped C: drive, so the defaults are set to work this way.
I just find these adjustments during setup make things more enjoyable here .. and on other systems I've worked on. And faster.
Like I said near the end of the quoted post; Experiment.




Last edited by rharv; 12/17/16 08:31 AM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!