I will report back on this in a couple of months. We decided to upgrade the computers at work to new
mid-line Lenovo business desktops. They seem spec'd up enough to run Win7 Pro very fast. I'll be
installing SF10 on my new computer and will let you know how much if any faster it does stuff like
batch-process vs. SF9 on my Dell Precision Workstation running XP in the studio.
One thing I've learned the hard way about ALL complex audio software -- it doesn't work well with a
Windows computer larded up with anti-virus software. My main DAW is offline and has only the Windows
Firewall running. Norton in particular is toxic to audio programs because it randomly takes over
everything and starts running the hard drive. In XP, this usually leads to ruined recordings. The
newer versions of Norton have a "silent" mode, but I've never been able to make it work properly.
I've bitched to Norton about it and they end up saying that you need to disable it when you're
running complex audio or video software to be double-sure that nothing will be ruined. If you set
Norton to not do anything without being told to do it -- set everything to "manual" -- you stand a
better chance. But then you have to be vigilent to remember to update the virus protection at least
weekly and to run scans at least weekly. I decided it's better to just leave the main DAW offline. I
scan any thumb drives or other media coming into it on the secondary DAW, which runs Norton with
everything set to "manual."
BTW, this is one reason why I've found mass-ingestion from multiple tape decks to be easier with
single-use transfer chains using flash recorders. No PC (or Mac) issues, and a problem in one chain
won't bring down the whole system.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Pultz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] SSD drives. WAS derivative file conversion advice
> That is a good idea. Also, there is a setting in XP that optimizes the OS for "background tasks."
> It's somewhere in My Computer>Preferences. Could help. I never saw much of a benefit to having the
> swap on a different drive from the system HD, though you'd think it would speed things up if that
> drive isn't also busy fetching other data. Windows relies so much on memory swap that I would
> expect a SSD to have a dramatic impact on this kind of operation. That will also be governed by
> the speed of the system buss and its behavior with the RAM and processor. Given the wide variety
> of implementations in the Windows system world, it is hard to predict overall performance based on
> the specs of individual components. This helps to keep custom system venders relevant.
>
> It may also be true that XP isn't going to fully utilize the capabilities of newer hardware. But,
> that's getting beyond my current knowledge and experience.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Mark Durenberger
> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:08 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] SSD drives. WAS derivative file conversion advice
>
> Shai: I'm NOT the computer guru on this list but might suggest you try working with some of the
> cache and data on the same drive as the program...just to see if there's any improvement. If
> nothing else, it'd eliminate a Variable.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark Durenberger
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shai Drori
> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 5:57 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] SSD drives. WAS derivative file conversion advice
>
> Hi Mark
> This is interesting. My audio workstation died after 12 years of service but because I am happy
> with the programs and didn't want to invest in new versions I bought a new computer (dual core i3)
> and installed XP pro on it. This means that the working environment is the same. I expected batch
> processing and all other processing to be lighting speed with the new processor (the old one was
> Pentium 4). I was disappointed to find out that most of the time the processor is idle and the
> processing time is almost the same. I wonder if switching to SSD will change that (wavelab
> mostly). I doubt it.
> Any thoughts anyone? I should mention, that C drive holds only the programs. All data and cache
> are on another drive.
> Cheers
> Shai
> בתאריך 15/01/14 12:58 PM, ציטוט Mark Durenberger:
>> Tom, thank you for your thoughts on batch conversion. We've previously
>> "chatted" about this and I wanted to share a subsequent experience.
>>
>> I use garden-variety H-P desktops with a mix of Western Digital Black
>> and Green hard drives. I've owned Sound Forge since Version 4 and have
>> a pretty good feel for its performance. I agree that the Batch
>> Converter is an unimaginative yet reliable work-horse. It's not a
>> speed-demon, even when the program and the store folders are on the same drive.
>>
>> Then, a few weeks ago I replaced my C-Drive with a Samsung SSD. The
>> SSD contains only the operating programs and user data.
>>
>> As expected, performance across all programs became snappier. Even
>> with the SF store files on spinning hard drives, the speed improvement
>> in batch conversion (and other processing) was remarkable.
>>
>> I'm one of those folks who hesitates to embrace new developments until
>> they're past the Beta stage and into Rev 1. The Solid-State Drive is
>> now well-established...and prices have started coming down.
>>
>> YMMV of course.
>>
>>
>> Have a great day!
>>
>> Mark Durenberger
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Tom Fine
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 9:08 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] derivative file conversion advice
>>
>> Sony Sound Forge has a batch converter utility built in, for both
>> Windows and Mac versions. I find it to be very reliable and accurate
>> but slow in Windows. My favorite batch converter is now dBPowerAmp's,
>> but I think it's only available for Windows. It is fast and very
>> reliable, and it produces quite good sounding MP3 files from HD WAV.
>> It also has a very good batch sample-rate converter.
>>
>> I'll admit that I haven't tried dBPowerAmp for a paying client's
>> batch-conversion yet. My thinking is, I created the master files in
>> Sound Forge so I'll let Sound Forge grind all night and do the batch
>> conversions, and this has produced flawless results so far. But I
>> threw dBPowerAmp at converting all my HDTracks FLAC and AIFF files to
>> MP3 for my iPod (I know, it kinda defeats the purpose, but they sound
>> better than CD rips to my ears, so I still come out ahead when I'm on
>> the go). It did the job very quickly and with no mistakes, and all the
>> tagging info was handled perfectly.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill McQuay" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 4:22 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] derivative file conversion advice
>>
>>
>>> AWE by Minnetonka, individual version
>>>
>>> You can also batch files through Wavelab creating a variety of sound
>>> format flavors.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Jan 14, 2014, at 2:52 PM, "Tre Berney" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello ARSCLIST-
>>>>
>>>> I'm in the market for a Mac-based program that will batch convert
>>>> derivative files. I'm having a few cross-platform issues with WMP
>>>> not recognizing the files (and randomly, which is weird). I'm a mac
>>>> user in a (primarily) PC library system. I've been using NHC
>>>> Software's Switch Plus - http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
>>>>
>>>> Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.
>>>>
>>>> Yours,
>>>>
>>>> Tre Berney
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tre Berney
>>>> Multimedia Specialist, Cornell University Library Digital
>>>> Scholarship and Preservation
>>>> Services<http://www.library.cornell.edu/DSPS>
>>>> Digital Consulting and Production Services
>>>> <http://dcaps.library.cornell.edu/>
>>>> --------------------------
>>>> 237 Olin Library | Cornell University
>>>> t: 607.255.7933 | c: 865.712.1352
>>>> AES<http://www.aes.org/>,
>>>> ARSC<http://www.arsc-audio.org/index.php><http://www.arsc-audio.org/
>>>> index.php>, IASA<http://www.iasa-web.org/>,
>>>> AMIA<http://www.amianet.org/>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Cheers
> Shai Drori
> Timeless Recordings
> [log in to unmask]
> בברכה,
> שי דרורי
> מומחה לשימור והמרה של אודיו וידאו וסרטים 8-35 ממ.
>
>
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