Specifications
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Audio Track Recording
I
All About Memory
Whether you are configured for
Wracks
or DiskTracks will determine how much memory
you have for recording and playing back Audio Tracks:
RAMTracks
(Audio recorded into RAM)
RAMTracks are the simplest type of Audio Track Recording. However, even with the
ASR-10
memory fully expanded (16 meg), RAMTracks do not offer as much recording time as
DiskTracks.
Internal RAM Memory and
SlMMs
The internal RAM memory is shared by Instruments, sequences, and AudioSamples, and is
distributed
dynamically.
This means that the more sounds and sequences you have in memory,
the less AudioSample memory you have. This is why we recommend expanding the memory if
you plan to do a lot of RAMTrack recording. The ASR-10 can address up to 16 Megabytes/8
Megawords using industry standard
SIMMs.
For further information about
SIMMs,
refer to the
ASR-10
Musician’s Manual.
DiskTracks
(Audio recorded to a SCSI storage device)
DiskTracks allow a longer recording time than
RAMTracks,
but require you to configure the
ASR-10 to recognize the SCSI storage device (how to configure the ASR-10 for DiskTracks will be
explained later). Because some internal (RAM) memory is required as a buffer, we recommend
expanding the ASR-10 memory to at least 4 Megabytes for improved performance.
Note:
DiskTrack performance is dependent on the speed of the SCSI storage device
and the extent of data fragmentation on the disk (see below).
Memory Fragmentation
If you think of memory
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either internal R4M or the space on a SCSI storage device
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as a large
jigsaw puzzle, fragmentation can be thought of as missing pieces. Fragmentation occurs when
gaps in memory are left unused with data recorded on either side of the gaps. This can happen
as a result of erasing a file, and then saving a different file in its place. If the new file is larger or
smaller than the file that was erased, a gap in memory will remain. Fragmentation will adversely
affect the performance of any memory-based system, causing it to take longer to find each file.
The ASR-10 prevents fragmentation in its internal RAM by SHUFFLING DATA each time data is
added to or erased from memory. SCSI storage devices are unable to shuffle their data, and as a
result are prone to fragmentation. This fragmentation will affect DiskTrack performance. TO
improve performance on a SCSI Storage Device and prevent fragmentation, start with a clean
disk, and don’t save Instrument files to the same SCSI Storage Device that you plan to use for
recording Audio Tracks.
Memory-to-Recording Time
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Conversion Table
The following table summarizes recording time for different memory
capacitie:
Recording Time (minutes)
Memory/Disk Space 44.1 KHz 29.76 KHz
Megabytes Blocks (approx.) Mono Stereo Mono Stereo
10
19,000
2
1
3 1.5
44 85,000
8 4 12 6
105
205,000
20 10 29 14.5
150
292,000
28
14
41
20.5
300 585,000
56 28 83
41.5
RAM Buffers
A RAM buffer is a temporary holding area in the ASR-10’s internal memory. Information that is
to be transferred to an external SCSI storage device is stored in this area. A large RAM buffer can
help the ASR-10 process greater amounts of information at one time, resulting in fewer transfers
to the SCSI storage device (which generally means a cleaner, smoother transfer of information).
ENSONIQ ASR-10 Version 3 Operating System
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