Maximizing Audio Playback On a Slower PC

Here are some tips that help squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC when using Cakewalk:

• Exit Other Programs-- The more programs you have open, the more computer processing (CPU cycles) you are taking away from your Cakewalk music. Exit any programs unnecessary to the task at hand. Click Ctrl+Alt+Del to see what's running, and End Task anything you don't absolutely need (leave Explorer and Systray running).
  
• Record audio at a lower sampling rate-- If you don’t require CD quality 44.1 kHz audio, then record your audio at a lower sampling rate of 22.05 kHz or 11.025 kHz. Go to Options | Audio (Tools | Audio Options in v. 7 and 8) and set your Sampling Rate to a lower frequency. Note, you can only have one sampling rate within an individual Cakewalk file.
  
• Decrease velocity-- If you add additional tracks of audio and then your audio clicks and pops during playback, you’ve reached your sound card’s threshold for audio playback. If you decrease the Velocity of all tracks by the same ratio, you should regain smooth playback. You can do this in the Track view’s Vel+ column.
  
• Use smaller audio clips and repeat them-- If you have a repetitive part, create the smallest clip possible, then copy and paste it as many times as you need to. Cakewalk stores only the original clip on your hard drive, and refers to it when playing the copies.
  
• Disable Display Clip Contents-- Before playing back audio, disable draw clip contents. Right-click in the Track view and deselect Display Clip Contents.
  
• Turn off Draw Playing Audio-- Draw Playing Audio is disabled by default. If you have enabled Draw Playing Audio in the CAKEWALK.INI file, you may notice a decline in performance. Simply disable it again by changing DrawPlayingAudio=1 to DrawPlayingAudio=0. This will greatly reduce the processing required by your computer, and playback will become more efficient.

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