Question : Does Mixcraft use less or Slightly more RAM to load Compressed Audio Files

[Ian Craig]

Hi,

This may seem obvious, but just for clarity on the subject, does Mixcraft use less or Slightly more RAM to load Compressed Audio Files
i.e. if I load 8 stem files converted to .mp3 externally, does it require less system memory for Mixcraft to load them than it would to load the same 8 as .wav files or slightly more because it has to convert them and deal with the size of both in memory ?

[Ian Craig]

It doesn't matter. mp3s do not line up properly when re-imported with long silent lead-ins, so I can't use them anyway.

[jwmix]

First of all, I'm old, I'm grouchy, "could die" before
you youngsters ( younger than 60 ) get anything right,
blah, blah, blah! LOL

So for now, something I wish I could have typed,
on my first computer, VIC-20

For more info, search the internet.

Powershell

"rapidly automate tasks that manage operating systems
(Linux, macOS, and Windows) and processes."

Seems like that covers every current DAW out there.

I'm using Windows 10 (latest blah blah) let's see
if "rapidly automate tasks that manage...processes."
covers Mixcraft.

I know or knew Powershell, I'm old I forget!

For more info, search the internet.

I clicked on the bottom left of my computer,
scrolled to Windows Powershell, clicked on it,
scrolled to Windows Powershell ISE, clicked again.

Up pops a Windows Powershell ISE window (after
a few other windows pop up and disappear, that
loaded this ISE program).

Keeping it simple

At the bottom section of this ISE I see

PS C:\Whaterver you see>

Type in a command, ( most ) get type of commands
do not cause any harm - I know it's scary. Get commands
are like looking in a store window - seeing that XBOX.

Notice how for the youngsters, I used XBOX.

Perhaps for some of us old people, change XBOX to
the name of any bottle of pills we take. LOL

Anyway, looking is no harm. But perhaps changing the action
from looking ( the get commands ) to doing or stealing the
XBOX ( the do or write commands ) can perhaps cause some harm.

Always for more info, search the internet.

Back to, at the bottom section of this ISE I see

PS C:\Whaterver you see>

Type in a command

PS C:\Whaterver you see> Get-Process

hit return key, Powershell returns this info

Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ------ -- -- -----------
379 22 13208 28600 1.14 13036 47 ApplicationFrameHost

blah blah

629 28 23172 43096 78.98 10020 47 Taskmgr
245 10 1892 4960 676 0 wininit
237 11 2324 8660 1876 47 winlogon

then the prompt PS C:\Whaterver you see>

Scroll thru this window up and down. See Acoustica or MIxcraft
under ProcessName? I do not see them, perhaps I first need to
start the DAW. Then try again.

I'm back, with a better command, and Mixcraft is still displaying
it's New Project Settings window. Don't worry, you'll learn
and then forget PS commands too! From now on, I will not show
the PS...>, just the command.

Get-Process -Name mix*

Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ------ -- -- -----------
728 203 102636 121944 9.75 4680 47 mixcraft8

Want see more about Mixcraft? Using a movie phrase,
show me the money - in Powershell language, is the pipe
command ( the char | ) sending the ouput of the first command
and using it in the next command - here formated output.

Get-Process -Name mix* | format-list *


Name : mixcraft8
Id : 4680
PriorityClass : High
FileVersion : 8.0.1.413
HandleCount : 728
WorkingSet : 125120512
PagedMemorySize : 105566208
PrivateMemorySize : 105566208

blah
blah

WorkingSet64 : 125120512
Site :
Container :

Lots there. So pick what you want to use, watch, compare, etc.

In case you have other processes called mix anything ( mix* ),
I will use mixcraft8.

get-process -name mixcraft8 | Select-Object -Property PrivateMemorySize

PrivateMemorySize
-----------------
105553920

Want mb or gb instead of bytes or whatever this number is?

PS C:\Whaterver you see> 105553920 / 1mb
100.6640625

PS C:\Whaterver you see> 105553920 / 1gb
0.0983047485351563

You can round up or down, change text color, etc.

A few last quick peeks at the DAW

get-process -name mixcraft8 | Select-Object -Property WorkingSet, PagedMemorySize, PrivateMemorySize

WorkingSet PagedMemorySize PrivateMemorySize
---------- --------------- -----------------
125104128 105484288 105484288

To make this easier on the eyes (when you list more than these)
the below command is one long line, notice comma space, etc.
( for old people eyes )

get-process -name mixcraft8 | Select-Object -Property WorkingSet, PagedMemorySize, PrivateMemorySize | Format-List


WorkingSet : 125108224
PagedMemorySize : 105484288
PrivateMemorySize : 105484288

Remember to get DAW info:

get PS whatever you want, do DAW something,
get PS whatever you want, perhaps compare,
repeat, repeat or display all this in a Windows.Form
or WPF window, change text size, have the computer
speak to you saying all this stuff, yes I have had
the computer talk to me while I listened to Mixcraft.

Or is that voice in my head! LOL

Or write a script doing all the above, while you play
or work in Mixcraft.

For more info, search the internet, and/or find a
Powershell youngster, they love to help, then share.

[comedians]

From an even older oldie to another - who did a lot of Peeking & Poking in the early 80's on a ZX Spectrum trying show my lads how to programme the odd game.
Further back in the 70's using commands such as "Disk Open", Read Sequental", "Pip" (now known as "Copy"), "Stat" and other strange commands using CP/M Control Program,(operating system in modern terms) was much more challenging
Running on an intel 8080 8-bit processor, 64kb max Ram but with twin 5.25" floppy drives - 320Kb disk storage but when later a 1mB Winchester hard drive was added - WOW !

Acutally I think the Vic-20s successor, the C64, was the last computer able to run CP/M, the language that introduced 8.3 naming, drives being called A: B: and directory being called "DIR". I wonder where Microsoft got much of their DOS 1.0 from !

However I deviate.

No need for Cmd prompt or Powershell. With Windows 10 you can find almost every bit of detail on a running process wth just a click or two. Open Taks Manager, right click on the process and select details. There you can see Working memory , Peak mem, Delta mem, Private mem along with CPU usage etc. etc.

Much much easier & less mind bending for those of us with aging memories.

[shakin_fingers]

I would expect the RAM usage to be the same, once the files had been loaded. Uncompressing the MP3 will probably need more memory while it's taking place, but after that I'd expect RAM to be holding uncompressed audio streams, which should use the same amount of memory irrespective of content. It should be a fairly easy test to conduct: compare the effect on memory usage of WAV and MP3 versions of the same sound file. I'd include a similar-length silent version as well, to see if in-memory compression is happening, although in the age of multi-gigabyte memory PCs that seems unlikely.

When I'm next at my machine I'll try to remember to take a look myself.

--Mike