Streaming Section

Some of the programs come with several gigabytes of samples. That is a large amount of data and your computer cannot load all samples completely into the RAM, especially if you are using all slots. Therefore, HALion loads only the initial milliseconds of each sample into RAM. You can specify how much RAM should be used and how much HALion should rely on accessing the hard-disk.

Balancing Disk vs. RAM

Use the Balance slider to balance the hard disk versus the RAM usage.

  • If you need more RAM for other applications, drag the slider to the left towards the Disk setting.

  • If your hard disk is not supplying data fast enough, drag the slider to the right towards the RAM setting.

Note

The Disk vs. RAM setting always applies to all plug-in instances. It is not saved with the project. You set it up only once for your computer system.

Used Preload and Available Memory

These displays provide information of the memory load in MB according to the current balance slider setting.

Max Preload

Determines the maximum amount of RAM that HALion uses for preloading samples. In most cases, the default values are sufficient. However, it may become necessary to reduce this value, for example, when working with other applications or plug-ins that require a lot of memory.

Expert Mode

Activate Expert Mode if you want to adjust the Disk Streaming settings in greater detail.

  • Preload Time defines how much of the start of the samples is preloaded into the RAM. Larger values allow for more samples to be triggered in a short time.

  • Prefetch Time determines the read-ahead capacity into the RAM while streaming samples for a voice that is playing. Larger values allow for better transfer rates from disk, and usually for more voices. However, this requires larger streaming cache in RAM. If you increase the Prefetch Time, it is recommended to also increase the Streaming Cache.

  • Streaming Cache determines the amount of RAM that is reserved for prefetching. The actually needed size depends on the prefetch time, the number of simultaneously streaming voices and the audio format of the samples. For example, higher sample and bit rates need more RAM.