step-by-step set up of RAMDISK.....

[JohanZ]

step-by-step set up of RAMDISK

I'm also need some intructions how to setup RamDisk. Is this a compleet summary?

Q: What RamDisk software do you use? A: We all use this : http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk (Dataram RAMDisk), except maybe for a few experimenting with other manufacturers.[

Read the Dataram RAMDisk Users Manual :  http://memory.dataram.com/__documents/Dataram_User_Manual_35(1).pdf

The best way the apply RAMDisk:

First set the partition-size and fat32, then do nothing, reboot (or maybe 2 times)

Then you have image space (extra hdd) on your RAM, then copy the complete xx folder to that location.
next, setup xx with all settings that are needed, including your key.

Then go to the second tab in RAMDisk, Load and Save, and press "Save Disk Image Now" and select checkbox "Load Disk Image at Startup"
Reboot

Then finally select checkbox "Save Disk Image on Shutdown"
Reboot

Its about all those reboots that are needed, but when up and running it will work nice.

Roy
 

Select FAT32

I used 1GB for it, and can normally play an album.

Copy your current XX folder onto it, but use the complete structure. Thus, supposed you now have XX in

c:\Player\XX-0.9z-2\

make that folder on the RAMDisk and copy the complete contents, including the subfolders. Better leave out the TemporaryData (log data) to save some space.

Sadly you will have to set all your settings again.

When after a reboot the driver letter is the same for the RAMDisk, you can again copy the XX files, but now the settings will have been preserved.

About saving the "image", so all goes automatically after a reboot ... I must test this, and therefore now reboot this PC.

Peter

Q: What RamDisk software do you use? A: We all use this : http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk (Dataram RAMDisk), except maybe for a few experimenting with other manufacturers.Q: Freeware? A: Yes Q: When you have 3 GB RAM , how many RamDisk space can you use?

This seems superfuous, but is not; It will avoid copying the XX stuff to the RAMDisk again (maybe two times); no big deal, but setting those settings each time is not a nice thing.
Moral : first wait until the RAMDisk shows up automatically after a reboot (thus, maybe two), and when that works, copy in the XX data, set the settings, and finally check that box "Save Image on shutdown" and also save the Image at that point. This latter again is "necessary" because each change (like from the mentioned checkbox) is only dealt with *after* the reboot. So, just one step too late in fact.
   

once you select 'load disk image at startup' and also 'save disk image on shutdown' then everything becomes automatic. You will notice that your PC takes longer to shutdown, as RAMDisk saves the RAM disk image. On startup, the RAM disk is created automatically with XX and all the previous settings totally intact.
Mani

[PeterSt]

Q: When you have 3 GB RAM , how many RamDisk space can you use?

Theoretically 1GB, because the 2GB left is what quite many people are used to. I myself use this too (with Vista 32bits).

Notice that the 1GB is sufficient, once you know how to go about with things. This isn't easy for a beginner, because you have to "feel" what happened when suddenly you can't load a complete album anymore for Unattended. I won't even explain it because it's too tedious. The best (kind of) solution though is, press Stop when it happens, click away the error messages, Quit XXHighEnd, Restart it, maybe try if it now works for the full album, and when not, just select the tracks up to the track where it went wrong. I myself rather live with this, then trying to find what occupies the space under the so many conditions,  a few of them not solving it anyway. But, direct the TemporaryData folder to one of the fixed storage locations !

All 'n all, 1GB is not enough for a complete album really. It may take quite a few albums though before you run into problems (could be a HDCD encoded album). How much *is* enough ? I didn't try. Of course you can higher the RAMDisk at the cost of normal memory, hence it will need a lower Split File Size.

Peter

[Flecko]

thx, it realy improves sound quality!

[Flecko]

@ Peter, I see you have changed from adaptiv to special. Did this come with playing from RAMDisk?
In my case, I always used adaptive because special sounded to nervous but now with RAMDisk it sounds relaxed and I can enjoy the details that special mode has.

[PeterSt]

Exactly my reason Adrian. Before it only worked for Ambient stuff, but now I can use it for all. "Nervous" would be a proper description. Not so anymore.

[Telstar]

I use 1,4 gb with 4 gig total and i'm going to buy more ram :D
Got already two brand new 2TB disks that i'll put in raid1 (that's right).

Still debating with myself whether to get another SSD or the pci-express card (forgot the name), anyway 50-60gb are enough for me for just the OS and basic programs for music and videos.

[Eric]

Don't forget the Galleries (if you use them). They may grow faster than you think. Anyway, it happened to me!
Cheers
Eric

[juanpmar]

Just a few questions:

- What should be the virtual memory setting using RAMDisk?. I use RAMDisk with 1.200MB and trying now with 1.900Mb. My physical RAM is 4GB. I have the management of the virtual memory in Automatic and the system assigned 3.338Mb. The sound is good but the system is a little slow.

- Using RAMDisk and Special Mode with 1024 Buffer Size why I can´t get sound down to Q1=6?

- If I get a flac what´s best, to convert it to wav with dbpoweramp before I send it to XX or to leave XX do the job?.

[PeterSt]

Only about the latter for now :

Don't make yourself crazy with stuff like that. Just let XX do that job, and if you think that doesn't work out, let's find something which does. It is still about playing music, and not about copying files the whole day, or keep on tweaking for that matter.
Have a 1GB RAMDisk for Vista/32, leave everything else as you were used to, and try to improve from there if necessary. Listen to nobody, but listen for yourself. Take your time.

I hope this is a good advice.
Peter

[PeterSt]

And about the others ...

- What should be the virtual memory setting using RAMDisk?. I use RAMDisk with 1.200MB and trying now with 1.900Mb. My physical RAM is 4GB. I have the management of the virtual memory in Automatic and the system assigned 3.338Mb. The sound is good but the system is a little slow.

Assuming you have Vista 32 bit, you can utilize 3GB of RAM. Allocate 1200MB of that to the RAMDisk, and 1800 is left. Still enough for XX, but keep the Split File Size low(ish).
According to MS' own rules, it allocates around twice the size of your normal (to the OS available) RAM of virtual memory, when done automatically. So, 2 x 1800 ~ your 3338.
Having said this, I don't think a larger V.M. makes any difference anywhere for XXHighEnd *but* it will avoid Out of Memory errors when something else needs memory which is now all taken by XX (XXEngine3.exe in fact).
Your slowyness will spring more from the stage of preconverting, while a track which is needed twice can't stay (cached) in memory anymore. On that matter 3GB makes a notably difference compared to 2GB, as I found.

Using RAMDisk and Special Mode with 1024 Buffer Size why I can´t get sound down to Q1=6?

You are talking like "without RAMDisk I can". So, maybe you can elaborate a bit about your expectations and why ?

Regards,
Peter

[juanpmar]

Thanks Peter.

I´ve downsized the RAMDisk to 1Gb and now the system is working at normal speed but on the other hand I can play only two or three songs, that means that I need to be changing songs all the time. Using the RAMDisk the sound is clearer, more detailed and smoother so at the end it depends on the work you want to take. Of course to be able to use more memory would allow to play lists and that would be much more comfortable. Comfort of use and the best sound is a hard combination but I guess that´s how it should be.

Using the Special Mode seems to make a richer sound with some more harmonics, I don´t know if it´s due to the Q1 value which is 6 as the lowest possible one. When I use Adaptive I can get Q1=1 and the sound is quite similar, maybe a little thinner. I wanted to know why I can´t get Q1=1 with Special Mode because maybe with this configuration I could get even a better sound.

[PeterSt]

Ah, to start with the latter (Q1) ...

Your "1" as you express it, will have a "number of samples representative". This shows *above* the Q1 knob. And, "1" will denote "1 sample". Haha.
What 6 means depends on the Device Buffer setting in XX (Settings), and you will see that it still will be "ver few" only.
With Adaptive this works differently, and "1" will match the Device Buffer setting in XX again *but* which should be equal to the real device buffer length of your sound device. Also see the tooltips on "KS Mode" and "Device Buffer" (Settings).

About the RAMDisk ...

If you can load three tracks only, I'd say something is wrong, but it's hard to guess what / where;
I can always load a complete album of 32/352.8 (so this is 8 times upsampled), but, this is only guaranteed when the Normalized Volume doesn't need to get active (meaning : when you run an album with Normalized Volume active for the first time), or when no HDCD encoded album is applicable. Maybe there's some more. But generally ... when I play 10 albums subsequently (and Unattended) - even with Normalized Volume active, maybe one fails somewhere underway (during the "loading" stage).
Playing native highres albums will also matter and *then*, yes, maybe you can reach 3 tracks or so.
Don't forget to appoint your TemporaryData (Settings) folder to fixed storage.

So, if you try the "environment" like I described, can't you still load a whole album ?

[JohanZ]

What should be the virtual memory setting using RAMDisk? I use RAMDisk with 1.200MB ......

I wanna give it a try so i changed it from 1.000MB to 1.200MB because I had some trouble to play the complete album of Mike Mainieri*. I had the impression to stop and start RAMDISK to run with this new setting! ....grrrr....This button <Stop RAMDISK> stops not only RAMDISK but also deleting the hole disk and data on it. Better to read the Manual first!
Dataram RAMDisk Users Manual :  http://memory.dataram.com/__documents/Dataram_User_Manual_35(1).pdf

But after loading and a play command i still get errors (Flac errors)

* Mike Mainieri Northern Lights Live from Rainbow Studio(24Bit96Khz) (from  http://www.gubemusic.com/?album=15353)

[PeterSt]

Yep, you're right Johan. And of course this isn't related to the upsampling; just the size of the native (.wav) files. In this case this is 24/96, and you won't be able to load even 3 tracks with 1GB of RAMDisk size.

Notice that in FLAC this is already 1GB.

Peter

[juanpmar]

About the RAMDisk ...

If you can load three tracks only, I'd say something is wrong, but it's hard to guess what / where;
I can always load a complete album of 32/352.8 (so this is 8 times upsampled), but, this is only guaranteed when the Normalized Volume doesn't need to get active (meaning : when you run an album with Normalized Volume active for the first time), or when no HDCD encoded album is applicable. Maybe there's some more. But generally ... when I play 10 albums subsequently (and Unattended) - even with Normalized Volume active, maybe one fails somewhere underway (during the "loading" stage).
Playing native highres albums will also matter and *then*, yes, maybe you can reach 3 tracks or so.
Don't forget to appoint your TemporaryData (Settings) folder to fixed storage.

So, if you try the "environment" like I described, can't you still load a whole album ?

I had the HDCD turned on but Normalized Volume wasn´t active. Now with HDCD off I can load a complete album but only if I use "Copy to XX-drive by standard". I haven´t tried that option before but If I want to load the same album directly in the RAMDisk I can´t load it. I guess this is because with "Copy to XX-drive by standard" the tracks are loaded one by one, is that correct?