Time to open and save RWS files

[ThrobbyRobby]

I recently worked on an .RWS file about 617,000 Kb in size. It has 16 riffs, none more than half full. It took about 12 minutes to open and about the same amount of time to close with a save. My computer has a P4 running at 3 Ghz and 1.5 gigs of ram. I'm wondering if the time to open and/or save is excessive for a file this size. It seemed like forever! Is anyone else experiencing such long times for opening .RWS files?

[mickeymix]

The biggest I've had is 572 MB compared to your 617....I re-loaded and it took exactly 4 minutes to load........my computer specs are the same as yours with more then double the RAM (4 gigs).......but it always loaded that fast even when I had 2 gigs. So it sounds like something else is slowing it down.
Maybe some one else more computer savvy can chime in.

[pooterpatty]

From the file sizes that RiffWorks generates, you already know it's recording uncompressed audio. Let's say you open a 3-minute song in a linear recording/editing app. It'll take a few seconds to "scan" the file. I would imagine that RiffWorks treats each song LAYER the same way. So if you have a song with, say, 10 riffs - each comprised of 10 layers.....well, you do the math. Not to mention the fact that you are not only limited by your system's physical memory, but when you open a saved song, you're reading it from a hard drive, which is a mechanical device, and not nearly as speedy as solid state memory (RAM). And if you happen to have an old-school 5400RPM drive....well you can only go as fast as the slowest link in the chain. Your system's RAM comes into play most when you're actually RECORDING audio, as RAM dictates whether or not your computer can keep up with what you're trying to do.

The real trick is to keep the resources you're using to a minimum. Close everything that's not necessary before trying to open RiffWorks. Do Ctrl+Alt_Del in Windows to close any programs that might be running in the background that you may not be aware of - they can be real memory hogs, especially things like antivirus software and firewalls. When I record in RiffWorks I only have RiffWorks and GearBox open, and the apps necessary for Windows to run.

I've noticed as well that the more complex a song is, the longer it will take to open. However, I've had absolutely no problems with latency in recording once I actually have the song open, which leads me to believe that RiffWorks' code is pretty efficient in that area. The only way around the wait would be for Riffworks to compress the audio when saving, which I'm not really wild about, but that's just me.

[randy]

How many layers per riff? Are you really using all of those riffs, or could you delete the muted tracks? 617 MB is huge! I don't think our test songs were ever over 100 MB.

[AirmanSwi]

How many layers per riff? Are you really using all of those riffs, or could you delete the muted tracks? 617 MB is huge! I don't think our test songs were ever over 100 MB.

Whew! I thought I was just being lazy. All my songs are under 100 MB. Good to know it's not just me.

[randy]

Whew! I thought I was just being lazy. All my songs are under 100 MB. Good to know it's not just me.

I don't think you're being lazy. ThrobbyRobby may disagree though!

[mickeymix]

My 572 mb was/is with no muted layers.............I can't speak for Robby though............... I ALWAYS pare down my tracks to the bare essentials..... My 572 was "Happy Birthday Sofia", a collab with me and Alex Sellars (Sellarsongs) a 6:37 tune for Alex's daughters B-Day........

[ThrobbyRobby]

I recieved the file via yousendit, each riff sent separately, 16 total. I imported the riffs, and reconstructed the song bar. The file was over 800 mb until I deleted the muted layers. I only added 2 layers to each riff. The sender said the file was only 312mb on his computer. It's a mystery to me how the file more than doubled in size.
I have an external back up drive set to auto sync. I turned it off and the song loads a little faster. Thanks to everyone for your insight.

[Charvelguy]

Gentlemen, a simple oversight in conversion is taking place in deducing the culprit problem. 1 bit =8 bytes right? 617,000 KB converted is 602 MB or about slightly more than a half a gig.

I'm not sure how this file got to be so large as it only takes about 1 or 2 minute to load on mine and his should be faster as I'm 2.66mhz intel celeron with 2 gigs. I still feel it may have something to do with virtual paging files size, processor apps and setup.

I sent him some pretty bloated layers for sure in hindsight as I'm somewhat a packrat.. I don't want to delete potential solo ideas or ideas I shelved for another while composing as they may inspire me to do something else later on down the road.

I should have trimmed it down to the essentials before sending it off in chunks.

On Another note..
If I left RW up with a large song file such as that one or another overnight however, it would playback very choppy the first time with all sorts of weird hangups, like the processor and the program had trouble rereading the files. Now I just always close RW unless its a small in progress idea.

[ThrobbyRobby]

I've also experienced the same problems with playback the first, and sometimes the second playback. They seem to get less with each succesive play. I haven't got a clue as to what causes it. And it's strange that it "cures" itself.

[mickeymix]

Heres an idea for you guys.......instead of YouSendIt.........which sometimes takes forever,.........just do a private RiffLink and use the Sonoma servers..........the original creator can still save when done.........there will be no password ............just download the .RWC from the web RiffLink and send it to the intended collaborator...

[Charvelguy]

yep, it's like it takes time to 'warm up' the files..lol
After about the 2nd pass through, the program now knows how to process the file data and wallah, no more blockage. I've had some really annoying audio hangups though, like the file gets stuck between a couple notes and is rapidly trying to process it but it can't get past a certain read. So it just ends up trilling between two places at processor speed.

Comon, you guys in Sonoma are still using tubes aren't ya?, fess up, its how those models sound so convincing.

My RW is the Line 6 version btw.

[Charvelguy]

Yeah, after reading Blues post about private collabs, that would have been the best course of action or path of least resistance.
Chalk that one up to my lack of knowledge about what RL can do since I have yet to post one of of my own.

I thought everyone did a collab this way. However, I may want to enter that song into a Riffrumble at a later date though Mickey, and from what you've seemed to convey to me is that a collab effort from RL cannot be used in such a contest. I may have misunderstood that since we just chatted about it and it was late.

I do like to retain my options though.

[mickeymix]

Yup ........this is true about RR's nothing allowed from RL.........so you are correct sir!

[strat]

is the e.mail option still available...tried several times ..nada..