Hard Drive Storage Versus RAM Storage

GoldWave supports hard drive based editing and RAM (memory) based editing. These features are described below. Hard drive storage is used by default. Use the command to configure the storage mode.

In hard drive based editing, the sound is stored in temporary files on your hard drive where it can be modified. This allows you to edit huge files provided the required drive space is available. Only a small amount of RAM is required for each opened sound. The drawback is that editing and effects processing take more time since audio data must be transferred to and from the drive.

In RAM based editing, the entire sound is stored in your computer's memory. This allows you to edit and process files very quickly. It saves time and reduces the load on your hard drive. The drawback is that the size of the files must be small enough to fit in the available RAM. If you edit or record large files, Windows will start swapping memory to the hard drive, which degrades performance significantly and may cause defects when recording. Also note that if the power fails or a crash occurs, there is no way to recover the modified sound or recording.

GoldWave does not copy a file to temporary storage until it is edited, unless the file is compressed. MP3 files, for example, have to be decompress into temporary storage before GoldWave can edit them. Such files may require over 20 times the amount of compressed storage when opened. A 10MB MP3 file could require over 200MB of storage space.

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