With time and usage, hard drives become fragmented, leading to discontiguous files and slow access. This is particularly true for older hard drives. Since Sound Forge software is hard drive intensive, faster disk access equates better performance. Therefore, the initial step in improving system performance is hard drive defragmentation.

The Windows Disk Defragmenter should be run prior to using Sound Forge software.

The playback buffer size determines the amount of RAM used for playing from the hard drive. A buffer size of 0.10 seconds is recommended, but increased buffering may be necessary if you detect gaps during playback.

Increasing the total buffer size requires additional memory. Combined with a large preload size, this may result in a delay when starting and stopping playback.

1. From the Options menu, choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog appears.

2. Click the Audio tab.

3. Use the Playback buffering slider to configure an appropriate buffer size value and click OK.

   If you’re using an ASIO device, click the Advanced button to display the Advanced Audio Configuration dialog, and then click the Configure button to edit your device settings.

If you experience gapping during playback and the channel meters are displayed, turn them off by choosing Channel Meters from the View menu.

If you experience gapping during recording and you have the Monitor check box selected in the Record dialog, clear the check box to turn off the record meters.

If you experience gapping during playback or your computer just seems to be bogging down during playback, try turning on Passive Update. This will force the video and time displays to update only if there is time to do so. In most cases you won’t be able to tell if it is missing some updates.

• From the Options menu, choose Time Display, and choose Passive Update from the submenu.

• From the Options menu, choose Video, and choose Passive Update from the submenu.

If your video has been opened from a slow device, such as a CD-ROM or network drive, Sound Forge may have trouble accurately playing back the audio and video in sync. You should always copy your video files to a fast hard drive.

Here are a few tips that can help when trying to synchronize the audio and video:

• After assembling or editing the audio you wish to use with your video, place markers during video playback to correspond to any major synchronization points. You can locate a particular frame by dragging the cursor along the audio if the Video Preview window is open or the Animate Video Strip option is enabled. After primary locations have been identified, drag your audio to these markers to mix, paste, and crossfade audio.

• Features such as Insert Silence, Delete/Clear, and Time Stretch are commonly used to correct synchronization. Another useful trick is to create a region representing the offset between a video frame and audio event. Then you can enable Lock Loop/Region Length and drag the offset region to a preceding silent section. Use the region as a template for adjusting the audio stream length—either copying and pasting to insert time or deleting to remove time.