A number of advanced set-up and configuration changes can be made via the BMS editor ‘.ini’ files. These are text files with a ‘ini’ extension which the editor uses to control aspects of performance.
IMPORTANT NOTE
·
Adjusting the editor configuration via the .ini files should only be
carried out by experienced operators. You are advised to carefully read the
notes and advice in section 7.2.2 ‘Backing up .ini files’ before making any
adjustments to these settings.
·
More detail about .ini file settings not covered here can be found
in the ‘Setup and Maintenance’ guide.
There are two ‘.ini’ files required for correct operation – they are ‘editmain.ini’ and ‘edit.ini’.
‘editmain.ini’ should be in the folder containing the editor program.
‘edit.ini’ may be placed anywhere accessible on the system or network – in a network environment it is usually placed on the server.
Before carrying out any adjustments to the .ini files, you are strongly recommended to back up the files. In the event that the changes made lead to unexpected or poor performance, the original files can then be restored.
To back up the .ini files:
1. Locate the .ini file using Windows explorer
2. Double click the file – it will open in Notepad
3. Without making any changes, choose ‘File|Save As’ and save the file with the same name but a ‘.bak’ extension.
4. Close Notepad
5. Repeat this procedure for both files
To restore the .ini files:
1. Locate the current .ini files. Select them, then press ‘Delete’ to send them to the recycle bin.
2. Locate the edit.bak and editmain.bak backup files using Windows Explorer
3. Right click on them individually, and select ‘Rename’ from the pop-up menu
4. Change the extension back to ‘.ini’
IMPORTANT NOTE
·
The BMS Editor installs itself with factory default settings in the
.ini files which will give correct operation. Changing the .ini file settings
is done at your own risk. Not every combination of .ini file settings has
necessarily been tested, and any setting other than the factory default cannot
be guaranteed to give correct operation on all platforms.
The settings which control the editor performance are stored in the file ‘edit.ini’. This file may reside anywhere on the network – this allows several networked editors to share the ini file settings, and any changes to the settings will be reflected in all editors.
The file ‘editmain.ini’ which resides in the same folder as the edit program contains a pointer to the file ‘edit.ini’, which the editor uses to locate the main configuration file.
To change the file path, open the file ‘editmain.ini’ using a text editor such a Notepad. It will contain only one active line (other lines preceeded by ‘;’ are ignored), containing the text
include
= File (path)
Where ‘path’ is the path to the file ‘edit.ini’. For example, if the file ‘edit.ini’ resided on the ‘c’ drive of a local machine, the file would read
include
= File (c:\edit.ini)
Note that the path should be enclosed in brackets.
Note
· Ensure that a valid ‘edit.ini’ file exists at the new path before changing these settings. Unexpected operation could occur if the editor is launched with an invalid ini path.
· In a network system, it is possible to use the server name rather than drive letter for setting paths. This avoids any problems which may occur if drive letters are re-assigned
The file ‘Edit.ini’ contains information about the default locations the editor uses to create new projects, open sound files etc.
These can be edited as follows:
Open ‘edit.ini’ using a text editor such a Notepad.
Locate the lines
;
Project directory
OpenProjectDir
="D:\Projects"
SaveProjectDir
="D:\Projects"
OpenAudioFileDir
="D:\Audiofiles"
SaveAudioFileDir
="D:\Audiofiles"
Note
· Any lines at the start of the file preceded by ‘;’ are for information only, and are ignored by the editor.
The paths can be changed as follows:
OpenProjectDir – the default location for opening and creating new projects.
SaveProjectDir – the default location where projects are stored
OpenAudioFileDir – the default location here the editor looks when importing audio
files. (See section 3.1.3 ‘Importing and
playing audio files’ for more information.)
SaveAudioFileDir – the default location where audio files are stored during record operations (see section 6.1 ‘Record and Mixdown functions’ for more information).
Note
· In a network system, it is possible to use the server name rather than drive letter for setting paths. This avoids any problems which may occur if drive letters are re-assigned
The amount of pre and post roll used during edit preview can also be adjusted (see section 4.1.7 ‘Previewing removal of a selection’ for more information).
To change this setting, locate the following lines in the ‘edit.ini’ file:
; Pre
& Postroll
PreRoll = 3000
PostRoll = 3000
The amount of pre and postroll can be adjusted – the figure is measure in milliseconds. Values in the range 500-10000 (i.e. ½ to 10 seconds) can be entered.
If the editor software is installed on a computer with multiple soundcards (or a soundcard with multiple outputs), it is possible to select which outputs will be used for different operations.
To change these setting, locate the following lines in the ‘edit.ini’ file:
;
Playback
PlayDevice = 0
PlaySampleRate = 44100
PlayBitSize = 16
PlayNChannels = 2
;
Scrub
ScrubDevice = 0
ScrubSampleRate = 44100
ScrubBitSize = 16
ScrubNChannels = 2
;
FileOut
FileSampleRate = 44100
FileBitSize = 16
FileNChannels = 2
;
Record
RecDevice = 0
RecSampleRate = 44100
RecBitSize = 16
RecNChannels = 2
The ‘Device’ line determines which soundcard output is used for Playback and Scrub functions – output 0 is the first soundcard output, output 1 is the second etc. Similarly the ‘Device’ line in the Record setting determines which soundcard input is used for recording.
Other parameters such as sample rate in Hz, Wordlength in bits and number of channels (for mono / stereo operation) can also be altered. If these are altered, they become the default settings displayed in the ‘Audio Setup’ dialog. These settings can be overwritten temporarily using the ‘Audiocard setup’ dialog in the editor (See section 7.1 ‘Audio IO setup’ for more information).
The length of the loop used during scrub operations can be changed. A short loop time will give a scrub result more akin to analogue tape scrubbing, but will be less useful at low scrub speeds. A long loop time gives a result more akin to audio cueing used in some CD and playout systems.
To change this setting, locate the following lines in the ‘edit.ini’ file:
;
Basetime
Realtime = 300
ScrubTime = 60
PlayFileTime = 900
The ‘ScrubTime’ setting is measure in milliseconds, and can be adjusted in the range 40-150. Note that the scrub time setting is subject to the same restrictions as the realtime setting with regard to soundcard performance – see section 7.1.4 ‘Altering the real time factor’ for more information.
If problems are encountered with playback performance (typically stuttering during playback) which cannot be solved by adjusting the real time factor (see section 7.1.3 ‘Altering the real time factor’), altering the buffer size used by the editor may improve performance.
To change this setting, locate the following line in the ‘edit.ini’ file:
MaxCacheSize = 10000000
This setting sets the number of bytes which are held in the editor cache. It should not generally be set lower than 4000000, although higher values are acceptable.
When adjusting this value, you should attempt to use the lowest value which gives good editor performance. Using an unnecessarily high value may lead to slower than expected editor performance, particularly in systems without a large amount of RAM.
When a recording is started, the editor normally also goes into play mode at the same time, so the playback marker and the record marker move across the screen. It is possible to disable this feature, so the playback marker will remain in stop when a recording is started.
To change this setting, locate the following lines in the ‘edit.ini’ file:
RecordPlayback =
1
With this value set to ‘1’, the editor will start playback when record in started. Changing this value to ‘0’ will disable this feature.
Note
· It may be necessary to change this setting if the soundcard used is not a full duplex card (i.e. it cannot record and playback simultaneously) in order to prevent error messages occurring (see Appendix II ‘Troubleshooting’ for more information).