What is the difference between a MIDI track and an audio track in a DAW?
AMIDI tracks record louder signals; audio tracks record quieter ones
BMIDI tracks record and play back performance data to trigger a virtual instrument; audio tracks record and play back actual audio waveforms
CMIDI tracks are only for drums; audio tracks are for everything else
DThey are the same thing in modern DAWs
MIDI tracks store note and controller data and route it to a virtual instrument (software synthesizer or sampler) that generates the audio. Audio tracks record and play back actual audio waveforms from microphones, instruments, or bounced audio.
Question 2 True / False
True or false: A higher audio buffer size reduces CPU load but increases monitoring latency.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: True
Larger buffers process more samples at once (lower CPU per buffer call) but accumulate more samples before output, increasing latency. During tracking, low buffer sizes (64–256 samples) minimize latency; during mixing, larger buffers (512–2048) reduce CPU load.
Question 3 Short Answer
What is plugin delay compensation (PDC) in a DAW?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: PDC automatically adds delay to tracks that do not go through latency-inducing plugins, keeping all tracks aligned in time despite the processing delays introduced by certain plugins.
Some plugins (look-ahead limiters, linear-phase EQs, convolution reverbs) introduce significant processing delay. Without PDC, these tracks would slip behind unprocessed tracks, causing timing misalignment in the mix.
Question 4 Multiple Choice
A producer has a session with 60 tracks and is experiencing CPU dropouts. What is the most effective immediate solution?
AIncrease the sample rate to 96 kHz for better performance
BFreeze CPU-intensive instrument and effect tracks to render them as audio, freeing the processor from real-time calculation
CDelete tracks that are not currently soloed
DSwitch to a different DAW
Freezing a track renders it to audio and suspends real-time plugin processing, dramatically reducing CPU load. The track can be unfrozen for editing. This is the standard approach for managing CPU in complex sessions.