Control multi-threading of Praat analyses — pladdrr

Praat's compute kernels (pitch, formant, spectrogram, CPPS, ...) run multi-threaded by default, using all available processor cores. Use this function to cap or disable threading, or to restore the default.

Usage

pladdrr_threads(n = NULL)

Arguments

n: Maximum number of concurrent threads. Use `1` to disable threading, `NULL` (default) to leave the setting unchanged and just return the current state, or `0` to restore automatic mode (all cores).

Value

Invisibly, a list describing the current state:

processors: Number of logical cores detected.
enabled: Whether multi-threading is enabled.
max_threads: Effective maximum concurrent threads.
min_elements_per_thread: Minimum work per thread; 0 means each analysis routine uses its own tuned threshold.

Details

The package's own batch helpers (`analyze_files_parallel()`, `process_sounds_parallel()`, `batch_process()`) already cap each worker's threads automatically, so you only need this when running your own parallel loop (e.g. a hand-written `mclapply()` where each worker should stay single-threaded).

Threading never changes results: threads partition analysis frames and each frame is computed exactly as in single-threaded mode.

Examples

pladdrr_threads()      # query current state
pladdrr_threads(1)     # single-threaded (e.g. inside mclapply workers)
pladdrr_threads(0)     # back to automatic (all cores)