How much ram do you use for samples?

[Chris Hein]

I'm just wondering, how do you drive your libraries?
I mean, how much ram do you spend for all your your wonderful sample libraries?

Do you have a PC with 1GB ram, or an Intel Mac with 8 GB installed, or do you use multiple computers with a total of 64GB?

??

Chris Hein

[Timfonie]

2 GB allthough I wish I had more. The /3gb switch option in XP doesn't work for me as it should. Another operating system will have to do the trick.

[Spe3D]

Disk streaming

[Xnah]

1GB Although I plan to get more.

[Cyrosis]

2gb's myself, yet I am pretty much on the edge of running out in some songs I've been writing lately

[Chris Hein]

Disk streaming

Yes, this would be the second question.
If running multiple applications with 2GB each, on one computer, it seems that the HD is getting too slow.
So, maybe it does not make sense to have too much ram installed

2gb's myself, yet I am pretty much on the edge of running out in some songs I've been writing lately

Thats why I'm asking. I'm always at the edge when doing bigger orchestral stuff, with timing issues, glitches, hanging notes.
Sometimes I feel like back in the old Atari age.

Chris Hein

[androidlove]

i only have 256mb ram. i mostly just use drum wav's. i can use multiple instances of romplers. highlife doesn't give me a big hit. soundfonts can take huge chunks of memory. i guess they load all their patches at once into memory. if they max the memory, i just hit the max mem icon

[Spe3D]

Disk streaming

Yes, this would be the second question.
If running multiple applications with 2GB each, on one computer, it seems that the HD is getting too slow.
So, maybe it does not make sense to have too much ram installed

Yep! I guess if you are running the mega realistic sound sets, you will probably need at least four PC's or render out to wave each section and bring them together later - we are still stuck by the limits of our PC's and need to work within those limits - chances are if you stacked the ram right up - your processor will be the next thing that will let you down with too much processing - so your back to rendering out again.

I notice that Receptor recommends about four separate receptor units for the big stuff, and these are dedicated daw's pushing the latest in sound sets.

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[androidlove]

has anyone tried writing in gm and finding a small orchestra? there's a good one in my little city. i'm thinking if i were to write an orchestral piece and hand it to them, the headlines would read "local boy scores"

[BJ]

has anyone tried writing in gm and finding a small orchestra? there's a good one in my little city. i'm thinking if i were to write an orchestral piece and hand it to them, the headlines would read "local boy scores"

[Sascha Franck]

2GB on my Macbook, 1GB on my PC laptop.
In case I'd be programming larger orchestral pieces, I'd probably get a Mac Pro, which seems to be the only machine right now to handle really large amounts of RAM properly.
But even for my mediocre needs I wish the Macbook could at least handle 4GB.
Diskstreaming only works up to a certain amount on the Macbook as well, even when connecting an external drive.

However, I think a lot has been lost in the fine art of sampling. Look at what Roland and the likes have been able to squeeze into just 32MB of sample RAM or so.
Heck, the entire soundset for Windows' build in GM compatible thingy is only 2MB in size - now, of course it *does* sound shit, but as said, it's just 2MB!. Considering that, it's astonishing.
These days, many sample library developers don't seem to give a shit anymore about proper loop points, about proper "pre-tweaking" of their samples, about recreating envelopes in whatever sampler, about modulating filters, sample start, etc etc.
Astonishingly enough, one of my favourite GM compatible drumsets is still something without any velocity layers. But I'm using velocity to sample start modulations all over it. Gives a *way* more natural feel in a lot of situations. Also applies to quite some other samples. Before I started using completely virtual electric pianos (read: non sample based ones), my favourite Rhodes patch has been one that fitted onto a floppy disk. There's been only 6 keylayers and no velocity layers at all, but the files were heavily compressed (with a rather huge attack time, to keep a natural attack feeling) and looped. Then the entire envelope was done in the sampler, and again, some sample start moldulation was used. In addition, I used velocity to filter modulations. And some keyfollow to panning modulation.
Yeah, all obvious stuff. Yet, you don't see these things all that much these days. Which is actually kinda weird, considering that nowadays sampler beasts such as Kontakt are offering an incredible amount of tweaking options, some of them working incredibly well to give your few samples some live.

[Timfonie]

These days, many sample library developers don't seem to give a shit anymore about proper loop points, about proper "pre-tweaking" of their samples, about recreating envelopes in whatever sampler, about modulating filters, sample start, etc etc.

That may be a matter of not only skills but also of economics. Building a library with tens of thousands of samples is a lot of work. Tweaking and refining each sample to get the best while strongly limiting the library size can consume too much time from the developers. As we all know time is money.

[Sascha Franck]

That may be a matter of not only skills but also of economics. Building a library with tens of thousands of samples is a lot of work. Tweaking and refining each sample to get the best while strongly limiting the library size can consume too much time from the developers. As we all know time is money.

Yeah, I'm aware of all these (valid) points.
But still, as a user I prefer my sample sets to be as small as possible.
As we all know (and as has been said in this thread), intensive use of some sample libraries is still bringing even the most advanced machines down to their knees.

Now, let's for a moment assume I could load everything into my RAM. On my rather modest Macbook I can run around 800 (!) voices through Logics EXS, even with the filter switched on.
Obviously, this is only working when loading everything into the RAM.
So, what I'm saying is, *if* most libraries were small enough to fit into our RAM, we could compose large orchestral scores without any further thoughts about how to add more disks, faster controllers, slaved up machines and so on.
That's why I still like my rather old Vitous Mini library (the AKAI version, converted to EXS format) for some orchestral things. The sounds certainly don't hold up well against any modern library, but I could load the entire library into my RAM, should I wish to do so. And it'd cause close to no CPU load using as much instruments/voices as I'd like to.

[Chris Hein]

Interesting answers.

Maybe this could be a solution:

2GB each, and I guess no streaming problems.
The only problem is, you need multiple license for the software.
It would be great if a license for for an instrument could be valid for a local network.
So you could use as much copies as you like, as long as they are on the same local network.

Does anyone use the Mac Mini for sampe libraries?

Chris Hein

[Timfonie]

They must have noticed this thread.
(Of course such a setup works with Chris Hein Libraries as well)