I'm still... well.. Testing out Tracktion before I actually drop the cash. I was working with sfz to load in soundfonts, but I've noticed the CPU is eaten down pretty quickly, when I add over 5 or 6 instances of the vsti... Are there any other good quality SF2 players that might not chew up as much? I'm on a 1.2ghz at the moment...
Thanks
RonC
Tracktion: Lower CPU in soundfont vsti than sfz?
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- KVRian
- 1349 posts since 12 Jan, 2003 from Paris
How many notes at the same time do you have in each instances ?
Don't think you'll find a better sf2 player than SFZ.
Maybe try SFZ+...
Don't think you'll find a better sf2 player than SFZ.
Maybe try SFZ+...
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 6490 posts since 14 Jun, 2004 from Rochester, NY
Well I just am converting over from a tracker, so I pretty much want to be able to make anything happen.. I think at least 4 to 8 notes at a time... Sfz+ will improve my situation? How so?
RonC
RonC
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- KVRist
- 268 posts since 28 Apr, 2003
You may already know this, but 1 instance of sfz can play back 16 midi channels with different Sf preset on each channel.
I doubt you're trying to play back all 16 of each instance of sfz, so the best way to go might be creating customized sf banks for whatever song you're working on at the time.
With Awave, I think Alive and Vienna do this too, you can create your own custom bank -up to 127 presets I think- extract the presets you want from an existing bank and copy them into your new one.
You can also assign each preset a midi bank and program number which you can then use to send sfz program change messages. I've tested this out in a couple of sequencers, but not Tracktion, and sfz's program changes are instant and glitch free.
This way, when used to its full potential, 2 instances of sfz should easily be able to play back at least 32 soundfont instruments, and more if you utilize midi program change messages.
I doubt you're trying to play back all 16 of each instance of sfz, so the best way to go might be creating customized sf banks for whatever song you're working on at the time.
With Awave, I think Alive and Vienna do this too, you can create your own custom bank -up to 127 presets I think- extract the presets you want from an existing bank and copy them into your new one.
You can also assign each preset a midi bank and program number which you can then use to send sfz program change messages. I've tested this out in a couple of sequencers, but not Tracktion, and sfz's program changes are instant and glitch free.
This way, when used to its full potential, 2 instances of sfz should easily be able to play back at least 32 soundfont instruments, and more if you utilize midi program change messages.
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- KVRian
- 1349 posts since 12 Jan, 2003 from Paris
Sorry i was thinkng SFZ didn't have the quality setting...
Is it set to DRAFT ?
Have you tried increasing a little your latency ?
You should post your performances problem with SFZ in rgc:audio forum.
Is it set to DRAFT ?
Have you tried increasing a little your latency ?
You should post your performances problem with SFZ in rgc:audio forum.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 6490 posts since 14 Jun, 2004 from Rochester, NY
It's set to draft yes... Oh I wasnt aware that you could layer multiple sf2's... I'll have to look into this. I thought that was only available in sfz+
RonC
RonC
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- KVRist
- 378 posts since 28 Jul, 2002 from Somewhere in between
You're right, you can't. If you want more than one soundfont playing you need more instances of sfz. But it's something else that's 'wrong' because on my P4 2.4 I can use almost 20 instances of sfz without a problem. I think it's the specific soundfonts that are causing the problem. Some soundfonts are extremely multilayered and use a very long releasetime. If you have 60+ samples playing at once you will bring a lot of PC's to their knees.
Sfz is the best soundfont player available and in itself not very CPU hungry.
Sfz is the best soundfont player available and in itself not very CPU hungry.
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- KVRist
- 268 posts since 28 Apr, 2003
THat's not true. 1 instance of sfz can only open 1 bank at a time, but you can assign a different instrument within that bank to any one of 16 midi inputs. Try it out for yourself.amoebe wrote:You're right, you can't. If you want more than one soundfont playing you need more instances of sfz.
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- KVRAF
- 2582 posts since 24 Apr, 2003 from Canada
I don't think using one instance of sfz and different midi channels will save much cpu. If you are already using draft and its too much cpu thats about as low as it gets. You can try playing with each individual channels polyphony (usually you don't need a full 8 or 16 notes per channel) to shave off a bit of cpu. Also turn off the effects and use external send effects if you haven't already.
If you are really into soundfonts you could buy a old sb live or audigy card and run kx drivers (they should be able to coexist with your current audio card). They all feature at least 64 polyphony of hardware zero-latency zero-cpu soundfont playback. The main problem is there is a 32 or 64mb limit (can't remember) for soundfonts loaded, and you have to first render your sblive/audigy midi if you want to add external effects.
If you are really into soundfonts you could buy a old sb live or audigy card and run kx drivers (they should be able to coexist with your current audio card). They all feature at least 64 polyphony of hardware zero-latency zero-cpu soundfont playback. The main problem is there is a 32 or 64mb limit (can't remember) for soundfonts loaded, and you have to first render your sblive/audigy midi if you want to add external effects.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 6490 posts since 14 Jun, 2004 from Rochester, NY
Okay this is startling... I just had sfz loaded into 8 tracks, no sf2 loaded.... CPU % goes up to red.
-time passes-
Never mind- i took out the effects toggle to off... CPU is very low now
thanks all!
RonC
-time passes-
Never mind- i took out the effects toggle to off... CPU is very low now
thanks all!RonC