Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Sample loading speed

    Hello,

    Are there any tricks one can use to diagnose why the loading of VSL sounds is so slow? It is recently got incredibly slow: it takes about 20-25 minutes to open a project because VSL Ensemble takes so long to load the VSL sounds. Interestingly, the instances of the third party plug-ins in my template haven't got noticeably slower on that machine.

    I have an SSD3 drive on a SATA3 port, so it really should be fairly quick. It used to take about 3-5 mins, but never 20! (Even my other slave with nothing but EastWest Play instances on it isn't quite that bad!) Nothing in my system has changed hardwise-wise, so it would be great if you guys have a diagnostic utility I could run to monitor what VE's up to internally and what's slowing it down.

    What I have noticed is that it seems to get considerably worse if I close and then open a different project using the same template, which is odd, because you'd have thought that quite a bit of the data would be cached in memory, as indeed appears to be the case on my other slaves that aren't using VSL sounds which conversely load signficantly quicker after the first project has been closed.

    If anyone can shed any light on this, that would be much appreciated.

    Thanks!
    Michael


  • Hi Michael, 

    Which OS are you working on? Which versions of VSL software?

    As you are using VI PRO and SSD drives: Did you check the Preload sizes in the Directory Manager?

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    I'm not in the studio now but I'm running the latest versions of VE Pro and VI Pro on Windows 7.1 Pro 64-bit. All the VSL samples are on their own dedicated SSD drive. I think the preload sizes are set to "default", but I'll need to check that when I'm next in the studio.

    Thanks!
    Michael


  • last edited
    last edited

    Hi Michael, 

    Please double-check the versions again, everybody believes they have the latest updates (that´s why we´re asking for the version numbers 😉). 

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    VE Pro 5 is at version 5.4.13741 and Instruments Pro at 2.4.13670.

    Thanks!
    Michael


  • Hi, 

    So what are the Preload sizes? I´d definitely try smaller values there for all samples stored on a SSD drive. 

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    They're set to default. Is that a hardwired number or is it calculated at run-time?


  • Hi Mike, 

    Default value is 16384 Samples. If you are using SSD drives, try one of the lowest setting, you should like the result!

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    OK, thanks! I will give it a try, but I have an awful lot of clicks and pops during playback as it is. When I first play a VSL patch after loading a session, it makes the most hideous "broken up" noise for the first two minutes or so, after which it (usually) settles down and starts to behave. I'm guessing setting the buffer even lower won't help matters in that respect!


  • Hi Mike, 

    Maybe it is indeed something else. Where do you keep the samples of your 3rd party instruments? Did you try to move the sample content to another drive yet, and re-assign the content in the Directory Manager? 

    Does that make a difference?

    Best, 
    Paul


    Paul Kopf Product Manager VSL
  • Hi Paul,

    The samples are distributed across three SSD drives. The VSL samples on one, some EastWest Play samples on the second and some Kontakt-based libraries on the third. As I say, things are usually fine once each VSL instrument's had some content played through it for a few minutes. I say "usually" as every now and then it's  completely unusable and I need to reboot all the computers and start from scratch. That doesn't happen very often though. On the other hand, occasionally things are fine from the off too.

    All very strange, and I'm not sure why the behaviour is unpredictable in the way it is!


  • Hi, 

    which brand of SSDs are you using? I had the same experience with the popular Samsung EVO840. They will slow down gradually to a crawl.  You will need up upgrade the firmware etc. in order to restore performance.  If this is you scenario, google it... 


  • I think I have Crucial drives in that machine, but I'll have to check. It's been a while since I've opened it up!