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  3. How many VE Instruments Can I run?

  • How many VE Instruments Can I run?

    H
    H

    This a rather basic question, but I've been unable to find an answer here or elsewhere on line. I have a bare bones system with an iMac ( too old to have a gigabit connection). I have VE (not pro) and a basic package of orchestral and solo strings. woodwinds and brass. I've been running them as straight plug-ins as I do with the EXS24 and Logic's other synths but with a current project the computer started to stop and give me a message suggesting I increase the I/O buffer because the CPU couldn't process all the data. My internet research suggested I'd do better if I included all the strings in a single VE iteration so that's what I did but I continue have the same problems.

    The midi files are all edited heavily for expression and breath controlling the Velocity XFade. There are five orchestral string parts, layered with three solo ones and three EXS24 string sounds all sweetened by an Alchemy strings pad. It sounds great when it runs.

    Have I already exceeded the capacity of my computer? I keep reading about sound designers running 80 parts with a slave computer, but a dozen lines is hardly that.

    Thanks

    David

    iMac mid-2010 3.06 gHz, 4 gig memory

    Logic Pro X
  • N
    N

    On one level, the question is impossible to really answer, hence why you haven't found one.  As everyone writes differently and edits parts differently, there is simply no easy answer.

    More information would also be helpful.  Are you seeking to run VSL full libraries, or VSL SE libraries?  The SE libraries are much less demanding than the full libraries, and you could probably load a fair amount of samples in 4 gigs (SE 1, 1+, 2 and 2+ fill up about 8 gigs of RAM with all patches loaded).  However, with the full libraries, plus those of other companies, having only 4 gigs of memory would be your first bottleneck.  It is not uncommon to have 32 gigs of ram on a computer where many samples will be loaded.

    What speed is your hard drive, and how many hard drives do you have?  If your hard drive is 5400 rpm, that slow speed would cause problems.  Also, if you are trying to run your o/s, recording, and streaming samples from one drive, that would be a significant bottleneck.  If using one computer, most often 3 hard drives are used: one for o/s and programs, one for recording audio, and one for streaming samples.

    In addition, as you mention, beyond a certain point, more processing power is required as well, to run all the various processes.  In general, sample streaming requires ram, fast hard drives, and a higher cpu core speed.  For running multiple effects, and audio processing, having more cpu cores is more important than the speed of the cores.

    Note that using SSDs for sample streaming is also helpful: samples load much faster, more smaples can be streamed, and with VSL, buffer sizes can be lowered, which helps conserve memory usage.