Will Giga 3.0 have more polyphony?

[Damon]

Curious if Dave or anyone knows if the new Giga 3.0 will offer more polyphony and if so, how much?
The way new libraries are being made with MW Xfade controls and release triggers, I think Giga will definitely require more if it\'s possible.

Thanks images/icons/smile.gif

[Simon Ravn]

As long as HD\'s can\'t give you more polyphony, it doesn\'t really matter if Tascam sets the limit on GS3 at 1024 voices or whatever... We need faster HD\'s first.

[dwdonehoo]

Come on now, the current GS limits on poly is artificial. If they do the update right, the only limits on poly, number of midi instruments and the number of stacked midi channels should only be limited by the what the hardware can do. Anything less is just software BS. What they should do is have an entry level program (Giga Sampler) and the main program (GigaStudio) that is only limited by the available hardware (just like a hardware sampler). And they should put an actual reasonable price on it, in particular with updates. They had better: there is going to be competition now. The quality of libs is what concerns me. If a better delivery method comes along, well... Nemesis had better deliver.

[Damon]

Thanks Simon. I was sure it had to be some kind of other problem causing this.

[KingIdiot]

What reallyis the maximum poly one can get from streaming samples.

I mean will it be massively higher than 160?

Obviously RAM based can go as high as the processer and Bus will allow.

But, with Hard Disk based streaming, there are a few things involved. Speed of the drive, amount of traffic on the buss, bitrate/sample rate,..

with things like this do we all think that polyphony count can be raised really that much higher than 160?

Maybe with more RAM buffering and less samples to be loaded it can go higher. At any rate, one will prolly need more than one computer to get the poly count we all want....which is pretty much infinite images/icons/smile.gif

[David Govett]

I think King is on to something. I\'m confident that if they can increase the polyphony in 3.0 they will most certainly do it. They have absolutely no reason to limit it in any way. (except for entry level versions of course)
I do know that there eventually comes a limit to the hard disk throughput and the bus throughput so there is eventually a limit for streaming off the disks.
I would personally like to see a user selectable option to use pure RAM and no hard drive that would skyrocket the voice count for those who wish to use that option. I don\'t know if that is planned though.
Hope that helps
Dave

[Damon]

The thing is, with libraries like SI, GOS, DDBE and future orchestral ones getting ready to come out, its VERY easy to get up to 138 voices with just string sections for instance (a Meet Joe Black mockup I did recently-1st and 2nd vlns, vlas, celli, and bass). All instruments were MW xfades but also the no release trigger versions (except the violins). Could you imagine if I used release trigger versions? It wouldve maxed 160 easily.

So it just seems to me like we\'ll never be able to get the full potential of these monster libraries getting ready to come out and have to settle for lighter versions of some sounds with only 160 poly.

At least I know what the problem is from everyones posts, the hard disk streaming getting stressed. So I guess besides the pure ram idea, this is what is causing this.

Thanks again for the replies images/icons/wink.gif

[dwdonehoo]

Damon: \"Could you imagine if I used release trigger versions?\"

That is one of the major difference in my master and demo versions of music: the demo versions have the smaller gigs playing, then with the master I record multiple tracks with the release versions, the LEG versions, the multivoice versions, whatever. Then do a mixdown for master. Sure, it would be nice to get it all in one pass, but in reality...

And yeah, selling a product by polly count is lame. Cripple-ware based on a very few lines of different code. Thats like Microsoft selling different versions of Word with certain letters of the alphabet missing. Polly cound should be based on hardware and memory abilities alone. Different versions of GS should have been based on substantial value added, like additional NFX, bundled samples, add-on discounting, stuff like that...

[KingIdiot]

I can see it now.

User selectable Poly count.

Ever other day. \"I get the blue screen of death when I set the poly to \"not limit\" and have full orchestral performances playing. The last thing I see is poly count of 200 then it crashes. Why cant the guys at tascam make good code?\"

I dontenvy the guys at Nemesys/Tascam They will never make anyone happy.

well...actually I am, but I could always do with some features being added to Giga images/icons/smile.gif

Now all I need is cheaper and quiter computers images/icons/smile.gif

[dwdonehoo]

KI:\"I don\'t envy the guys at Nemesys/Tascam. They will never make anyone happy.\"

Its always better to have complaints about having too much than too little. As a SW eng, we always tried to have people complain about the small stuff (no avoiding that), not major features. Its not the number of complaints, its the quality of the complaints that matters.

\"Now all I need is cheaper and quiter computers...\"

Well cheaper is here (I just bought 512 ram for less than $40), but QUIETER? Now THERE is something! I hate the racket these Hoovers make blowing away by my knee. Chance Thomas has his PCs in a small soundproof and ventelated cabinet. Any other ideas?

[Simon Ravn]

Two of my four PC\'s are very silent. Almost noiseless. The sequencer machine makes some noise, but that\'s mainly because of an old IBM+and old WD harddrive. One of them will be replaced with a new WD soon.

But.. the two silent machines. First of all: get a lownoise PSU. The 340w PSU\'s in Chieftec\'s casings are very quiet. Then: Get a gfx card with passive cooling - you dont need a powerful GF4 anyway. I got a GF4 MX420 from MSI - very cheap and no fan on the card. Now harddrives: Seagate Barracuda IV are virtually silent. I have two of those in the most silent of the PC\'s and I really have to check the powerled to see that its on! In the other silent PC, I have one of the new WD harddrives, which is quite a bit noisier than the Seagate, but still acceptable.

Now all I gotta do is get rid of my old noisy harddrives and I\'ll have 4 \'silent\' PC\'s to work with:)

[dwdonehoo]

Thanks Simon. Actually the source of noise is the CPU fans. The one bad thing about using AMD is that they run hot and need these leaf blowers attached. They do make great space heaters tho. I gotta find CPU fans that run quieter.

[Simon Ravn]

Oh I didnt mention CPU fan: Thermaltake Silent Viking really IS silent and very good at the same time. I use that in both of those \'silent\' machines:)

[Oliver Vessey]

This is getting way OT, so I\'m posting a new thread in the Harware forum. images/icons/smile.gif