Ivory: computer performance?

[radiospace]

I'd like to get Ivory, but I'm a little concerned about some comments I've read here and there about the demands it makes on the computer. I've got a nice setup (dual 2 Ghz G5 Mac, 2 GB RAM), but since I'd be using Ivory in a multitrack, rock- and pop- environment, I don't really need to devote 70% of my computing power to the piano only :-).

Most of the concern is actually about hard drive performance. I've read more than one person speak of pop and clicks when running it off a Firewire or Firewire 800 drive (where it would almost surely reside on my machine, with 2 internal SATA discs...one for OSX and the other for audio (only)...samples must reside outside the box.) One review noted that the product FAQ recommended a SATA RAID drive (simply not an option on a Powermac unless you buy some sort of exotic external enclosure as far as I can tell).

In any event I can't afford to buy $1000 worth of hard disks so the question is whether or not Ivory is usable in a working recording environment as a VST plug in (Cubase SX) without turning into some kind of money pit as I chase down performance issues.

If you've got it what's your experience so far?

thanks...

[Tommy]

You shouldn't worry too much. I'm running Ivory for live gigs on a PB 1,25 with 1 GB RAM on a FW400 and that's working great with 24 voices. Not that I want to run anything else then ;-)

In a multitrack environment, I'd recommend using Ivory with one of the reduced setups for recording. The plugin supports freezing, so for your mixdown, you can use the full blown plugin with all the voices and FX you want.

Feel free to PM me if you want to know more about it. Or ask here, perhaps other people are interested too. I can definitely wholeheartedly recommend Ivory. The sound and playability are great, and their support is top notch.

best,

tommy

[football]

I have a Dual 1.25 G4

Ivory runs great on it.

I run it on the main drive (I know I'm not supposed to) and it has been absolutely awesome.

[radiospace]

Thanks guys. That's good to hear.

The demos definitely sound amazing. It makes you want to play just listening to it.

[Nick Batzdorf]

The key is to restrict the polyphony. I didn't believe it, but most of the time 24 voices is plenty.