Gear ? on large projects with many tracks

[andyriggle]

Gear ? for 50+ track scores
I do quite a few full orchestral mock-ups, using Finale to write the score, and Sonar for the final audio. When I'm in Finale I try to get the audio as decent as I can, so I don't have to spend too much time on midi editing in Sonar. I use softsynth patches in the Kompakt player in Finale and Sonar.

Problem is, once I get about 45 patches loaded in Finale I start maxing out my computer. I have a dual core sweetwater creation station with 4 GB's of RAM.

I just wanted to know what you guys recommend for fat projects with lots of tracks and huge softsynths.

Thanks for any replys,

Andy

[jeremy.saenz]

Some guys use slave machines that are dedicated to using kontakt or kompakt. 45-60 tracks is pretty much what you can do with 1 machine these days. So creating a farm of slave machines is not a bad idea for what you want to do. Free finale & Sonar up and try not to put too many softsynths & samplers on your host computer. Just my $0.02;)

[Reegs]

If you go the slave machine route, check out a program by the name of FXTeleport (http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/).

Best,
Reegs

[andyriggle]

So I'd have all my patches on one machine, and use FX Teleport to connect it to the main computer, that has Finale, Sonar and all my project files on it?

How would I change and set patches, and why would that be faster when my system already has 4GB RAM and 2 processors?

Andy

[Haydn]

Are you running out of memory or CPU?

Jim

[klassical]

Once you're in Sonar, you can Freeze your synths. That creates an audio track out of your MIDI track and unloads the softsynth - thus freeing up memory. Look it up in Sonar's Help.

Start by unloading as many softsynth/sample players as you need to, such that the remaining ones play without glitches or crashing Sonar's sound engine.

When you're satisfied that they sound good and are balanced, Freeze them.

Then reload some of the others you unloaded, and do the same to them.

Eventually you will reach a point where everything is playing (some tracks as audio and some as MIDI). Then you can create your final mix.

I've even heard of some people doing this one track at a time!

Finally, do you know about the "3gb switch"? Unless you do, you're only using 2 of your 4gbs. Google it.

- k

[andyriggle]

Actually, that's exactly what I do in Sonar. I just start at the top with the winds, and bounce each to audio after midi editing and combine the articulations and effects to the right track. Then I archive the midi, empty the player, and move through the brass, percussion and strings. Sonar's easy.

It's Finale that's the pain. Toward the middle of a score, when I'm adding the Artillery shell ping, flutter tongue or cool string articulation layer that I get in trouble. I don't want to do any composing when I get to Sonar.

I get a message that my physical memory is running low and it may cause playback problems. And, sure enough it does, even though I've got plenty of RAM and CPU left on the task mgr.

I don't get it.

[jeremy.saenz]

It's not your computer then, it is probably finale. Most applications can only use so many computer resources (e.g. Logic pro 7 uses like a max of 2.75 gigs of ram.) I recommend going the fxteleport route and run kontakt or another sampler on a slave because they can utilize more resources.

This second route may present other problems but you can use only 1 pc.

run finale as well as your sampler as a standalone program, and internally route the midi from finale to your sampler.

[klassical]

I've seen lots of posts about people successfully using FXTeleport, but have no experience with it, myself.

Before you start buying multiple computers, you might try the following:

Use MIDIYoke (free) and run Finale and Sonar at the same time. Configure Finale to output to the various MIDIYoke channels. Configure your MIDI tracks in Sonar to accept input from the same MIDIYoke channels.

This will let you play back your Finale score and hear it played with Sonar. You can then freeze/unfreeze your tracks as needed to hear that all important artillery shell ping. This method will not let you hear everything at once, but it will let you choose what tracks you want on or off as you work.

When you're done, you don't even need to export a MIDI file from Finale. Just Record in Sonar and Play in Finale, and Sonar will record everything into the proper tracks. Since it's just MIDI, you don't even have to have any sound libraries loaded for the recording.