SURVEY: Loading a full orchestra of instruments - revisited

[Tom Hopkins]

In a recent thread at http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=001427;p=2 I listed a full orchestra of instruments which I had loaded into 1GB of RAM on my system. Others indicated that they were unable to duplicate my results on their systems. I gave a detailed step-by-step listing of the RAM usage for each instrument in that load along with the RAM usage for the OS and sequencer.

I was talking to Alan Lastufka last night and we may have bumped into a clue concerning the difference in instrument loading characteristics between systems with equal amounts of RAM. We noticed that each instrument was consuming approximately twice as much RAM on his system as on mine. The only obvious difference between Alan’s system and mine is the type of RAM being used. I’m using DDR PC2700 and he is using RDRAM Rambus PC1066. His RAM is 4 channel. He is also using 768MB of RAM compared to my 1GB but this is irrelevant to the issue of load size per instrument.

Let’s try a little survey: Try loading the following instruments and check the instrument size readout in the player (below the “Keyrange” box). The readout should be the same as given below (these readings represent the actual size of the instruments):

French horn 2 Solo – 13MB
Steinway Piano Duo1 - 124.15MB

Alan got close to double these readings with his system. See what you get and please identify the type of RAM in your system. With enough information here we may be able to narrow the field of likely suspects. Thanks.

Tom

[Garritan]

Alan,

There may be a reason why you are getting twice the RAM Usage.

In the Kontakt Player, under Options, there is a button called \"Auto Convert Samples to 32 bit\". If this is activated it will convert all samples to high resolution 32 bit format - which will double the size of the samples. See if this is switched on and if so switch it off and see if your RAM usage goes back to normal. Everyone else with a similar issue should check this setting.

Gary Garritan

[dnortana]

HI Tom,

My load sizes are identical to yours on both studio computers.

My Windows XP machine: DDR (SDRAM) PC 2700.
My Mac OSX machine: SDRAM.

Trond

[Tom Hopkins]

I just checked Gary’s suggestion about the 32 bit option and I’m pretty sure he has nailed the problem. When I activated the option in my system I was able to exactly duplicate the readings Alan was getting on his system. I’m glad the probable solution had nothing to do with RAM type – that would have been a thorny situation. Moral of the story: Keep that 32 bit option turned off if you want to load lots of instruments.

Tom

[Alan Lastufka]

Thanks guys, I will try this when I get home (at a friend\'s right now) and see if this solves the problem we were running into last night Tom.

If so, then I will be able to load up enough instruments at once to knock out that new demo I talked to you guys about...

Hope this works, thanks again!

[nexus]

My only question is: What\'s it there for? If the original samples aren\'t 32 bit, then your not lacking anything turning it off, so what gives?

Is this supposed to have an effect on dynamic range or something? I\'ve looked at my Kontakt 1.2 and can\'t find this setting.

Might be better then to just eliminate this from the player in the next update to avoid confusion....

[kstevege]

Originally posted by nexus:
My only question is: What\'s it there for? If the original samples aren\'t 32 bit, then your not lacking anything turning it off, so what gives?

Is this supposed to have an effect on dynamic range or something? I\'ve looked at my Kontakt 1.2 and can\'t find this setting.

Might be better then to just eliminate this from the player in the next update to avoid confusion....

<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Yes, I would like to know if turning off 32 bit option makes a noticeable difference.

[Alan Lastufka]

I\'ve turned it off and it fixed the loading problems I was having, without ANY difference in sound as far as my ears could tell.

For those looking for the option to check and make sure it is turned off, click on the little options button under the big LOAD button, it is the first choice on the left-hand side.

[kbaccki]

Just lurking. I don\'t own GPO, but I might soon...

Converting the samples to 32-bit \"high resolution\" format up front (on instrument load) means that the audio engine doesn\'t have to do the conversion at runtime. Most softsynth/sampler/sequencer will run at \"high resolution\" internally -- say 32-bit floating point -- which allows for greater precision in mixing, DSP, etc.

Of course, the dynamic range of the samples themselves is still 16-bit, so it will sound exactly the same.

I don\'t know this for a fact, but I suspect that\'s what the option is for -- to squeeze a few extra cycles out of the player at the expense of extra RAM.

- Keith

[audiopHoBic]

According to last month\'s Sound On Sound magazine, running your sampler in 32bit mode does indeed mean that the CPU does not have to convert down to 24/16bit on the fly, which in turn results in a lower CPU drain - they were able to almost halve the CPU load on a test G5 by doing this. Of course it\'s at the expense of your RAM. Of which they had 8Gb... Nice work if you can get it!

Andy