Digital Audio Workstation & MIDI > Sampler Software, Sample CDs, & Sample Libaries
What is your favorite sampler and why!
Protools5LEGuy:
--- Quote from: MacTron on November 05, 2014, 09:05:37 AM ---
This is more complex than measuring poliphony alone. We can have a very amount of polyphony even with the worst sampler, just playing a simple "beep". LOL
--- End quote ---
G5/EXS24/Logic 6.3.2/OSX 10.3.1 review at SOS http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar04/articles/applenotes.htm
--- Quote ---In order to carry out the EXS24 test, I turned to a Harp instrument from the Vienna Symphonic Library (HA_ES, to be specific), which contains 386.7MB of 16-bit samples at 44.1kHz. I used the built-in Core Audio drivers with a buffer size of 512 samples and initially disabled the EXS24's Virtual Memory disk streaming option so the performance of the disk and controller wouldn't impede the processor and system buss's capabilities. In Logic's Arrange window I created a one-bar object that looped indefinitely with a 64-note cluster over the first quarter-note beat, adjusting the tempo of the song until the EXS24's voice indicator reported that 64 stereo voices were playing back continuously.
With 11 instances of EXS24 working flat-out in the same configuration as described in the last paragraph, the first and second CPU meters in Logic showed approximately 95 and 100 percent usage respectively; the User value from OS X's Activity Monitor reported 88 percent. Adding a 12th instance overloaded the system, but even with 11 instances of EXS24, each playing back 64 voices, the total number of stereo voices was 704, which is pretty impressive.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---There's an oft-forgotten option in the EXS24 editor window's preferences that lets you select 32-bit floating-point storage for samples, rather than the 16- or 24-bit integer format of the data as it's stored on a disk. This option offers a huge improvement in terms of performance, since, as discussed last month, Logic's audio system is based around 32-bit floating-point arithmetic. So if the EXS24 sampler stores sample data in a 16- or 24-bit integer format, it has to convert every sample into 32-bit floating-point when retrieving the data from memory. However, when the samples are loaded into memory as 32-bit floating-point, this integer to floating-point conversion isn't necessary — the only downside being that the same instrument will require either twice the memory, or a third more, when the 32-bit floating-point storage option is enabled.
apple performance
Choosing 32-bit floating-point sample storage allowed me to run an incredible 51 instances of EXS24 on the G5 before overloading the system at the 52nd.
In the case of the VSL's 16-bit harp instrument, enabling 32-bit floating-point storage doubled the amount of memory required to 773.4MB — and suddenly the Power Mac G5's 8GB memory limit seemed small again! However, in terms of performance with the same 11 instances of EXS24, Logic's CPU meters dropped to around 25 and 15 percent respectively, with the User value reporting 25 percent. Not bad. In fact, with 32-bit floating-point storage enabled I was able to get 51 instances of the EXS24 sampler playing a total of 3264 voices. At this stage in the experiment, Logic's CPU meters read approximately 100 and 95 percent respectively, and the User value was at 90 percent. Adding a 52nd instance overloaded the system.
After the 32-bit floating-point test, I switched back to 16-bit storage to see the effect of enabling Virtual Memory, so that the samples streamed from disk instead of being wholly stored in memory. However, as you can probably guess, enabling 32-bit floating-point storage makes little difference when the samples aren't stored completely in memory, since they will be read in their native storage format. Virtual Memory was configured with Disk Speed set to Medium and Disk Activity set to Average, requiring a constant RAM allocation of 15.1MB. With this setup, nine instances of EXS24, playing 576 voices, pushed both of Logic's CPU meters to the limit, with a User value of 92 percent, and the system performed better with eight instances playing 512 voices.
Another factor that makes a big difference to the performance of the EXS24 sampler is whether the filter is enabled or not. With 32-bit floating-point storage and Virtual Memory disabled I managed only three instances of the EXS24 sampler (192 voices), each with the filter enabled. In this context, Logic's CPU meters showed approximately 60 and 100 percent usage respectively, with the User value indicating 75 percent. Adding a fourth EXS24 instance with the filter overloaded the system. Enabling 32-bit storage allowed the fourth instance to be added, while adding a fifth overloaded the system. With four instances playing 256 voices, Logic's CPU meters each gave a reading of around 85 percent, with the User value showing 73 percent.
--- End quote ---
In EXS24 you can get more/less instances depending on how you "record" them on the hard drive.
With one instance of sampletank, you could load various instruments, each one with its own poliphony.
--- Quote from: MacTron on November 05, 2014, 07:47:24 AM ---
And In my opinion EXS just can do the job if it is simple... and Sampletank is just a toy.
--- End quote ---
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/totalworkstationxl/
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/philharmonik/
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/xpansiontank/
A good toy... ;D
MacTron:
Protools5LEGuy: any part of your last post is related to Mac Os 9 software? just to avoid losing my time reading it.
Protools5LEGuy:
--- Quote from: MacTron on November 05, 2014, 09:44:14 AM ---Protools5LEGuy: any part of your last post is related to Mac Os 9 software? just to avoid losing my time reading it.
--- End quote ---
It is related to 2 things:
EXS24 working (OS9andX) with samples on 32 bit floating point is easier for the CPU. Also to not use the filter appears as a "trick in the Wall"
Sampletank 2.5/3 family (OSX). Five years ago I had a good library based on sampletank 1 on XP/Protools 6. My drives burned and I lost it and moved to Kontakt 2, but a friend kept using same platform/libraries in XP some more years. There were a lot of "refills" made also for sampletank. And some "pure" sampletank libraries, but I can not find them now. I had more than 20 Gigs of pure sampletank libraries...
Protools5LEGuy:
--- Quote from: MacTron on November 05, 2014, 09:05:37 AM ---
I'll put an theoric example: In the same MDD 1.5 Gb RAM :
All Instruments are 100 Mb each:
Logic plus EXS:
7 instruments with 200 notes of polyphony.
Cubase plus Kontakt:
14 instruments with 100 notes of polyphony.
Cubase plus Halion:
24 instruments with 200 notes of polyphony.
This is why Halion is the winner. And the second is Kompakt. And about EXS, 200 notes of polyphony are useless with just 7 instruments.
--- End quote ---
You make me want to try Logic + Halion... ;D :D
There is also Cubase + EXSP24... Maybe using the 1 Gig Ram trick from DieHard and limiting memory in other way you could use without the freezes/hangs off the system.
MacTron:
--- Quote from: Protools5LEGuy on November 05, 2014, 10:39:56 AM ---EXS24 working (OS9andX) with samples on 32 bit floating point is easier for the CPU. Also to not use the filter appears as a "trick in the Wall"
--- End quote ---
Yes, it is. But this applicable to most of the samplers, especially to Kompakt.
--- Quote ---Sampletank 2.5/3 family (OSX). Five years ago I had a good library based on sampletank 1 on XP/Protools 6. My drives burned and I lost it and moved to Kontakt 2, but a friend kept using same platform/libraries in XP some more years. There were a lot of "refills" made also for sampletank. And some "pure" sampletank libraries, but I can not find them now. I had more than 20 Gigs of pure sampletank libraries...
--- End quote ---
Will be interesting to try out some of this libraries...
--- Quote from: Protools5LEGuy on November 05, 2014, 10:54:50 AM ---You make me want to try Logic + Halion... ;D :D
--- End quote ---
This is not the best thing you can do in Logic, I'm afraid...
--- Quote ---There is also Cubase + EXSP24... Maybe using the 1 Gig Ram trick from DieHard and limiting memory in other way you could use without the freezes/hangs off the system.
--- End quote ---
Logic and EXS easily bite the dust in this area in my opinion. Unless a Logic and EXS user can show us the opposite...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version