EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

At 09:00 AM 1/29/02 +0100, you wrote:
> >>>
> >> I have been told by french support that exs will do streaming too with 
> logic
> >> audio 5.
> >
> >
> > I'm glad to hear that. Streaming is certainly a big step in the right
> > direction. But it's not only about streaming for me, there are also some
> > other very important things. Being able to read the giga library, which
> > means also the ability to build patches with switchable layers for
> > different articulations.
>
>I do not agree!! Streaming takes much more power from your CPU then memory.
>So now, my samples are loaded in RAM and, but when it will become streaming,
>there is less power for native instruments! And what about the audio tracks?
>They are streamed too remember. No, I hope EXS stays in RAM, really that's
>the best way to do it, and RAM is cheap.

The best solution would be to incorporate both. Remember, the real 
definition of "streaming" (at least good streaming) is to take a small 
portion of the wave and put it to memory (as a buffer, somewhat), and then 
switch over to the disk stream if needed. THAT'S the tricky part.

As a contrast, VSampler streams, but it takes the whole thing off the disk, 
and does not do any memory buffering. I believe there's a switch for this - 
it won't do it if you don't want to.

Anyway, Giga has a fixed amount of buffer (I think 2 seconds or so), while 
with HALion you can modify this. In Giga you can't turn the streaming off - 
in HALion I don't know. Perhaps if you set the buffer to a high enough 
margin it will do things entirely in memory (provided you don't lean on a 
key for eternity). Even so, there's CPU resources taken up measuring the 
time needed in which to buffer.

I hope emagic provides an option for both - but:

Giga and HALion have proved to be very efficient with streaming - lot's of 
voices, very stable. Don't believe everything you hear of newsgroups, etc. 
There are many many success stories - you just don't hear them as often.

It may take more CPU resources - but if you got plenty of it (re: 1.6gHz 
P4), who cares? You can buy a system with that type of power for a song 
these days. Cut your load times by 1200%? That's a good deal!


Garth Hjelte
Sampler User