EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Mark Lewno wrote:
> I thought I'd read someplace that Platinum 5.x added multiproc support for
> macs.  I'm thinking this was in the 5.0 addenda manual.  Maybe I was just
on
> crack and it only applies to DSP plugins..

Well, multi CPU support for Macs actually is there, but it only does apply
to a few things:
- Live Inputs.
- Active (selected in the arrange) virtual instrument tracks.
- Graphics.

... and eventually some MIDI handling, but I am not sure about that.

Actually, there's been some trick posted to get more juice out of your Dual
CPU machine; In case you have a spare output/input on your soundcard (even
better if it allows for internal rerouting), you could setup a bus/send to
that free output and reroute it to the free input. That input should then
run into an input object. Now you could set up, say, a reverb on the insert
of that input object => this reverb will be handled by the second CPU now.
Sure, there's some additional latency, but in the case of a reverb it
shouldn't matter that much as usually you have some predelay anyways - just
reduce the predelay by the amount of your latency x2 (1x in, 1x out).

> At any rate, I haven't ran into any EXS related headroom problems on my
dual
> 800, but then again I'm probably not pushing it as hard as some of you
are.
>
> I'll typically have 8-10 instances of EXS24 in a given piece.  I don't
know
> if that's more or less than everyone else or not..

It all depends on a) the amount of voices your using and b) if the filter is
on/off. From what I know, multiple instances of the EXS share the same
graphical resources, so opening a second instance makes close to no
difference.

> I DO know that the memory manager add in thing seems to work very well.

Well, that's all about RAM and audio drive performance, doesn't affect the
CPU at all - well, at least theoretically it shouldn't, assuming you've got
proper audio drives (ATA 100/133 protocol or SCSI) not putting any burden on
your CPU per se.

Btw, if you have loads of RAM or if the EXS/VSM thing is working properly on
your machine, you should in ANY case switch internal "sample storage" to
"32bit float" in the EXS preferences - reduces CPU usage by a fairly
noticeable amount!

Cheers,
Sascha