Computer crashes with full SATB choir even with 4 gigs of RAM! Help!

[talkingdog]

Hey guys,

My computer has problems when I try and play a single phrase running Digital Performer 4.52 and Word Builder (when trying to play an SATB choir using 4 instances of Kompakt, and also when using 2 instances of Kontakt 2). When using Kompakt, everything seemed to be routed correctly (ie: I'm getting all the right words in each of the parts, and when I play them back soloed, each individual part does what I want it to without lagging or skipping consonants) But when I play them all together my computer can't keep up and sounds choppy. When I tried running it with two instances of Kontakt 2, the program crashed completely and 'Unexpectedly Quit'. I have four gigabytes of memory, and upon keeping tabs on my memory, I apparently still have 1.7 gigs left, yet it still cuts out quite badly/crashes.

I'm running a Powermac G5 with Panther as the OS. If anyone can let me know what I'm doing wrong, or what I can do to fix this I would really appreciate it!! Thank you so much.

[Sam Fischmann]

Hello,

You can try increasing your latency (or buffer size) during playback to get better performance. If that doesn't work, you may want to try loading the N patches, or close mics which don't have release trails to save memory and processing power.

Even in the manual it suggests that running each of the four voices simultaneously may be more than your computer can handle. Try working with two voices at a time.

As a point of interest, you may also want to look at the FAQ (http://support.soundsonline.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=41&id=25&artlang=en). If you're getting error messages, this would be why.

Do you have all of the latest updates?

-Sam

[talkingdog]

Hey Sam,

Thanks so much for responding. I do indeed have all the updates. I tried making the buffer size bigger and that didn't help the 2 instances of Kontakt crash, but upon loading a close mic sample in my 4 instances of kompakt, and adjusting the buffer size (don't know if it was a combination of both of them or just one of them), the close mic samples playback fine, and don't max out the memory! Thanks a lot! If you have any other suggestions aside from what you've already given for the 2 instances of Kontakt situation, that would be great, but now I can play back my SATB choir wonderfully using the 4 instances of kompakt. Thanks!

[Sam Fischmann]

Yeah, basically your computer was getting totally strapped for RAM, and couldn't handle the workload. My suggestion would be to work with the close mic patches. When you're ready to bounce to audio, select the full mic position, and bounce one or two at a time (so that you can get those beautiful release trails). Import the audio into the mix, and set the ouput of your instrument tracks to none (which is a handy way of disabling a plugin completely in DP)

If you finalize your mix as audio, the bonus is that you'll now have a great choir sound, and all your processing power free to go plugin/automation wild!

-Sam

[SOJO7]

Sounds like you could use a faster CPU...

[tchoyy]

This makes me think that actually, It seems better, unless you've got the most powerfull computer in this planet, to run Wordbuilder as a standalone, and using either midiyoke or the default mac system.. it seems it is more memory safe.

Following the faq and what Sam explained me * I consider working under windows * , you load 2 midi track for one voice. The first midi track is sending midi datas to wordbuilder which runs in standalone, you send those midi informations via midiyoke, then wordbuilder send those midi informations back to your sequencer via another port directly to the second midi track which is connected to SC VST.

So, when you record a voice with your midi keyboard in the first track, it writes the second track but with specific informations, the second track doesn't look like the first, it is the wordbuilder midi traduction.
When I playback, I mute the first track which is useless and let play only the second track which uses ONLY SC VST.
I do that for each voice so that I can play the full SATB at once time ! I seems it uses less memory since you don't need anymore wordbuilder when you playback.

What boring is that you have to load 4 wordbuilder as standalone. I bought Kontakt2, I'll study that to find a quicker solution, maybe by using the male and female choirs in SC that work only with K2.

well, I hope someone understood what I tried to write in spite of my poor english :D

[Sam Fischmann]

Yup, that's true. If you record a return MIDI track from WordBuilder, you can eliminate WordBuilder from the equation altogether when bouncing, and just send the track's MIDI straight to Symphonic Choirs.

-Sam