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Questions about samples vs RAM & CPU usage

peterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeter
in General

I just loaded in a 10 mb sample and chopped it up to 32 slices and saved it to separate pads. It seams the ram loads the same sample 32 times, one time for each pad. Is that really necessary? It uses the same sample, just with different start and end points.

A also wonder if there's any downside to not save slices to separate pads and insted just let the slice button be on? This way it wont eat up the ram.

"Stream from disk" saves the ram, but does it eat up CPU or have any other downsides?

Keep up the good work! :)

Comments

  • LucidMusicIncLucidMusicInc
    I've got a bank of about 64 pads chopped from one sample. I'm pretty sure once the bank is saved there's no problem in terms of RAM. The big RAM eaters tend to be excessive Reverb and Delay effects I believe.
  • peterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeter

    Ok cool. Is it a bug or why would the ram counter in the app say I use 32 times more ram?

  • LucidMusicIncLucidMusicInc
    All I can suggest is to adjust your latency to 512 for the best performance. Turn off other processes like apps, wifi etc.
  • peterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeter
    edited July 2017

    But I have no real problem for now. Just wondering why BM3 is telling me it uses huge amount of ram for one sample, no processing, no effects, no apps running in the background etc. Just slices of one sample across the pads.

    I cant work with latency of 512 when recording patterns. Thats why I ask about the most efficient way to handle samples so I can avoid to rise the latency :)

  • vincentvincent

    Hello there,
    When you use the sample with different start/end points, BeatMaker will load the sample only once.
    I confirm the RAM meter displays the wrong info there.

    Slice to pads vs Slice to layer(s) vs Slice mode is your preference:
    Slice to pads: you can change more parameters for individual slice. (one channel/sampler/layer per slice)
    Slice mode: Easier to change slices, takes one pad only, can activate small fade out, can activate the trigger offset mode (in polyphony)

    Slicing to layer or layers is a bit more subtle but it deactivates slice mode just like slice to pads.

    Streaming from disk definitely saves some RAM on long samples.
    What it does exactly is loading just a small amount of the sample at its start point, plays that while progressively loading the rest of the sample.
    So yes it uses a bit more CPU, and if you use it with small samples(slices), it doesn't save that much RAM.
    Other downsides are you cannot use REVERSE and Crossfade options in Streaming mode (for now at least).

    Thank you for the feedback !
    Hope this helps,
    Cheers,
    Vincent.

  • peterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeter

    Allright! Thanks Vincent!

  • peterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeterpeter

    I have one more very important question: will the samples thats set to "stream from disk" take any cpu or any kind of power if theyre not triggered? Say I want to have a bank full of drum samples and loops to quickly find the ones that fit the current project instead of scrolling the browser and load every single one theyre allready in the bank so I can just hit the pads. It would be stupid to have hundreds of samples loaded and slowing the processor down, but if they just sits in the bakground it would make sense to always have banks full of samples set to stream from disk. Ready to use whenever.

  • LucidMusicIncLucidMusicInc
    @peterpeterpeterpeter you should experiment and see for yourself. I'm sure it would be fine but you can see what the cpu usage would be in the settings page. i don't think you'll have any issues because with today's processing power, music apps aren't that cpu intensive anyway, compared to games and video editing.
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