Crashes since BM2.5 upgrade
Upgraded from 2.4.8 to 2.5 this weekend on my iPad2 32GB and now BM is crashing all over the place. Sometimes when I load an existing project, sometimes when I add an instrument, when I assign a sample to a new zone, but now it's crashing when I click on the mixer button or even load a song. Can't get two minutes through any workflow before I'm rebooting everything.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Anyone else experiencing this?
Comments
Is anyone else getting this?
Is anyone out there looking into this?
Am planning on upgrading iPads soon anyhow, but does anyone happen to know at what point BM loads samples into memory - is it when the song is loaded, when BM starts up, etc?
"- is it when the song is loaded, when BM starts up, etc?"
Yes, i believe so?.
Loading BM2 itself will use up between 45-60MB RAM at start up for the app.
Once you get into composing, most of the instruments in BM2 load with about 1-2MB of samples behind them into memory when the song is loaded, plus about 1MB for the track itself. Most effects don't make much of a difference but meatier ones like Delays will use up to 2MB. So with say 20 tracks of the default instruments with an effect or two on each you'll end up using up about 110MB of memory. Not a problem for any iPad.
Where it really starts to become a problem is with custom instruments with custom samples. I've loaded about 10GB of samples out of Kontakt, Bluezone and other places into BM2 (not a problem as long as you have the storage capacity). Some of these samples are up to 4MB each so these custom instruments are a little bigger than the defaults. These won't impact memory when you assign them to an instrument, but they will when load the instrument onto a track in a song.
The BIG culprit of the memory issue is custom strings and choirs pulled in from a real sampler. Because the Kontakt library is fully articulated, and BM2 is really flexible for mapping samples to individual keys, I can load up a fully articulated Viola ensemble into BM2 that sounds like the real thing and is truly outstanding to hear. Unfortunately because these are real instrument samples, the big strings are 3-4MB per sample...per key! With 20 samples across a single keyboard I've suddenly got a 90MB instrument loading into memory when I add it to a track. Add some cellos, tenor and bass choirs and I've got 250-300MB going into memory at one time.
This was never an issue before, but since iOS7 is so much hungrier than iOS6 (it now uses up to 240MB just for the OS and associated services) this only leaves about 250MB for BM2, so if I want to use real articulated instruments from a real sampler in BM2 I can, but there's a limit on the little iPad2 which only has 502MB RAM. I can work around by only using 4-5 waves per instrument rather than 20, but I know with an iPad4 or Air I could carry on using plenty of fully articulated instruments without workaround needed. Once you've got real samples in BM2 it suddenly becomes an awesome tool. It's become a true medium for composing on a tablet that's a sh1tload better than anything else out there. I'm sure there are purists out there who'll say it'll never be as good as ProTools or Cubase on a PC etc but I'm willing to argue that anyone who's loaded up true instrument samples from Halion or Kontakt into BM2 is suddenly questioning using any other product again. For better or worse, I've found myself dumping every other product and (iPad2 hardware limitations aside) am solely using BM2 now.
"but I know with an iPad4 or Air I could carry on using plenty of fully articulated instruments"
Its time for a new iPad. You and me both
" dumping every other product and (iPad2 hardware limitations aside) am solely using BM2 now."
Wow i feel the same, and been moving in that direction more every update.
One exception, I do the final mix on another app or PC.