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Hello!

I suspect the machine I'm currently using is just underpowered, but I get a lot of crackling when playing Sampler 1, Sample 3, AU 1 (an alchemy preset) and AU 3 (another alchemy preset) all at the same time. I'm using EigenD 1.1.4 testing at the moment.

Was there anything significant changed in 1.1.5 that'd help out? I couldn't see anything obvious in the release notes. Anything anyone can suggests to fix this?

My Win machine is a better spec - how does the WIn EigenD compare in performance to the Mac one?

A couple of things for what they are worth

My old laptop (2.33G Core 2 duo + 2Gmem) definitely struggles with the larger Alpha Setups. I think it is driven by memory being insufficient for the samples

My MAC Pro (8core / 12GB mem) has no problem. That said, the performance meter seems to indicate it is working quite hard when, in fact, it is not.

m

@Tenebrous, I do seem to remember that 1.1.5 improved performance for me, so I'd definitely upgrade and try it out

Hello, I'm now using 1.1.5 and while it's improved, it still crackles quite a bit.

I've got 6 takes playing (3 samplers, 3 AU) and one drummer voice and the performance meter is sitting at 90% in the red, and every beat starts with a brief crackle.

Occasionally while it's playing like this, if I hold a keygroup mode key you can see the keygroup lights light up gradually instead of in a big block all at once.

Maybe, just maybe, I'm taxing my system a little bit? ;)

Buying 4 gigs is not a biggie, if you know the specifications and what to look for, you can get them for around 80 Euros .
Apple sells the modules so overpriced that makes you laugh (and as you probably know they don’t really produce those modules), if you read the fine print, changing the RAM will not void any warranty and it is a quite straightforward process (even with the unibody units).
I upgraded my macbook pro some months ago when EigenD was in the first versions because I was experiencing some glitches, toke me 5 minutes and I can’t be happier with the results.
Despite my profound dislike for Windows, I don’t know how windows will manage these RAM issues, windows by nature is not very good (historically speaking) managing resources.

Cheers.

Carlos

John,

Would it be possible to create me an Alpha setup with 8 samplers instead of 4 samplers & 4 AU rigs? Or perhaps 6 samplers and 2 AUs? I'm using Factory Alpha Setup 3 mainly in Split 5.

Also, perhaps as an indication as to the (poor) performance of my laptop, it takes 4 mins 50 seconds to load EigenD ;) This is where it loads straight into my Alpha user setup.

I also did a little bit of testing and it appears to only get a performance hit if multiple instruments are triggered at exactly the same time. e.g., if I select 4 instruments and record the same phrase on all 4 at the same time, it crackles. If I record the 4 instruments seperately (albeit with the same phrase) it seems quite happy to play them back at the same time. Presumably because I couldn't hit the notes exactly at the same time all 4 times. I also get a big crackle when the current bar I'm recording ends and it starts playing the phrase I just recorded. All the crackles are accompanied with a jump in the performance indicator.

Thanks,
Tene

Sounds like a few adjustments to EigenD should soften the impact of this problem - a more sophisticated interface to the recorder agent ought to cure the problem of having to load a sound font more than once to play several phrases with it, and control over the size of the setups ought to help (ie you could make a setup with a couple of samplers and nothing else for quick loading and low memory footprint).

I've also experienced some of the glitches at the start/end point of loops that Tenebrous describes - you can hear an example in both of my videos on youtube. It seems to affect just the first loop playback, when it comes round again it is seamless. Is there some kind of pre-caching or pre-emptive loading that could be done by an extra thread? Ie so that EigenD has some lookahead and can tell a bar or two in advance when it is going to experience a spike in CPU load or memory bandwidth, and can do as much work as possible in advance? (limited by availability of spare resources without causing further glitches and the inability to perform time-travel of course...!)