At Cinesamples Mike and I receive at least 4-5 emails a week with regards to our templates and what libraries and gear we are using. Many of those questions also ask what is the correct way to maximize the computers you have and ask us to advise the customer on new gear purchases.

So here is the classic question; “How do I get the most out of my computer(s)?”

Ready for the answer? ……Well it depends………

Well of course…..it depends.

As you might of guessed, there is no easy answer to this question – but perhaps in this article I can point you in the right direction and possibly give you enough information for you to decide how to proceed. Since I am a mac user and a logic user this is what I am going to concentrate on, although I will add my knowledge of other utilities where I find it appropriate.

Let’s start with OSX.

hey! Yes You! …..Why the hell are you always following me around?!

It’s easy to forget that everything you have runs off of your operating system. You must take great care of it, baby it, stroke it, comb it, clean it, lube it. First off why don’t you open everything you normally have open Firefox, Quicktime, Transmit, Mail, iChat, Itunes (all the things you have open right now) and then open your Activity Monitor and marvel at how much space it is all taking up. It’s actually silly how much memory Firefox can take up when you have a bunch of tabs open. So if you want performance first off get rid of all that crap when you are composing (or at least bouncing). If you are serious about getting power from your mac(s) then you must think of your computer(s) as dedicated music computers.

• - For more tips on Optimizing your OSX check here:
• - Download Onyx and use it weekly. Uncheck all the audio boxes just in case though.
• - Install i-stat menus to monitor your CPU activity

Keep your hard drives clean and with lots of free space and turn off all background apps (Spotlight – especially for Pro Tools Rigs, Auto Updates etc..) and now you are ready to proceed. You might get an extra 20-40 percent perfomance this way.

When in doubt reboot it out, after cleaning you may notice faster boot times – so be sure to save the Earth and power off every evening.

Our salvation lies within one, yet one whom is not known to us.

Our dream, well at least my dream, is to use one program on one computer and have it host everything I possibly need (sequencing, samples, reverbs, video, stems, etc..). You may here this referred to as the 1 box approach, it is the holy grail of media composers. No external midi, no external audio, 1 file to manage and thus 1 software hosting all, 1 set of displays, comp keys etc… However for most of us our need for computer power is just too great to have this be a viable method. The advantages of the one box method however are supreme in regards to ease of use and file management however the stresses on the computer and especially the software! is great.

After browsing the top of the line mac pros at apple you may be surprised to find out that the one computer approach is still problematic. However at this point the hardware people have long surpassed the software people. The biggest problem we are facing at this point is that the world’s most popular sequencer (Apple Logic) can only access around 4 GB of Ram at any time. So even if you have 32 Gigs of Ram on your new shiny mac pro logic is only using 4 GB (Physical + Virtual Memory). What’s even worse is that logic’s performance greatly degrades as you reach the 4GB point – to the point where it is unusable. You may have witnessed the error message – in fact if you are reading this and use logic I bet you have!
Now staying within logic only for a moment there are some tricky things one can do to squeeze more juice out of it.

1. Stack the EXS24 and stack it hard. The EXS24 has the ability to access external RAM outside of logic and infact is very good at doing so. All you have to do is tweak the Virtual Memory settings within the exs24 – set it for more EXS24 instances and you are in business. Ready for the catch? You can think of this memory is extra bonus memory only after you cross a certain threshold. What I mean to say is that only the EXS24 goes external and only after a point. So if you add a Chan EQ and a Space Designer that stays internal, and thus contributes to the 4GB wall. This method is practicable only for people who use lots of EXS24 and nothing else (well that excludes most of us right there). Either way its good to tweak these settings as needed so I am glad you now know about them.
2. Eat till your full, puke a little bit, and then come back for more. (On a side note I actually did this at a fantastically delicious Thanksgiving a few years ago when I just wasn’t ready to give up eating all the amazing food even though my stomach said no.)

Regarding choice 2 – a friend of mine told me about this little trick for those of us who use logic the normal way (not exclusively exs24). The trick is you fill up logic all the way till you get the error message of death. Then you save and quit logic, load it back up and you get a bit more room. Load it up again, get the message, then rinse and repeat. The basic idea is that each time logic opens it loosens some more memory which you can then fill with new stuff. This method might get you out of a jam in an emergency but seems like an exceedingly annoying way to work and I expect there are diminishing returns to this method. I also don’t like pushing logic around to live around that error message because you are more likely to crash when doing anything.

In general Apple Logic works less and less efficiently the closer you are to the memory wall, don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise!   So if those either of those methods work for you – then you can stop reading right now! If not continue on.

“Please sir, may I have some more?”

Now in general there are two ways to work as a composer, you are either template based or not template based. You either have the majority of your sounds loaded when you begin or you add them as you go. There are advantages to both, however the more complex your music gets the more you usually need to have a template to be efficient with your time. Most of us switch back and forth or have several templates, its mostly a work flow thing. However their usually comes a point where you have exhausted your sequencer’s ram allocation and musically have new elements to add. Now you must turn elsewhere at this point so lets explore the options:

1. If your sequencer computer has more power not being used then figure a way to use that
2. If your sequencer computer is full you must use an external device (like another computer most likely)

Each has their strength’s and weaknesses (and expenses for that matter) Lets start with #1.

If you have a mac pro, especially a later version, you are usually going to have power (Processing Power and Memory). As I see it this is where two fantastic, no brainer, must have, will die without, applications must be used – Bidule and Kontakt 3.5+.

Bidule and why you need to own it.

The best thing to come from Canada since Mark Messier.

Plogue Bidule is a very efficient and trustworthy VST/AU sample hosting software and it is cheap! I have had it for many years now and it is the best money I ever spent in the studio – it just works and thats a matter of fact.
There are three ways to run Bidule. Now referring to the above scenario (trying to use extra power left over in your sequencing computer) only the first two options below apply. The third belongs to the #2 category above.

1. (Choice A) On your sequencing computer use Bidule in addition to Logic via rewire mode. . Midi data and audio data is automatically handled by Rewire.
2. (Choice B) On your sequencing computer use Bidule in stand alone method in addition to Logic and figure out a way to pump it midi in and get audio out.
3. (Choice C) Use Bidule on it’s own computer running by itself and figure out a way to send it midi and get audio out.

Now of course there is no easy answer here so lets quickly go through the pros and cons of each of the scenarios.

OPTION A

Option A is convenient because of the Rewire protocol which automatically sets up the Midi transfer and Audio routing. The big problem is you only can access about 2 GB more of data and only have access to one core of your processor (which really sucks if you have 8 cores!). Additionally I have found in my own research that Rewire uses the core farthest to the right which often comes into direct conflict with the cores used by altiverb or the 1 core used during Logic’s Live entry – any software track record enabled is routed live through one core during not entry. Therefore, unless you only need a touch of light cpu, extra room option A is useless.  However this is the method my friend Mike Patti uses for his mac pro and it works very well, for some reason,  with Digital Perfomer. You may have watched his video on his own bidule template.

OPTION B

Option B can work rather well for some people – be sure to have Rewire turned off in Bidule of course. The big advantage is you get access to another roughly 4GB of memory (same as logic) and all of the processing cores (which really works well for Kontakt – to be explained later). Now getting midi data into Bidule from logic is not that bad – you can use something like IAC Midi on your mac to do it the bigger problem is getting audio off. Here is where I recommended hard wire routing your audio back into logic rather then using a software audio router (like Soundflower). Remember the more software you use the more it will slow you down. I have used a MOTU 2408 mk3 and set all the audio going out of Bidule into ADAT and then used aux inputs in logic to listen to it. The problem is that the processing cores in bidule do not coordinate at all with the cores in Logic so you are likely to get some collisions and drop outs.

Now before I go option C – which is an example of choice 2 above (using a different computer) – lets discuss more about Native Instrument’s Kontakt 3.5.

“Does it come in pink?”

There is not a single valid excuse for not owning this software. However you don’t want any old version of it you want version 3.5 or greater (3.5 works VERY well! – so perhaps don’t upgrade it at all). Aside from being the best sampler no questions asked – Kontakt 3.5 + (only) has an option that saves the day in terms of memory – Memory server. Whenenabled Kontakt is able to access free memory outside of your sequencer and place samples there – with no catches, its just amazing. Also Kontakt uses disk streaming meaning that for most kontakt instruments only a relatively small amount needs to go take up your valuable ram space – the rest is streamlined into your , critically well maintained, hard drives. It’s a double whammy. With this tool you can load up a MASS of samples onto your computer. It’s really the only way to fly these days.

So whether you are using Kontakt within logic or within bidule or in standalone you have access to the majority of the RAM on your computer.
I am not going to discuss using Kontakt within Logic as that can turn into a flame fest really fast (there are “issues” with how best to handle Kontakt and other multi timbrals in logic). But Kontakt with memory server + bidule is a fantastic way to efficiently store samples, this is your best option to date, try and keep Kontakt samples out of logic for your own sanity.

To best use Kontakt try and keep your samples off the system drive (OSX) and keep them spread out as much as possible on different internal hard drives. Additionally try and get rid of the big patches (most premium libraries unfortunately need to commit rather high amounts of samples directly to the RAM to make them scriptable) that aren’t being used to free up more resources.

However you can count on bigger patches being the norm for years to come (which means once again we need more and more RAM!).

Now regarding Option 2 and stand alone rigs:

Lets say you have two decent macs (say a mac pro and an intel G5 or Imac) to compose music on. What I recommended (which at first seems to make little sense) is to use your best possible computer to turn into a sample hosting computer only and use your second mac to host Logic. A mac pro (sadly?) is used best when not hosting a sequencer and just hosting samples. In this regard in can host a TON of samples very well with little drop outs. You will be surprised how efficiently logic can run, with little to nothing loaded, on a second and inferior computer.
If you use bidule to host a ton of full kontakt instances (of course with memory server) you can load just about everything you need on your mac pro and let your Imac host logic. Now you should use Midi Over Lan to get midi from Logic into the samples computer and use ADAT (audio interface) to get audio from the samples computer to Logic. Both are set and forget and never have problems if set up correctly.

Now with regards to multiple PC, mac mini farms, think on this. Witch each new computer you must figure out a new way to get midi on and audio off, you have to worry about getting new licenses of your software, you have to figure out ways to hook up displays and keyboards, (or sharing devices), clocking issues – it can become a total drag and surprisingly a great expense . The cost of 2 farm computers could be the same as 1 pimped out mac pro, and the mac pro should trump it performance wise in most cases.

So in conclusion, when looking to expand your rig:

Ask yourself first what exactly do I need to accomplish? What is my budget? What do I have in terms of existing software and hardware – what can be (re)used? Can I use my main DAW as a sample server and spend less on a sequencing host computer? Can I do anything out of the box to get the same results.
quick closing thoughts.

• -In general I have never heard of anyone loading more then 16GB of samples on even the best macs.
• -Use transmit to use 1 keyboard and mouse between multiple macs (it’s free).
• -Only buy what you are comfortable with, if you are a mac guy try and stay with macs if you makes you feel better. Feeling good is a huge component here. Remember in general when you start mixing operating systems things get more complex.
• -Keep it simple, the simplest solution is usually the best -3rd party software (like altiverb especially) can QUICKLY eat your computer for lunch try and use only what’s needed
• -Use Hardware Audio Interfaces unless you are positive
• -Trial and Error is huge here, you are going to have gather information and use the data the best you can (there is no right or wrong really)
• -Workflow is huge! Respect it. What good is the best machine or software, if you cannot or don’t know how to, use it
• -If your rig is stable DO NOT update – who cares if the new itunes (which requires an update) does something really sexy
• -Use a gigabit ethernet network with high quality cables (don’t skimp out on this – it is important)
• -Take notes/screenshots when you get things working (some day you will use them)

3 Responses to “Maximizing Your DAW”

1. Jay Asher Says:
   November 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

   I would have agreed with all of this several months ago, but since then Vienna Ensemble Pro has been released and IMHO, it is a game changer. While Plogue Bidule is indeed useful, Vienna Ensemble Pro is a much better solution for supplemental hosting with Logic Pro foreverything except Play, which presently will not work on it..
   1 You can run it on the same computer and/or a second computer with only an ethernet cable required
   2. It has both 64 bit and 32 bit servers.
   3. It requires no ADAT loopback, ptching, Soiubndflower or IAC buss, MOL, to send audio and MIDI to the host.
   4. It is a more elegant GUI where you can see what is going on regarding levels etc. much more easily..

2. MikeBarry Says:
   November 19th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

   Hey Jay – I would be interested to read an article on the pros/cons of VE pro vs bidule (with logic and kontakt and PLAY)

3. samir el borno Says:
   November 26th, 2009 at 3:38 pm

   Hey Mike,
   I really appreciate yours and Mike Pattis tutorials and tips on making orchestral templates. Regarding to your interest in pros/cons of VE check out this thread about VE Pro http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=244169&sid=82d41287ab57ad6d05a9619697d97ca4 . i am testing VE Pro on my new Mac Pro Octo and it works flawlessly so far. You will like the preserve function.

   regards from munich

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