First Test results for the Vienna Instruments on Mac

[Paul]

First Vienna Instruments Stress Test results on Mac OS X

So here they are, the first official test results with the new Vienna Instruments as Audio Units on Mac.
As on the PC platform, we have tested the Vienna Instruments on various computers and doublechecked on similar machines. All computers are fully equipped DAW´s that are used in everyday studio work, no additional tuning.

More tests are in the works, with different processors and hosts. Test results for the Quad will be released as well, we expect more Vienna Instruments to be loaded with maximum amount of RAM.

The limit of RAM usage is about 2.8 GB for the Vienna Instruments in a computer equipped with 4 GB RAM, that translates to 47000 samples.

The testing routine: Play a (really stressy!) stress test song with different loading options (more instruments, less RAM, and the other way around). All instruments are playing all the time, using all kinds of matrices and patches, and of course including additional MIDI data like ModWheel and different assigned sliders.

You always see the maximum Vienna Instruments possible in the given setup without any sonic trouble.

TEST COMPUTER 1

Processor: G5, 2 x 2.5 GHz,
Ram: 4 GB
OS 10.4.2
Data storage: Firewire 800
Host application: Logic 7.1.1
Soundcard: RME HDSP MADI with 648 MADI Interface

Latency at 512 Samples (12ms) / 2.5 GB Ram usage
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 24 (CPU 90%)
Maximum Samples loaded: 45000
Maximum polyphony: 300 stereo voices / (CPU 70%)

Latency at 256 Samples (6 ms) / 1.74 GB Ram usage
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 23 (CPU 70%)
Maximum polyphony: 200 stereo voices / (CPU 75%)

TEST COMPUTER 2

Processor: iMac G5 single, 1.8 GHz,
Ram: 2 GB
OS 10.4.5
Data storage: Firewire 400
Host application: Logic 7.1
Soundcard: Built in Audio

Latency at 512 Samples (12ms) / 1.08 GB Ram usage
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 11 (CPU 85%)
Maximum Samples loaded: 17400
Maximum polyphony: 250 stereo voices / (CPU 80%)

Latency at 256 Samples (6 ms) / 1 GB Ram usage
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 9 (CPU 85%)
Maximum polyphony: 160 stereo voices / (CPU 80%)

[julian]

Paul,

Thanks for the tests. Might be worth you trying OS 10.4.5 and Logic 7.2 as I believe there were improvements to Core Audio and firewire support over earlier OS's. Also is your QuickTime the latest (7.04) as this can have a bearing.

Could you also do a column on Load times with various configurations so we can have some sort of benchmark to fault find with.

Thanks

Julian.

[Paul]

I will do my best, and feel free, everybody to post results (possibly even in the same format) here, too.

As Christian Teuscher is already busy programming the next version, I will do these tests with the optimized AU version.

Best, Paul

[thomas wolter]

paul,

how do you get the 24 instances work?

my G5 (2x2,0 GHz, 6 GB Ram, RME DIGI 96, firewire 800 data storage, OS 10.4.5 / logic pro 7.1.1) takes me min. 6 minutes to load the first instance of vienna instruments. the next one take 1 minute loading time and so on with the following instances ...

that´s a lot time!

then i tried to load the first matrix preset (solo violin, level 2 B <11 VI Perf-Legato Speed) and the following error occured:

"Syncrosoft Lizemz Kontrolle - Fehler
Applikation "DigitalContentProtection" hat den folgenden fehler verursacht: 1"

yesterday i had the same trouble ...

do you think it is a logic problem?

cheers

thomas

[Paul]

Hi Thomas,

the loading time will be optimized with the next version.

We had no problems in Logic so far. Do you get this error on the standalone version also?

Best, Paul

[thomas wolter]

thanks paul.

i´ve got the thing working!

... repaired the HD permissions and startet logic with a default song.

... deleted the preferences data of VI
... reinstalled and rescanned VI app. + disk manager

so, everything seems working ...

But, saved a logic song with 12 instances,
the reload spends 23 minutes !!

hope, the update will fix this ....

best, thomas

[Jack Weaver]

Paul,

I might have missed this in another posting, but how long before version 2 of the AU?

I'd like to have an idea of the emotional investment I need to make in the slower loading times of the current AU before the new one arrives.

Thanks,

Jack

[Paul]

Hi,

I can only say, as soon as possible, I know that our development team is working on it, 24-7.

As soon as inhouse testing is done and everything works fine, it will be released.

Sorry that I can´t be any more precise...

Thanks, Paul

[JWL]

Thanks so much for the Mac report!! This is very exciting indeed.

I was a little confused about whether "maximum loaded" meant the same as "maximum loadable". These can mean different things, but because of the high CPU percentages, I'll take these to be the most that is reasonably allowed. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

With that sorted out, I'd like to know if having more RAM improves performance or in what ways having, say, 8 GB RAM in a G5 2 x 2.5 would have any significant impact on how VI would function.

I REALLY appreciated the extremely realistic and "stressy" systems and criteria for these tests.

Great job, Paul!!

[ds_silberstein.de]

hi all,

an am. question: is it possible to run "VIENNA INSTRUMENTS 01 SOLO STRINGS"(VI01) on a powerbook 12" 867 MHZ / 1.128 GB RAM / 10.4.3 / LogicPro 6.4.1 ? for instance, is it possible to write a single voice VI01 on one instruments track, freeze this and then go on to the next voice ? if yes, how many voices, in the foresaid environment, would then be possible ?

thanks for all, regards,

bastian

[cm]

i remember an *inofficial report* (this was just an installation test) with a powerbook aluminium 1.1 GHz 2GB RAM - 1 instance of ViennaInstruments running well, although the number of stereo voices and CPU usage has not been checked in detail.
867 MHz is basically below our system requirements - it might work though if you handle it with care ....
christian

[Paul]

Hi JWL,

I will give you updates on different tests we´re running right now.

Basically you can load 2.7 GB of RAM, the more extra RAM, the better for your computer.

Let´s see what the future brings, I´m excited, too.

Best, Paul

[charl]

Soundcard: RME HDSP MADI with 648 MADI Interface

Did you ever consider how much this was taxing your system?

We had a RME HDSP MADI pci, and the resources it taxed were huge.
Even if you only use a single stereo pair as your output, the card will tax the full resources it needs for ALL of it's outputs.
I don't think the driver ap has changed this since we had this problem and decided to revert back to our earlier Interface. At the time we were running on a G4 dual 1250...

We actually switched back to a RME 8 pci to free resources and kept this in the G5...

Anyho, Just a thought.

Thanx for thoses tests Paul.

Looking forward to the AU update..

[JWL]

@Paul said:

Hi JWL,

I will give you updates on different tests we´re running right now.

Basically you can load 2.7 GB of RAM, the more extra RAM, the better for your computer.

Let´s see what the future brings, I´m excited, too.

Best, Paul

Hi Paul! Thanks for the info. I'm finally making headway with my installation and will watch closely for your updates for the sake of comparison.

cheers,
JWL

[Guy Bacos]

Eummm! What's an instance? [*-)]

[Vagn Luv]

Say, in logic u open 3 VIs, then u have 3 instances. Instantiating merely means opening a plugin on a channel.

F.ex, I can run 12 VI instances before my CPU runs out of juice. [:)]

[julian]

@Guy said:

Eummm! What's an instance? [*-)]

Computer slang for (in this case) a plug-in opened within a DAW.

Open 6 VSL plug-ins in 6 instrument channels in Logic and hey presto you have 6 "instances"

Julian

[Guy Bacos]

Vagn Luv and Julian, thanks for that "instant" explanation. [:)]

[Felix Bartelt]

Hi Paul, I dissagree a little with U saying "The more RAM, the better":

Concerning the Performance of Logic, it should not make no difference, if U have 3, 4, or even 8 GB Ram.

Logic is unfortuneately only able to adress 2 GB RAM. The Rest of your Ram is just usefull, if U run other applikations. So I´d say, when U only compose music and don´t use any (Logic external-)standalone programs, there´s no need to buy more Ram.

I´d be really happy, if I was wrong or this would change soon.

Under this aspect: Wouldn´t it make sense to create Vienna Instruments as a standalone programm, which could adress 2 GB Ram in adition to the 2 GB adressed by Logic?

Best Felix.

[Happy Tree Friend]

@Felix Bartelt said:

Under this aspect: Wouldn´t it make sense to create Vienna Instruments as a standalone programm, which could adress 2 GB Ram in adition to the 2 GB adressed by Logic?

i suggested this too, also to the support of the Synthogy Ivory...
We have now computers that can hold up to 16 GB and still its not possible to take a real advantage of that!

Anyhow, i think they are working on it, but it takes time...

Greets:
HTF