@Rob Elliott said:

Hey DG for us 'low-tech hacks' - could you tell me how to get my 4 slaves set up for this 3 gig switch. What is it exactly (soft or hardware). The .exe you mentioned.

My 4 machines all have 2 gig ram but range in age form 2 months to 2 years old (2.7 to 3.2 ghz).

Thanks for any help you can be on this.


Rob

It is all software based.

The switch is an alteration to the boot.ini file in order that Windows allows you to use up to 3GB for applications and 1GB for Windows as opposed to 2GB each. Even with only 2GB RAM there can be an advantage in using the switch (for me it was around 200MB of samples), but it can make the system unstable. I have sent all details to VSL and they are testing at the moment.

In the meantime, let me know what host you are intending to use on your VI machines.

DG


Hi DG,

I am using VStack on the VI PC's.


Rob

@Rob Elliott said:

Hi DG,

I am using VStack on the VI PC's.

Rob

As you'll see from my tests I managed to get V-Stack to load well over 2.5GB samples, but it is not really designed to do this so you could have crashes. I would recommend the 3GB switch in any case, but if you really want to try to load 2.8GB in V-Stack PM me, and I'll "talk" you through it.

FWIW the next version of Forte will be designed this way, so you might want to try that out when it is released.

DG

@Rob Elliott said:

Hi DG,

I am using VStack on the VI PC's.

Rob

As you'll see from my tests I managed to get V-Stack to load well over 2.5GB samples, but it is not really designed to do this so you could have crashes. I would recommend the 3GB switch in any case, but if you really want to try to load 2.8GB in V-Stack PM me, and I'll "talk" you through it.

FWIW the next version of Forte will be designed this way, so you might want to try that out when it is released.

DG

You're a great resource and help DG. Many thanks!!!!

Rob

Ho exactly is the switch working what needs to be done? is there a text which describes what to do?

There is a description here http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?p=60489">http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?p=60489

/Mattias

Very interesting thread!

unless I dreamt it I read somewhere (NS maybe) that someone was running 2 instances of VSTack simultaneously on the same pc - anyone tried this? I run giga and VSTack side by side so am utilising about 3gb ram at the moment.

Ian

@Ian Livingstone said:

I run giga and VSTack side by side so am utilising about 3gb ram at the moment.

Very interesting, Ian, that's what I trying to do here on an external slave PC with an RME card. Are you using ASIO for VSTack? Do you find you need to increase the buffer (latency) to use both at the same time?

best, Dom

@Ian Livingstone said:

Very interesting thread!

unless I dreamt it I read somewhere (NS maybe) that someone was running 2 instances of VSTack simultaneously on the same pc - anyone tried this? I run giga and VSTack side by side so am utilising about 3gb ram at the moment.

Ian

How so you use 3Gb without the switch? I could only get a tiny amount from GS with the switch installed. Without it I didn't think that one could use more than 2Gb anyway. Do spill the beans......

BTW I tried GS alongside VI and GS caused some sort of feedback and VI hardly loaded anything!

DG

@DG said:

Without it I didn't think that one could use more than 2Gb anyway. Do spill the beans......

Technically the limit is 2GB per process...so if you have more than one process (as in GS and some VST host) you should be able to use more than 2GB even without the 3GB switch.

And in fact I think that if you plan to use both GS and your VST host on a machine you should not set the 3GB switch as it totally wrecks GS's abilities to load many samples... Without the switch you should get a reasonable balance between the two.

/Mattias

@DG said:

Without it I didn't think that one could use more than 2Gb anyway. Do spill the beans......

Technically the limit is 2GB per process...so if you have more than one process (as in GS and some VST host) you should be able to use more than 2GB even without the 3GB switch.

/Mattias
Are you sure (I sound like "Millionaire" now) because I used to think this, and then I was told that the 2Gb limit was also the total amount of memory usable for applications? I'm sure that you know more than I do, but I haven't managed to get more than 1.8Gb with either one or multiple applications.

DG

I can confirm this. Atleast I can confirm that after GS3 gives up and wont load more stuff, I can open up a chainer and load up stuff there.

@Christian Marcussen said:

I can confirm this. Atleast I can confirm that after GS3 gives up and wont load more stuff, I can open up a chainer and load up stuff there.

Yes, I'm not disputing that you can load more stuff, it's how much more I'm interested in. I managed about 150Mb, but then I was only testing one of the 2Mb machines.

DG

Ah ok. Well I have not tested how much in MB's but I can load atleast 8 keyswitches patches from RA. That should definately be more than 150mb

On 2gb machines btw,

I think 2mb is enough for anybody.... [:D]

@timkiel said:

I think 2mb is enough for anybody.... [:D]

Are you Bill Gates???????

DG

No but I used to have a ZX81 with a 16k expansion pack.....

@Another User said:

How so you use 3Gb without the switch? I could only get a tiny amount from GS with the switch installed. Without it I didn't think that one could use more than 2Gb anyway. Do spill the beans......

Mattias is right in his answer - it's per process, and since GS3 and VSTack are 2 seperate apps it's not a problem.

So anyone got any more info on 2 instances of VSTack? Can't find the thread now but seem to remember someone had just renamed the .exe or something, but I can't help thinking there's more to it than that....

Ian

@Ian Livingstone said:

Mattias is right in his answer - it's per process, and since GS3 and VSTack are 2 seperate apps it's not a problem.
Ian

Thanks for that confirmation. I shall try this out when the rest of the VI packages turn up.

FWIW many people have the "other" view, and think that in order to use 3Gb for applications you have to use the switch. It's good to know that this is only necessary for loading in one application.

DG

Test results updated to include 3Gb machine. the difference in loading ability between 3Gb and 4Gb is only about 100Mb. Is that last stick worth it? [H]

DG

Hardly, unless you upgrade to XP64...where 32-bit LAA apps get access to 4GB rather than 3GB. [[;)]]

/Mattias