how big is too big?

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 2:31 pm

I'm week 2 into a doc that I'm writing the music for & have not done a two hour project before. I'm making a new chunk for each cue, does it matter how many chunks I have in one project?
I don't want to risk performance issues or crashing - should I split this up or should it all be fine in one project? Incidentally - for this project I get to use a new Mac Pro 8 core with 32GB RAM & it is running really great - lots of VI's loaded at 256 buffer barely a hit on the processing meter. Thanks in advance for any advice.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 3:49 pm

It shouldn't really matter as the chunks are loaded independent of each other for playback. I usually end up with a master chunk that the finished ones are incorporated into (on their separate tracks) so I can playback a long project and have a sense of the linear arc and other aspects. Some mode can also work for that but I want a bit more control than that usually.

Also, if you are using the same instruments (for the most part) use a V-Rack as each chunk will reload the instruments every time you change a chunk. A V-Rack will "share" the instruments between chunks and save you lots of time in loading VIs.

DP was made for using many chunks (sequences). It's one of it's best features.

doodles · Post by **doodles** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:26 am

Hi Karl

Depends on how you score. If you use lots of VI's in each chunk (rather than V-Racks), then don't try and do more than 4 or 5, as DP semi-loads these up in the background, even tough they're not active, so your performance will gradually decrease. 4 or 5 you're fine with though. If it's just straight MIDI, no VI's, you can have hundreds

Different people have different scoring methods - some offload samples/synths, some use them in DP. So it depends how you work.

Good luck!

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:36 am

doodles wrote:Hi Karl

Depends on how you score. If you use lots of VI's in each chunk (rather than V-Racks), then don't try and do more than 4 or 5, as DP semi-loads these up in the background

Actually, if you're using a lot of heavy VIs even two chunks per project will bog you down as the VIs will load every time you change chunks. It's not a matter of how many chunks but rather how you are organizing any VIs.

Again, if the software instruments are in V-Racks, it makes no difference how many chunks you have. They will load almost instantaneously. If you are using external MIDI gear or just audio and no virtual instruments, you can have as many chunks as you need. I don't know if there's an upper limit, but I've never reached it.

jloeb · Post by **jloeb** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:25 am

Hedge your risks by saving many incremental backup copies of your session (i.e. the dp session file, not the audio files) so that you have something recent to open if for some reason the session corrupts.

Chances are very high you won't need it, but this is something to do by habit anyway and makes sense especially for very large, elaborate projects with many cues. Lotsa work? Make lotsa incrementals.

Topo · Post by **Topo** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:23 am

All the replies are right on. I only, just yesterday, learned about V-Racks. I had 12 chunks and hit a wall when I started adding a huge piano VI to chunks that already had a lot of VI going on. I couldn't do anything without DP crashing. The great feature that I found was to create a new Project and "load" individual chunks into it from my original 12 chunk project. One of the bonus things about this, is that the "loaded" chunk, into the new project can come in with all it's soundbites if you enable that function. This is a great feature that allowed me to size down the project, as I was always too scared to delete and flush "unused" soundbites. That's actually another subject about organizing where soundbites live, but creating the new project solved a lot of concerns. Next project I will try v racks from the beginning.

Even tho I never encountered a corrupt project file, I followed the advise to "save a copy as", every 15 minutes or so. Definitely eased the worry factor.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:49 am

I never thought of loading the chunks with their soundbites instead of deleting unused. Great idea! I'm stealing that on my larger projects for sure.

Thanks.

Topo · Post by **Topo** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 12:00 pm

Yeah, that totally saved my arss....been working on this project for over a year, and doing final mixes now....so thankful for that option.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:I never thought of loading the chunks with their soundbites instead of deleting unused. Great idea! I'm stealing that on my larger projects for sure.

Thanks.

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:23 pm

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MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:40 pm

James Steele wrote:Just came by here to make sure this wasn't a porn spam post. Carry on!

Oh, but it is! We're all writing in code. Check out this perverted couple! She likes to watch as he plays dead and is beat hard with a stick.

JSmith1234567 · Post by **JSmith1234567** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:13 am

All inappropriate responses aside…

seriously, this is one of those MOTU "things that will never be fixed" issues.

You can't have more than one chunk with VIs before performance degrades to the point of un-useablitiy.

This make it especially hard for composers who like to write all of their cues in one project.

Using virtual racks is no help if you are hoping to change up loaded instruments cue to cue.

Writing a film as one long cue is near impossible with picture changes, not to mention the contortions you need to go through with tempo and meter changes to get cues to time out right.

DP does not have to keep all this VI info loaded in memory, but it does, and it seems it is just another in a list of things that I've learned to accept will never be fixed.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:11 am

You really don't have a clue. The number if chunks has nothing to do with performance once a chunk is loaded.

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:30 am

I was unaware that they VI's were somewhat loaded in the background - it seems like they have to reload everything each time I switch chunks?

I am switching sounds quite a bit - maybe I'll try putting together a massive set of sounds into a V rack & then just switch out some of the others per chunk & see how that goes. I did get up to about 10 different chunks in this project & started noticing some "hangs" when switching chunks & also some spinning wheel & had to force quit a few times.

Thank you for the tips!

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:29 am

If you don't have a common set of VIs across all sequences, you can put different VIs in different V-Racks, and then turn them on and off in the Chunks window. Takes a little longer to get things loaded, but reduces the load.

MOTUnation.com

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