got Cinematic Strings 2 but DFD overload

[kensuguro]

I got Cinematic Strings 2 with their black friday special ($319!) and am generally pleased with the sound and playability.. but now I have to get DFD performing well. It's sort of a new thing for me since I've always resorted to using smaller libraries that don't rely heavily on DFD. (like my piano is pianoteq, and orchestra was Synful)

I've got the library residing on an external USB3 drive with a read speed of (check picture).. I've always assumed that HD read speeds were now fast enough to efficiently do DFD, but I guess not. The throughput of USB3 should be fast enough, no? I'm wondering if then SSD is the way to go. Or if external is simply not faster enough, I need to get an internal drive just for this? That's sort of crazy, given that people have been doing this DFD stuff for so long, I've always assumed that it actually works without too much work..

RAM wise I'm doing okay.. if any DFD gurus out there have some pointers it's be greatly appreciated.

As for Cinematic Strings, here are my initial impressions:
1. Sounds very mild. Silky and cinematic, but quite mild. Great for lyrical passages. Will need to add a "first chair" kind of sample to really make a section lead. But otherwise blends in very well if used with the whole orchestra.

2. Staccato layering on legato (64+ velocity on legato triggers staccato attack sample) makes for easy switching between legato and staccato emphasis.. but the legato samples come out much louder than the staccato samples.. I'm assuming the staccato samples are there to add a bit more definition to the attack, and not so much be used on their own to make staccato runs, etc, but that's how I see its benefit.

3. On the mix mic channel, dry is not dry. The release samples are totally wet, so even if you turn off the built in hall reverb, the release samples create a long tail. It's a nice tail, and probably doesn't matter since I won't be using them super dry anyway, but not being able to get them dry sort of limits application. I think for "real" dry, I can use the close mic channel, but haven't messed around with the mic channels since I can't even stream 1 channel right.

4. Can't do good divisi. Of course, that's really a limitation of sampling. I know some libraries can do it, or do it via specific patches.. but divisi was one of the "automatic" things of Synful, so I never really had to avoid it, so it's a bit of an adjustment. I usually do divisi with viola and cello. (which I'm not sure if you're supposed to do, but I do it anyway) Basically, each section is just 1 voice. So it's back to classic 4 voice writing + bass.

5. That said, octave unison of violin 1 and violin 2 sounds super dramatic. I could never get that to sound right with Synful.

6. Mod wheel control quickly takes you to full velocity. I'll just need to get used to it. I quickly found myself just blasting 100% on every part.

But for $319, this was a very good buy. I can probably overlay a bit of Synful's solo instruments to give it some extra definition, or add in a couple of Synful players, and also get a bit of fast attack grit from Synful if needed. It's a juggling act. But first, I need to get DFD to work right before I can use this.

[dante]

I was under the impression that all my Kontakt stuff uploaded to RAM. It was never a problem even with only 4GB i could use several Kontakt and Reason VST at once over SATA external or C drive. Now I use SSD which is definately the way to go. R u sure you got no other bottlenecks - done all your normal DAW optimizations for Audio ?

[Nestor]

Interesting review Ken, yes..., it's a cool library.

Have you tried to increase your virtual memory, just in case?

[dante]

And check out if the library is lossless compressible.

[kensuguro]

I'm currently running kontakt through jbridge in case I need to access extra ram, which might be killing it. I've never really had DFD problems so hard to say.. but then I've only started using jbridge since the belly dance project, so it's a very recent change. For DFD, Kontakt doesn't load everything into ram.. the whole disk streaming concept was the breakthrough back then, which paved way for the giganormous libs of today.

[garyb]

i don't think usb is very well suited to that use...

[dante]

How much RAM and CPU cores dya got ? And you running a 32 bit or 64 bit O/S ? The minimum requirements state :

"Windows 7/8 or Mac OSX 10.7+, Quad Core CPU, 4GB RAM, up to 45GB Hard Drive space for installation. Kontakt 5.1 or Kontakt Player 5.1 is also required

** Please note - these are the minimum requirements. CS2 is a high end sample library, and we recommend 8 GB RAM to really get the most out of the library. 4 GB RAM will allow you to load the whole library using the mixed mic position, but you wont be able to load much else after that. 8 GB RAM was used to create the demo compositions, on a single computer. Ideally, Cinematic Strings should be used with a fully 64 bit system."

Not sure what they mean by 'fully' 64 bit. I didn't know you could run partially 64 bit - that would be 32 bit wouldn't it ?

[Nestor]

Did you manage to solve the problem Ken?

[dante]

Apparantly http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=33343

[Bud Weiser]

Not sure what they mean by 'fully' 64 bit. I didn't know you could run partially 64 bit - that would be 32 bit wouldn't it ?

lowest common denominator is 8 (Bit) I fear ...



Bud

[kensuguro]

ya, after fiddling for a while, found the disk caching setting on my external HD. I usually turn it on but for this one, I'd forgotten to since I just got it. Anyway, it should be going into a project very soon so I'm trying to break it in.. I still don't have a good feel for the library yet. But hey, USB3 external HDD with some random seagate 2TB backup drive actually works pretty well.

[dawman]

http://impactsoundworks.com/optimizing- ... ow-part-1/

Check out the other sections 2 and 3.
He covers the most important aspects.

I use brute force these days with an ASRock Extreme 6 Z97 board.
Samsung XP941 for samples, and a Plextor M6e for OS+Apps.
Damn near real time and all embedded using new M.2 protocol so the entire rig is a 9.6" x 12" ATX.

[kensuguro]

hah, thanks Jimmy, surprised I hadn't heard from you earlier.

[dawman]

I find that contact with my own species is always disappointing
(Captain Nemo) so I live unconnected for a while up here and
love the view, silence and snow.

Below is me and Junior at the top of the world.
Probably use the one pic for his new CD cover
entitled Ghetto Honky....

[Nestor]

In that case, I vote for the second one, it's beautiful and inspiring...