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  #1  
Old 12-09-2006, 12:06 PM
el biciclista el biciclista is offline
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Default Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

I have a PowerMac G5 2.7 Dual running OS 10.4.6, 7.0GB of RAM, four external 500GB SATA data drives (Firmtak enclosure).
Pro Tools is HD2, Version 7.2.

I am trying to instantiate Ivory on an instrument track and I am being told that Ivory has run out of memory. I had it running earlier today. However, when I tried to instantiate Ivory a 2nd time on another instrument track, the 2nd did not have enough memory...............and now the 1st one says it is short of memory.

I go to the Apple Activity Monitor and I read the following numbers:
Wired: 430MB
Active: 235MB
Inactive: 4.80GB
Used: 5.45GB
Free: 1.55GB
Total: 7.0GB

The problem appears to be the high "Inactive" number.

I currently have 6 other RTAS plug-ins running:
- DFHS on drums (it says 1.344 GB used)
- Superior Percussionist (it says 235MB used)
- Trilogy - 2 tracks
- Atmosphere - 2 tracks

When I deactivate Trilogy and Atmosphere, the usage numbers go down only a couple of hundred MB's. When I also deactivate DFHS and Percussionist, the Inactive goes down to around 3.2GB, which is what you'd expect.

What is tying up the remaining 3.2GB of memory as "Inactive" memory?

Apple defines Inactive memory as:
"Information that is no longer being used that has been cached to disk. It will remain in RAM until another application needs the space."

Well, I need the space! What is preventing this memory from being made available to Ivory?

FYI, the Playback Engine settings are:
- 2048 samples
- 2 Processors
- 90% CPU Usage
- Level 2 DAE Playback Buffer.

VM is off.

Any help would be appreciated!
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  #2  
Old 12-09-2006, 01:10 PM
jeremyroberts jeremyroberts is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

1. VM is never off in OSX (semantics, but worth noting)
2. Playback Engine at 2048 samples is unplayable. Is there a reason you can't work at 256, or even 512?
3. Ivory is a disk I/O pig. I suggest dedicating an I/O port to just Ivory -- that is, use a FW800 configured Raid 0 w/ 2 or more identical drives for Ivory -- regardless of your other audio drives... if your audio is on SATA card, then use something else. I hope I'm explaining this well.

The issue here is only so much data can go down the pipe. Ivory wants a ton of I/O bandwidth - and if you dedicate a port, it seems to do the trick.

Another thing with Ivory: you can minimize the resources needed by disabling soft pedal samples, disable release samples, chop voices down to 40 or less, don't use built in effects, etc... does this help? There's also the disk buffer, but there's no reasons this shouldn't be on default.

Did you upgrade to the latest version 1.6 something?

One final thought about mac memory usage -- a restart is always a good idea.

Hope this helps...

Jeremy
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  #3  
Old 12-09-2006, 02:11 PM
el biciclista el biciclista is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

Thanks Jeremy, yes that helps.

I just want to be sure I understand what you are saying, though.

Are you saying that when Ivory thinks it has run out of memory, what it is in fact encountering is speed a limitation on receiving the Ivory data from the 500GB SATA drive? These are new Hitachi Deskstar SATA II 7200RPM drives w/16MB buffer, using the Firmtek enclosure and SATA card, so I was hoping that this wouldn't normally be an issue.

DFHS and Percussionist work from data in RAM, and Atmosphere and Trilogy don't move that much data, relatively.

Is there any way to determine for sure that this is the problem? Maybe an Apple diagnostic?

Thanks for the help!
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  #4  
Old 12-09-2006, 03:48 PM
jeremyroberts jeremyroberts is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

I am assuming you are using the 4 SATA drives for audio??

Are you using the internal sata drive for OS and applications?

If so, then try something as simple as:

Do you have a FW400 drive sitting around?
If so, then move the Ivory samples to a FW400 drive (get it far away from your audio and other samples). Any changes?

Step 2 - make a raid 0 with 2 identical FW400 drives. This will be better than #1.

Step 3 (in a perfect world) - go FW800 raid for Ivory. It really made a difference for me. I think others here will agree that Ivory samples on its own FW800 multi-drive raid delivers superior performance.

I don't know about testing I/O throughput -- but the relatively fast test is to simply move the data to a different drive and I/o bus -- if it's now better, you have an idea what was hanging you up.

Synthogy support gave me many of these tips last year when I was first tweaking Ivory for optimum voice count... I think some of this is in their FAQ -- but it was other DUC members who convinced me to try the FW800 raid. It's been great.
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  #5  
Old 12-09-2006, 06:16 PM
el biciclista el biciclista is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

Yes, the four external SATA drives are for data only. I have one internal drive for system/applications.

I'm not familiar with the pros and cons of Firewire. The 2nd internal ATA drive slot is empty. An external Firewire drive would be preferable to installing an internal 500GB drive in the 2nd internal slot and devoting that to Ivory?

I am particularly interested, since I am considering buying EWQLSO Platinum Pro and the XP expansion (138GB total), and I want to be confident I won't have problems after that addition. I have been thinking the 2nd internal drive could be devoted to EWQLSO.

Thanks again for the help, Jeremy.
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  #6  
Old 12-11-2006, 03:15 PM
frenchman frenchman is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

I am not sure you got 100% of the point jeremy is making, what I think he means is that you should dedicate a I/O bus only to Ivory, keeping it completely separate from your audio data bus :
example : if you use you internal or external sata bus for audio data, then use fast firewire (raid or Fw800)for ivory.
Or if you use Firewire for data, then use your extra sata bus only for Ivory

I is true that since Pro Tools is an extemely well behaved application as far as disk I/O is concerned, we are not used to think that way... !
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  #7  
Old 12-11-2006, 03:27 PM
Nils Groth Nils Groth is offline
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Default Re: Please help on memory usage w/RTAS plug-ins

Not sure if this would help, but I've had really bad performance when using more than 1 CPU. The I/O bandwidth issue you seem to have could also be relate to the CPU choking to read it. When I switch from 4 CPUs to 1 CPU everything went better.

Cheers,
Nils
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