# People Using OT Berlin Orchestra in Templates: What's Your RAM Footprint/CPU?



## Alex Sopala (Sep 24, 2020)

Hey guys,

I've been working on my template, and I've found I like using the full Berlin Orchestra because of how it works with my workflow and that I like the way it sounds. That said, I've butted up against my 128GB RAM on my machine, and that's eliminating Berlin Strings, and using one mic position. Considering there's some new CPUs eventually coming out (and I'm hoping the Zen 3 Threadripper will deliver), I wanted to know if there's anyone else using these libraries together, and what your infrastructure is for the libraries. I know I can just purge the samples to save RAM, but I don't really want to do that in the long-term, so I'm curious if there's anyone else with this use case.

Edit: Additional question: what sample rate are you guys using? I've always recorded at 96k, but I realize these libraries crap out on me faster at that sample rate, and I'm curious to know if something that high is commonly used among people here.


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## Germain B (Sep 24, 2020)

Yep, I'm comfortable with my 32GB of ram. I was getting short with 16GB so I recently upgraded. I'm always in 48kHz.
I only use the multi-articulations patches, plus the Legato ones for strings.
I have all my tracks disabled and I activate only the one I need. I use mostly to mics per instruments (Close+Tree or Ortf+Tree) except for percussion (AB+Tree+Surround, sometimes).
I do purge every track (using the "reset markers" and "update sample pool" tools).

I haven't check for some time but I think I never use more than 20GB of RAM on a 5 minutes piece using the whole orchestra.

When I was getting short with RAM I did tweak the instruments patch and made some light ones by removing the samples of mics I never use (keeping 2 mics, basically). To be clear, I did not touch the samples, but made sure they couldn't load in those "Lite" patches I made.
But now I don't need those lite patches anymore and replaced them with the regular ones.
(If you're interested : http://alexjevincent.co.uk/optimising-berlin-series-instruments-memory-usage/ )


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## Hendrixon (Sep 29, 2020)

Why do you record at 96k?
Do you record A list bands or singers?


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## Alex Sopala (Sep 29, 2020)

Hendrixon said:


> Why do you record at 96k?
> Do you record A list bands or singers?



Clients want it at that sample rate (or 88.2). And it's starting to become more standard fare, especially cause with recording and mixing, most computers these days can handle the firepower. It gets a bit more difficult with sample libraries, evidently, and I was curious what people use on this forum. I know film is done at 48k, but I still was curious as to what people here tend to do one way or another.


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## David Kudell (Sep 29, 2020)

I have 128GB RAM and have never had an issue. I keep tracks disabled until I use it, that way I’m not loading a ton of tracks I’m not using every time I open a project. I guess those on VEPro might like to keep everything open but even then I think you could open most everything.


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## Hendrixon (Sep 30, 2020)

Alex, first I'll disclosure I'm not a pro in the music business for more than 25 years now so take that into consideration. I was an active musician and had a stunt as assistant engineer at one time in my life, but since then my work life changed to 100010100110101

With that said, I see the point (if the target client insists) to record acoustics (instruments and vocals) in 88-96 or above, but since VIs are recorded in 44 or 48... what's the point in recording them at 88-96 or more? at that point your computer is crunching zeros.
Also, regarding mixing, these days (all?) fx plugins offer over sampling, many even default to minimum x2 so aliasing and folding can easily be avoided.


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## shawnsingh (Sep 30, 2020)

Any specific reason you don't want to purge samples? I've loaded most articulations of Berlin strings and brass, and some percussion timpani, using about 80-or-so Kontakt instruments. Not to mention a lot of the EWQL Hollywood Gold and dozens of drums/loops/sound design stuff. Total RAM of my VEP is about 64 GB.

Over time, I do make rare changes to my VEP and then save again, things do save as partially purged, which is even better - basically you still win 99% of the RAM savings of purging, but then dropouts due to unpurged samples on existing projects becomes much more rare and acceptable. If RAM starts to creep up to too much in my template after saving, it is possible to go back and re-purge samples - and yes, this will be a great pain (I wish it could be midi controlled), but so far after using my latest template for almost a year, I haven't needed to re-purge yet, and it's not THAT bad, maybe just 10 minutes of pain to click through every instrument and manually purge it.

So yeah, curious to know why you're not up for purging everything, then saving your template?


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## Alex Sopala (Sep 30, 2020)

Hendrixon said:


> Alex, first I'll disclosure I'm not a pro in the music business for more than 25 years now so take that into consideration. I was an active musician and had a stunt as assistant engineer at one time in my life, but since then my work life changed to 100010100110101
> 
> With that said, I see the point (if the target client insists) to record acoustics (instruments and vocals) in 88-96 or above, but since VIs are recorded in 44 or 48... what's the point in recording them at 88-96 or more? at that point your computer is crunching zeros.
> Also, regarding mixing, these days (all?) fx plugins offer over sampling, many even default to minimum x2 so aliasing and folding can easily be avoided.



You're very much right about the sample libraries not being tracked at 88-96, but Pro Tools really only likes one or the other. I can convert the audio I record to 88-96 for compatibility, which I'd be fine doing, but I wanted to see what others tended to do on this forum when it comes to sample rate and whatnot. I'm guessing it's a matter of CPU processing more than anything in that regard.




shawnsingh said:


> Any specific reason you don't want to purge samples? I've loaded most articulations of Berlin strings and brass, and some percussion timpani, using about 80-or-so Kontakt instruments. Not to mention a lot of the EWQL Hollywood Gold and dozens of drums/loops/sound design stuff. Total RAM of my VEP is about 64 GB.
> 
> Over time, I do make rare changes to my VEP and then save again, things do save as partially purged, which is even better - basically you still win 99% of the RAM savings of purging, but then dropouts due to unpurged samples on existing projects becomes much more rare and acceptable. If RAM starts to creep up to too much in my template after saving, it is possible to go back and re-purge samples - and yes, this will be a great pain (I wish it could be midi controlled), but so far after using my latest template for almost a year, I haven't needed to re-purge yet, and it's not THAT bad, maybe just 10 minutes of pain to click through every instrument and manually purge it.
> 
> So yeah, curious to know why you're not up for purging everything, then saving your template?



I figured that's what I'll do for now, but I like the immediacy of having them all loaded and ready in RAM in general, and I have the potential budget for a machine that can handle it (as soon as we get to DDR5 for the 64gb DIMMs or Threadripper Pro Zen 3, assuming it's good for what we're doing and they fix that CPU latency issue). It's more for planning in the future and getting an idea of what to look for. Partially also if I'll hit a wall at 256GB RAM if I have them unpurged. Again, no problems with shelling out more for RAM in the eventual future to run the stuff.


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