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Limited to a modest 16GB Ram Laptop ; your must have core libraries for Music Production ?

Paul Jelfs

Senior Member
Hi,

Firstly , I realise that a lot of extremely talented composers only use 16GB or less Ram on a modest system and produce incredible results.

Those lucky enough to have a much more powerful setup , what would be the core libraries you would have to use for production music if you only had a similar setup?

Which String Ens (+Solo), Woodwind Brass, Synths etc would be great choices for using less resources , and creating a decent template within these constraints ?

For example while Berlin Strings is an excellent library, they would probably not be used in this situation.

What libraries are really optimised to get every last drop of performance without needing a monster system ?

If someone that works with a modest set up could chime in with their thoughts that would be really useful,

Cheers

PJ
 
Don't have it, but for the price Amadeus seems to be one that's often recommended for a low-resource sketching library that might fit the bill. Sections and solo instruments.


You could also consider the Infinite series. Don't have them either (yet), but RAM footprint is very low. Only woodwinds and brass available at the mo.

 
Thanks , is there a resource online or on here that has looked at greedy / hungry various sample libraries are on CPU/Ram ?
 
Out of the main Strings libraries - Cinematic Studio Series, Spitfire Chamber/Symphony Strings, Berlin Strings etc , does anyone know how they compare in terms of resource usage ?

From what I have read on here Berlin requires a lot of Ram, and I presume thus, CPU.

What about others like Century Strings, Areia, VSL ? - Would be interesting to see how all these different libraries compare in terms of RAM and Processor usage.
 

You won't get a straight answer to that cause every template is different. I mean for example it wouldn't make sense to open an articulation one uses once in a blue moon. There might be even trailer guys who never opens woodwinds...
 
Is the laptop your only device, or do you have a much more powerful desktop machine? And therefore, are you just going to be using this system for sketching, or are you looking to create release-able material?

These are trick questions, really. The truth is that you could use any library you want, as long as you are prepared to freeze/bounce etc. when resources are running low. If you have the computing power for one track, then you have enough for three-hundred ;)

With an organised workflow, and a good amount of storage space, you're all good.
 
Both CSS and SSS are pretty small in terms of RAM foot print for what they offer. BCCSO would have been good if it had a purge function. Berlin is resource heavy with RAM and CPU, and it makes the project save files big (the SINE equivalents fix this resolve issue though). Cine samples stuff isn’t bad on RAM. I love EW Hollywood but it is still the biggest RAM hog of anything I’ve encountered

There are modelled libraries which use very little RAM like infinite series and sample modelling, but that means that your CPU takes the hit presumably? I don’t own any personally.
 
I personally really like smaller all-in-one libraries and have and use:

Spitfire Originals + Labs
CineSymphony Lite
Berlin Inspire
Nucleus
BBCSO Core

At least the first four would run great on a 16gig machine, and probably BBCSO as well if you don’t use everything at once.
 
I also have a laptop with 16 GB RAM and a Core i7-1065G7.

I mainly use Spitfire Studio Orchestra Pro (and recently also got BHCT, which is a perfect addition to it) and also Spitfire Percussion and so far I didn't have any problems with RAM. One big advantage of Kontakt libs is that you can purge RAM which helps a lot - I recently had a track with 71 instances of those libraries and the whole thing only took 4 GB RAM - also I didn't need to freeze anything. I would expect that the performance with e.g. Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra would be similar. But I am not sure I could do the same with BBCSO due to lack of a purge option (I am most certain that my RAM would be a limitation here). However I also have my samples on an external SSD, so this helps for sure.

Of course I also have a few Spitfire libs that come with their own player (and they usually will take more RAM than a purged Kontakt instance) but so far I didn't need too many instances of them to be any real problem.

I also have Infinite Brass and as others have already stated it takes very, very little RAM (for the samples; you will always need a certain amount of RAM for each instance of Kontakt). However, it's more taxing on the CPU but so far I didn't have serious issues with it (although, I didn't use it too extensively yet). Anyways, if something is too much for your CPU you can always increase the Buffer Size and if everything else fails, freeze tracks (but yes, it's a less than ideal solution in most cases).

Also another thing that comes to my mind: If I remember correctly, certain patches from Strezov Sampling's Wotan and Freyja take far more than 1 GB RAM per instance when you load them up - however, as soon as you purge, everything is fine. It's really the most important feature for me - otherwise I probably couldn't do many things with the limitations of my laptop.
 
Is the laptop your only device, or do you have a much more powerful desktop machine? And therefore, are you just going to be using this system for sketching, or are you looking to create release-able material?

These are trick questions, really. The truth is that you could use any library you want, as long as you are prepared to freeze/bounce etc. when resources are running low. If you have the computing power for one track, then you have enough for three-hundred ;)

With an organised workflow, and a good amount of storage space, you're all good.
^ ^ ^
This.

Speaking as someone who worked for years during the 32-bit DAW days, I'd rather use the very best libraries and deal with the inconvenience of freezing tracks and purging RAM.

Best,

Geoff
 
Cause you mentioned Berlin Strings, I would recommend the Berlin Inspire 1 + 2.
Really low ram print ( 1 Mic-positions), but still an overall professional sound with Ensembles & Solos.
 
I use a 16 GB Macbook a lot and I never really run into problems. The only sample library I categorically wouldn't use on my laptop is Spitfire's Kepler -- but that's a CPU issue, not RAM.

But I think a big part of the reason I don't have a problem is that I don't use a giant orchestral template with every instrument laid out in advance -- I start with one track and add as I go. And I rarely have more than, say, twenty or thirty tracks.

That said, libraries with fewer things to load will be easier for your laptop to handle -- fewer mics, fewer articulations. I think the Spitfire non-"Pro" Studio line is nice for that. You get one mic and limited articulations per instrument, but it sounds pretty good.
 
Following this thread. I'm on 16gb too, upgrading to a killer machine in few a months from now. But i like to hear how people overcome limitations. In my case, i've never ever ran out of RAM, CPU-death always came before i could even try...
 
Regarding strings: cinematic strings 2 is a great sounding library which doesn't use too much cpu or ram. I previously used it on a 2012 MBP, never any issues!

Spitfire stuff is mostly fine for me on a 2015 MBP. I do however sometimes struggle with high CPU usage from the legatos - particularly in the performance patches. I'm able to work within the 16gb of ram quite comfortably by using sample purge and an external ssd. CPU is my bottleneck - I often have to compose with 'higher-than-comfortable' buffer sizes once a project reaches a certain size.
 
I use a 16 GB Macbook a lot and I never really run into problems. The only sample library I categorically wouldn't use on my laptop is Spitfire's Kepler -- but that's a CPU issue, not RAM.

But I think a big part of the reason I don't have a problem is that I don't use a giant orchestral template with every instrument laid out in advance -- I start with one track and add as I go. And I rarely have more than, say, twenty or thirty tracks.

That said, libraries with fewer things to load will be easier for your laptop to handle -- fewer mics, fewer articulations. I think the Spitfire non-"Pro" Studio line is nice for that. You get one mic and limited articulations per instrument, but it sounds pretty good.

From experience I can report that also Spitfire Studio Orchestra Pro runs smoothly on such a machine.
 
Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra Inspire Series 1 & 2 for main orchestral instruments yields a small footprint but massive versatility. + a few Spitfire EVO libraries.

16GB MacBook Pro i7 with two 1TB SSD internal drives (1 for all library content, other for Logic ProX Program) and one external 1TB SSD audio/Logic scratch drive - all drives are Crucial MX500 SATA and ample fast enough.

The last desktop Mac I used back in the day was an old G5! With prices of TB SSD drives falling all the time and the ample speed of even the first incarnation of USB3 /Thunderbolt , these days there's simply no need to use a desktop based system anymore.
 
I disagree with CSS being ok for a lower ram computer in pro use.

Easy to notice on youtube vid.s, while most lib.s start of around 400-500mb ram load CSS is near 800mb. This also goes for Cinestrings if I remember correct.
 
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