Building a DAW Please don't complain about the organization of this thread as it is casually done.
I would not do a raid 0 for anything but piano samples as its better to put the samples on different disks.
On a quest for maximum polyphony on a DAW for piano samples this is what I came up with and I decided to do a somewhat casual thread on my results if someone happens to google and find this..
When creating the Raid 0 and choosing the cluster size on...
WINDOWS XP PRO ON WD SINGLE 320GB BLUE
DYNAMIC DRIVES SOFTWARE RAID 0 IN XP PRO ON 4 320GB WD BLUE DRIVES
8GB RAID PARTITIONS TOTAL (2000mb PER DRIVE)
RUNNING TASCAM GVI not gigastudio but a vst relative.... will buy Kontakt in the future no doubt.
Cluster size I tested and my polyphony and piano response.
BAD TO GOOD
16K BAD
1024K BAD AS 16K
32K BETTER BUT BAD
4026K QUITE DECENT BUT NOT AS GOOD AS 512K
512K GREAT
64K VERY GREAT (the best)
SUBJECTIVE BUT I BET YOU CAN TRUST IT... WITH FASTER DRIVES PERHAPS 512K WOULD BE A BETTER CHOICE
I am getting about 250-300 usable polyphony... starts to get haywire at 250 but often goes to 300 occassionally can get to 325 or so.
Processor use is low. Samples had no gigapulse.
Sample was Sampletekk Post PMI Emperor using the 24/12 choice
WINDOWS XP PRO ON 320GB BLUE
4X BLUE 320GB IN RAID 0 (they are almost totally quite)
I now think that a better way then striping to get maximum polyphony would be to divide the piano samples by the number of drives. I know in GVI you can combine different pianos so there is probably no reason why you could not design three versions (instruments) of say the sampletekk emperor piano with the required missing octaves and combine these. Assuming you could combine three instruments. You obviously would not have to combine the instruments but just direct the midi toward each gvi instance. I may do this if I can figure out how to do it. I am not an expert in using samplers. I think now that if I take four 320gb drives and divide the piano up over these four that I will get better polyphony. I would guess this based on the fact that I had these on an F1 Samsung 1TB and got 150 polyphony with indexing of the drive on...(I forgot to turn it off) and would have gotten more if the computer was more properly setup for music daw work.
TURN OFF INDEXING OF DRIVES!!!!
AND GO THROUGH THE XP STEPS TO MAKE XP FLY AS A DAW AS THEY ARE CRUCIAL
SPECS.....................................................
AMD X4 940 cpu at normal clock speed
corsair 800 4gb ram
Model
Brand CORSAIR
Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5
Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 5
Timing 5-5-5-18
Voltage 1.8V
Multi-channel Kit Dual Channel Kit
Heat Spreader Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts Lifetime limited
Labor Lifetime limited
motherboard is
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Model
Brand GIGABYTE
Model GA-MA790GP-UD4H
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type AM2+/AM2
CPU Type Phenom FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2
FSB 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)
Chipsets
North Bridge AMD 790GX
South Bridge AMD SB750
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1200 / 1066 / 800
(Whether 1200 MHz memory speed is supported depends on the CPU being used)
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Channel Supported Dual Channel
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1)
PCI Express x1 3
PCI Slots 2
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s 6
SATA RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
Onboard Video
Onboard Video Chipset ATI Radeon HD3300 graphics built-in 128MB DDR3 1333MHz SidePort Memory
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC889A
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Realtek 8111C
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
Video Ports D-Sub + DVI
HDMI 1 x HDMI
USB 4 x USB 2.0
IEEE 1394 1 x IEEE 1394a
S/PDIF Out 1 x Optical
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 8 x USB 2.0
Onboard 1394
Onboard 1394 2x 1394a
Physical Spec
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin 24 Pin
Onboard video is being used.
500 watt power supply
Model
Brand OCZ
Model OCZ550FTY
Series Fatal1ty
Spec
Type ATX12V / EPS12V
Maximum Power 550W
Fans 120mm fan
PFC Active
Main Connector 20+4Pin
+12V Rails 2
PCI-Express Connector 1 x 6-Pin, 1 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Power Connector 6
SLI Ready
CrossFire Ready
Modular Yes
Efficiency 82% Typical
Over Voltage Protection Yes
Input Voltage 100 - 240 V
Input Frequency Range 50/60 Hz
Input Current 10A
Output +3.3V@25A,+5V@25A,+12V1@25A,+12V2@25A,-12V@0.3A, +5VSB@2.5A
MTBF >100,000 Hours
Features
Connectors 1 x Main connector (20+4Pin)
1 x 12V(P4)
1 x 12V(8Pin)
4 x Peripheral
6 x SATA
2 x Floppy
2 x PCI-E
Features OCZ PowerWhisper Technology
I would not do a raid 0 for anything but piano samples as its better to put the samples on different disks.
On a quest for maximum polyphony on a DAW for piano samples this is what I came up with and I decided to do a somewhat casual thread on my results if someone happens to google and find this..
When creating the Raid 0 and choosing the cluster size on...
WINDOWS XP PRO ON WD SINGLE 320GB BLUE
DYNAMIC DRIVES SOFTWARE RAID 0 IN XP PRO ON 4 320GB WD BLUE DRIVES
8GB RAID PARTITIONS TOTAL (2000mb PER DRIVE)
RUNNING TASCAM GVI not gigastudio but a vst relative.... will buy Kontakt in the future no doubt.
Cluster size I tested and my polyphony and piano response.
BAD TO GOOD
16K BAD
1024K BAD AS 16K
32K BETTER BUT BAD
4026K QUITE DECENT BUT NOT AS GOOD AS 512K
512K GREAT
64K VERY GREAT (the best)
SUBJECTIVE BUT I BET YOU CAN TRUST IT... WITH FASTER DRIVES PERHAPS 512K WOULD BE A BETTER CHOICE
I am getting about 250-300 usable polyphony... starts to get haywire at 250 but often goes to 300 occassionally can get to 325 or so.
Processor use is low. Samples had no gigapulse.
Sample was Sampletekk Post PMI Emperor using the 24/12 choice
WINDOWS XP PRO ON 320GB BLUE
4X BLUE 320GB IN RAID 0 (they are almost totally quite)
I now think that a better way then striping to get maximum polyphony would be to divide the piano samples by the number of drives. I know in GVI you can combine different pianos so there is probably no reason why you could not design three versions (instruments) of say the sampletekk emperor piano with the required missing octaves and combine these. Assuming you could combine three instruments. You obviously would not have to combine the instruments but just direct the midi toward each gvi instance. I may do this if I can figure out how to do it. I am not an expert in using samplers. I think now that if I take four 320gb drives and divide the piano up over these four that I will get better polyphony. I would guess this based on the fact that I had these on an F1 Samsung 1TB and got 150 polyphony with indexing of the drive on...(I forgot to turn it off) and would have gotten more if the computer was more properly setup for music daw work.
TURN OFF INDEXING OF DRIVES!!!!
AND GO THROUGH THE XP STEPS TO MAKE XP FLY AS A DAW AS THEY ARE CRUCIAL
SPECS.....................................................
AMD X4 940 cpu at normal clock speed
corsair 800 4gb ram
Model
Brand CORSAIR
Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5
Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 5
Timing 5-5-5-18
Voltage 1.8V
Multi-channel Kit Dual Channel Kit
Heat Spreader Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts Lifetime limited
Labor Lifetime limited
motherboard is
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Model
Brand GIGABYTE
Model GA-MA790GP-UD4H
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type AM2+/AM2
CPU Type Phenom FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2
FSB 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)
Chipsets
North Bridge AMD 790GX
South Bridge AMD SB750
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1200 / 1066 / 800
(Whether 1200 MHz memory speed is supported depends on the CPU being used)
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Channel Supported Dual Channel
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1)
PCI Express x1 3
PCI Slots 2
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s 6
SATA RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
Onboard Video
Onboard Video Chipset ATI Radeon HD3300 graphics built-in 128MB DDR3 1333MHz SidePort Memory
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC889A
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Realtek 8111C
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
Video Ports D-Sub + DVI
HDMI 1 x HDMI
USB 4 x USB 2.0
IEEE 1394 1 x IEEE 1394a
S/PDIF Out 1 x Optical
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 8 x USB 2.0
Onboard 1394
Onboard 1394 2x 1394a
Physical Spec
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin 24 Pin
Onboard video is being used.
500 watt power supply
Model
Brand OCZ
Model OCZ550FTY
Series Fatal1ty
Spec
Type ATX12V / EPS12V
Maximum Power 550W
Fans 120mm fan
PFC Active
Main Connector 20+4Pin
+12V Rails 2
PCI-Express Connector 1 x 6-Pin, 1 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Power Connector 6
SLI Ready
CrossFire Ready
Modular Yes
Efficiency 82% Typical
Over Voltage Protection Yes
Input Voltage 100 - 240 V
Input Frequency Range 50/60 Hz
Input Current 10A
Output +3.3V@25A,+5V@25A,+12V1@25A,+12V2@25A,-12V@0.3A, +5VSB@2.5A
MTBF >100,000 Hours
Features
Connectors 1 x Main connector (20+4Pin)
1 x 12V(P4)
1 x 12V(8Pin)
4 x Peripheral
6 x SATA
2 x Floppy
2 x PCI-E
Features OCZ PowerWhisper Technology