SpectraLayers never used to do this until the weak PC people complained that their machines could not cut it.
This is supposed to be cutting-edge software, it should devour CPU’s and GPU’s. Now I have to wait three times the length it used to take to process a 6 second clip due to “Initializing: Please Wait”.
I don’t wish to wait. That’s why I invested in, and built, my own machine that can function under huge workloads.
Stop dumbing down SpectraLayers to the lowest common denominator. Instead, cater to those who purchase ALL your Pro-Version Software, and who have the hardware to run it!
100%
We are in 2026 and a decent PC is available for 2.000 € (more is better, of course). This should be possible for anyone, who uses modern software.
I should probably impart to all, and Steinberg too, that I am a huge fan of SpectraLayers Pro. It is truly amazing technology, but it’s supposed to be software for professionals (it’s in the name). It’s not supposed to be for casual PC users, and trying to fulfill both roles at the same time is killing it for the actual professionals.
Create a “light” version for those with older or budget systems, but please don’t ‘kill’ the Pro version. We pro’s like to see our machines tested to their limits, and to watch them still chew through raw data like a beast.
Rarely have I ever experienced any of the issues that seem so prevalent for others in this forum. No crashes or anything else (I will say that once or twice the program simply winked out of existence, so there’s that). It might be a good idea to increase the minimum system requirements. Imho, 16GB of DDR6 GPU RAM is the bare minimum… and a Core i7/Ultra7 (or AMD garbage equivalent) CPU should also be the minimum with at least 32GB of DDR5 system RAM. This ain’tcher Aunt Millie’s software, fellow Steinbergites. Up your game(s).
Once upon a time, everyone who was someone yearned for a BMW, then BMW started catering to the masses, and now anybody who’s somebody has zero interest in BMW. It’s YUGO now. There are many, many examples of other companies who have gone down that road, only to find failure as their final destination. To put it another way: “Walk on road, hm? Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later… get the squish just like grape.” ~Nariyoshi Keisuke Miyagi
I’ve noticed that there are certain high-load processes that never received the “Initializing: Please Wait” patch. These still grab a hold of your CPU/GPU by the cojones and make it perform. We need to roll back Unmix Song so it’s the way it once was, and the YUGO owners can go pound sand.
While I can understand your point I have to say that what makes the real “pro” difference is the hand who uses these great softwares and it doesn’t matter how powerful is your machine. That said, any improvements making these features more reliable and faster relative to the potential of their systems would certainly very welcome.
My premise was about the “pro” word related just to a certain hardware while i said i could understand your point. Now you don’t need to downgrade a computer that much to make your point, but I think you got mine where i didn’t specify. Have a good day.
@PrecisionProductions I agree the ‘Initializing Please Wait’ times can seem prohibitively long. Surely, there must be a better way.
Personally I think the official recommended 16GB of GPU RAM for SpectraLayers 12 is somewhat misleading for the majority of audio-based users - especially since Unmix Song is likely to be the only module where there’s a processing time bottleneck. 8GB GPU RAM, which is the Steinberg minimum, should be adequate for everything else. I doubt most audio-based users would want (or be able) to invest in a 16GB GPU RAM card just for the privilege of fast processing times using Unmix Song in SpectraLayers 12 - unless Unmix Song is the only thing you are doing with SL12 and you are unmixing non-stop on a daily basis.
Using the term ‘professional’ may not really factor into the debate since I’d guess there are many so-called professionals in the audio world who are not using high end graphics cards.
A better solution would be to streamline the processing within the software so that it functions with reasonable processing times with the the minimum hardware requirement of 8GB of GPU RAM and very fast with the recommended hardware requirement of 16GB of GPU RAM.
Right now SL12 suffers significantly slower processing times for Unmix Song when unmixing all instruments simultaneously when compared with SL11. To many users this seems like a regression. It’s true that the models have been improved and are more processing / memory-intensive but IMHO the basic streamlining / optimising of the code in 12 where Unmix Song is concerned is probably still in need of attention - there have been many reports in this forum of regressive processing times to the point of being almost unusable. There have been a few improvements in recent times including the ‘Use Shared Memory’ switch in Preferences, and AFAIK it would seem the developer is still working on further optimisations.
SL is supposed to be a spectral editor. For sound seperation there are far better tools with up to date AI available, which SL will never be able to compete continuosly.
It means, that SL should focus on spectral editing. There is a lot to do to make it better, imho. Spectral editing of SL for sound should be at least as powerful as Photoshop is for images.
And yes, btw, of course SL can and must improve in all relevant aspects: Speed, stability, reliability, numerical exactness, simplicity,… and all the other good stuff.
Why not just have a checkbox that reads: “I don’t need reduced performance in favor of better stability”, and give customers the option to choose for themselves.
