Hello
is there a change in H6/HS3 regarding loading sample method ?
for example if i load a relatively large sample library like “neo soul keys” i think all sound presets use the same samples or most of it, but every time i go trough the sound presets it loads the samples from scratch and it takes some time to load.
Halion might already be doing this, but the new preset just needs even more samples that were not already loaded? Someone more in the know would need to confirm or deny this…hard for me to tell here without a MUCH closer look.
If you’re using the full Halion 6, I think you may be able to get faster loading by first creating an entry in the Program Table for presets you intend to use in a Gig or project, and then loading your slots from the “Program Table” instead of from the MediaBay.
Example:
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Load an instrument into Rack Slot 1 from the Media bay.
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Look in Halion’s Program Table. You should see that there’s a new program at the very bottom of your Table list.
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Click to toggle on the preload button if you want Halion to always keep a bit of this preset’s sample set in memory and somewhat ready to go.
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Now choose another Instrument Slot in the Slot rack.
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Load it this time from your Program Table instead of from the Media Browser.
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Clear your slots (but keep the Presets in the Table), and load it again.
Is it faster loading this time? Don’t worry if you see the bars grinding as if loading…if preload is enabled there should be enough of the samples in memory and ready to go in the event of fast changes (I.E. Using a Program Change from a MIDI Controller in a Live performance to swap sounds on the fly).
In short, for things you want to quickly load, say in a gig, or for presets you like to use often in projects…keep them in the Program Table (perhaps with preload on), and load stuff from the Table instead of the MediaBay.
This may not be exactly what you’re asking for, but in live situations it may well speed up load times.
Here’s the catch…if you change something in Slot 1, then other Slots sharing the same preset from the Program Table will reflect the same changes (at least that I’m able to see here with the Quick Controls, though you should be able to isolate enough CC or VST automations to get some versatility from this type of ‘program sharing’. I.E. If I load two copies of an HSO Violin, from the same Program Table entry, into two different Rack Slots this way, the key-switching, volume (CC7), velocities, etc. seem to be managed independently for each slot; however, they seem to share Quick Control settings. Alternatively, I could make two different copies of this Violin Preset in the Program Table, it’d keep independent Quick Controls then.
For sonic, I’m not sure if there’s a way to do the ‘preload’ thing. Instead of giving us a “Program Table” from which map out things like Program Changes on a per-channel basis, it just gives us a full slate where we can load an entire Multi-Chain Preset via single MIDI Program Change event. You can of course tinker with the Memory/Streaming ratios in the Options Tab to see if that helps.
As for getting two totally separate presets from independent ‘Program Table’ entries to share the same layers/samples in memory, I’m not yet aware of a way to do this (unless it’s already default behavior and it’s just not obvious to us). Experiment some and see what you can come up with?
There are some ‘memory/streaming’ switches on the ‘Options Page’ that might have some impact. It’s worth a try to see if that seems to cut down on load times. One example is to ask Halion to load less in memory, and stream more from hard disk.
Also at the very top of the Halion UI in the ‘tool bar’, there is a tiny icon to toggle on/off a “RAM SAVE” mode. I’m not sure exactly what that does beyond attempting to unloaded any unused garbage, without looking it up, but it’s possible that might attempt to let Presets do more ‘sample sharing’ from the same memory allocation pool. Give it a try 