Question for experienced Cubase users with heavy libraries like OT Berlin

Cubase
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I started using Cubase in 2023 in my Mac Studio M1 Ultra. When I bought that machine in 2022, it seemed to me that 64 GB was going to be more RAM than I would ever need. Boy was I wrong.

When I started buying more libraries, especially Orchestral Tool libraries, which are humongous not only in file size but also in the amount of RAM they use (Load Violins I of the Berlin Series and that alone will eat up about 5 to 6 GB of RAM, and that’s just one track), I realized that those 64 GB were nothing. I have constant hiccups if I try to play the project with all the tracks enabled, and I have to work in sections, and even then I still have hiccups. Obviously when you have 60 tracks that would represent a full orchestra and each of them takes up from 1 to 6 GB of RAM, it’s a miracle it plays at all.

So I decided to build a new PC that will stand the test of time, like I did with the one I built in 2012 and still works like a champ today, especially since I added two RTX 3060 cards to it to render in Blender :slight_smile:

Obviously the plan was to make it as fast as possible, with more RAM than I will ever need for Cubase. So I checked the motherboard’s HCL, and it seemed at first that the maximum was 128 GB, and just one specific kit from Kingston, so I ordered that. But it turns out that it was showing me no matches for 192 GB because I had only selected the size and not the CPU, which is the i9 14900 KF. So with that selected, it shows me that there’s one kit from Corsair at 192 GB.

Obviously that kit has a price difference, which is $313 more than the Kingston. Now, the machine itself was expensive enough that I’m not too keen on spending an extra $313 on something I don’t need, but at this time I’m still able to return the Kingston and order the Corsair.

So I wanted to ask heavy users of Cubase that use these huge libraries and you work with a PC with 128 GB of RAM, what’s the performance when using these libraries and lots of tracks, let’s say a full orchestra with strings, winds, brass, percussion, etc.

Is it fluid, or do you still have hiccups when it chokes because a violin run, or something like that?

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Have you explored splitting the load onto multiple computers? That’s how composers with very large libraries work afaik.

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You mean working part of the project in one and another part in another computer? That would seem like a pain, unless you don’t have a choice like instruments that exist only for macOS and not for Windows, or viceversa.

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No, I mean using something like Vienna Ensemble Pro to offload some instruments onto a secondary computer.

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Freezing and/or bouncing tracks you are not actively editing greatly reduces your RAM needs, and even 64GB is enough for large (huge) projects.
Yes it’s a bit time consuming, but not that bad once built in your habits.

Consider also improving your SSDs to reduce hiccups when loading libraries.
Don’t use USB drives for libraries, but only internal NVMe x4 (min Gen.4, but even Gen.5 theses days).

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I do own Vienna Ensemble Pro 7, but I don’t like it at all. I only have it because it was a bundle with their Epic Orchestra 2.0, which I wanted and was inexpensive enough to get it. But I tried it and I didn’t like it, in part because its GUI is not scalable, and it was too small for me.

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I do that when I have to, but it’s also time consuming, so I’d rather have a lot of RAM to fit everything in there.

As it is, the PC is going to have 3 M.2 drives, 4 TB each. And that’s going to be a little tight considering all the libraries I have, plus other software that is not music related. These are all gen 4. The motherboard allows a Gen 5, but even if I paid a lot more to get one of those, the bus is shared with the graphics card, so I wouldn’t use that slot, or the other one that is a Gen 4 but is also handled by the CPU. The other three are handled by the motherboard’s chipset, so I used those.

Then I have the external SSDs that I use with the Mac, all USB-C 3.2 I think, and one Thunderbolt, but to use that one I would need to buy a Thunderbolt card for the PC.

So my question is, is there anyone here working with a PC with 128 GB of RAM, and is it enough when you have a giant project with 100 tracks or more? And I would like to know if anyone is working with 192 GB of RAM, and how is that working out? Are you having any problems? Does Cubase really use all that RAM effectively or not?