Continuing the discussion from SpectraLayers 10.0.30 Maintenance Update:
Hi Robin, so the 10.0.40 maintenance update apparently doesn’t feature any improvements regarding Gpu support or optimisations for mac computers.
In the 10.0.30 Maintenance Update thread , which was supposed to implement some of these mac features, we were first told :
“The improvements to the ONNX library I was waiting for came late (just a week ago). This could allow some form of acceleration for some specific AIs (but not all, due to the same CoreML restrictions).”
And then a few posts down:
" Unfortunately for now it’s rather “in stone”. As it is, CoreML doesn’t allow data blocks longer than 16374 samples, which is a blocker for a lots of audio AIs.
It doesn’t mean that there won’t either be GPU acceleration on mac (and actually a few are already GPU accelerated on mac, such as Unmix Drums and Unmix Components), but it makes that path harder than on Windows. Some AIs can work around that limitation (not all requires large blocks, such as the 2 mentioned above), but ideally it’d be best to have Apple remove that limitation."
So, in-light of the 10.0.40 update, are we to conclude that waiting for Apple to remove the data block limitation is your preferred cause of action ?
Being of an optimistic nature, I had understood your post regarding the ONNX library to mean that we would see “some form of acceleration for some specific AIs” implemented. Have you changed your mind regarding this?
I appreciate that Apple are possibly making things difficult for developers, but even some limited tweaks would be very much appreciated.
And as always, thanks for your highly useful software.
Unfortunately, with the current statu quo I would not expect significant improvements in that area during SL10, due to the slow pace of improvements both on the ONNX front and the CoreML front, and the fact that most AIs used in SL10 requires audio blocks longer than 16384 samples.
I’ll keep that in mind during the development of SL11 though.
Robin,
I don’t understand why we were told that the 10.0.30 Maintenance Update was going to feature some improvements for macs, and when that didn’t eventuate because of delays with the ONNX library we were later told, when the improvements to ONNX arrived, according to you in the 10.0.30 thread, they " could allow some form of acceleration for some specific AIs", Why were or are the improvements made possible by the updated ONNX library not being implemented when Improvements on the mac side were previously announced ? It appears you’ve decided not to pursue improving the mac version. I’m confident you can see that you’ll " keep that in mind during the development of SL11 though" is a pretty inadequate position for your mac customers. I’m now told that I’ll have to wait and fork out for SL11 when you indicated that SL10 would implement what is possible at that stage. I can’t have much faith that any of this is going to happen, SL was not marketed as a Windows centric program. I possibly will end up getting a pc with an RTX GPU, mais j’suis un peu déçu mon p’tit pépère. (j’ai vécu 21 ans a Rouen).
As you’ve noticed, I always said “could”, not “will” - this was conditioned on advancements on the ONNX/CoreML front, I think I’ve been clear about this, and never promised this would happen regardless of those advancements.
Also, I’d again like to emphasize that some AI processes are already GPU accelerated on mac, such as unmix drums or unmix components, as soon as it was technologically possible it was implemented in SpectraLayers.
Finally, I’d like to remind that all those GPU acceleration additions is a free bonus that came post-release, and was never part of the advertised features.
There’s no more priority on Windows than on macOS (as a matter of fact, SL is mainly developed on mac, and the latest update introduced a mac improvement). I understand not seeing more GPU acceleration on the mac front is a little disappointing, but keep in mind that right now SpectraLayers is the only audio application on the market that at least provides -some- GPU acceleration on mac. Il faut voir le verre à moitié plein !
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