Which do you like, instrument tracks or the rack?

Cubase
#1

In the past I have used the VST Rack because of it’s flexibility with outputs but now with many VST’s offering internal mixing, this appears to be less critical.

I have been anxiously awaiting any word in relation to multi-timbral/output VST’s for a long time but have figured I would try and make greater use of Instrument Tracks due to their convenience of use and compact nature.

Admittedly I will still have some instruments instanced via the rack since I need the multiple outputs for processing under my UAD card such as the basses (it makes sense to keep some instrument types together) but I feel now that even if an instrument track simply supported multi-trimbrality, that it would be a giant leap forward and that this feature request should take precedence over all others.

Cheers and enjoy cubase!

#2

Aloha e,
I started with Cubase in 1993.

So to me Cubase was always just a MIDI programmme that in later years
tacked on some audio stuff.

Being a real old school MIDIot, I initially resisted using ‘Instrument Tracks’
(and wrote a few posts saying as much).

But now days with my particular work-flo, and a more powerful 'puter
I almost never use the ‘Rack’ system.

Years ago by using the ‘Rack’ I could really save on cpu juice usage.
Like the amount of ram memory you had installed,
saving cpu juice was way more important back then.

I could load one instance of say ‘SampleTank’ or ‘Kontakt’
and put up to 16 players in each instance.
And still have a somewhat ‘small’ foot print.

But then I got some much better 'puter gear.
With it I no longer HAD to use the rack just to save on cpu juice.

From my working POV each Instrument Track represents one member of the orchestra.
So a 90 piece project would have 90 Instrument Tracks.

My older PPC 'puter could not handle a job like this
without using the rack but my i7 can.

So now days using individual ‘Instrument Tracks’ give me the most amount of flexibility
and if necessary I can still do ‘Group Routing’/Folder Tracks etc.


HTH
{’-’}

#3

So do you think by using a single instance of a VSTi on the rack instead of muliple instances as either Instrument Tracks or stereo VST’s (on the rack) that I would save memory?

From my working POV each Instrument Track represents one member of the orchestra.
So a 90 piece project would have 90 Instrument Tracks.

This is how I’d like to work but it seems each instance of say “Kontakt” tries to allocate memory even before an instrument is loaded.

#4

Not memory but cpu usage.
{’-’}

#5

So no RAM savings are possible (not even small amounts)?

I’ve set the pre-load buffer on kontakt to 240Kb so what does this achieve?

Thanks for chiming in :smiley: