Long sample vs short in loop

[Robert Puza]

Long samples vs short samples in a loop

Does it make sense to shorten a long samples (20 seconds) by, for example, 5 seconds and let the end of the sample loop? Is it better for the CPU and memory?
Or does it matter?
Or is looping even worse for the CPU and memory than a long sample?

[d.healey]

@Robert-Puza If you're using disk streaming it doesn't make much difference to CPU or RAM, it will only affect storage space on the disk.

[Robert Puza]

@d-healey ok.
Thanks.
i'm going to google what disk streaming is. i don't know if i use it or not.

[d.healey]

@Robert-Puza said in Long sample vs short in loop:

i don't know if i use it or not

You do, it's the default behaviour.

Disk streaming means that only the start of the sample is loaded into RAM and the rest is read from the disk during playback.

[Robert Puza]

@d-healey well I'm surprised. So the quality of the tool depends on the quality and speed of the hard drive? Isn't Ram faster and more versatile? Please explain. So the hard drive MUST be SSD?

[d.healey]

@Robert-Puza said in Long sample vs short in loop:

Isn't Ram faster and more versatile?

Yes but much more expensive and many sample libraries are 100s of GB in size.

@Robert-Puza said in Long sample vs short in loop:

So the hard drive MUST be SSD?

SSDs are better but a 7200RPM HDD is fast enough, and you can adjust the buffer size to change the amount that is loaded into RAM.

This tech has been around since GigaSampler in 1998 - https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/nemesys-gigasampler-v15

[Robert Puza]

@d-healey buffer size? The more buffer you give, the greater the latency. right? I need the smallest buffer possible. right?

[Robert Puza]

@d-healey on worse computers the beginning of the sample is critical. how to prevent it? by worse computer I mean 2.9 ghz and 4 gb ram.

You are probably familiar with the effect that older software works fine on everything and the latest version of the same thing works fine ONLY on good computers. I don't want this. It has to work fine on everything.

[Lindon]

@Robert-Puza said in Long sample vs short in loop:

@d-healey buffer size? The more buffer you give, the greater the latency. right? I need the smallest buffer possible. right?

no buffer here means the amount of the sample currently loaded into memory - that will start to playback instantly - and whilst it is playing the disk streaming is fetching the rest of the sample from disk.

So if you have a slow(er) disk then the buffer size needs to be bigger...

[Robert Puza]

@Lindon so you are not thinking about the buffer size that we set, for example in ASIO?

[Lindon]

@Robert-Puza no we are not talking about that at all, read the article Dave pointed you at....

[Robert Puza]

@Lindon Ok. 🤭