Memory Limits on Obsidian Instances
in General chat
So I’ve read where iOS limits the amount of memory to 300 Meg for the total number of AU instances of a single plugin. So if you had 1 AU plugin, it could use all 300 Meg but if you spun up 4 of those same AU’s, they would all share the 300 Meg allocated to that identical AU plugin.
Since Obsidian is not an AU, does it have this same limitation? If not, what is the memory limit per instance of Obsidian?
Comments
@drez I'm no pro within NS2 and have no understanding of the technical aspects, but I have not witnessed a limitation so far with obsidian and i've loaded up some pretty hefty patches from desktop on it, in big multiples, and it still was snappy. For it's 'weight' per instance, I'd assume its predicated on if you're using a sample based patch or if it's using Obsidians built in parameters IE 'FM, Wavetables, etc' and how many of the OSC layers its using. So i'm sure it varies.
I'd also like to know how much a blank instant of obsidian uses, and if its truly device dependent for how many instances u can run (unlike an auv3 with hard usage caps)
Yeah I’ve got 40+ Obsidian instances rolling in this tune with 17-20 going at the same time. Really, I’m wondering if I sample my own string patches from the NI Orchestral Library and curious how beefy I can make the patches. Don’t get me wrong, the string libraries in the IAP’s are pretty good, but I’m looking for some more specific patches that I wouldn’t give out (personal use) and was curious what I could get away with.
@drez I think You'll be fine. You can sample every key on 3 different velocities easily. Until you're in a few 10's of GB's, obsidian will roll smoothly, assuming you aren't near the iPads capacity for storage, and even then, the loading will have maybe a 1 second lag.
I actually had to slim down the sample library I posted because of size concerns for others who may not have 'Pro's' or higher capacity iPads. But obsidian 'feels' limitless. I'd actually like for it to have up to 6 OSC parameters instead of the 3 to create really complex patches because it's so efficient.
It isn’t exactly the same as having more oscs, but if you link another Obsidian to the first one, you can get that complexity. If the new Obs is a child track, they both go through the same audio path in the mixer, so any insert effects or mixer automation on the parent track affects both.
@Stiksi interesting! I hadn't thought about it like that. Sounds like Obsidian can be the iPads Omnisphere with a little effort
@iPadBeatMaking
Regarding number of oscillators - it's not obvious but there is interesting trick with FM oscillator (of course this is something different that working with samples).
FM oscillator contains internally 3 "suboscillators" - every one with various shapes. By default OP1 and OP2 output volume is set to zero, so just OP3 OUT is going to the mix (which makes sense because in most case you use OP1 and OP2 for modulating OP3) - but you can use FM oscillator also like 3 independend stacked oscillators if you turn up also OP1 and OP2 outputs ..
In this case, if you use FM oscillator in all 3 slots, you work basically with 9 oscillators, which you can detune, apply individual envelopes on each one (FM oscillator have internal own envelopes - so every of those 9 oscillaros can have own envelope and you still have available another 5 global envelopes - modulation heaven)
Regarding memory limits - AU limit is not applied on Obsidian instances. Whole Nanostudio (and all it's internal instruments and FX) simply use all available device memory.
Haha, I'd forgotten about that. You're not going to run out of oscillators with Obsidian
Sidebar on the FM sidebar: Probably worth noting that the FM oscillators are band limited in order to keep Obsidian kicking CPU ass. Not sure exactly what the technical limits are but you can hear it rolled off in the high end (when compared to 'standard' Obsidian oscillators). A tiny bit of distortion or a high end EQ boost can make up for some of the band limiting.
As ever, it's a trade off. Yes, the high end is rolled off but 1) you get envelopes for each FM OSC's feedback and output and 2) you can run 50 of these hot l'il bastards with 9 OSCs and 18 envelopes (plus the regular 5 envelopes) on an Air 1.
On the original question: Drez, you will without a doubt, get much much better performance if you're willing to multi-sample the AU. Sampling may limit some sonic options (depending on the capabilities of the AU) but not only will you get way better RAM/CPU performance, you'll also get all of the power of the rest of Obsidian with which to mess with the sample set.
Oh I’m not going to sample an AU. I’m going to sample this on my desktop and plug THOSE samples into Obsidian:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/cinematic/symphony-series-string-ensemble/
I wish I could afford those big libraries...