A quick heads up.
After some time building a midi instrument map as an orchestral GM default, i put it into action this week. and the key to this was the option "On demand hold". A highly underrated feature of LS that frankly, rocks.
With 127 instruments, 16channels, and a determination to test this to the hilt, i set up a quick template in Rosegarden, and set to work, per channel, introducing as many programme changes as i could.
The on demand hold feature does exactly what it says on the tin. If you select a programme numbered instrument, then change the number, the original is held in ram, until you need it again. In the past, a similar feature in 'other' apps would eventually grind to a halt, as the system and app couldn't keep up with the changes. But LS didn't. With 16 programme changes in one bar, for example, at 120bpm, things were easy. So i copied the pattern for different instruments, 16 changes each per bar, across 16 channels, and a wide selection across an orchestra. Still couldn't break it, and more, there were no perceptible gltches, faltering, or hesitation in playback. I added tempo changes to this, and still couldn't make it fall over.
I'm impressed enough with the feature to write about it, and further to this, it means i can build a much bigger, multi bank, instrument map, knowing that although i have all the instruments available, i'm not going to use them all at once.
So the 4gb of ram in the box, of which i usually assign 3.2 gb to LS, is now a virtual '10gb' (for the sake of an example), with anything i select on tap,ready to roll. All this was done in Fantasia (the latest), and Rosegarden was used for the testing. (Sadly RG still doesn't usejackmidi, but that's another story.) The instrument swapping is amazing to watch in action.
At the height of activity, htop recorded me using 2.4gb of ram. For the equivalent in straight channel loaded instruments on tap and ready to fire, all in ram, i'd need 6 or 7GB at least.
"On demand hold."
A quiet achiever, and ideal for those with limited ram resource who just want to write, instead of manually swapping stuff in and out, or constantly building templates, constrained by hardware. I consider this a great example of optimising resource for the user by getting it right the first time around.
Well done the LS team for a great feature.
Alex.
and now it's back to the smoke filled laboratory, and more experiments..............