Preloading a preset in a VST host without an initial manual load?

[Tom Conner]

Hi, I am using Cantabile to host SD3 and it will preload presets I choose into memory so that I can switch between them quickly when playing live. This works well and preset changes are instantaneous. But there is one annoyance: it seems that when an SD3 preset is first loaded it is not yet “started” and so won’t load the drum samples in until it is started by clicking on it. So you have to start a preset once by hand to get it into memory and then it can be switched to instantaneously after that. It would be much better if SD3 presets loaded and started fully with the drum samples available immediately rather than requiring human intervention.

Anybody have this working?

And I’m running a new fast laptop with fast SSDs and 96GB RAM, so not much more to do to improve load times with hardware upgrades.

Operating system: Windows 11

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.
• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.
• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.
• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.

Topic

[Scott Eshleman]

You might want to review your SD3 ‘Cache Settings’ described here in the manual…
9.3.4 Settings Window Performance Tab

[Tom Conner]

Thanks, yes I tried that and it just isn’t usable for edrums since when every articulation of every drum/cymbal is first played it is loaded into memory and makes a stuttering sound as it does so. Then it’s fine after that first time. For a snare drum for example there are six different articulations with three being regularly played (center, off center, rimshot).

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

[Brad]

Tom Conner wrote:

Thanks, yes I tried that and it just isn’t usable for edrums since when every articulation of every drum/cymbal is first played it is loaded into memory and makes a stuttering sound as it does so. Then it’s fine after that first time. For a snare drum for example there are six different articulations with three being regularly played (center, off center, rimshot).

Hi there,

I’m guess, but I am thinking that Scott wanted to make sure that you didn’t have cache turned on, it definitely wouldn’t work in your case.

So, be patient since I’ve not used Cantabile.

SD3 has a default preset that loads up, when you first start it up. That preset should be fully available once the samples load into RAM.

If you load another instance of SD3 in Cantabile and then select another preset, that should load into RAM and be available as soon as it’s finished.

You’re saying that’s not the case, correct?

Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[Tom Conner]

Yes. There seems to be a difference between SD3 running with a preset selected and actually being ready to play that preset with all the samples loaded. It looks like it requires a human to load the preset the first time, the VST host can’t do it. Has anyone successfully been able to get SD3 presets automatically and fully preloaded in a host, without first having to manually load each one?

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

[Bear-Faced Cow]

It’s possible that your host may have a resource saving preference similar to some DAWs. If there is one and it is active, turning it off may load Superior Drummer.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[Brad]

Tom Conner wrote:

Yes. There seems to be a difference between SD3 running with a preset selected and actually being ready to play that preset with all the samples loaded. It looks like it requires a human to load the preset the first time, the VST host can’t do it. Has anyone successfully been able to get SD3 presets automatically and fully preloaded in a host, without first having to manually load each one?

Yes, I think I understand what the issue is, I assume I read through your thread on the Cantabile website, describing it. As you have not exempt SD3 from preloading, one would think that the plug-in would be activated and ready to go. I am going to try to download and play around with it on my windows virtual machine ( don’t think Cantabile works on Mac OSX) and see if I can come up with anything. May take the weekend to come with anything.

Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Brad.

2

Thanked by: Scott Eshleman and Bear-Faced Cow

[Tom Conner]

Funny, the Cantabile develolper’s name is also Brad. But yes thanks for looking at it. I should try some other hosts too like Gig Performer, Nanohost, Element, etc… to ensure the problem lies with SD3.

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

How would this be a Superior Drummer issue? It will load when it is invoked by the host. Otherwise it would be a problem for all DAWs.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[Tom Conner]

It is not fully loaded with samples ready to play when invoked by the Cantabile VST host. You have to select/load it manually and then it loads the samples. The question is, is this how SD3 works in all VST hosts/DAWs.

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

[Brad]

Tom Conner wrote:

It is not fully loaded with samples ready to play when invoked by the Cantabile VST host. You have to select/load it manually and then it loads the samples. The question is, is this how SD3 works in all VST hosts/DAWs.

Hi Tom,

Just cleaning up some old virtual machine snapshots before I try this out, however, Studio One has a similair feature: shows. I tried creating several songs in a set with different SDXs and presets and they loaded up when configured, without having to do anything. If I saved and closed the show, then re-opened it the SDXs all loaded up and were playable immediately.

So as Jord was getting at, it’s either something in the configuration of Cantabile or the way it interacts with VSTs that do not stream but load samples into RAM instead. So might be something for the developer (with a very cool name BTW) to contact Toontrack about. But I will see what I find along the way.

Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Brad.

[Tom Conner]

Ah yes Brad that is good to know! So you are saying that when you load a Studio One show that has several SD3 instances with different presets loaded inside of it, they are all immediately ready to play when called upon? None of them need to load their samples at top right in SD3? I assume there is some delay when the show is first loaded for all the samples in all the SD3 presets to load in the background.

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.

1

Thanked by: Brad

[Mark King]

Same in Cubase. If I load a project with several instances of sd3 they load automatically and are then ready to play.

SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Mark King.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Whereas Logic on the other hand has a resource saving feature, that will not load any plug-ins if there are no regions in the track. One can get around this by putting a blank region in the track or they can turn off the feature altogether.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[Tom Conner]

Awesome guys, thank you all! I’ll let Cantabile know that this seems to be an issue with how it is preloading VSTs, and not SD3. I’ll also try it with another VST to see if I can duplicate it.

PS Mark – How do you like Rooms of Hansa? I have been thinking about that one. And I assume you are not the Level 42 bass player – sorry if you are sick of hearingf that. 🙂

Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop

[Brad]

Tom Conner wrote:

Ah yes Brad that is good to know! So you are saying that when you load a Studio One show that has several SD3 instances with different presets loaded inside of it, they are all immediately ready to play when called upon? None of them need to load their samples at top right in SD3? I assume there is some delay when the show is first loaded for all the samples in all the SD3 presets to load in the background.

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Tom Conner.

Yes, I don’t use the Studio One “Show Page” so it was a bit of a learning curve, as was Cantabile and I wouldn’t say I’m prolific with either feature and software, but… I have loaded several instances in the “Show Page” in Studio One within a setlist and they play instantly, in other words, they are active and available when jumping from one song to another using different SDXs and presets.

I haven’t been able to get that to work with Cantabile, but I am definitely not prolific with it, only downloading and installing Performer yesterday evening, I was able to create a setlist with a couple of drum kits and highlighted them and set to preload and they definitely weren’t preloading. I hung my system which is pretty understandable as it only has 16GB RAM and I am running Windows as a VM under OSX and so the resources are pretty limited on that machine. It’s one I use for limited testing and graphic design.

Operating system: Windows 10

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

• This post was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Brad.

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