markodarko wrote:I think whichever route I go I'm looking at getting a newer machine with more RAM by the sounds of it...
Based on the information you provided, you can upgrade the system memory on the newer 13" dual-core i5 MacBook Pro to 16GB, which will help . . . The new mac Mini with 16GB of system memory and the fastest quad-core i7 is a very fast computer, and as you mentioned you already have a display, so it is a possibility for a new computer . . .
THOUGHTSThere appear to be two problems:
(1) The EWQL samples are approximately 1.7TB and they need to be on a fast drive with USB 3 or faster connectivity . . .
(2) System memory is important, and 8GB is
not a lot of system memory, where the key bit of information is that Mac OS X and applications will use more system memory when it is present, which is good . . .
At present, the reality is that only the iMac and Mac Pro can have more than 16GB of memory, and this is the reason the 27" iMac with the fastest quad-core i7 is attractive for digital music production, since it can have 32GB of system memory . . .
[
NOTE: The current 21.5" iMac only supports 16GB of system memory, hence the focus on the new 27" iMac which supports 32GB of system memory . . . ]
16GB of system memory is good; 20GB of system memory is better; and so forth, but cost becomes a factor, so it depends . . .
Apple memory typically is installed in matched pairs, but there are a limited number of memory slots; so one of the goals is to avoid getting memory that needs to be discarded when you decide to increase the total system memory . . .
QUESTION: Have you run Activity Monitor on the 13" dual-core i5 MacBook Pro?"Activity Monitor.app" is provided with Mac OS X, and it will be in the "Utilities" subfolder of the "Applications" folder. You can use it to see how the processor cores are utilized, and you can use it to get a sense of system memory usage and disk I/O . . .
When you are using the EWQL samples in NOTION 4, there will be an EWQL engine running, and it is called "Play 4" . . .
When Play 4 is hosted by NOTION 4, it works a bit differently from the way it works when it is running in standalone mode; and you can read about this in the Play 4 Users' Manual . . .
System memory is important in this context, because you can configure Play 4 to use more system memory when there is more system memory available on the computer, and this extra system memory makes it possible for the Play 4 engine to buffer and manage samples more efficiently . . .
Generally, NOTION 4 requests instrument sounds when it needs them, and this is done on a "Just In Time (JIT)" basis, which can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the NOTION 4 "Audio Buffer Size", which for all practical purposes is the only obvious parameter for this purpose . . .
The Play 4 engine does essentially the same thing, and it has buffers that you can adjust, but only if there is sufficient system memory on the computer, hence the importance of having more than 8GB of system memory on a Mac . . .
Basically, it is a matter of "look-ahead", where the general idea is that the various buffers "look-ahead" and preload samples that will be needed soon toward the goal of always having samples loaded in system memory when they are needed to generate the audio for notes . . .
Obviously, with the EWQL samples sounds being approximately 1.7TB (
terabytes, not gigabytes), there is no practical way to load everything into system memory, but so what . . .
Think of it as if it were a busy fast-food restaurant and the various buffers are customers, while the complete set of sampled sounds is the kitchen and pantry . . .
The goal in this instance is to ensure that there always are freshly cooked French Fries so that the waiters and waitresses can fill the customer orders quickly . . .
There might be 1.7 tons of frozen French Fries or potatoes in the pantry, but it is not necessary to fry all of them at once, so the restaurant devises a system where everything is done in a way that works smoothly and maps to happy customers, cooks, and wait staff . . .
It also is useful to understand that NOTION 4 and the various VSTi virtual instrument engines (including the Play 4 engine) do more than one thing at a time; and having larger buffers makes it possible for the Play 4 engine to do a better job of running its kitchen and pantry, so that when NOTION 4 requests more French Fries, there are some already cooked and ready to put on the plate . . .
System memory operates in nanoseconds, but hard drives operate in milliseconds; and larger buffers makes it possible to preload more audio, which in turn allows more time to retrieve the next subset of audio . . .
The retrieving work certainly will be faster and more efficient when the samples are stored on multimedia quality hard drives, which typically will be 7,200 RPM or faster, and this also is the case with SSD drives, since SSD drives are flash memory and are considerably faster than hard drives . . .
EWQL recommends having its sampled sounds on a separate drive that is a dedicated EWQL drive and has approximately 30 percent free space . . .
SUMMARYBefore spending any money, I think it makes sense to develop a strategy, which includes getting as much information about hardware and software options as possible, which is part of what you are doing in this topic . . .
There will be a new version of NOTION sooner or later--noting that I have absolutely
no specific information about this, other than it appears to be a logical prediction--and the fact of the matter is that in the 64-bit computing universe on the Mac, the operating system and 64-bit applications can use all the system memory available . . .
If you decide to get an external SSD drive, then I think it makes sense to get one that you can use with a new quad-core i7 mac Mini or a 27" quad-core i7 iMac, where the primary difference will be system memory (32GB maximum for the iMac, but 16GB maximum for the mac Mini). There also are more ports and other stuff on the 27" iMac, and you can have a larger internal hard drive, as well . . .
On the other hand, it is easier to do hardware upgrades on a mac Mini than on a 27" iMac, but system memory upgrades are easy on both . . .
Intuitively, EWQL provided an external USB 3 hard drive with all the sampled sounds, so it probably is sufficiently fast for most activities, which in turn suggests to me that the "bottleneck" is somewhere else; and since the 13" dual-core i5 MacBook Pro only has 8GB of system memory, it is logical that the "bottleneck" is system memory . . .
In the US, it costs approximately $200 to upgrade a 13" dual-core i5 MacBook Pro with Retina display to 16GB of memory . . .
Upgrading the system memory might not solve the problem, but it does no harm; and it will map to a significant improvement, regardless of what it does with respect to the problem, although I think it will help, because you will be able to increase the size of the various buffers, which in turn provides a bit more "wiggle room" for NOTION 4 and the Play 4 engine with respect to having more time to do hard drive reads during playback . . .
Lots of FUN!