Meteo Xavier Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 It was suggested to me (not directly) that I need more RAM to be able to pull off more complicated stuff in FL. I have between 3.5-4gb of RAM right now, 6gigs were brought up as "functionary", so I might get another RAM boost. But I also remember hearing from somewhere, more than once, that FL Studio (I'm running FL Studio 8 at right now) only recognizes 2gig of RAM at a time? Is that right, or am I grossly misinterpreting how much I can realistically work with on FL Studio? If not, how do you pull off more complicated sounding things with all these instruments, layers and effects given the limitation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 It's a 32bit application, so in theory, no more than about 3-3.5gb. Practically speaking, it seems to peter out even as you hit 2gb. What you need is a plugin like jBridge which allows you to host other plugins outside FL (while keeping the MIDI/audio connection), using your OS RAM but not FL's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 If you are using Vista 64 or Win 7 64, you can use up to 4 GB without having to tweak any settings and simply using the FL (extended memory).exe file. Otherwise, you're stuck at 2 GB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaf Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 @ op: do you use fl 9 extended memory? "There is a 3GB 'FL (extended memory).exe' in the FL Studio installation directory. For 32 bit Windows Operating Systems, this must be used with the /3GB Switch in the Boot.ini file. If you do edit it, save a copy to Boot.ini.old first, so you can recover the original at any time. Boot.ini files do not apply to Windows Vista memory management, BCDEdit is used with the /set IncreaseUserVa 3072 command. Image-Line takes no responsibility for issues caused by editing your Boot.ini file OR BCDEdit manipulation, you do these at your own risk." If you are using Vista 64 or Win 7 64, you can use up to 4 GB without having to tweak any settings and simply using the FL (extended memory).exe file. Otherwise, you're stuck at 2 GB. i thought it was 3gb. i'm using xp 64 and it uses 3 gb without tweaking any settings also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 It's a 32bit application, so in theory, no more than about 3-3.5gb. Practically speaking, it seems to peter out even as you hit 2gb. What you need is a plugin like jBridge which allows you to host other plugins outside FL (while keeping the MIDI/audio connection), using your OS RAM but not FL's. That sounds tricky - how do you get that to work? (Remember, I'm not really that technically minded). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 It's actually pretty simple. Step 1) buy JBridge from here - http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/ Step 2) copy the "plugin_name.32.dll" file from the Jbridge directory into your VST Plugins directory Step 3) rename it to the appropriate plugin (ex. Omnisphere.32.dll) Step 4) repeat this process for as many plugins as you like *NOTE* Some plugins don't work well with JBridge, but in my own experience most of the big RAM-eaters work fine. Also, you only really need to do this for plugins that use a lot of memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 @ op: do you use fl 9 extended memory? I have not upgraded yet. Its on my "do-to list", but so are a lot of other things right now. The RAM extender might be the ticket if it gets me another gig to work with. Mostly the reason I'm asking is because I'm still looking at EWQLSO Silver for my orchestral needs and I was told I would probably need like 4-6gigs RAM for "functional" really good orchestral work. Now I'm looking at HALION Symphonic because of its "Disk Streaming" feature which, if that means what I take it to mean, will let me get more orchestral work done for less RAM consumption. (Yeah, I'm still bothering with this new setup I'm trying to work out. I never though having an actual budget to work with would be such a headache for me and those around me). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Also while FL *in theory* can use 4gb, in practice I have never seen it break 2gb, even with the proper tweaks. So, I wouldn't rely on it. Furthermore you will not even be using close to 2gb with QLSO Silver, thanks to DFD. I have Gold and I rarely hit that much myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Also while FL *in theory* can use 4gb, in practice I have never seen it break 2gb, even with the proper tweaks. So, I wouldn't rely on it. Furthermore you will not even be using close to 2gb with QLSO Silver, thanks to DFD. I have Gold and I rarely hit that much myself. In Win 7 64 it can break 2, I did it just the other day. I'm not sure about Win XP 64, isn't that what you're running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 So, I wouldn't rely on it. Furthermore you will not even be using close to 2gb with QLSO Silver, thanks to DFD. I have Gold and I rarely hit that much myself. Really? Nobody's mentioned DFD to me before on the subject. That's actually really great to hear. Edit (11/9/09) Colossus, Kompakt and Kontakt use DFD too much to my pleasure and saving grace. The installation was so damn easy it didn't even need/have a README file. I kept wondering how anyone could possibly use Colossus when instruments take up 100s of MB a shot and a full gig for piano. I'm a happy boy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 just dropping by to confirm that i successfully loaded 4gb of samples into FL9_extended memory on Win7 64bit. 4 instances of battery, 2 fully loaded sampletank instances, 1 kontakt loaded with 16 of the most ram heavy patches i could find on my hd. I don't think i need jbridge for now...maybe when i get trilian. But 4 GB seem pretty hard to max out on a single project unless you're only using super detailed multi articulation patches for everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Black {OP} Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 It's actually pretty simple. Step 1) buy JBridge from here - http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/ Step 2) copy the "plugin_name.32.dll" file from the Jbridge directory into your VST Plugins directory Step 3) rename it to the appropriate plugin (ex. Omnisphere.32.dll) Step 4) repeat this process for as many plugins as you like *NOTE* Some plugins don't work well with JBridge, but in my own experience most of the big RAM-eaters work fine. Also, you only really need to do this for plugins that use a lot of memory. Okay...I've tried this, both ways with JBridge. I can't really tell a difference and without turning on multithreading and I'm wondering if I'm doing this incorrectly. 1) When I tried it the way listed above, I couldn't load ANY of my FL studio plugins (even the vst/vsti's that came stock with Studio). 2) I then tried to have FL studio point to the a different directory as instructed in the manual that came with JBridge, by changing the directory on the File Tab within for extra VST search. Am I not pointing to the new directory properly? I'm still experiencing the sound stopping in the middle of RAM intense points of my work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Keep in mind you're not actually using jBridge unless you're loading the jBridge'd versions of plugins. Are you sure you're doing that? If you're using this system properly, jBridge should have made copies of all your plugins (or specific plugins that you selected) and added ".32" to the name. So, for example, you might have Kontakt 4.32 appear in your Channel -> Add plugin list in FL. Once you load that within FL, that jBridged plugin runs outside of your host. As for sound stopping in the middle of RAM-intense work, jBridge will not help that. Any time your computer has to play a lot of voices simultaneously (particularly if you have effects and such on them) you're going to have playback issues. Disk streaming is unfortunately even more intensive because not only does it tax the CPU quite a bit, your hard drive(s) have limited I/O bandwidth and may not be able to sustain a massive piece. This is why many pros move their samples around to a lot of different hard drives, so the strings load from one, the brass load from another, etc., eliminating any HD bottlenecks. As for FL and 2+ GB of RAM w/o jBridge, to be honest I need to run a 'lab test' to see if I can get it to work. I am on XP64 (no way in hell I'm changing, all my stuff works here) but it seems like anytime I approach 2GB, I start getting errors. Try it yourself. Load up FL to 2gb then drag in a big audio file. What happens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted January 3, 2010 Author Share Posted January 3, 2010 Try it yourself. Load up FL to 2gb then drag in a big audio file. What happens? I about threw up when that FLP file broke 2GB in RAM and I couldn't get it out. If I was doling out advice myself here, I'd say make a capping point at 1.8GB so yours doesn't end up inflating at the worst possible time like mine did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Try it yourself. Load up FL to 2gb then drag in a big audio file. What happens? It works smoothly. it does with 3.7 GB loaded! CPU consumption is low as i have only sampled instruments loaded atm, but i have about half of them playing now and threw some wavs on top of it. guess i'm lucky, heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Huh, very strange. I haven't been able to get that working. Maybe I'm using the wrong EXE.... what is your exact application name and OS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Win7 64bit, FL (extended memory).exe. FL9 ofc. one thing to consider is that i have 6GB RAM installed, and it seems like Win7 uses the RAM that FL can't adress because without anything loaded FL's RAM meter is @ about 150 mb. with only 4GB i could imagine running into problems beyond the 3GB usage mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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