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Chapter 9 EXS24 mkII 214
EXS24 mkII memory management
Multigigabyte sample libraries are commonplace today, delivering incredibly detailed and
accurate instrument sounds. In many cases, these sample libraries are too large to t into your
computer’s random-access memory (RAM). To use these huge sampler instruments, EXS24 mkII
can use a portion of your hard drive as virtual memory. When you turn on EXS24 mkII’s virtual
memory, only the initial attacks of audio samples are loaded into the computer’s RAM; the rest of
the sample is streamed in real time from the hard drive.
Logic Pro automatically addresses all available system memory. The amount of RAM available for
use by EXS24 mkII is determined by several factors, including:
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The amount of physical RAM installed in your computer.
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How much RAM other open applications and the operating system are using.
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How much RAM Logic Pro is using. This will vary in accordance with the number and size of
audio les in the project, and other plug-ins used. Sampler plug-ins not made by Apple, in
particular, can signicantly aect the amount of RAM that Logic Pro uses.
Virtual memory parameters
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Active checkbox: Turns on the EXS24 mkII virtual memory feature.
Note: If you have enough physical RAM to hold all the samples for a project, you will see
improved performance by deselecting the Active checkbox. In projects with lots of audio
tracks playing and relatively few EXS instances, this may aect performance. If the Active
checkbox is deselected and there is insucient RAM to hold all samples, Logic Pro swaps data
to and from the disk, which degrades performance. Deselecting the Active checkbox also
increases project load times, so you should leave it selected in most cases.
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Disk Drive Speed pop-up menu: Species the speed of your hard drive; if you have a solid-state
drive, or a 7200-rpm or faster hard drive for your audio samples, choose Fast. If you are using
a 5400-rpm laptop drive for your audio samples, choose Medium. You should not need to use
the Slow setting with any modern Mac.
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Hard Disk Recording Activity pop-up menu: Species overall hard disk usage—how much
recording and streaming of non-sampler-related audio is occurring. For example, if you are
recording an entire drum kit using over a dozen microphones, streaming live guitars and bass,
recording choirs, and so on, set your hard disk recording activity to Extensive. If your projects
consist mostly of software instrument playback, with perhaps a recorded instrument or vocal
or two, set your hard disk recording activity to Less. If you are unsure, choose Average.
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Requires Constant RAM Allocation Of eld: Shows the memory requirements of the above
parameters. The slower your hard drive and the higher your hard disk recording activity, the
more RAM you will need to allocate to virtual memory.