FR: An "Eco" setting?

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dj.tuBIG/MaliceX
Posts: 61
Joined: 02 Oct 2007 08:18

FR: An "Eco" setting?

Post by dj.tuBIG/MaliceX »

(I've mentioned it in a post, but I'll say it here anyway.)

Knowing the extent of quality that's been put through to make KarmaFX Synth comparable to analog synthesizers as much as possible, given the amount of processing being put through for attention to detail, there are times where such quality could be left unnoticed, if not perhaps the emphasis on performance.

Some people would like to use KarmaFX synth as a live synth. It works fantastic as a monosynth, no doubt about that, but once you start adding polyphony, then things start becoming a little interesting. Perhaps the worst thing possible is, while someone's pulling off a fantastic solo with a polyphonic patch made with KarmaFX Synth, it suddenly crackles or stutters from overprocessing in front of an audience. Not a good sign.

...anyway that's just an example of a justified use where "Eco" mode would help in such a situation. Sure it might degrade the quality a little, but given the sacrifices, if it IS optional then why not? The losses could be miniscule to some, while others can simply prefer to go through the bottleneck.

Polyphony (Unison/NotePitch Poly16) is perhaps the biggest CPU hog in KarmaFX to date, hence the suggestion. (Second to the Pads on Super PreCalc mode.)

The Eco mode is present in some of the larger-market synths out there, I believe. (NI Massive has it, I hear, and from demoing a WHILE back, that too is a CPU hog at full quality. Something about Oversampling being put through..)

At least something to consider is, what extent of sacrifice is one willing to make in the quality for performance? (karmafx mentioned slower modulation update per x samples.)

PS: Desktop is 1.7GHz singlecore AMD Sempron 2400+. Laptop has a T2310 CPU (Pentium Dual Core 1.46GHz). Both are on-par the benchmark for usage with this synth as far as I can tell.
MadGonzo
Posts: 296
Joined: 07 Jun 2008 23:14

Re: FR: An "Eco" setting?

Post by MadGonzo »

unison is the major crook here, not poly
although it depends on the synthesis process
i mostly use full voices on unison and it does show, even on my 2.5 quad
dj.tuBIG/MaliceX
Posts: 61
Joined: 02 Oct 2007 08:18

Re: FR: An "Eco" setting?

Post by dj.tuBIG/MaliceX »

MadGonzo wrote:unison is the major crook here, not poly
although it depends on the synthesis process
i mostly use full voices on unison and it does show, even on my 2.5 quad
I dunno about that. Just when especially combining Unison with Poly is almost a freeze risk. That, or a Pad OSC with Poly16. It's one or the other.
It was mentioned a while back the nature of the polyphony and its implementation, though I'm sure there's gotta be something that could help cater for those with less-powerful systems.

You on a quad, geesh. O_O
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