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This was a response to Partial / bar to bar regen freeze concept
I have talked about this elsewhere but will reiterate.

Probably the reason it has not been implemented it that the tracks are currently generated into RAM as the complete track.
Maybe in the old days Biab had to do this ?
If I do the same in Reaper it is instant but is playing the track direct from disk, I can regenerate any section. Most DAW work like this. If you want Utility tracks to be the same as the BB tracks then they will have to fill up in RAM. If you generate a big song look at the RAM Biab is using, and if you want more than 255 bars how much RAM will that be ?

This is something I'm trying to get implemented with the BBPlugin so we don't have the wait times and a mountain of wav files filling up the hard drive.
The files Reaper is using are on an external USB drive playing direct from there and they are 48khz 24bit.

This can be implemented now with an option for old Pentium 100 users with XP to use the current way, but those with modern hardware will play direct from disk same as Biab plays back utility tracks direct from disk.
Once Biab calculates the sections of the source RealTrack files, instead of joining them together and writing to RAM Biab will play those sections of the wav/wma direct from disk and cut out the middle man.
This will then work as the pic below and easily regenerate any section.
As mentioned elsewhere when you freeze tracks Biab will save the RealTrack section data in the SGU then when you open that SGU the next day it will load and write them into RAM, BUT rather than do that it can play those sections direct from disk.
This will also allow frozen Biab SGU/MGU to be opened in the BB DAW Plugin with all the same sections and Utility tracks.


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this seems similar to how all the disk streaming samplers work - beginning with GigaSampler back in the late 90s and ending with HALION and todays de-facto supreme hard-disk ( or SSD or Ramdisk ) streaming sample engine - KONTAKT operate - namely on playback the initial leading edge of each sample gets played directly from RAM buffers- and as soon as streaming begins the remaining part of each sample gets loaded and streamed from disk - with the amount of RAM being allocated per sample being dependent on the speed of the CPU and disk storage being used ( hence SSD and i7 systems require much smaller Ram buffers than say a Core2Duo Mac with a. hard disk )

So in summary - yes - I support your idea Pipeline

Anything that can radically improve regen times for not only plugin AND standalone is to be encouraged because this has huge benefits and ramifications for how BIAB can be used in serious time-critical by-the-hour producer/composer/arranger types of workflows.

Last edited by nonchai; 08/13/21 03:17 AM.

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To go with this idea - maybe having the option to designate a subset of the overall RealTrack collection to auto-load on startup with the leading edges being kept in RAM for this subset of styles for the entire time BIAB is running - would speed things up even more.

So for example a Nashville producer who works in modern Country type stuff would load up and keep in the buffers all-day *only* the styles relevant to him - while stuff unlikely to be used like heavy metal, EDM or Klezmer stays outside of the RAM buffer.
It also goes without saying that having a seperate regen server would help with this ( like BB4? ) similar to VEP.

A server for buffering up tons of real track leading edges ( ut only a subset of the entire catalogue ) would also help if the version of BIAB standalone ( the "CLIENT" portion ) is prone to crashing.

Last edited by nonchai; 08/13/21 04:09 AM.

Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD
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Once regen gets sorted I see a future where gradually there will be some overlap between what some of the orchestral sample libraries currently offer where instead of single notes being played and recorded by say Berlin Philharmonic and streamed from Kontakt or other plugin - entire PHRASES get recorded and used as special playable instruments.

We see this for example in the Native Instruments KOMPLETE libraries ACTION STRINGS, EMOTIVE STRINGS and the recent SESSION GUITARIST range.

When using these libraries and they DO sound very good and inspiring - one generally uses the keyboard to play the prerecorded phrases and typically they offer the basic variants - Major minor, dominant and diminished - for each phrase.

Then one can record the MIDI data to trigger the phrase into one's DAW and thus have such plugins playing their parts.

BUT REALLY! - much though producer types and reviewers lambast BIAB - how different is all this pattern library stuff really to where BIAB real tracks are getting these days?

These types of "playable" libraries do have the advantage that one triggers the phrase one wants on the fly - but really one is just initially choosing which style one tonal characteristics one desires and the rest follows - not much different to the kinds of workflow one would se with guitar real tracks.

A future BIAB that allows more fine tuning as per these NI session instruments - seems much better. Typing in the whole progression instead of tedious and laborious programming of MIDI to select the right pattern etc in a Kontakt patch?

Rather than for string sections in say EMOTIVE STRINGS being used to play arpeggios and simple lines - and have to painstakingly program this into a DAW track with articulation information etc- it would make much more sense to have the kinds of expensive orchestral phrases recorded into BIAB real tracks.
BOTH use pre-recorded phrases after all!.

But BIAB plugin just is nowhere near the reliability and with the rich library content that currently is available for KONTAKT.

But that could change once a genuine 3rd pty market were able to survive financially - supported by PG like NI does for KONTAKT PLAYER licensees.

Last edited by nonchai; 08/13/21 04:10 AM.

Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD
Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88
Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
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