VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

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Posts: 6
Joined: April 9, 2017 - 01:28
VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

I'm trying to load a SoundFont (SFZ format) that's 4.6GB, but VMS keeps getting stuck at around 3.5GB RAM usage, and CPU usage shoots up to around 25% and stays there indefinitely.

My system has more than enough RAM to load the entire SoundFont (16GB), and VirtualMIDISynth is meant to be 64-bit, so I'm not sure why it's breaking. I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

Could you please double check that you're running VMS x64? Maybe something went wrong during setup and the x86 version got installed...

The easiest way is to attach here the debug report generated by the corresponding button in Configurator --> About tab.

After that, is there a public download available for that huge soundfont?
SFZ load is done by the underlying BASS libraries (used by VMS for MIDI synth), so I'll forward this report to the original author if needed after checking it on my side.

Posts: 6
Joined: April 9, 2017 - 01:28
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

The 64-bit version is installed and running on my machine. Here's the relevant part of the debug report.

Status
======
Windows 10 Pro (64 bit) (10.0.10586)
VirtualMIDISynth: 2.0.0 (x64)
Memory (MB): total 16059, free 10496 (66%)

The SFZ I'm using is Ivy Audio's "Piano in 162", which can be found at http://ivyaudio.com/Piano-in-162

However, something odd that I've noticed while using this SoundFont is that if I convert all of the samples to OGG and use those in place of the original FLACs the RAM usage is around 4x what I'd guess it would be (Windows reports the folder size as just over 1GB but it takes 4GB to load in VMS).

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts
jl91569 wrote:
However, something odd that I've noticed while using this SoundFont is that if I convert all of the samples to OGG and use those in place of the original FLACs the RAM usage is around 4x what I'd guess it would be (Windows reports the folder size as just over 1GB but it takes 4GB to load in VMS).

That's interesting; I don't know in depth how BASS manages SFZ internally, but I've always supposed that it decompresses the compressed samples to have the faster access possible.
Will have a look...

Posts: 30
Joined: April 19, 2017 - 08:14
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

reported 4GB(!) May be because of VMS has 4 separate input sections.
Could it be loading separately for each one?

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts
Ziya Mete Demircan wrote:
Could it be loading separately for each one?

No, soundfonts are loaded only once and shared between all the devices.

@jl91569: could you try to disable soundfont preload and check if that helps?
Double click on the soundfont to open SF editor and uncheck "Preload soundfont" checkbox.

Posts: 6
Joined: April 9, 2017 - 01:28
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts
coolsoft wrote:
@jl91569: could you try to disable soundfont preload and check if it helps?

With preloading disabled VMS no longer hangs and is able to play MIDIs using that SoundFont, but it's extremely choppy.

Posts: 30
Joined: April 19, 2017 - 08:14
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts
jl91569 wrote:

With preloading disabled VMS no longer hangs and is able to play MIDIs using that SoundFont, but it's extremely choppy.

Pls. try to inrease "Additional output buffer" (may be between 250 and 500 is enough) in Options section.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts
jl91569 wrote:
With preloading disabled VMS no longer hangs and is able to play MIDIs using that SoundFont, but it's extremely choppy.

Well, now it needs to load samples from disk each time it needs them so the bottleneck is now disk IO speed and latency.

Ziya Mete Demircan wrote:
Pls. try to inrease "Additional output buffer" (may be between 250 and 500 is enough) in Options section.

That's a good suggestion; please note that configuring 500ms as output buffer size will also add a 500ms additional latency to output.
This could be unacceptable in some conditions (i.e. during a live performance with other MIDI instruments).

Posts: 6
Joined: April 9, 2017 - 01:28
Re: VirtualMIDISynth fails to load huge SoundFonts

Alright, so I did a bit more testing with the SoundFont on a SSD, and the stuttering seems to be greatly reduced even at a 250ms buffer, but it still doesn't work when trying to preload the whole thing into RAM.

I also messed up when I measured the folder size, as I looked at the whole folder instead of selecting one of the two different sample types (ambient and close). The SFZ I'm trying to load only has 2.37GB of FLACs instead of the 4.6GB figure I posted earlier. Oops.

I guess I'll stick with my OGG converted samples for now since those seem to be working OK. Thank you to everyone who helped.

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