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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0009147ardourotherpublic2022-12-11 22:39
Reporterstefan-franz Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityalways
Status newResolutionopen 
PlatformUbuntuOSLinuxOS Version(any)
Product Version7.1 
Summary0009147: Performance is going down or crashes if i load a SF2 file with more than 500GB in the ACE Fluid Synth
DescriptionIf i load a SF2 File with more than about 500 GB Ardour crashes very fast. My device has 16 GB RAM - so Ardour could use it.
An i have a good machine, i7 processor.....in the year 2018 a very fast machine for that time.
System runs on a SSD - the data (Sound files and Sounds, Ardour Project, recording wavs etc) are on a harddrive.
Governor switched to "Performance" mode in Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon
Steps To ReproduceLoad huge SF2
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

stefan-franz

2022-12-09 05:50

reporter   ~0027004

Additional Info about performance:
My system: Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon - with the CPUPower GUI i switch always before starting to "Performance"! (default is Powersafe).
My machine: i7 with 16 GB Ram. Linux is on the SSD, the project and used SF2 sounds, Samples for Speedrum Drum Sampler and Sounds for Redux are on a HDD. Same setup as in Cubase.

I have a small project running with about 10 instrument tracks (ACE Fluid Synth and Redux in midi tracks) and Speedrum. At the moment no Audio / Wav tracks. if i let my project playing an click on the tracks e.g. to adjust the level the gui and sometimes the sound runs not fluent.

I'm not a programmer - startet my work with Ardour to contribute the development as i do with Mixxx (DJ Software) -. i'm there a reporter for testing and finding bugs - and let me here write some thoughts - maybe it helps you to improve someting.
First: Comparing Virtual DJ /Win 10 - Mixxx Linux: Mixxx on Linux runs stable and more fluent as Virtual DJ in Win10. Neither my nextcloud client nor the browser brings Mixxx out of step. Virtual DJ had dropouts. So Linux Mint 21 works for me more stable and nearly double fast as Win10. 10 years old machines work now fluent.
So i think Ardour can also run as stable as Cubase or or even with more performance.

Some thoughts: I saw that Ardour is not using the full 16 GB Ram - maybe you can here make something, that Ardour uses the RAM.
The VST integration is not at the moment optimal - maybe that is the reason for performance problems.
Maybe you find a way, that ardour does not let itself be put out of step, if i click through the tracks in the edit mode.

Thanks for your work - after repairing some issues, i post Ardour on social media and make advertise to get more users. I want support linux - and help people to switch from the corrupt Apple or Microsoft group to Linux.

paul

2022-12-11 05:30

administrator   ~0027016

Fluidsynth is not Ardour, it is a plugin. It does not suprise me that loading a 500GB soundfont into Fluidsynth causes issues, but these are not issues that the Ardour team is likely to be able to address. Did you really mean 500GB or did you mean 500MB?

Please read https://ardour.org/debugging ardour for information about how to get useful backtraces when Ardour crashes.

stefan-franz

2022-12-11 08:55

reporter   ~0027019

Oh, my fault. I meant 500MB of course. A GM/GS font with about 300 single SF2's in one big SF2.
No i splited up this big files - was my workaround.

Your debugging site is not found.....

groudsquirrel

2022-12-11 11:17

reporter   ~0027020

I think the debugging page actually is https://ardour.org/debugging_ardour

paul

2022-12-11 15:23

administrator   ~0027029

Yeah, even with 500MB, the issue is with Fluidsynth, not with Ardour, so it's not something we're likely to be involved in fixing.

x42

2022-12-11 22:39

administrator   ~0027030

The CrisisGeneralMidi301.sf2 (1.6GB) works reliably here.
Note however that fluidsynth loads the complete file into RAM. For that to work reliably memory-locking needs to be set up.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2022-12-06 14:24 stefan-franz New Issue
2022-12-09 05:50 stefan-franz Note Added: 0027004
2022-12-11 05:30 paul Note Added: 0027016
2022-12-11 08:55 stefan-franz Note Added: 0027019
2022-12-11 11:17 groudsquirrel Note Added: 0027020
2022-12-11 15:23 paul Note Added: 0027029
2022-12-11 22:39 x42 Note Added: 0027030