As computing power grows, developers continue to push this power to the limits. While there are plenty of VIs that run very efficiently, others can bring your computer to its knees. They can tax the computer's processor, RAM, and hard drive. Even if you're running efficient VIs, using a lot of them at the same time can affect your computer's performance. However, this shouldn't scare you off from using VIs. Fortunately there are a few things you can do that can help you use some of the most advanced VIs in your music.

System requirements are one of the most important things to consider when buying a VI. Just like your DAW, most VIs have minimum system requirements, and they often have recommended system requirements too. Some may need a modest processor or virtually no hard drive space, but some programs require extremely fast processors, lots of RAM, and large, fast hard drives. Some VIs are very processor intensive but use little hard disk space. Others don't require a lot of processor, but they do utilize huge libraries of samples that need their own hard drive to run efficiently. Knowing what kind of computer performance your VIs need is important to incorporating them in your songs effectively.

Using Processor Intensive Virtual Instruments

You're working on your next big hit and you have a sound in one of your VIs that you want to use, but you know it's going to eat a lot of your computer's processing power. You want to have as much of that power available later for working on other parts of the song. Are you going to have to forget about using that sound? No way. There are a couple of different tactics to deal with this situation.

If you are done recording your VI part and are happy with how you played it, you could simply bounce the track down as an audio file and add it back into your song. You can then apply any effects that you want to the audio file. Using effects is discussed in Chapters 15 and 16, and bouncing audio is discussed in Chapter 17. Another way to deal with this situation is to freeze the VI track. Many DAWs offer this ability. Basically, this is similar to bouncing the track down, but instead of adding the new audio file to an audio track in your DAW, the DAW automatically plays the frozen track on its original track. Freezing tracks does have one disadvantage, though—you generally can't make any changes to the original track or add any effects to it unless you unfreeze the track and then refreeze.

Using Disk Intensive Virtual Instruments

Because computers are so powerful these days, and because memory and storage are so cheap, it has become possible for developers to create VIs that access huge libraries of samples. A sample is a recording of a sound that a sampler plays back. To create incredibly detailed samples, some developers will sample an individual note on an instrument sixteen or more times, each sample at different volumes, each lasting as long as the note can ring. Then they may even add in other samples of that same note, including any noises the instrument might make mechanically while playing that note. Then they repeat the process for every individual note on the instrument.

To help you realize how much space these samples take up, think of a piano. Eighty-eight keys times sixteen velocity layers is 1,408 samples, all of which last until each note decays completely. Then, add in all sorts of other noise samples the hammers might make, plus resonance sounds the piano makes from using the pedal!

Fortunately, extra hard drives are cheap. Maxing out your RAM is also pretty cheap. To maximize the performance of VIs that use large sample libraries, you'll want to get all the RAM you can put in your machine, plus an additional, fast hard drive. The hard drive can be internal if your computer allows it, or external. Regardless, dedicating a separate drive to samples will improve the performance of your entire system if you are using large sample libraries.