Re: Logic Benchmark test - please ...
"World-renounced authority"? I'd say that's an apt description.
But seriously, my take on the merits of the Evan benchmark test is not so much authoritative as it is a considered opinion. I do feel strongly that the Evan test is highly flawed in terms of being a realistic way to benchmark performance, it's not my intention to put the guy down as a result. His efforts were very well-meaning.
Here's a direct link for the test:
[url]http://www.score2picture.com/L9pix/Ski-S2 Stress Test.logic.zip[/url]
And here's a description of what it's all about (copied from my post over on LPH):
[b]How I Constructed the Test:[/b]
Starting with a new song, I created 255 instrument tracks. Then I selected all of those instruments in the Enviromment's Mixer layer and instanciated an EFM1 in one of them (meaning that all 255 instruments now contained an EFM1).
Next, on track1 and at the default tempo of 120 BPM I recorded a chromatic scale from bottom to top of my 88 note keyboard and quantized the notes to 16ths. I looped the region, leaving a 1-measure rest after the scale ended so that there'd be a pause in the action before the pattern looped from the top.
Then I doubled-up on the tempo (now 240 BPM). Finally, I copied that region to all other 254 instrument tracks. Starting playback with all but the first track muted, I gradually unmuted them as the song played down to see how many tracks I could get to play.
The results were interesting, to say the least (this is on a PPC Quad 2.5). After trying out EFM1, I swapped out all 255 EFM1's for ESE's, then ESM's, and so on. Here's the data:
PPC Quad 2.5G
Buffer Size = 128
FF800 interface
44.1K sampling rate
Process Buffer = Medium
ESE = 19 tracks
ES2 stereo = 22 tracks
EVB3 = 30 tracks
EFM1 = 113 tracks
ESP = 150 tracks
ES1 stereo = 239
ES1 mono = 240
ESM = 255 tracks
EXS-24 stereo (no samples loaded, just the default sine wave) = 255
Sculpture = untested... (after swapping out all 255 plugins with Sculpture I got an "out of memory" error)
[b]How to Perform the Test[/b]
Basically, do what I described above. Starting with all tracks muted, instanciate the instrument plugin of your choice in all 255 instrument channels in the Environment Mixer page (makes it easier than doing in the Mixer page, though YMMV). Then gradually unmute tracks in the arrange page and see how many you can get to play without hiccups.
In terms of testing pure computing power (no samples, no audio streaming from RAM or disk), using ESE, ES2, or EVB3 would be good ways of stressing the computer, at least based on the setup I described above.