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Electronic Music Designer for Broadway shows and more. I write about tech, photography, and
Mar 20 4 min read

Optimizing Keyscape for Live Performance

Learn how to tweak Spectrasonics Keyscape for your
live rig.

. . .

Keyscape, an extensive collection of expertly sampled keyboard sounds,

is Spectrasonics latest masterpiece. Keyscapes sound quality and playa-
bility are amazing, but its also a very resource intensive virtual instru-
ment. In this tutorial, youll learn how to optimize Keyscape for your
live performace rig.

Streaming Settings
Click on the SYSTEM button to access Keyscapes system settings page.
This is where you can configure Keyscapes streaming settings.
Samples can be loaded in one of two modesStreamed and Not
Streamed.

When Not Streamed is selected, Keyscape will load all samples into
RAM. I dont recommend this unless you have an obscene amount of
RAMthink 64GB or more. While its true that RAM oers insanely
fast speeds, modern SSDs are more than capable for the task at hand.

When Streamed is selected, Keyscape will load the attack of each sam-
ple into RAM, and stream the rest of the sample from your hard drive.
Ensure that the Pre-Load Memory Size is around 50,000 and Stream
Brake is around 0.1 for optimal streaming performance.

Sample Thinning
Every Keyscape patch features a THINNING function, which reloads the
patch with a reduced number of samples. This results in less CPU and
RAM usage, as well as less streaming pressure on the hard drive.
Best of all, the sample-thinned patches have been designed with maxi-
mum sound quality in mind. Its very dicult to distinguish them from
their non-thinned counterpartsespecially in a live performance
setting.

The sample thinning function can be locked by clicking on the lock

icon. This will ensure that all Keyscape patches are sample-thinned.
This function is useful for live situations, where you would never want
to load a full patch.

Lastly, switching o Sustain Realism and Pedal Eects in LA Custom C7

patches drastically improves performance.
Reduce Polyphony
Polyphony refers to the maximum number of samples that can be
played simultaneously. Keyscape has a maximum polyphony of 64, but I
recommend using a value between 16 and 32.
Lowering polyphony reduces CPU usage, but will also prevent you from
playing many simultaneous notes. Experiment with various polyphony
settings to see what works with your style of playing.

Use Effects Wisely

If youre using Keyscape with other sample libraries and plugins in a
live setting, theres no reason to use Keyscapes built-in reverb. Use a
global reverb via aux sends or get an audio interface with DSP reverb
instead. Reverb eects are very taxing on the CPU, and disabling them
in Keyscape is a great first step to optimizing your live setup.
The location of Keyscapes reverb settings are patch-dependent. For ex-
ample, the reverb setting in the LA Custom C7 patch above can be
found under the main tab. Reducing the amount to zero does not turn
o the reverb. You need to click on the REVERB button to switch it o.

In the LA Custom Rhodes patch below, the reverb setting is under the
Eects tab. To turn it o, click on the circle next to O.
Other eects can be turned o at your discretion. In general, modula-
tion eects probably shouldnt be turned o. In other words, if you
choose the LA Custom Retro Trem, dont turn o the tremolo eect.
The same goes for EQ and compression. If you like how it sounds, just
leave it as is.

On a side note, if youre serious about using high quality eects live,
look into Universal Audio Apollo audio interfaces. They have built-in
DSP chips that run their extensive collection of world class plugins at
near-zero latency without hogging your computers CPU.

Theres More to Life Than Keyscape

This is perhaps the most obvious tip. Keyscape sounds amazing, but its
level of detail and quality isnt always necessary. Think about how your
keyboard parts will fit into the overall mix. If youre playing a solo set,
go ahead and load up Keyscape. If youre playing a rhythm part that
will be get buried in the overall mix, perhaps Keyscape isnt necessary.
Know your role!

You may also be interested in

 The Best Audio Interfaces for MainStage

The Best Hard Drives for Music Production

MainStage 3 System Requirements

. . .

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