What can I do to reduce the amount of memory used by BFD?

Even with disk streaming, BFD requires a large amount of memory to prebuffer all its samples to ensure low latency. 512MB is the bare minimum for running a standalone instance of BFD. When you start adding large, resource-hungry sequencers into the equation, your overall memory requirements increase. If you have a shortage of RAM, there are a few things you can do in order to get better performance:

Unload unused hit types: Since version 1.0.8.0, there is much more control over unloading elements of kits. This is located in the Hit Options panel (formerly called the Trigger Keys panel). This allows you to unload any hit from any Kit-Piece from RAM. You can unload certain hits which you may not need, such as snare drags and flams, and half-open or shank hi-hats. This can reduce memory usage drastically. You can still unload whole Kit-Pieces via the Kit Overview Display.

Limit the velocity layers: Since version 1.0.8.0, BFD has provided the user control over the maximum velocity layers it will load for any hit in a kit piece. For example, some of the BFD snares have well over 40 hit layers in a number of hit styles. If you are content with 24 velocity layers, you may halve the amount of memory used by your snare.

Use 16-bit Mode: Since version 1.0.8.0, there is an option in BFD’s Options panel called 16-bit Mode. This mode uses 16-bit audio instead of 24-bit, and effectively halves the RAM requirements for the drum sample data. The quality difference is very small, and so it is very useful for those users with smaller amounts of RAM. You can also use it as a preview mode during composition, and change back to 24-bit during the final mix if your sequencer is capable of offline mixdowns.

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