how does a computer use ram?

[Cold Truth]

ok, i will have my pc in a matter of days now. i got Kontakt and Cubase SX. my pc comes with 256 mb ram, and is upgradeable to 3 gigs which i plan on expanding asap..... so here is the issue: i am getting several sample cd's and vst instruments, Such as spectrasonic's stylus and atmosphere, both virtual guitar vst's from steinberg, peter siedlicks (however its spelled) advanced orchestra, things like that. so if it says, minimum requirement is 356 ram, does it mean it needs that much free on its own, or total? everyone says 512 is a good amount of ram, so would i be wrong in assuming that it means it only needs it when it is being used? of course the 2.0 upgrade for kontakt offers hard disk streaming, but i got it from ebay so i am not sure i can get it unless i can find who the original owner was.... anyhow if anyone can help me better understand this so i dont go waste money on 3 gigs of ram that i will not need right away.....

 

[nobodyfamous]

This is a simple explanation of RAM.
when you are at school, your in class and you are listening to stuff and its in your head, when u walk out the class, you forget everything. thats kinda how ram is, it is temporary. if you have a good short term memory, thats like having a lot of ram. you can remember more right at the exact moment and spit it back to the teacher. the more ram you have the more quickly you computer will process info and send it back to u. for example, if you have low ram and you are playing your work, you might notice the track skipping, thats because it does not have enough ram (short term memory) to keep up. ram is the easiest and most simple way to make you computer faster. my advice to you, and since you are making music, upgrade it to AT LEAST the recommended amount, but more if you can afford it. i hope that helped.

 

[vitaminman]

Truth,

RAM is, in my opinion, never a waste. Especially since RAM is so cheap...if I'm not mistaken, the specs don't take into account the amount of juice that your sequencer needs to run as well, plus all the real time effects, mixing, etc.

The minimum specs of RAM are usually just enough to run the software with the bare minimum of tracks and effects, as soon as you start laying on the polyphony, instances, tracks and effects you will notice the difference. It helps that you have an ASIO card, this should help take some of the strain off.

Before you buy any RAM though, play with what you have. You've got a LOT of soft synths, don't try and load all of them just because they're there. I mean, you're going to have to LEARN all of them, as well as Cubase!!!!

Take care,

Nick