Tired Old Question...

[andrthad]

Trying to optimze using Mainstage 2 with Omnisphere and Reason 6.5. Have a 2011 MBP, 4GB RAM, 2GHz quad core, and using a Presonus Firebox audio interface. Mostly get good performance, but still have the sound patches dropping out especially after switching patches.

What would be the biggest bang for my buck to optimize the samples and keep drop outs from happening? More RAM? External eSATA drive? Optimize my RAM resources for the mac OSX? Better audio interface? I'm using the 64bit version of Mainstage and 64bit Omnisphere as well as Reason. Reason uses multicore processing. I believe Mainstage and Omnisphere do as well.

[mmm42]

More RAM might help, but the big one is not using Omnisphere... It is a total CPU hog.

[michaelhuisman]

well. you've not said which version of MS you're using, but... I would

get version 2.2.2 for MainStage multicore support.
this one sounds weird, but if you have MS v2.2.2, try telling Reason *not* to use multiple cores, let MS handle that
up your RAM to at least 8 GB
lose Reason if you can (nothing wrong with Reason, it's just two things to deal with, Reason *and* Rewire)
run the "lite" version of patches in Omni, and follow some of their advice for lowering the CPU and streaming load...
I'd go SSD for your startup drive AND get one of the kits that replace the optical drive and put an SSD there for sample libs.

Omni doesn't have to be a CPU hog, it just usually is, because everything in there is so dramatic, dial that in a bit and it'll fly pretty well.