Hi,

Suppose I create a [sample] abstraction that basically contains a [table] to store a sound sample, and a [soundfiler] to read it from a file.

One of the reasons for creating such a "trivial" abstraction is that it has a GOP GUI with -a symbolbox where you can write and see the filename -a test button that plays the sample.

Now suppose the test part is implemented like this (simplified):

[r $1-test] | [tabplay~ $1] | [throw~ sampletestout]

($1 is the name of the sample, i.e. the name of the table, and the GUI is supposed to have a bng sending to $1-test)

Obviously, to avoid unnecessary cpu-usage, that would become enormous if I have many sample instances, I will include the necessary patching in the abstraction in order to [switch~] it on only when playing, and off when not. Usually you'll be testing at most one sample at the same time.

Now the question is: in case there are N [sample]s in my patch, Is it possible that the time needed to load ONE sample (sending a [read...( message to the [soundfiler]) increases with N??? If so, why?

The fact is that I have been using such an abstraction very much, and have a great number of [sample]s in my patch, and started to notice that loading all the samples was terribly slow. Then, without thinking it had any relation to this, I realised I could easily remove all the "~" part from the sample abstraction, by implementing a unique [sampletester] and having [sample]s sending him messages to test one sample. I did this, and removed the [tabplay~] thing from the [sample] abstraction, and now the loading of samples seems to be enormously faster...