Optimizing Sunday Keys App Performance
Many factors can impact a device's performance. To ensure the highest quality experience when using the Sunday Keys App you can adopt the best practices described here.
Audio crackles, slow visuals, or app crashes can all be symptoms that your device is struggling to keep up with processing demands. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, we recommend considering the following tips to optimize your device's performance
Simplify Setlists and Patches
When a Setlist is loaded, the included Patches and Sounds use device resources to be ready to be played. When building a Setlist try keep it as lean as possible by using only the Patches you need, with the Sounds you need.
Instead of allowing a Setlist to grow to include a large number of Patches or Sounds, we recommend trimming your Setlist by exporting Patches and Sounds you don't actively need to your User Library for later.
Adjust Audio Buffer Size
The App's Audio Buffer size (measured in samples) determines how long Sunday Keys has to ‘think’ before outputting audio when you press a key.
Higher buffer size values reduce system resource usage, but increase latency, which is the delay between playing a note and hearing it. Each person will have their own ‘latency tolerance’ and even that tolerance may vary from setting to setting or song to song.
The best Buffer size for you will be the one that is as high as possible to reduce system strain, while still feeling responsive and playable. While there is no one-size fits all ‘magic number’ for buffer size, we recommend 256 as a good starting point for the newest devices and 512 as an option that may work well for older devices, though with greater potential for noticeable latency.
You can adjust this in Settings > Audio > Buffer Size.
Note: Not all iPads are created equal. Users with newer, M1-equipped iPads may be able to run their buffer size much lower than someone with a less powerful base iPad that’s a few years old. Each iPad model and model year has different RAM and processor specs.
Reduce Pre-Load Patches Setting
To optimize performance, Sunday Keys will only pre-load a certain number of Patches in the vicinity of your currently selected Patch. This drastically reduces processing requirements during performance while keeping the Patches you’re most likely to select next readily available.
Use this setting to designate the number of Patches to pre-load before and after the current Patch. Higher values may result in smoother transitions between patches, as more Patches are available ‘ready’ at a given time; Lower values may reduce CPU usage, as fewer Patches are kept ‘ready’ at a time.
You can adjust this in Settings > CPU > Pre-load Patches
Note: Because of performance optimizations in Sunday Keys most users will find that Patch selection is virtually seamless, even outside of the "Pre-load" window, so it is recommended to leave the Pre-load Patches number relatively small to improve overall App performance.
Close all other Apps
Closing other open Apps may help to release CPU resources on your device. We recommend closing all unneeded Apps before using Sunday Keys for a live performance.
In some cases where you're experiencing unexpected audio issues, you may also find that closing and reopening the Sunday Keys App will improve performance.
Turn off Wi-Fi
By turning off Wi-Fi, you can ensure that your device is not using resources doing unnecessary tasks, such as retrieving emails or syncing files, during a performance.
Adjust other Performance Settings
We have included some additional optimization options that impact Sunday Keys App's visual performance in Settings > Performance. These settings do not impact the audio output of the App, they simply simplify and reduce the visual processing required, which will result in lower resource usage.
If you experience performance issues, try disabling the toggles for Onscreen Keyboard is playable, Onscreen Keyboard displays played notes, and/or Sound Meters display levels to help reduce CPU strain.
You can adjust these in the Settings > Performance view.
Remove unused or unneeded MIDI and Audio Effects from your Sounds
Similar to keeping your Setlists and Patches as lean as possible, removing unused or unneeded MIDI and Audio Effects can improve CPU performance. If you determine that a given effect won't be needed during a performance you can open the effect, choose "Replace Effect" and then choose "No Effect" to marginally reduce resource usage.