are VSTs just CPU pigs I have to live with?

If I run some things I get snaps, crackles, and pops in my audio.

I've done everything I know of. Reload drivers, shut down Windows 7 services, optimize for audio, change BIOS settings, set affinity on the quad core, kill unwanted network services, blah blah blah.

It seems I can run about 3 or 4 VSTs in Cubase before I start getting the "Rice Krispee" noise. The CPU is hitting about 60% the ASIO is almost maxed out. I have it running at 16ms.

Certain presets in Guitar Rig seem to be the worst. Some hit the CPU OVER with nothing else running on the machine.

Pentium Extreme Edition 955 Quad Core 3.46Ghz, 8GB Ram, Windows 64 Bit Professional
EMU-1212m PCIe audio card.

thanks.

 

With that computer I don't think you should be getting those results, but I don't know about your audio card I have never heard of it. Are you running Cubase 64 or 32 bit because that could effect things. I believe Cubase has a Ignore plugin latency option too maybe try that. Also make sure Cubase is running all cores.

 

Thanks. I'm running 64 bit. The specs for the computer look good, but this is an older machine. In its day it was HOT, but that was 2006. Specs show it to run about 1/5 as fast as the latest Ivy-Bridge Hex Core.

 

Hi

Your PC is more than capable of running large projects with multiple VST's and VSTi's

Got to:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

And download the DPC Latency checker

Run it - and post a screen shot - if you would.

See the attached jpg
If everything is green - your good to go
if it's yellow anytime - or Red - then you'll need to set your PC up properly for Audio

if you haven't already done this - then the following guide from Focusrite may help:
http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=1071

The most common source of these errors is a driver conflict
or too many things sharing a single PCI ID
or your PC not in the right chip mode.
So many variables.

The first thing to check is your DPC latency - and take it from there.

 

Your PC is just fine, but I think Creative stopped supporting older sound cards after Vista...W-7 is NOT supported according to specs.

I read not long ago, someone talking about that on KVR, with an 0404 card...
Same OS, and same problem...

I overlooked your title...CPU-hogs...do you have hi cpu usage too? What VST?

 

Indeed

type "asio4all emu 0404" into google - the Emu is probably not going to work

you need a compatible sound card

 

Hi,

I watch the CPU usage in both task manager and in the VST. When it starts spiking towards 60 percent, the snaps and crackles start.

the EMU card has drivers from July 2011 and a Beta From August 2012. Its not the older 1212, its the 1212m PCIe card. Its been out about 4 years I think which is old.

Again, this processor is a 955 Extreme that came out in 2006. It has 2 cores and hyperthreaded. It was a screamer in its day.
---

thanks. I will check it this weekend.
---

some of the posts I found were almost as old as My computer. One thing that amazes me is that audio interface companies haven't jumped on USB 3.0 yet. I won't buy a 2.0 USB interface because of some issues I had with an Alesis MultiMix USB 2.0 a few years ago.

 

Since you had a PCIe card, don't go USB 2 or 3, unless you gig.

I got a second hand RME 9632 for 150 euros.
The best sound card I ever owned...

Another option is to un-install the 1212 and use ASIO4ALL with mobo sound chip, at least to see what happens. It should stop.
I had the same problem with a high quality German card, it would crash anything....until I searched for driver...

 

Results

Here are the results.

I loaded 8 tracks in Cubase 6.5

As you can see from the Red arrows, the CPU quickly Maxed out with a few seconds, but I took the snapshot right before the CPU went OVER and shutdown Guitar Rig 5 Pro.

The audio was totally full of snaps and pops, making it un-listenable.

Any suggestions are welcome.

thanks

 

Hi wblackledg

Looking at the DPC latency - your machine should run VSTs well - it's all green.

I think you need to increase your ASIO amount with your current sound card:

// Are you on Dual core - or Quad core? // ( Not that this matters too much for Guitar Rig )

Where abouts in the signal chain is Guitar Rig?
On a live input - or on a recorded channel?

Are you processing a stereo channel - or a mono channel? (Your GR is set to mono)

Channel Configuration:
Press F4 - how many channels have you get set up for recording?

You could have too many input channels set up - all taking valuable cpu?
Hopefully you only have 1 or 2 input channels active when recording guitar.

The next thing to try is increasing the ASIO buffer size
It could be that your ASIO setting is a little too ambitious (too small) for your sound card.

[ The RME sound cards I've found to have the lowest ASIO settings - but they're expensive - I use the Yamaha -Steinberg sound cards which I've found to be the most stable ]

The next thing to try would be bypassing the individual modules in GRig.
Try bypassing the Little Reflector, Then the Spring Reverb - and see how the cpu is affected.
Perhaps the GRig preset is too cpu hungry for such a low ASIO setting?

Something else to think about.
I have different project ASIO configurations for different stages of recording - mixing - mastering.

So when I'm recording guitar - I have no more than a stereo input and a stereo track to play along to -with the smallest ASIO setting I can get away with.

// I sometimes use a Line 6 POD X3 to record guitar (negligible latency) - so I can hear the FX amp and speaker sim live - but record the guitar dry (ASIO input 7 and 8). I then use GRig for the post production. //

I then use a large ASIO buffer setting when I'm mixing - as I'm using no live inputs. I also disable all live inputs to save cpu. This gives me the flexibility to pile lots of VSTs where I need them.

 

Yes, I misspoke. its a dual core. It shows up as a quad core in task manager. Its recorded channel. not live. Stereo, not mono.

I'll try some of your suggestions and see what I can get. However some of the presets on GR5 max out (OVER) the CPU with nothing else running on the PC.

 

Also - it may help to make sure your channels are not mis-matched

e.g. on your preset - you only had the left side checked - so your only going to get a mono (L) signal processed - might sound better if you activate the "R" channel too - see attached

 

Ok, thanks!

I skyped by brother and watched the CPU. It maxed out with the video on to 95 percent. Without video it was at about 60 percent. Its running the audio using the EMU PatchMix and soundcard. Just thought I would mention it for comparision.

thanks again.

 

Thanks to all!

I ended up buying a hex-core with 32GB of 1600 speed ram this weekend.

Before this I hooked up my old Alesis multimix USB to use and by-pass the EMU-1212m. Same results. So my daughter is happy. She gets dad's old computer and I get something that should SCREAM..

thanks again.

 

Now that should fly!

 

It better..

 

Hi, just signed up for the forum, I'm not sure of the etiquette here, but usually moderators want you to use the same thread if your problem is similar, and well... My problem is very similar to the original poster...

My set up is a Quad core extreme 3ghz with 8 GIG RAM, 3 SATA 7200 RPm drives in RAID 0, and a MAUDIO fastrack pro, using sonar X1 as DAW on WIN7 X64.

I get the same type of issue, I really can't use much more then 3 or 4 VST instruments before I start getting pops and cracks, and much beyond 6 it really doesn't matter how high I set my ASIO latency to, it just doesn't want to play; Of course setting the latency too high has its own problems, but aside from those, the pops and cracks still hinder the sound.

Something that's counter intuitive to me is that even if I do a final export of the project to a stereo wave file, the pops and cracks are still there! Does that make sense to anybody? I mean, at the point the computer has all the time in the world to calculate everything.

I also have a Line6 UX2 interface that presents the same problem, and on another machine a PCI Creative card which has ASIO drivers natively, same thing.

Am I just asking too much from this machine?

 

Pops and Cracks in Mixdown-Render: Is it a real time render?
One way to easily tell if you're pushing the cpu way over is to see if an export takes longer than a realtime export?
You shouldn't get pops and clicks when doing a non real-time render.

Your computer is a similar spec to the one I'm using - so this should be enough for big projects.

Have you tried the dpc latency checker and PC set-up advice mentioned earlier in this thread?

Do you have a separate data drive?

If you're using a raid 0 configuration - you put yourself at greater chance of data failure.
If one of the disks in the array is faulty - you have to replace the whole lot.
A faulty disk could easily be the reason your system is experiencing the problems you are having.

Is your raid part of an internal sata configuration?
Or is it an external box? (hopefully esata if external)

I no longer use Raid as main data drives due to previous error problems
However - I use raid-1 for (daily) back-up and mirrors (too slow for main data)

 

I'm well aware of RAID 0 pitfalls, I'm actually an IT consultant by day

The RAID is internal from the chipset, and like you said, if one drive was so much as "going bad" the whole array would fail, so I know they are in top shape.

I haven't really looked at the coputer config suggestions yet, but I'm not sure what it would tell me I haven't already done, that machine is running as lean as I can possibly make it.

As far as the mixdown, I'm pretty sure is not real time, it takes longer to render the song than to play it.... Really strange, right?

What do you call a "big project"?

Let's take one specific project I'm trying to work on right now...

I have 6 audio tracks, with at least one plug in each, and another 6 MIDI tracks all running VST's, come to think of it all from NI's. Now, of course, if I disable the plug ins from the audio tracks, and the one in the master section, the situation improves slightly, but at no point I'm "pop free", regardless, you reach a point in your project you have to hear everything at once with everyting applied so yo can mix, so...

I don't know if this is a clue, but if I do so much as to mute all but one instrument in Kontkart, it gets a LOT better, again, kinda counter intuitive to me, I would think the ocmputer is still calculating everything, just muting the output, which makes sense since if I -un-mute an instrument it start playing instantly..

I was thinking it had more to do with my interface? Could that be? Because of the whole ASIO latency thing and how it's the thing that has the most impact in performance?

Are there any weird issues with RAID configurations and NI's VST performance? Some apps don't like it at all.... Dunno, just trying to find a reason as to why this is happening

 

OK

That's narrowing it down

If it takes longer to render the song than to play it - your way over your cpu max

What instruments are you using?

If you're using a full build of say Studio Drummer - which is a huge cpu hog - then that would go someway to explaining your problems.
Muting the instruments stops them from using cpu - so that would be why your getting your mix to work with only one playing.

Also - if you're using a lot of instruments that have their own reverb - try using a global reverb instead?

If you're using Reaktor - that isn't too efficient and synths like Razor that sound great - take a great amount of cpu

Also - back to those cracks - (in Win-7) pull up the Windows Task Manager - choose Performance - open the Resource Monitor - and you can check more accurately your cpu and memory allocations as
either of these - when stretched will cause audio drop outs

And finally - check out that focusrite win-7 pc set-up - and latency checker - they can make a big difference.
If the dpc latency checker isn't all in the green - your pc needs configuring

Good luck with it all