CPU load in Massive

Dear Massive users,

First of all, I'd like to emphasise that the concept behind Massive demands the best possible sound quality. The outstanding grade of all audio components and the fast modulation possibilities understandably cause a certain amount of CPU consumption.
Even though Massive's engine is highly optimized for the latest processor generations and their SIMD extensions you might reach the processor limits of your computer. Therefore, Massive provides three engine quality modes which serve different use cases and processor generations.

- ULTRA for uncompromising sound quality (default setting)
- HIGH provides a very good trade off between CPU consumption and sound quality
- ECO for slower computer setups and multiple instances in host environments

The engine quality switches can be found on the center window's global page. see screenshot
Note that you can set the quality either globally or per preset. On a slower machine we recommend to set the engine permanently to ECO mode.
Switching off unused modules (OSC, filters, FX) will also lower the processor load. Keep in mind that you can revert to the track freeze functions of your sequencer if you run out of CPU power.

Regards, Frank

 

Massive is awesome. That kind of synth plug is brilliant. Thanks a lot for that weapon. Well, my PC does support the ULTRA Mode but, wroooooooooooooooooom, MASSIVE takes a lot.

Greez

 

Quality = Demand

Maybe its the kind of thing that you can enable before doing an offline bounce. I wonder how things would sound different however. Maybe Frank can comment on what in the engine is changed for example the internal sample rate. The manual mentions oversampling, but of what? The oscillators, the mod matrix, the FX? And what kind of sound compromise might there be? Its a subjective notion, but what does 'Quality' mean in this context?

It would seem in a digital system that any variation in quality is simply an act of intention, or decision. If 'quality' in a digital system amounts to nothing more than increasing cpu demand, what has been improved?

Curious,

jonathan

 

I haven't checked for differences intensively, but recognised a slight bandwith difference when it comes to filters and waveshapers tend to alias earlier on higher notes, depending on the quality setting...

 

The great thing is you can use the low quality settings as an elaborate lo-fi effect ;-) Very cool for those oldschool digital sounds.

 

Sounds more like a Virus then

 

That's great to hear that you can change the quality to suit the performance of your computer. I installed the demo and was immediately in love by the sound, feel and look of this synth which certainly is appropriately named - no hype here thankfully! Then my heart sank when the cpu overloaded with just Massive running by itself and playing a single note. At least I can do something about this and not have to wait to be able to afford a bigger computer - good thinking guys!

I wasn't too impressed just listening to the sounds on the webpage but it was a different story when I tried the demo. Massive was not previously on my shopping list but now it most definitely is thanks to the very welcome option of of being able to try a working demo frist.

 

hi,
I'm new to massive, in stand alone mode massive works fine, but when i try to use it like an AU plugin in logic express 7.0 , it runs cpu over (even if it's just one note that's pressed ). Is it normal with massive or there is something wrong? any help would be really appreciated.

 

Massive is somewhat breathtaking - I love this tool definately!
I took the challenge and spent my system a new cpu. Now I didn't have any problems - the limiting factor is now my SE version of cubase, which didn't allow me more instances of plugins ...

 

I am working with P4 HT 3.04 2 gig ram,
and i can only use some of the presets. and i am even using eco global etc.

is there anything i can do or is ni going to fix it? or is that even possible?

oh it happens when i use it as a plug in cubase sx 3.

 

Usualy Massive performs well on a Windows XP PC. What Audio Interface are you using and what are your Latency settings? Are you having similar problems with the standalone version?

 

Well, I have just upgrade to Logic express 7.2 so everything works fine now.

 

Hey Summa
i am using a fire pod presonus , and a setting of 10.0 ms
and yes stand alone is only 5 % less than plug.
for example if i use you wonderful preset Organella (great work by the way! i get 35 % max in a cubase project. and in stand alone cpu reads about 23-25 %

 

well, 35% for massive with a normal patch in high quality mode is close to normal. Do not know about Cubase PC but for Cubase Mac that would be a fabulous value with 10ms buffer On Mac Cubase SX3 would only work without clitches if the buffers are set to 1024 - and even then only with good luck. Otherwise ther would always be CPU spiking.

I think this the standalone with max quality of 23-25% sounds normal. I think HT stands for hyper threading- not sure if such virtual stuff is good for audio software...... And with 23-25% you should be able to use the software.

if the problems only occur in Cubase, try to increase the buffer size and see what happens.

best

 

thanks!
question.
i have an old amd 1.6 athlon that just sits in the corner.
how can i benifit by useing it together with my current system ,or can i?
would it just be a waste of time? can i get better performance out of massive and komplete for that matter
or how would you recommend i put it to use?

thanks.

 

so how does the terratec KOMPLEXER compare as far as
cpu load goes? i am wondering if there is less load on the cpu
i have heard realy good things about it but not on the cpu matter.

would i get good performance out of it with my system?
thanks

 

I think your PC performs as expected, at least better than the Computer I used to create them

According to the N.I. website the minimum requirement for Massive is a 1.4GHz Athlon, so your additional PC should run fine for a few additional timbres/voices.
So running multible instances on a free host like VSTHost to control them via MIDI shouldn't be much of a problem, depending on the latency of the built in soundcard...

Since it's mainly a Virtual Analog type synth with a few wavetable options it mostly goes a bit easier on the CPU...

 

I am running a 2.2 Gig Core 2 Duo Mac book pro with 2 gigs of ram. My external card is an older moto 896. In all of the preset sounds I'm getting clicks and pops when the cpu spikes cycling through the sound. Even on eco with latency pushed way up. Is this user error? I love this demo and will buy it if I can get it to sound/record correctly.

 

Welcome =)

Turn off Airport and see what happens...

ew

 

This is very interesting. I have played with massive and it hardly gets over 5 percent when playing notes(i'm not kidding). I have an overclocked Q6600@ 3.4 GHZ 2GB ram and an Asus motherboard. I've loaded massive with other greedy plugins as well with no problem.

Maybe I'm onto something with this setup or maybe I'm just lucky! LOL.