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To those of you using Diva, Omnisphere, Kontakt or other high CPU demanding virtual instruments.
What are your audio interface settings? And how does it work for you?

I have a brand new desktop win 10 pc with intel7 processor (6cores), 64gb ram and ssd/m.2 disks. I am using RME UFX (usb connection). Still I am experiencing cracks and pops and cpu overload when playing some (polyphonic) presets from Omnisphere or Diva. I usually have interface settings at 24bit 48Khz and buffersize at 256. But if I want to play these presets without any annoying pops I have to change settings to 16bit 44.1Khz and buffersize set to 2048.

Is this “normal” when using lots of vst instruments? Some settings I should think about tweaking to avoid these problems? Just throwing this out in hope for other peoples experiences with cpu usage with virtual instruments.

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kmetal Sat, 10/21/2017 - 14:19

I don’t have particular experience with those but I have used BFD on dual and quad core computers at 256. BFD has a ‘load to ram’ function, it may be worth investigating each of the VSTI’s to see what sort of options they have. It’s possible that they have the ability to stream a lesser detailed version of the samples for real-time performance, then you can use the full quality samples when mixing.

Have you optimized the OS for audio?

What is your ssd/hdd configuration like?

Some Daws dont take well to having hyper-threading enabled. Pro tools and cubase come to mind as two that may or may not do better with hyper threading. It’s case by case.

Some daws also have the ability to assign a certain amount of cores or processing power to VSTI/or pluggins. I believe samplitude has this ability.

You may have to freeze some tracks in the daw and / or print your vsti tracks, as you go. Leaving the vsti performance track frozen and hidden in case you want to tweak and re print it.

You also may want to consider using your old computer as a slave, a dedicated computer for your vsti or maybe just a couple of them. This allows you to keep the buffers low on your main daw, while the vsti is handled completely by the slave computer. Similar to how a keyboard with its own sounds would work alongside a daw. If you use the Vienna player for the master Slave configuration, you can dedicate processing to different instances. So for example 2 cores for omnisphere, 1 to diva, 2 to kontact, ect.

I wouldn’t expect tons of instances of tjingnsnlkke omnishpere with your, but I’ve heard or plenty of people running those on quad and 6 core previous gen systems, so you should be able to get some good work done on your computer, which offers significant power over those.

Sorry I don’t have a real specific solution.

Earthless Mon, 10/23/2017 - 02:27

Hi kmetal and thanks for chiming in.
Lots of stuff here i havent really thought about before. Specially the hyperthreading and how daws are using or not using the cpu full power.
But I cannot see any option to having hyperthreading enabled or disabed in my daw (Studio One 3).I have a an m.2 as os disk and samples on a ssd or hdd.
I was considering selling my old computer which is has an i7 processor ,4 cores, from 2012. I was considering selling it, but when you mention using it as a slave ill better keep it. I like the idea and want to try it out and see how it works. Do i need the Vienna Ensemble Pro for a slave setup or some other programs?

kmetal Mon, 10/23/2017 - 16:06

Good stuff! I believe hyperthreading is turned on and off in the BIOS. As far as needing VEP I’m not super informed about the other options. (Although I’ll be researching them now). I personally opted for VEP (as well as the newest player, and some orchestral instrument add ons). I got it on sale, and I felt it was a reliable, proven option. There’s a lot of info available out there, and a good user forum for the Vienna stuff. With plenty of users from top level, to everyday guys like me using it, i felt it was a safe, good value choice. I’ve had my fair share of technical problems over the years and just wanted something that was known to just work.

So if there are other options, which I’m sure there are, it was worth it for me just to get VEP, for those reasons, and since I was getting the VSTI from them anyway, I like keeping as few different brands as practical.

Earthless Tue, 10/24/2017 - 00:18

I agree, VEP is probably the way to go if you are serious about it. It looks like its a good support for it to if ant help is needed.
And there is a demo version available on their site, which is good.

Actually the main issue i had while writing this post was that Diva did eat up one of the cores especially on some high cpu demanding presets.
But in Diva there is a setting called multicore which i wasnt aware of. Enabling this pretty much solved the problem with these presets.
You are right about hyperthreading, its a setting in bios. Ill better keep it enabled so i dont mess up anything.

Before entering the world of VEP i need to do some more of the usual daw tweaking as ive just installed the os.

paulears Tue, 10/24/2017 - 07:13

In my cubase system, I've discovered that I can stack up loads of instances of Kontakt and other samplers, and the failure point is when they all try to draw from the drives at the same time - once the samples are in and running, they take very little of the resources in terms of CPU load, just the damn accessing of the disks at unexpected moments.