Overloading CPU and Crackling MIDI

E

endling09

New member
Hi there,

I've been having some issues with the CPU overloading and MIDI instruments crackling while being played, on a brand new computer. I recently got a Dell Inspiron 7000 to replace my old desktop. It has an i7 1165G7 processor (2.8 GHz) and 16GB RAM. I'm running Omnisphere 2.0 and Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano in Studio One 5, and for some reason, occasionally the CPU usage meter will jump up from time to time, and the instruments will start crackling when they've been played for about a minute or so. I have an Audient ID14 interface that I have set at 48 kHz sample rate and 128 samples for the ASIO buffer size.

I thought that the 2.8 GHz processor would be more than enough to handle Omnisphere (minimum requirements of 2.3 GHz, last I checked) and Studio One. Was I wrong, or is there something else that I'm missing?? Any help would be really appreciated, before I just return this computer and start over.
 
First step will be to download Latency Monitor to see what tasks are interfering with the audio processing. WiFi is often a culprit, as are some antivirus programs. Run it while Studio One is running and see how it is behaving. The system should be capable of running audio. You can also look at processes in Task Manager, including how TurboMode is running. I have a I7-1065G7 and this is my system running Firefox, Edge, LatencyMon and TaskManager all at the same time. You can see the CPU has kicked up to about 3.5GHz. Still overall latency is good enough for audio.

Latency and TaskMan.jpg

The 1165G7 can be run at 1.2GHz to save on power, and ramps up to turbo mode to a max of 4.7GHz as demand rises. Make sure that you have power settings adjusted not to throttle back, especially if you are on mains power, not battery.
 
Yes, there are tips on how to optimize your computer for audio, and also a good article on why even fast CPUs have problems sometimes. But you want to disable WiFi and A/V for starters when you are doing your recording/mixing because the file I/Os can drive A/V "crazy." Better if you can dedicate the machine to audio work so you don't need A/V running at all on it, and only switch on WiFi for upload/download of audio files.

Keep your audio projects on a separate drive from the system disk is one of the first things I learned that made a big difference. SSD on a dedicated USB port, USB 3.0 is overkill for audio, but if you decide to do video, you definitely want that speed IMO for your projects disk. (Remember, it needs backed up too!)


edit:
here's the video about CPU performance:


and here's an article about optimizing Windows 10 - assuming that's what you got with a new computer (since you didn't say Mac and mentioned ASIO)
support.presonus.com

Optimizing Your Computer for Audio - Windows 10

Why would I need to optimize Windows 10? If your computer's audio has: Pops Clicks Audio Dropouts Distorted Audio Noise High CPU usage PC Optimization Guide for Windows 10 Welcome to the Window...
support.presonus.com support.presonus.com
 
Thank you guys for your responses! I checked into some of the suggestions posted. I think I figured out what was going on, and it was actually ridiculously simple. Leave it to me to make such an elementary mistake 🙃 In essence, I was using the system for both mixing and recording simultaneously, which from what I hear can present some significant issues. When recording, I found the system works best when I turn pretty much all, or at least most, of the plugins off, and run the buffer size at 128 samples or so, and when mixing, to go ahead and turn the plugins back on and adjust the samples up to 2048. In essence, I think I was putting too much stress on the system. I may not have all the bugs worked out yet, but it seems to be running much smoother this way. Thanks for the advice!

**Side note- A cool trick I found out in the process is that if you want to listen to your track with the plugins on while recording, you can just export a rough mixdown of the tracks you want to hear playback on (with all of their plugin effects), import the mixdown as an audio file into the DAW, turn off all (or at least most) of the plugins, mute everything except the mixdown track and the one you're recording, and change your buffer size to 128 samples. That way, it's possible to enjoy recording with the sound of all the great effects 😁 Hope that's helpful at some point to someone.
 
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Also look at "Freezing" tracks. It is similar to rendering a mixdown, but it stays within your current mix session/project. Most DAW software can freeze a track. After freezing, be sure to disable the plugs to free up system resources.

And that video Keith posted was very informative. I'll be sure to save the link for future use.
 
There often are problems for sure with computers that 'should' handle vast numbers of tracks and pluggins but don't and the reasons can be very varied. Son and I used some very puny PCs by today's standards and still got very low latency.

"Oldies" are often goodies and way back then we were told to disable all of the built in sound systems. Note "DISABLE" in Device Manager, not 'uninstall'. Then install the ASIO drivers for the AI.
That way Windows is virtually stopped from poking its oar into your music.

FWIIW all my computers W7 and W10 only have Ms Defender (Ms Essential Security) on them and I do about a monthly sweep with Malwarebytes. Note, with that and Ccleaner and other such software DO NOT let them start with the machine. Put them to work when YOU want them to!

Dave.
 
@endling09 - as @Chili notes, you probably can use "freezing" on tracks to free up considerable CPU, and managing some [cpu intensive] plugins like reverb by putting them on a single bus and using sends to control the amount of the effect, vs. having multiple instances of the same plugin.

Logic Pro X has a Low Latency mode in the Record menu that is useful - it disables some plugins, I assume based on its own metrics or latency measurements. It's pretty effective without freezing tracks. I don't know if other DAWs have something similar.
 
I've not had to freeze a track in Cubase ever on my last two machines and I have never adjusted sample size or that kind of thing - AND - my computer is not bad, but certainly not the fastest in the world. I'm on Cubase 11 now and I think the last time I had problems the issue was a slower than ideal drive trying to do big sample libraries and record audio at the same time and the drive would cause the grief. The next upgrade had faster drives and it went away.
 
A bit more memory couldn't hurt. If you have a lot of plugins instantiated you usually have to up the buffer in most systems.
 
Gtoboy said:
A bit more memory couldn't hurt. If you have a lot of plugins instantiated you usually have to up the buffer in most systems.
Click to expand...
Ah! I wonder if OP has an SSD in his machine? I understand they are really fast as a swap file?

Dave.
 
My Laptop does not pass. I even bought a brand new one.

I have no idea where to disable throttling. I have stated I needed help with this before. I am computer stupid.

I went to Best Buy a while back . Not one of the displayed laptops passed the latency monitor, cause I would have just bought that one. I have no idea how to set it up so it passes.

Would you sell me a computer that passes the latency monitor?
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
My Laptop does not pass. I even bought a brand new one.

I have no idea where to disable throttling. I have stated I needed help with this before. I am computer stupid.

I went to Best Buy a while back . Not one of the displayed laptops passed the latency monitor, cause I would have just bought that one. I have no idea how to set it up so it passes.

Would you sell me a computer that passes the latency monitor?
Click to expand...
About five or so years ago, everyone was having problems with music recording on laptops. The main problem was indeed the CPU throttling as the load and battery drain rose. A few, a very few laptops could be 'hacked' to disable all forms of throttling (save extreme OTemp) but even with those, a component/firmware change in mid production could foil that.

It would seem that the laptop people wanted to trumpet the manic speed of their products which of course they would do for non-continuous tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets and even internet but a DAW demands a flawless stream of data processing and they could not hack that. Peeps were asking on forums and magazines "Which laptop FCS?" The reply from responsible experts was "not really any such thng, go for a desktop for serious music (and video) work. You COULD by a fairly good music laptop from guys like Scan but at around Two Bags!

Things are much better now, mainly I* suspect because it is now possible to cram SO much CPU and ram grunt in the things that they are fast enough to 'ride over' the glitches? They still need some paring down and optimization it seems for heavy lifting?

*"I" is not a computer expert by ANY stretch of anyone's imagination! I just read and retain a lot but I AM old so don't take MY work as gospel!

Dave.
 
I'm not a computer expert either...so reader beware. However....I recorded for many years on a very old Lenovo Win7 1.8ghz with a spinning 7200 rpm HD and 8GB of memory using Reaper. I often got up to more than 20 tracks with effects on each one and the master. It was VERY rare that I ever had any issues and I never froze any tracks. I still use Reaper. I upgraded that to a Win10 2.8ghz Lenovo with 20GB of memory and a solid state drive. Other than being faster overall......the result is still no problems. Neither laptop was stripped of anything software wise. The only thing I always do is disable wifi when recording. So....the only common denominator is that both units were Lenovo and both used Reaper. Before I retired my international company had been using Lenovo (previously IBM) for as far back as I can remember. Our IT guy always said that Lenovo was pretty much the best. Now....whether brand or not matters....I don't know really. I happen to think that Reaper is likely a reason I've had no issues with CPU usage. I'm just relating my experience.

Just my 2 cents worth of jibber jabber.
Mick
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
My Laptop does not pass. I even bought a brand new one.
Would you sell me a computer that passes the latency monitor?
Click to expand...
I bought a Lenovo S340 w/I7 and 8GB. I just turned on LatencyMon, and let it run for 42 minutes while I was browsing the web on WiFi, two different forums on different tabs in Firefox. I even forgot it was running.

When I shut down FireFox, LatencyMon was still running and all green. You might still be able to find one at Office Depot. My ex bought two in January, on sale for $500 each.
 
The battery usage slider supposedly was throttling? Ok, I did that.

It installs the DAW and does record sound. I don't know.
 
It is the sound card drivers. I uninstalled everything one at a time. Also, I turned off the wi-fi with the button, not disable it from the manager.

That is a break thru!

Screenshot 2021-03-23 133223.jpg
 
If you tap the Windows key and start typing "Power plan" you'll find the setting to choose a power plan and edit your current power plan. There are separate settings for running on battery and while plugged in, so you can set everything balls-to-the-wall while on AC power, and choose more modest settings for running on battery so you don't chew through your charge in 30 minutes or something.

Among those settings are minimum and maximum CPU usage allowed (Processor Power Management --> Maximum Processor State). It's most likely already set to 100%, but it's worth double-checking if your laptop is struggling with simple audio tasks.

Other than that, it'd be worth taking a look at the installed programs (Start->Add Or Remove Programs) and look for any bloatware installed by the manufacturer. And you can look at Task Manager (Start->Task Manager) on the Startup tab to look for things that you don't want to start automatically when Windows starts.

One thing that I like to change on a new install of Windows is to show all icons in the notification area (Start->Select which icons appear on the taskbar) and enable the button for "always show all icons in the notification area". This allows me to keep quick visual tabs on what all is running in the background. Some of the icons can't be hidden and probably need to be running anyways (antivirus, battery and wifi indicators, etc.). But if you see an icon that you don't recognize, you can always click or right-click it and go to its preferences. From there you can probably tell that app to not start with Windows, or at least close it for this current session. This helps me ensure that no "hungry" apps are lurking in the background, waiting to cripple an audio session (I'm looking at you, EPIC Games Launcher!).
 
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