Improving effects performance

[VomitHatSteve]

At this point, I ask enough questions that I should probably just join the reaper forums and ask there, but I don't particularly want to join another forums.

So anyway, I'm working on ways to use Reaper for live performance. This means I'm running a lot of custom effects, which can give me some pretty poor performance and some obnoxious popping sounds.

However, when I look at various system performance measures, my plugins are using 20% of my CPU, tops. Is there a way (in Reaper or Windows) that I can allot more system resources to my effects and get them running smoother?

Edit: On some of my effects-heavier mixes, I'm approaching 50% cpu usage.

 

[pipelineaudio]

whats not going smooth? Specific effects?

One of the things the developers were doing well in reaper was to run about the same at extremely high cpu loads as low ones

 

[VomitHatSteve]

They're custom effects I made myself.

The primary problem I'm getting is popping sounds sporadically occuring during playback. These sounds get more frequent as playback continues.

I'd like to be able to actually run these effects live once I get them fully-honed.

 

[hotrodder]

I have had the same thing happen to me, but I attribute it to pushing my cpu / memory beyond what it can do. If you remove one of the effects does it go away? What is the performance meter reporting? What interfaces are you using? What is the buffer and sample set at?

 

[VomitHatSteve]

The performance meter is reporting up to 50% CPU usage.

I'm actually running up to 20 tracks with one effect on most tracks and two or three on a select few.

What I'm doing is using effect to generate audio (a drum machine and some synths). I've front-loaded the effects as much as possible. (We're talking 5+ second delay before playback starts as it loads the audio).

Turning off significant numbers of effects yields some performance boost. But I'd really prefer to keep all the effects and simply allocate more system resources to them.

 

[Thunder33]

The performance meter is reporting up to 50% CPU usage.

I'm actually running up to 20 tracks with one effect on most tracks and two or three on a select few.

What I'm doing is using effect to generate audio (a drum machine and some synths). I've front-loaded the effects as much as possible. (We're talking 5+ second delay before playback starts as it loads the audio).

Turning off significant numbers of effects yields some performance boost. But I'd really prefer to keep all the effects and simply allocate more system resources to them.

I know this is a couple of months old, but I am curious, are you still having problems? If so, why not render to a new track and then kill the effects on the original track?

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I'm trying to run the effects while playing live, so rendering them to a track wouldn't work.

I figured out that I can tweak the performance of the effects by messing with buffer sizes. I've got the effects pre-buffering for something like 5 seconds, and the performance is pretty good.

I can't modify the effects while playing or stop mid song without making horrible grinding-to-a-halt noises.

 

[Thunder33]

I'm trying to run the effects while playing live, so rendering them to a track wouldn't work.

I figured out that I can tweak the performance of the effects by messing with buffer sizes. I've got the effects pre-buffering for something like 5 seconds, and the performance is pretty good.

I can't modify the effects while playing or stop mid song without making horrible grinding-to-a-halt noises.

I am confused. The tracks are going to sound the same once rendered to a new track. Unless you are changing effects on the fly.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Unless you are changing effects on the fly.

I'd like to be able to do that.

I suppose I should explain what these effects are doing. They take arbitrary input (say an extra mic pointed at the audience) and use that to randomly generate synth parts. I've got one that does drums, one that does chords, and one that does melodies.

If the effects aren't running live, there's not much point to them.

 

[disgruntled-inc]

ReaMote

Reaper has a function, I believe it's called ReaMote, that allows you to run effects on a different, networked computer. It's one of the install options. Basically you set up a network with two computers with crossover cable, with both machines running ReaMote and both having a copy of the VST's you are using. I have been intending to build a second machine just for this, but haven't yet.

There are a couple of good threads on the Reaper forum about it. The one thing that I do remember one guy saying was not to use onboard ethernet adapters as it basically still uses all of that processing to network the effect. If you use a PCI card it takes the load off of the host processor.

http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaMote