VST Performance

S

Sickmelvin

New member
I'm recording a demo in cubase at the moment but I have problems with the performance of my pc when I use a lot of inserts (especially reverbs).
I see the CPU performance meter is up to 50 % and I hear a lot of cracks.

So I know I have to update my pc.
Does this mean that all my problems are solved with a processor twice the speed I have now or should I also buy extra memory?

Thanks.

Marc
 
It would help if you posted what your computer specs are and how many tracks and effects you are running. Are any of the effects freeware/shareware? Are you using sends instead of inserts where you need more than one track to have the same effect? Is your system free of pops at all times until you go over 50% on the CPU usage? Over 70% is more common to get pops if your system is clean otherwise. Higher buffering would probably help you, but you sacrifice with latency.

We have a cubase forum here also. There are some cubase users who might not see this if they don't regularly use this forum.
 
I'm using a AMD Athlon 1,10 Ghz Processor and I have 512 MB of Ram.

Yes I use sends when that's possible but for Eq that isn't since all my guitar tracks consist out of 3 tracks because I've recorded them with 3 mics.

Yes my computer is completely free from cracks at all times when no plug-ins are inserted, even with a 24 track playback.

What do you exactly mean by a "clean system" ??

Sorry, I was looking for a cubase forum and I coudln't find it but now I have.

Thanks,

Marc
 
What I meant by "even if your system is clean otherwise" is a system that doens't click, pop, crackle, whatever. It sounds like yours is like this. Sometimes people will have a system that runs great (clean) but when they pushes the CPU load to the top of the scale they start to get crackles and the like. Others will say "my system is cracking really bad when I do *fill in the blank*" and after you try and try again to help them out, they finally mention that they have had cracks all along, but it just really gets bad when they do *fill in the blank*. Well, that is a totally other matter if the crackles are there all the time vs. just pushing the system vs. cracked/freeware/shareware products.

You didn't mention if any of the verbs are freeware/shareware. Inferiorly programmed VST's are prone to clicks and pops. How many effect patches are you running? With 512k ram you should be able to run quite a few without too much trouble.

A last resort can be (if you have the effects set to how you know you want them) to record the tracks one at a time with the effects burned to them, then you won't have the effects running realtime.
 
All my plugins are original full version plugs (most of hem are from 'waves').

I think my pc is clean.

Because I record guitars each consisting out of three mics and thus three tracks the number of tracks add up very quick.
That means I need a lot of different eq's because I use different mics. This way it isn't possible to use a send intead of a insert.

But what does the meter mean by cpu??
Is it your ram, the processor or a combination of both?

The processing of each track to my harddisk with a insert on it and later recall the processed version is the solution I'm doing right now, but it ist'n the most handy solution.

If I can solve my problems by upgrading my pc I will do that. It isn't that expensive in here.
I pay 70 euro's for twice the processor speed I have now.

Thanks,

Marc
 
CPU refers to your processor only.

Running real time effects is very cpu-intensive. I've got an Athlon 1800+. It drops out every now & then, but never pops or clicks. If you double your processor speed, your problems will be solved.

Or you could do what Bass Master K says, and apply the effects to your tracks destructively so they're not running in real time. Make sure you back up those tracks first though
 
I could be wrong here, and you may want to do more reading, but as I have always understood it running effects realtime is more RAM intensive than CPU intensive. I am sure I have read that the tracking audio is CPU intensive but that plug-in's run more off of RAM and 512k should get you quite a ways. You may want to read more up on this.

Regardless, if you can double up processor for 70 euro's that not a bad investment, but it might not solve your problem.
 
Gidge knows what's up...thanks for the clarafication gidge.

I either read it wrong or was reading info from someone who had it wrong.
 
Just a little something to add...

You should be able to run as many Waves Q10 EQs as you want, they don't take up much processing... It's the Reverbs and Compression that take the lot. Especially the R-Verb. 1 Rverb is like running about 4 Trueverbs. Watch your meter as you turn on and off effects and you'll see which ones are more Hungry than others.

I can run 10+ EQs w/ about 7-10 hungry Plugs on a 1.4 AMD w/512 . & you do have a 7200 RPM Hard Drive...?

I think the Buffers in System Properties default is like 64 or something... Bump it up to 128 or 192 (not sure of exact numbers right now) especially if your running 24 bit tracks. Play around w/ those numbers and see what works best... it goes up to 300? something.

Good Luck,
B.
 
Sickmelvin said:


Because I record guitars each consisting out of three mics and thus three tracks the number of tracks add up very quick.
That means I need a lot of different eq's because I use different mics. This way it isn't possible to use a send intead of a insert.
Click to expand...

Route the three tracks to a new bus and use the one send effect on that bus
 
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