Just out of curiosity, how do you people deal with CPU overloads? I'm running FL studio 6 with the V-station on a AMD Turion x64 with 2 gigs of ram. It's pretty smooth going, but once I start loading maybe 10 instances of the V-station, I run into trouble. Turned the latency as high as possible but sometimes CPU maxes out. ASIO driver doesn't work with Conexant HD audio card so that's gone. I mostly render effects and sweeps to samples and load them, but for other stuff I prefer the flexibility to change and apply quickly. As a last resort, I muscle through the crackling and popping in playback or I render and then listen. Not really asking for a solution, but how do you cope with CPU overloads.

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Ummm well, I'm sure you know the answer to this already, but here goes.

Dont run 10 vsts at once.

Once you've done all your automation, freeze the track. I use abloeton myself, and theres an option to freeze the track, which basicaly renders it as audio onl.y. You cant realy change it unless you unfreeze it tho.

quote:

Originally posted by ralpheeee Dont run 10 vsts at once.

Well how else do you get a variety of sounds?

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quote:

Originally posted by azndragon0613 Well how else do you get a variety of sounds?

record edit freeze flatten to audio, record edit freeze flatten to audio. etc...

This is because you're using all of your vsti's internal fx and you don't print it to audio.

Consider recording your midi just as recording a true soloist performance behind a mic. Just that, in your case, you can edit the notes!!

Another tip. Use maximum 2 linear reverb types for your entire songs. If you use a huge and long reverb as a specific fx, then freeze it.

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First off, I avoid VSTs that are CPU hogs. Some plugins are just total CPU whores, and unless they do something really special, I avoid them like hungry sharks. If I must get sounds out of them, I play the sounds I want to a WAV and load it up in the sampler.

Playing sampled sounds is usually very low CPU, so samplers are your friend. If an instance of an instrument is only being used for several sounds, render single hits of the instrument into WAVs and load them up in your sampler. Play the samples instead of the instrument. Samplers are your friend, and so is a ton of good sample packs!

Freezing tracks. I forget how this works in fruityloops, but working in Nuendo/Cubase it's really easy... Just click the snowflake in the VST panel, wait a little bit, and the instrument is rendered to WAV and the VST closes, but the track stays in place, just not changable; basically zero CPU for that track. If you want to make a change, unfreeze, make changes, edit, whatever, refreeze. I love how Nuendo/Cubase freezes stuff so easily. I always freeze stuff I'm not planning on working on in the next hour or so, which is quite often half or more of the tracks.

Use effect plugins sparingly. Effects can always be added at final mixdown from rendered WAVs, and I generally unload them while I'm working on the track, bring them back into the mix if I need to hear them. Besides, this practice helps you to get things to sound good without lots of EQs, filters, and other effects. The better your work sounds without tons of effects, the better you can tune it at the final mixdown

Be careful of how many voices are in use. Some instruments totally hog voices depending on settings, such as with lots of sustain or long release, you may find an instrument is playing alot more voices than it needs to be. Some VSTs allow you limit the number of voices in use, and this can greatly reduce CPU utilization often without much notable different in output, especially if the instrument in question is "down in the mix". Nexus is a good example of a voice hog, especially with pads, although I really like Nexus.

Why do you need 10 of the same instrument open? Can't you use automation to bring this down to a lesser number, such as automating settings and program changes? Or is it that you are trying to make the whole track from one instrument?? It's quite possible to make a very full sounding track from only 8 instruments, if one of them is a sampler and you automate program changes and dont bring in a whole seperate instrument for 2 bars of sound...

Also, your deficient sound hardware probably has alot to do with this. That "HD" audio is both a CPU and interrupt hog. Uberjunk. Get yourself a good HARDWARE (not software-based crap like the HD audio) sound interface that supports ASIO. My old (~2004) 3GHZ Pentium 4 with a decent ASIO interface can do lots more than my recent-model Core Duo 2 laptop, mainly because the laptop is using the pathetic "HD" audio. Seriously though, a good audio interface is a must to deal with production work.

Most importantly, make sure your PC is fully optimized for being a digital audio workstation. This basically entails a bunch of system settings and ensuring that nothing unnecessary is running on the PC. Search around here, I know there's a number of threads on optimizing your PC for digital audio work, this a bit broad of a topic to cover.

Last edited by MERiDiAN5i2 on Aug-18-2007 at 07:53

quote:

Originally posted by MERiDiAN5i2 First off, I avoid VSTs that are CPU hogs. Some plugins are just total CPU whores, and unless they do something really special, I avoid them like hungry sharks. If I must get sounds out of them, I play the sounds I want to a WAV and load it up in the sampler. Playing sampled sounds is usually very low CPU, so samplers are your friend. If an instance of an instrument is only being used for several sounds, render single hits of the instrument into WAVs and load them up in your sampler. Play the samples instead of the instrument. Samplers are your friend, and so is a ton of good sample packs! Freezing tracks. I forget how this works in fruityloops, but working in Nuendo/Cubase it's really easy... Just click the snowflake in the VST panel, wait a little bit, and the instrument is rendered to WAV and the VST closes, but the track stays in place, just not changable; basically zero CPU for that track. If you want to make a change, unfreeze, make changes, edit, whatever, refreeze. I love how Nuendo/Cubase freezes stuff so easily. I always freeze stuff I'm not planning on working on in the next hour or so, which is quite often half or more of the tracks. Use effect plugins sparingly. Effects can always be added at final mixdown from rendered WAVs, and I generally unload them while I'm working on the track, bring them back into the mix if I need to hear them. Besides, this practice helps you to get things to sound good without lots of EQs, filters, and other effects. The better your work sounds without tons of effects, the better you can tune it at the final mixdown Be careful of how many voices are in use. Some instruments totally hog voices depending on settings, such as with lots of sustain or long release, you may find an instrument is playing alot more voices than it needs to be. Some VSTs allow you limit the number of voices in use, and this can greatly reduce CPU utilization often without much notable different in output, especially if the instrument in question is "down in the mix". Nexus is a good example of a voice hog, especially with pads, although I really like Nexus. Why do you need 10 of the same instrument open? Can't you use automation to bring this down to a lesser number, such as automating settings and program changes? Or is it that you are trying to make the whole track from one instrument?? It's quite possible to make a very full sounding track from only 8 instruments, if one of them is a sampler and you automate program changes and dont bring in a whole seperate instrument for 2 bars of sound... Also, your deficient sound hardware probably has alot to do with this. That "HD" audio is both a CPU and interrupt hog. Uberjunk. Get yourself a good HARDWARE (not software-based crap like the HD audio) sound interface that supports ASIO. My old (~2004) 3GHZ Pentium 4 with a decent ASIO interface can do lots more than my recent-model Core Duo 2 laptop, mainly because the laptop is using the pathetic "HD" audio. Seriously though, a good audio interface is a must to deal with production work. Most importantly, make sure your PC is fully optimized for being a digital audio workstation. This basically entails a bunch of system settings and ensuring that nothing unnecessary is running on the PC. Search around here, I know there's a number of threads on optimizing your PC for digital audio work, this a bit broad of a topic to cover.

My God you sure as hell hit the spot. I never really looked into the fact that the number of voices will kill CPU. Gonna check that out. I'm usually very generous with the effects but for things that require long releases, I export to wav.

Good information to know. Thank you.

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Yeah, I think it was mentioned, but look out for long release times since that's something that I've easily overlooked.

I must of posted this about a thousand times but chek out

www.musicxp.net

It has loads of tips for squeezing every last drop of CPU power out of your PC.

Be aware some of the tips diable your power management options so for a laptop it will kill your battery in no time with these settings but at least they are easy enough to change back when you need to go prtable again.

MERiDiAN5i2's advice is spot on, get a proper soundcard which uses ASIO an also make sure all your drivers are up to date, especially your chipset drivers - I saw a massive increase in overall system speed and CPU power but updating these.

Ahhh yes, I remember that site. Should have bookmarked it last time I saw it
*does so now*

TY for the link

Glad that hit the spot, azn.. happy producing

i was having same problem

but instead of 10 VSTs it was like 4 or 5

i dont have that much RAM i guess :P

never thought of flattening to audio. thx Lol

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I use FX Freeze with Fruity Loops. Normally I don't need to freeze Tracks to conserve CPU power, even though I usually have 10 or more VSTi's running, and 10 or more percussion samples. I'm using the ASIO drivers that came with my new M-Audio Revolution. Before that, I had a soundblaster live! and used the KX project ASIO drivers. If my CPU power starts getting drained, I figure out which VSTi is the culprit, and freeze it. Anyways, with proper ASIO drivers, and track freezing, you will never max out your CPU, so long as you have a half way decent PC.

I usually freeze all the pads before mixdown anyway, makes it easier to mix. I can isolate one or 2 bars and mix percussive fills or FX, without having to play the entire pad pattern.

Regarding using 10 VSTi's at a time, that's pretty typical for me. Not all of them are used for pads and leads, some are used for percussion, FX, and percussive FX.

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switch on smart disable for all of your plugins.

make sure you check each of your patterns after you do it so none of the effects (long reverb for instance) gets cut off with the disable. just switch those smart disables off.

gives you a bit more cpu headroom.

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