Reply To: disastrous CPU performance

Again, not a complete answer yet by any measure, but I went back and checked CPU usage again on Podium and compared with some notes I made last year before I quit Cubase, using the same plugs. I’m getting about a 3 to 3.5% momentary jump in CPU from the Podium UI (refreshing, I believe), and this occurs primarily upon changing Podium’s various window setups or opening the different editors.

The only time I’m seeing CPU use go to 50% or more is when I’m using few tracks with certain hog VSTs such as shortcircuit, Ambience and some Bootsy stuff, or running lots of tracks with somewhat fewer gadgets.

On my PC in general, it uses a good 7-10% CPU on idle if I leave Aero Glass and the other fancy pop-up menu effects running and not revert to the primitive “safe-mode” look I use for heavier recording projects. Someone was saying in the Linux thread how Windows 7 OS itself is a CPU hog, and it sure is the case.

Otherwise, I had a lot of issues running Cubase on the same laptop previously — some like you’ve described above. Yet I now have no issues running Podium. To some degree, it is often a fickle fit between one’s PC and the DAW in question; however, I still say that can’t fully explain the issues you’re having.

The audio engine of Podium was brought up, too. I don’t know for certain, but I recently read an article with a study that revealed surprisingly (to me) that the audio engines of today’s DAWs are almost virtually identical, and it went on to explain that any perceived inherent “sound” of a DAW comes from other features, such as parameter controls and the like.