Zynewave.
ishkabbibleWell I am taking your advice, and making sure Podium works correctly in my system before buying. I downloaded the free version and spent a couple days sequencing a composition. I think I can live with Podium as a working environment for composing with the ZynAddSubFx softsynth.
BUT – one core is definitely not enough to handle the kind of stuff that I’m doing, so the next test is to see how well Podium scales to 4 cores.
So I saved a copy of the project in the free version, installed the demo (where multiprocessing is supposed to be enabled), and opened the copy. Now when I try to play the project, I get all sorts of strange Beeps, Boops, twangs, and other assorted random noises interjected in with my actual piece. In addition, the CPU meter at the bottom seems to be maxing out just as often as it was with the free version, although when I bring up the performance monitor I can see that the load that was on only one core in the free version is now distributed across all 4 cores. IF I render all my groups and then play back the audio, there are less of the obnoxious noises, but a few still pop up.
I am running an Intel Q6600 quad @ 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, WinXP Pro SP3. Currently have the RealTek HD Audio chip with ASIO4All V2 driver, buffer set to 1024 (will upgrade soon). Running Jackoo’s (VDX) ZynAddSubFx VST build 2.4.1.490, with the output buffer also set to 1024.
Does anyone see anything I have obviously done wrong here? Thanks for any advice!
ZynewaveIt’s possible that the ZynAddSubFx vst isn’t coded to support multiprocessing. Try to turn off the “enable multiprocessing” option in preferences, and check if this gets rid of the unwanted noises.
ishkabbibleThank you. Disabling the multiprocessing eliminated the funky noises, and it also seems to bring the CPU load down just a bit from the free version. Although I do find it a bit odd that the Podium CPU load indicator is bouncing between 60 – 90, yet the windows performance monitor is showing one core at around 40%, and the other 3 below 10% (yes, I am monitoring kernel time as well). I have been (incorrectly, it seems) assuming that the DAW simply spawns each instance of a given plugin off in its own thread, and lets Windoze manage them from there.
So it appears that if I am going to adopt this new recording paradigm, one of the first things I will need to do is make the ZynAddSubFx VST play nicely with itself in a multiprocessing environment. If you don’t mind my asking, where should I start? Is Steinberg the arbiter of all things VST? Which VST SDK version does Podium use? Any forums you can recommend for plugin developers? I had really hoped to avoid delving into interface issues (because I know all to well how quickly they can eat your lunch) and just work on the synth engine, but one of the beauties/curses of an open source project is that I can fix whatever bugs me, and this will get to bug me pretty damn quickly.
Thanks!
(Cross posting this to the ZynAddSubFx VST forum on KVR – will see what the developer has to say)
ishkabbibleFYI –
I received a reply from the developer, and indeed this release does have multiprocessing “issues” (which I am welcome to fix). Looks like I have interface coding in my future 😥
At any rate, I do think I can get used to recording “the Podium way” – the only thing I am still waiting for before buying the license is word on whether the KA6 is compatible with Windoze XP. I can’t honestly evaluate latencies through Podium until I can test it with a decent audio system with native ASIO drivers.
Zynewave@ishkabbible wrote:
Although I do find it a bit odd that the Podium CPU load indicator is bouncing between 60 – 90, yet the windows performance monitor is showing one core at around 40%, and the other 3 below 10% (yes, I am monitoring kernel time as well).
The Podium load indicator shows the amount of ‘time’ spent within the time available for each ASIO buffer. If you e.g. use only one plugin and that plugin uses all the time available, the Podium indicator will show 100%, even though only one core can be utilized.
I have been (incorrectly, it seems) assuming that the DAW simply spawns each instance of a given plugin off in its own thread, and lets Windoze manage them from there.
Your assumption was correct. A single plugin cannot be spawned on multiple cores though, unless the plugin itself has been coded to utilize multiple cores (like e.g. NI Kontakt).
Which VST SDK version does Podium use?
The latest before VST3, which is 2.4.
Any forums you can recommend for plugin developers?
The developer forum at kvr is a good place:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33