adlaiusForgive me if this is something obvious you’ve already checked, but do you have different/high-quality images set as the track timeline background on those projects? I’ve found that Podium is quite slow when very small or very large images are used.
adlaiusThis is a strange discussion that I don’t really understand. I like Podium a lot, but Ardour is a GPL’d, easy to use and high quality DAW (albeit only now coming around to MIDI support), Rosegarden and Hydrogen are available for sequencing/scoring/drum stuff, Renoise is there for the old-school crowd, and there’s an epic (EPIC) thread on the Reaper forums documenting Reaper-via-WINE in excruciating detail.
I’ve recorded a fair bit under Linux, and now happily use Podium under Windows. But forced to go back to Linux, I’d immediately go to Ardour. It’s already brilliant for audio, and once the MIDI implementation is finished, it’ll be pretty much unbeatable: fast/native to the OS, written by the guy who wrote JACK, free (beer/libre). Plus, watching Justin & co. try to get Reaper ported and debugged on OSX reminded me how porting apps is always slower, costlier, and more difficult than anyone expects.
Now, Podium on a dedicated hardware platform, on the other hand … 😉
adlaiusadlaius@Zynewave wrote:
…a docked help panel below the inspector panel…
Very nice 🙂
@Zynewave wrote:
Any other uses for scales?
Well, since you asked …
I have two requests that are almost certainly too far afield, but hey, why not? First, Hermode Tuning would be awesome. Some (few) instruments have it already, but Logic is the only sequencer (thus far) to offer it. Huge, fantastic feature, and offering it in a DAW vs. a VSTi gives added advantages (offline processing for bouncing to perfect harmonic tuning).
Also, what about native microtonal support a la Scala? A good number of popular synths (Albino, Alpha, Cameleon5000, Dimension Pro, z3ta+, and others) can load Scala tuning files; having host support would be really great.
@Zynewave wrote:
Added “bypass processing when detecting CPU overload” option to preferences.
Great! I look forward to trying this out … although I would perhaps recommend re-wording the option to make it clear that it’s the UI that will take the performance hit, rather than the audio engine. Something like, “Prioritize audio engine when CPU overload detected” or similar.
adlaius… disregard my performance discussion in my “Future” thread. What LiquidProj3ct is reporting is precisely my issue. I fired up Reaper, and sure enough I have “Synchronous FX multiprocessing” unticked and “Anticipative FX processing” ticked. As per Reaper’s help info: “synchronous FX multiprocessing … isn’t ideal for the lowest latencies”, and “Anticipative FX processing … good for pretty much all systems”.
Now, you note that,
@Zynewave wrote:
Podiums implementation of multiprocessing corresponds more to the other “synchronous fx multiprocessing” option in Reaper preferences/buffering dialog. This option will always process all plugins in realtime without prerendering.
This is certainly why my system isn’t performing as expected — Podium’s audio processing is configured to exactly the opposite of my Reaper config.
@Zynewave wrote:
So if you have problems with CPU spikes in Podium, my usual recommendation still applies: Increase the ASIO buffer size.
Um, no, this isn’t good. That’s the whole point of allowing people to configure Reaper in such a way: I run at ~6ms latencies (256 samples @ 44.1KHz) with these settings. I do lose the ability to tweak plugin editor parameters at low latencies, but why would I need to? Live performance? I’d use a MIDI controller, not a mouse. And with the Reaper settings, my VSTs all respond to my MIDI keyboard with no discernible delay.
@Zynewave wrote:
If it’s an instrument, then notes you play via the editor keyboard will be delayed by 200 ms.
Again, I don’t get it. Can you click a melody in a VST editor keyboard quickly and accurately enough that this matters at all?? (Note: if yes, I am officially alarmed 😉 )
adlaius@Pigini wrote:
I’m all for functionality too.
But to be fair, quite a few things listed under UI improvements in the Future Development thread are about functionality/usability and not just about looks.
Yes, you’re right. I got a little carried away. The thing is, it makes me crazy to see Podium go down, not up, in price/target audience. There are great inexpensive hosts like Reaper, and there are great high-end hosts like Sequoia. IMO there’s a huge window of opportunity in the middle, where people are stuck mucking around with Cubase and Sonar and Logic (though I heard epic stories of the wonders of Logic before Apple got to it). That is, the high and low end have been completely dominated by a few apps each, while the midrange is full of unsatisfying pseudo-solutions. I can easily envision a more featureful version of Podium just being a shoe-in for that application space.
adlaius@Zynewave wrote:
Are you using hyperthreading with your P4? If so, try disabling the “plugin multiprocessing” option in preferences, and see if that makes a difference.
It could also be worth a try to switch off the “background services” option and check if this affects performance. I’ve also read conflicting recommendations regarding this option. I believe that if you use plugin multiprocessing in Podium, it is best NOT to put priority on background services.
Hmm. Would you recommend disabling hyperthreading? I seem to remember a plugin vendor (maybe NI?) doing so, although with Nehalem also supporting hyperthreading maybe we should all just move to AMD 😉
I’ll try your suggestions and report back soon. I should also mention for the benefit of anyone reading along who’s unfamiliar with Reaper that it has a massive pile of engine configuration options, and it’s entirely possible that I misconfigured my OS (likely from the Sonar forum advice years ago) and then tweaked Reaper to fit. I’ve been known to have recurring fits of User Error…
@UncleAge wrote:
p.s. Its nice to see another Arizonian on here 🙂
Ha! Yes, we are few but proud 🙂 Although I have to admit, I’m about done with this state — I’m planning to move to a nice, happy, green place (Austin looks pretty nice). I think I’ve been dehydrated since age twelve or so 😡
adlaius@druid wrote:
…I found that, for me, it’s best to leave it at normal…
Now, if that’s absolutely nothing to do with and completely unrelated to thread scheduling priorities, then … um .. ignore my message…
Heh. Well, thread scheduling is contained within processes so it’s not completely unrelated, but that does raise an interesting point. It may well be a good idea to leave process priorities at default settings, as a well-coded app will (in theory) be able to prioritize its worker threads appropriately. If you look at Podium while it’s running, you’ll see that different threads (e.g. wdmaud.drv, ReWire.dll, etc) have different priorities (including dynamic props), so messing with the actual process priority may well not work as intended.
My hope is for Podium to have a user-selectable option along the lines of a slider:
Prioritization
========
[Smoother GFX] =========||===[Smoother playback]
I swear I’ve seen this somewhere before (in a VSTi maybe), and I think it’s a great idea for a host. People like Conquistador with big fast machines (hey over there 🙂 ) could simply smash it all the way left and forget it. Those of us with older machines or higher utilization requirements could adjust to taste.
adlaius@Zynewave wrote:
Do you find the performance inferior compared to other DAW apps? If so, then how did you make the comparison?
@Conquistador wrote:
I think Podiums CPU usage is comparable to other hosts but I have not recently tested that out
Well, let me give you some background, and maybe we can figure it out. I used Sonar for years, but got so frustrated with its bugginess that I went on an Epic Quest for a New DAW. That yielded Reaper, which screams on my machine. Used that for about a year. Picked up Podium recently.
Now, using Podium it seemed like my computer wasn’t fast enough any more. Which is understandable, it’s a P4. But still, I’m in the US and our economy’s falling to pieces, so I’d rather hang on to it for now 😕
Interesting thing though. I played the same bit of music in the same synth under both Podium and Reaper, and sure enough, Windows Task Manager reported slight-to-negligible differences in CPU load. But. Two differences: First, I’m comparing Podium with 32-bit processing to Reaper in 64-bit. Podium with 64-bit is significantly slower than Reaper.
The second bit I’m wondering about is that I can push my CPU almost to a continuous redline (80-90% sustained usage) with Reaper without engine glitches. I get glitches under Podium anywhere from 40-70%, seemingly at random. Very frustrating.
I’ll also point out that under System Properties/Advanced/Performance/Advanced I have Processor Scheduling prioritized for “Background Services”. According to the forums, this is the preferred setting for Sonar and Reaper, and to my understanding, for DAWs in general. Is this not the case for Podium, perhaps?
Anyway, I’ll wrap this up, but from all this thinking aloud I’m wondering if the issue is thread prioritization or something similar. But then I used Process Explorer to check that, and Reaper’s thread scheduling priorities are all equal to or lower than Podium’s! ❓
Or, you could just say, “buy a new computer, dude”.
adlaiusadlaiusadlaiusadlaiusI’m just not sure I understand why a triplet would be defined 3:2?
Sorry, I guess I should have explained my notation a little. 😳
Read it as x:y where x is the number of notes sounded and y is the number of beats over which those notes sound. So if we’re talking about quarter notes, 2:1 is two eighth notes, 1:2 is a half note, and 3:2 is a quarter note triplet. That reference style makes it quite easy to input and work with polyrhythms or more “modern” melodies.
Your proposal is interesting, though, because it seems like more of an improv/remix approach to modifying existing material:
Just take any long note, divide it by 8. It would only generate 8th notes if the original note was a whole note, it would not just generate 8th all along.
Heh. Combine this idea with a means to work with odd divisions and you could make some crazy stuff!
adlaius… and a costumizable “Divider” (could go to right click menu for each note) to slice notes into smaller notes.
It makes note entry even quicker and it allows unusual even or uneven timings (like 5 or 7 notes in one quarter…
I gotta say +1 for these quantizing ideas. My interest would be in generic tuples, so rather than having a menu item for triples, quintuples, and so on, one could simply specify a tuple ratio in a dialog box or something (3:2 for triplet and so on). I bought Podium specifically because it has fewer features than the DAWs I have used in the past; for me Podium’s greatest strength is in its (comparative) simplicity. That said, manually specifying a tuple like 7:2 or 5:4 is a huge PITA 😕
adlaiusGreetings, all.
As I’m new to Podium and have yet to find anything substantive to quibble about, I might as well jump in on the flat vs. 3D debate 🙂
I love the current look where everything in the piano roll view is flat (it reminds me of all those cool old 8-bit apps and games). But if the future holds a 3D piano graphic, a more 3D look to note events would make the overall apperance more cohesive (IMO). Check out Temper’s look, for instance:
Not too intense, and I imagine a Podium implementation would be even more subtle. Anyway, just a thought…