bfloyd6969@DanielK wrote:
this also causes the audio to dropdown every few seconds
Hi Daniel. Could the volume dropping every few seconds be from the demo restrictions? Don’t forget that in demo mode this will happen. Just an idea and it could be something different.
bfloyd6969Nevermind, I just found in the manual that this is done with Beat Slice.
bfloyd6969@Zynewave wrote:
A buffer size of 512 should be fine.
512 is what I have been using (along with the other hosts) but this is also when I was seeing the higher cpu in the Podium meter than other hosts. I maxed out the buffer which set it at 2048. This reduced the orignal load which was 20% (512) for two tracks down to 13% (2048).
Perhaps my computer just doesn’t like Podium as much as I do 🙁
bfloyd6969@Zynewave wrote:
@bfloyd6969 wrote:
@Zynewave wrote:
Did you read my previous reply to your post about CPU usage?
Have you tried maxing out the Podium audio engine with only 4 tracks playing? If so, what are the symptoms. Is the sound glitching, or is it just the CPU indicator that flashes red?
I must have missed that one (been a busy thread). I’ll try to max the buffer settings on the ASIO control and see what happens. What effect will maxing the buffer have on playback and latency though?
Maybe we are refering to two different things here also – when I mentioned the cpu load being high, I am refering to the Task Manager cpu load. The Podium cpu load never changes regardless of what Arrangement Screen I use.
From my previous reply:
@Zynewave wrote:
The CPU percentage that Podium shows is only for the audio engine. What you see in task manager includes UI processing. Updating the “big transport” display requires extra CPU by the UI thread, so it makes sense that you see an increase in task manager. If there is plenty of free CPU, the UI will use this to update the display smoothly. However the audio engine runs at a higher priority than the UI thread, so if the audio engine uses up more CPU, it will take away time from the UI thread. If the audio engine runs at 80-100% you may notice that the UI update of e.g. the play cursor can become more sluggish.
So don’t worry that the task manager shows a higher percentage than the Podium CPU indicator. The extra CPU is used by the UI, and this will automatically be reduced when the audio processing requires more CPU.
Ok, I think I finally understand what you’re saying now (yeah, took me a while to grasp this). So you’re saying that right now with 2 tracks playing and my Task Manager cpu reading 40% is mainly due to the graphics on the user interface and that once I start adding more tracks I won’t see the Task Manager cpu rise accordingly (i.e 2 tracks = 40% so 4 tracks = 80% will not happen). If I understand correctly now this is very good to know because I really want to use Podium.
So by increasing the Asio buffer may still lower the Podium cpu load? This would be even better to boot 🙂 Is it normal to have buffer setting higher than 512? This is where I am currently set at.
(sorry for my lack of computer recording knowledge Fritz. You’ve all been very patient with me. I’ll figure this thing out yet…)
bfloyd6969@Zynewave wrote:
Did you read my previous reply to your post about CPU usage?
Have you tried maxing out the Podium audio engine with only 4 tracks playing? If so, what are the symptoms. Is the sound glitching, or is it just the CPU indicator that flashes red?
I must have missed that one (been a busy thread). I’ll try to max the buffer settings on the ASIO control and see what happens. What effect will maxing the buffer have on playback and latency though?
Maybe we are refering to two different things here also – when I mentioned the cpu load being high, I am refering to the Task Manager cpu load. The Podium cpu load never changes regardless of what Arrangement Screen I use.
bfloyd6969@Zynewave wrote:
Thanks for the files. I’ve done some experimenting. I’m using the latest Reaper 2.55 instead of the 3.0 beta.
Is there any way you can make Reaper display if a buffer underrun has occurred? I can hear it happening increasingly when reaching 90% and beyond. That is using the “anticipative” option. When using the “synchronous” multiprocessing option I can hear spikes when as low as 55% on the Reaper CPU indicator, and that is with an ASIO buffer size of 1024 (23 ms). Depending on the ASIO buffer size, it sounds mostly like distortion. It can be difficult to hear if a single spike/buffer underrun occurs. A single buffer underrun will make the Podium cpu indicator spike into the red.
My initial tests confirm that the Reaper “anticipative fx processing” plays a major factor in the perceived CPU performance. Basically what it does is render all plugins offline ahead of time by default 200 ms, in a background thread. This evens out any CPU spikes that normally would occur with very short buffers. The downside to this is that any changes you make in the plugin editor will be delayed by 200 ms. If it’s an instrument, then notes you play via the editor keyboard will be delayed by 200 ms. If you “record arm” a track, then the multiprocessing of that track will be disabled. If you record arm all tracks, then all plugin processing will be performed on one CPU core only.
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. The benefit is that all plugins responds with low latency, no matter if the track is record armed or not. The downside is that there is a slight CPU overhead in the management of the synchronous processing. This overhead will be more noticeable with very short ASIO buffer sizes.
So if you have problems with CPU spikes in Podium, my usual recommendation still applies: Increase the ASIO buffer size.
If I set Reaper to use “synchronous fx multiprocessing” and disable “anticipative”, then I get the same task manager CPU usage using both Reaper and Podium. I also get more or less the same CPU spikes/buffer underruns, with the difference that Podium notifies the user of the spikes in the CPU indicator. That is running 6 instances of Gladiator in both Podium and Reaper, using your test projects.
Wow, you did some serious research Fritz, thanks. Ok, so what does this all mean for the user with a not so powerful system like my own – my current ASIO settings are 512 buffer. I thought this was pretty much standard but I could be wrong seeing how my computer record knowledge is very minimal. I LOVE this software (Podium) but I can’t use it in my current state as I would be maxed out of computer with about 4 tracks; not enough. This is my favorite DAW for it’s workflow but my computer will blow up before finishing a project. I don’t have this problem with Reaper, Orion, eXT, Sonar Home, Guitar Tracks Pro (ok, not really a DAW but still…), but I like the use of Podium much more than these. Am I restricted to not being able to use Podium?…
bfloyd6969@druid wrote:
Try and do the same that you did in the other instance; disable the anti-virus (and check for other running programs that you might not need running) and test to see if that helps Podium.
May not help, buuuutt… It’s worth a try!
Will do, thanks.
bfloyd6969Thanks Fritz, I’ll have to upgrade:)
@Druid – I’ve been wanting to give Shortcircuit a try so I’ll just go ahead and jump in. Besides, I’ve been wanting to get more into sampling anyways:)
bfloyd6969@Zynewave wrote:
@bfloyd6969 wrote:
That was it. I disabled my anti virus and Podium closed immediately. So what is it in the anti virus that is causing a closing delay in Podium and none of the other apps I have???
I don’t know. I’m using Avast antivirus on Vista, and I don’t have problems with any noticeable delays on any applications.
When you close Podium, does the Podium main window remain open during the entire delay?
The window that remains open is the window that is last open. I usually close with the X on the top right. Also, when I close before saving, and the save changes window pops up and I choose to save, then that window stays open for the duration.
bfloyd6969That was it. I disabled my anti virus and Podium closed immediately. So what is it in the anti virus that is causing a closing delay in Podium and none of the other apps I have???
bfloyd6969@druid wrote:
Apparently I still can’t resist reading and updating even if I’m doing nothing with them at present. 😳
Ha ha, I share your pain brother 😆 I suffer from a dozen of projects unfinished.
I really like Podium but I’ve been having some cpu issues (see the cpu thread over on the support forum). I’m wondering if these issues have something to do with the fact that it won’t close properly for me…
bfloyd6969Yup, that’s the one and I love it. I could just use it as a multi track like you stated before. I did try that and it worked quite nicely.
I’ve heard of Shortcircuit and I even have a shortcut on my desktop to the site for download; I just haven’t downloaded yet. It looks very big and confusing and I just keep putting it off 😀 . Maybe it’s time to give it a try.
bfloyd6969Ok, all this cpu talk has got me more curious and please try to answer me this – First let me state that I’m using an AMD Athlon 64 3500 2.20 GHz with Vista. I started a recent project I’m working on with a few midi tracks for now and the cpu meter in Podium is reading between 17 ~ 20%. I open my Task Manager cpu meter and it is reading 45 ~ 50%. This is with the Big Transport screen selected. Now, I switch to the standard Arrangement screen and the cpu in my Task Manager drops to 40% while the Podium cpu is still reading the same as it has been (17 ~ 20%). Now, I switch to the Split Mixer screen and my Task Manager cpu load drops to the same as what Podium shows, 17 ~ 20%. Any ideas about this???? I can’t have 50% cpu load with only a few tracks, and I can’t create arrangments while in the Split Mixer screen… I’m screwed. 😕
bfloyd6969@Conquistador wrote:
Hi guys…
There was an interesting discussion about CPU usage in Podium here. (CPU spikes) It might help.
Why Podium is using less CPU with Mulitprocessing disabled??? Don’t know. Maybe some of your plugins respond better or are coded for single processor usage?
I guess Frits would know what is wrong here or at least know how to troubleshoot it.
@bfloyd6969 wrote:
I just started using Podium and I was going to post a thread about this but I’ll just tag onto yours. I noticed that Podium is using about twice the cpu as my other DAW’s.
Have a look at this thread (Dual-core Multiprocessing question). Might shed some light on Podiums CPU usage
Thanks for the link. I’m using a single core (yeah, yeah, I know). Anyone else using a single core with Podium and still getting fair results? Maybe it’s time to upgrade to a multi core?
bfloyd6969Love the orange!