DP CPU usage with multi-timbral instruments

[MIDI Life Crisis]

+1. Not as big a session but DP in 64 is a 10!

[kgdrum]

My question to both Killa and MLC is have either of you tried designating the cores in the settings of Kontakt?
Or do you both think it's better to leave alone or off?
At the suggestion of a tech at NI I have mine set to 1 less than the # of cores on my Mac example Quad = 3
8=7 etc....
Is there a disadvantage in doing this or advantage in leaving the core setting alone?
I'm not sure about this as the guy at NI also recommends leaving KMS on even though I always have it off and let DP8 64bit do it's own thing without the KMS.
I feel like NI will tell us 1 thing and MOTU will tell us another,so it's hard to know which approach is correct,I haven't seen any significant benefits or issues either way,thoughts,opinions?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have not touched anything. I run several instances per VI for smaller instruments and one instrument per VI for large hogs. Since the 10.8.3 update, bounces and freezes have also improved greatly.

[kgdrum]

OK so let me pose this question another way directly @ Magic Dave,as I presume he's lurking here more than most people realize.

Dave,
Do you have any opinions with preferred settings if someone is using Kontakt 5 in a system using DP8 64bit?
Re: core settings & KMS etc....
Are there any benifits with a 64bit DP8 system running Kontakt in DP or are there advantages running it standalone,multiple instances etc....
Thanks,

[Killahurts]

I have not touched anything.

I haven't either. Since I haven't had any performance problems with K5, I would have no need to go in there and mess with those prefs.. I don't know what half of them do exactly, anyway.

I went in and turned off KMS when I went to DP8-64, but that's about it.

Since the 10.8.3 update, bounces and freezes have also improved greatly.

Yeah, you mentioned that before.. what's better about it? I saw a pic you posted of sound files timing lining up better or something- is that it?

[kgdrum]

i just got off the phone with NI tech support.
they recommend this link:

http://www.native-instruments.com/knowl ... +KONTAKT+5

fwiw I was told the warning message we get when we change the core settings is generic and should be ignored if we don't see any adverse effects from making the changes.
I was told some DAWs like no setting,some like setting to the odd # core setting I mentioned earlier in the thread ,some like setting to the total # of cores,I was told just try it and see which way works best and change back to another setting or default if there's a performance issue.
I was told it's trial and error there's no absolute correct way, it depends on the users setup,the DAW and the actual computer so I guess ymmv.....

[MIDI Life Crisis]

...what's better about it?

No more pops and clicks! At least, not so far, and I've been bouncing like a baby boy!

[Frodo]

I hope Dave chimes in here, and this post is not an attempt to answer kg's question to Dave.

Just for the record:

I took a look at a project from a few months ago that had 8 instances of Kontakt5 and 14 instances of PLAY running in DP8.01 and OSX 10.8.x. (FWIW, there were no problems.)

Kontakt 5 settings:

KMS: off
Multiprocessor support: off

It's hard to tell what the settings *should be* if there are not any problems to address. If there are problems with K5 behavior, I would recommend running Activity Monitor to keep tabs on which processors are working and which are not.

If DP8 is not using all the cores and there are performance issues, I would consider upping the cores one notch at a time (ie: 2 cores per notch, according to Kontakt) until the problem goes away. If the problem doesn't go away or gets worse, then it's probably not a core issue. At that point, I would set cores to "none" since reserving cores could *potentially* have an impact on DP's and OSX's performance.

I'm more inclined to follow MOTU's lead on this since NI might have less invested interest in how various DAWs work, not to mention DP8 specifically. MOTU's take on how plugins such as Kontakt are to work in DP8 would seem to carry more weight for the likes of us.

My follow-up question for Dave would be how DP8 handles cores and memory in 64-bit mode. Is DP8 the consummate host where memory and core handling are concerned?

We don't have core or memory settings in DP, but how do plugin core and memory assignments help or hurt DP8's performance within the 64-bit colonel [sic] ?

Standalone mode, from what I can tell, was a solution (in part) to access memory above and beyond the >4GB allowed in 32-bit mode where computers could be loaded with much more RAM than 32-bit mode could fully access. It was clear how this took the load off of the DAW host.

What's not 100% clear is whether or not ALL the new memory and CPU "real estate" accessible in 64-bit mode is handled entirely by DP8.

[williemyers]

I would recommend running Activity Monitor to keep tabs on which processors are working and which are not.

((guys, I'd like to keep this thread (and discussion) running if we can, as it seems essential to a sought-after smooth & silkey DP/Kontakt experience!))

First thing I'd like to clear up is, when you/I/we speak of monitoring processor activity, AFAIK we've got two ways to do that...DP's Audio Performance Monitor(APM) and Mac's Activity Monitor(AM).

Looking first at AM, on my 8-core, I get a little graphical rows/columns grid with 8 rows of 20 blocks each. I'm guessing that each of the 8 rows represents one of my processor cores and, with each row containing 20 blocks, that would mean that each block represents 5% of core use.
So a row showing, say, green lights in 6-7 blocks would represent about 30%-35% usage ON THAT CORE. Does that seem right? And is this little graphical grid what you guys use when you're trying to assess core usage?

As for DP's APM, it seems to be all of the multi-core usage data stuffed in to a single horizontal bar, so i don't pay loads of attention to that as it doesn't seem to tell me much.

So is there anything other than Mac's Activity Monitor that good for telling what's going on "under the hood"?

[FMiguelez]

It has probably been mentioned in the thread, but there's a good little app called Menu Meters. It tells you about RAM, disk usage, network traffic and CPU, right in the Menu Bar. Essential, IMO.

[kgdrum]

It has probably been mentioned in the thread, but there's a good little app called Menu Meters. It tells you about RAM, disk usage, network traffic and CPU, right in the Menu Bar. Essential, IMO.

+1 MenuMeters is great!

[labman]

Viva Menumeters. (Thanks Shooshie !)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks guys. Love menu meters. Effen' full screen! LOL!

[Kubi]

Thanks for turning me on to Menumeters! Very helpful indeed!

[Tritonemusic]

Here's a tip for getting the most out of virtual instruments running in DP8.

Does this apply to DP 7.24, as well ( OS 10.6.8 )?