Processing Spikes

[MichaelL]

I installed DP on my Mac Pro... 12 core OS 10.6.8, and I'm rebuilding my template. I'm up to 15 instances of Kontakt and showing about 15% processing usage in the DP window. Showing very little usage spread across 12 cores.

However, after I stop working for 15-20 minutes I get level spikes on the DP processing meter, as well as pops and crackles in the the audio output, when I start up again.
If I completely quit DP and then reopen the file, the problem goes away.

My hard drives are set to sleep after 3 hours. I verified all of the drives...no problems.

Anyone having similar issues? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

[ironchef_marc]

Hi Michael,

Just got DP8 and I'm having pops and clicks loading projects that work fine in DP7.24

Did you change any settings in Kontakt? Still using the memory server?
Wow 15 Kontakt how much RAM is that using?
What's your buffer size set at?
DP8 behave fine otherwise not sluggish?

I'd be very happy with a template that could handle that!

-icm

[MichaelL]

Hi Ironchef_marc

Turning off memory server stopped K5 from crashing. But, I didn't get rid of the pops, clicks and dropouts. I'm back to using VEPRO with DP8 on my main MAC. I still use VEPRO to connect to my other MAC anyway. I'm actually thinking about going back to 7.24.

It does feel sluggish to me...too many pinwheels. But, I also updated to Mountain Lion, which I'd like to undo. Maybe it all doesn't play well together...yet.

I have 24GB RAM. Maybe 32 is the answer.

Cheers,

Michael

[David Polich]

Processing spikes you can ignore.I've been ignoring them since DP5. You can turn them off in Preferences - go to General, then Audio Options, and disable "Show alert when playback overloads processor(s)."

Audio pops and clicks - that's another story.

[MichaelL]

Thanks David. I'll give that a try.

[MichaelL]

In DP8 "Audio Options" is now located under "Play and Record," instead of "General."
Wonder how many more "little" changes like that there are?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

LOTS! Try to bounce...

[MichaelL]

I was going to make a remark about falling out of my chair, but holy crap, where'd it go?

I would tell myself to

But....figure 81-18 shows Bounce to Disk under the Audio menu, when it is actually under the File Menu, which the text says.

[ironchef_marc]

Thanks for the info.

I did a test and managed to load 23 fully Kontakts, and bunch of other stuff for good measure, 1 FM8,1 Massive, 1 Omnisphere, 2X Stylus,1 Superior Drummer and 30 plain audio tracks, 5 tracks with NI-Guitar, about 50 aux track and about 600 MIDI tracks. My RAM is racked up (15.93GB says Activity Monitor although not the most acurate I think). DP8 isn't sluggish and I'm able to navigate and stop and record.

I still haven't tested this in a real life situation, i.e. trying to get work done but I sequenced with it and it's seems to be working fine. I basically just loaded as much as I could to see how it would handle it. I started off with my old settings then changed to recommended ones I've read on here then went back to most of my original settings since I had crashes with those.

Kontakt 5.03
Memory server on (which many said to turn off but works better on for me)
Engines 16 cores (tried 15 but 16 seems to works best)

Hardware settings:
buffer 256
Host 4

My computer is at least 3 years old!
Never used V Racks I wonder if I should try?
Obviously with a project with that much loaded it does take a while to load and unload so I might explore that before updating my template.

[MichaelL]

I turned memory server back on. I opened a new DP project and added one instance of Kontakt. I tried to load LASS in to Kontakt. DP crashed when I tried to load the third instrument.

I repeated the process, but this time I tried to load a Symphobia patch. DP crashed on the first instrument. ??????????

I turned memory server off and tried again. I'm able to load 16 LASS patches no problem.

What OS are you using? I'm on Mountain Lion and regret it.

[ironchef_marc]

10.6.8 (My computer specs are in my signature )

The thing too with turning off the memory server how do you know your samples have finished loading? At least with memory server you can see it.
I guess DP should have some sort of monitor system for that.

I think I will have no choice of using V-Racks though because it takes a long time to load. (10 minutes?) Now not sure if my template will grow that big in the end but I'm used to create a DP project for each cue and obviously with a 10 minute loading time it's just impractical. I like the idea of being able to access any cue quickly within one file but that file gets corrupted and you're screwed.

[MichaelL]

Thanks ironchef. I'm just disappointed a bit with DP8. I had no similar problems with 7.24.

[ironchef_marc]

With so many variables it always takes a bit of time before they iron out all the issues.