Strange behavior DP 8.01 / iMac

[jaykeys]

Hi @ all DP Users.
I have an iMac Mid 2009 3.06 GHz and 16 GB RAM running OS 10.8.3 on a 7200 HDD.
I have made a clean install of Mountain Lion two days ago, every single Virtual Instrument I use is bought.
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On my Mac I use NI Kontakt (plus Orange Tree Cherry Bass and Scarbee Rhodes), Absynth, FM8, Reaktor, u-he Zebra and Diva, Spectrasonics Omnisphere and RMX an Synthogy Ivory II with RME Babyface. I have updated them all to the latest versions, all run in 64bit.
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I can confirm (as I can remember) that my troubles started when I left Snow Leopard for Lion. I was a Logic/Ableton guy since V4 (Life) and V8 (Logic). Logic became useless for me, because I often had CPU overloads with just a single instance of Ivory.
I switched to DP8 and Studio One Pro last year, updated to Mountain Lion. My iMac behaves in a strange way i.e. running DP (from 512 to 4k buffer) with a SINGLE instance of a .wav track makes my CPU go up to 30%. I'm running two FM8's under 50%-60% CPU load. What the F*** is going on here? Same with Studio One btw.

I'm not that I-come-home-and-make-music-for-fun-guy. That's my job, I have to earn my money with it. I have no idea what to do. Kick that ML off and downgrade to SL again? Kick that Apple off and return to Windows again?
Please be serious and thanks for your time and help.

-Jay

[MIDI Life Crisis]

At the risk of being made fun of by some, I would check all drivers are up to date and then repair permissions. This is particularly important in DP8 and Mountain Lion and DOES fix spiking and other problems.

[kgdrum]

from the description of your rig it sounds like your only using the iMac boot drive for everything,is that correct?
Is the iMac drive still the stock 5400 rpm drive?
If so I'd update the boot drive if possible to a faster drive and spread samples and projects to dedicated hd's,if you're already doing this,my bad,I can't tell as it appears your doing everything off of 1 drive as I read your post.

[kgdrum]

At the risk of being made fun of by some, I would check all drivers are up to date and then repair permissions. This is particularly important in DP8 and Mountain Lion and DOES fix spiking and other problems.

MLC-Sumptin is wrong if you're getting defensive about repairing permissions!
Have a drink

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm on the wagon. Or is that off the wagon. I think I'm running behind it holding on. Lol

[jaykeys]

OMG, you're fast, thanks for your supply.
The HDD is 7200, drivers are up to date.
@kgdrum:
You're right. I'll give it another try. I'm still not able to relate to the thing with the .wav file.
/edit.
there was nothing to repair within my disc permissions.

[kgdrum]

OMG, you're fast, thanks for your supply.
The HDD is 7200, drivers are up to date.
@kgdrum:
You're right. I'll give it another try. I'm still not able to relate to the thing with the .wav file.

Are you trying to do everything on the boot drive? & if so how close to being full is the hd?
If so that IMO is not a good idea & could be a major part of the problem,try putting the samples on a dedicated drive and the projects on a dedicated drive.
Also repairing permissions after updating to DP8 and MLion or any major update is very important.

[jaykeys]

As a wrote: there was nothing to repair.
What's wrong with playing that .wav playback in DP? I still have that cpu prompt at about 30%.

OK. Disk is 1TB, there are 750 GB left.

[kgdrum]

I'm not sure if we're understanding each other.
Asking 1 hard drive to run the OS,the apps,the VIs,the samples and the project is very labor intensive for a hd.
Most users that use lots of VIs use dedicated drives for samples and & a dedicated drive for the project.
I actually use 2 separate hard drives for my samples,some users spread out to 3 or 4 hd's(orchestral libraries etc....)
The hd player going back and forth between reading,writing etc..... Is IMO too much to ask or expect 1 hd to do well.
I use boot drive,2 sample drives and a project drive.
I also have backup drives for every drive(including boot)and a time machine drive also backing up the boot drive.
I'm glad I don't have OCHDD (obsessive compulsive hard drive disorder)
But if I'm understanding correctly that you're using the boot to run these libraries and write the projects all on this 1 drive,I suspect is a large part of the problem.

p.s.

From what I've heard Omnisphere & Ivory are 2 very demanding libraries,I don't use either.
I've avoided Omnisphere because of the demands it puts on a system I could not imagine trying to use these libraries entirely on 1 dedicated system drive.

[jaykeys]

Hi kgdrum.
Ok, my fault.
You mean every new project (like a "simple wav-file importing as a new project") should be sourced out to another HD?
This is a brave and strange new world for me.

[kgdrum]

1)Boot = apps & programs(no samples)
programs apps and utilities only
2)Sample drive = all of the samples from the libraries(dedicated drive)
3)Project drive = the music you wrote with everything(dedicated drive)

*When you install VIs and Sample libraries you are always given optional locations of where to store the libraries samples.

[jaykeys]

Are you kidding? None taken, but I had those issues with 1 FM8 in DP ... I will be listened by reason, but with a machine like an iMac from nowadays it should not be a big deal to play back a simple wav file.

[kgdrum]

Well your method & results indicate,a different approach will most certainly help.
Start a thread asking how many users here do everything successfully and productively with only 1 system drive,without the use of dedicated sample and project drives.
I doubt you will see to many users saying they use this approach.
Most users I know of spread everything to a few drives & also back up everything.

Using dedicated drives and having backup drives,I have actually 11 drives running off of my Mac,is it a bit extreme?
Absolutely but I actually think trying to use libraries like Ivory,Omnisphere,
Kontakt etc....all on 1 system drive is way more extreme.

VIs and sample libraries place enormous demands on hd's it's,not like recording a kb player playing a Fender Rhodes and recording the audio.

[jaykeys]

Hey kgdrum,
I'm very thankful, that you're willing to help me. No need to be sarcastic.

I've got another machine here on my legs. MBPR i7. DP running here with external usb 3.0 drive. I've currently made an audio test where I transferred the new project as well as the audio files. I'm running DP with 25% of my resources. Something strange is going on here.
What I don't understand is why Apps like Pyramix or Samplitude on the Windows-DAW-Side work like charm even with big Projects (and are 32bit). I know Pyramix and I'm working with it nearly every day. I also tested Reaper - I neither like the interface nor the workflow (there is no ...) BUT - never had these issues I described first.

Please be tolerant, sometimes the way I write (finding the right words to describe things) could be not cut right on the chase of the matter - speak german to me.

[kgdrum]

I haven't been sarcastic,see how many users here or at lug use the 1 hd method successfully.
Even though splitting to a project drive should help the VI library samples on the boot place enormous demands on the Macs resources.
I don't know or use Windows or the other programs you're mentioning, do you use sample libraries,VIs and MIDI based apps with them or is it more strictly audio based?

If you want to keep using 1 drive exclusively,even though it might be corrupt, have a bad sector or files from the way you've used it & keep setting up your rig without trying other approaches that I think the majority of users employ here go for it.
I honestly don't know of any DAW users who do this successfully with MIDI based setups.