Help!! CPU SPIKES KILLING ME!

[ryguydrum]

Hey Everyone,
I have done some searches on how to fix my CPU spike problem and none have really seemed to help. Here is my setup/config.
1. G5 Dual 2.0 running DP4.61 MAC OS 10.4.6 with 2.5 gig of ram
2. 896 HD
3. 30 mono audio tracks 44.1/24 bit-10 aux tracks
4. 80% of my plug ins running off of UAD-1 Card
5. Buffer @ 1024 with work priority meduim
Here is what I have done so far:
I have tried the ONYX software and turned off Dashboard and did some spring cleaning on my computer. I flushed all of my undo entries and deleted all of my unused audio tracks from my soundbites window. So far I start playing back my 3:30 min long sequence and within 1:00 my CPU spikes (it is stays around 20% before it spikes). Now, when I stop playback the CPU meter stays spiked (all red according to my audio processing window). This doesn't sound normal to me, and I have run higher track counts before with minimal to no problems. Is there anything else I can do? Any help/advice is much appreciated.
Ryan
P.S. this happens with other sequences too.

[chrispick]

Yeah, this happens to me too. The culprit: Running the UAD-1 over 75%. My solution: Switch work priority to LOW. This usually fixes it for me.

If that doesn't work, maybe try cooking some of the UAD-1 stuff to track so as to minimize its proc load.

Lastly, if you can bump up to 2048 buffer (depends if your audio interface supports it) and low priority, it'll give you a little more playback leeway at the sacrifice of UI interaction speed.

Let me know if this fixes or helps things for you.

[ryguydrum]

Thanks. . .this seems to be helping for the moment.
Ryan

[mcevilley]

Yeah, this happens to me too. The culprit: Running the UAD-1 over 75%. My solution: Switch work priority to LOW. This usually fixes it for me.

If that doesn't work, maybe try cooking some of the UAD-1 stuff to track so as to minimize its proc load.

Lastly, if you can bump up to 2048 buffer (depends if your audio interface supports it) and low priority, it'll give you a little more playback leeway at the sacrifice of UI interaction speed.

Let me know if this fixes or helps things for you.

I noticed the same thing with my UAD! I was really shocked because I was running lots of plugs (mostly waves SSL's and renaissance plugs, as well as a few UAD plugs) and my performance meter was around 30% for CPU usage. Then I added a UAD reverb and it went nuts, even though the UAD meter indicated that it should be able to handle it. I can understand the UAD working my computers processor a little but it really taxed it!
When this happened, I took off the UAD reverb, and added a waves Renaissance Reverb and my computer didn't have any problems. It seems a little strange to me that the UAD is supposed to be working off of the card, not my computers processor...

[chrispick]

Yeah, this happens to me too. The culprit: Running the UAD-1 over 75%. My solution: Switch work priority to LOW. This usually fixes it for me.

If that doesn't work, maybe try cooking some of the UAD-1 stuff to track so as to minimize its proc load.

Lastly, if you can bump up to 2048 buffer (depends if your audio interface supports it) and low priority, it'll give you a little more playback leeway at the sacrifice of UI interaction speed.

Let me know if this fixes or helps things for you.

I noticed the same thing with my UAD! I was really shocked because I was running lots of plugs (mostly waves SSL's and renaissance plugs, as well as a few UAD plugs) and my performance meter was around 30% for CPU usage. Then I added a UAD reverb and it went nuts, even though the UAD meter indicated that it should be able to handle it. I can understand the UAD working my computers processor a little but it really taxed it!
When this happened, I took off the UAD reverb, and added a waves Renaissance Reverb and my computer didn't have any problems. It seems a little strange to me that the UAD is supposed to be working off of the card, not my computers processor...

Well, my assumption is the problem has less to do with the proc power of the UAD-1 card and more to do with the way your computer addresses it when balancing multiple tasks. That's why bumping the priority down to low seems to help. Your procs "buss talk" to the UAD-1 card with priority over other DP functions.

In any case, I've found the issue doesn't really pop up until you get the UAD-1 up around 75% proc use or higher. And 75% UAD-1 is a lot better than 0% for me.

[arno]

Yeah, this happens to me too. The culprit: Running the UAD-1 over 75%. My solution: Switch work priority to LOW. This usually fixes it for me.

If that doesn't work, maybe try cooking some of the UAD-1 stuff to track so as to minimize its proc load.

Lastly, if you can bump up to 2048 buffer (depends if your audio interface supports it) and low priority, it'll give you a little more playback leeway at the sacrifice of UI interaction speed.

Let me know if this fixes or helps things for you.

thanks a lot chrispick for those precious advice ... it also solved the problem for me though i dont use uad but powercore .anyway , it was the same without any plugs from the powercore . now seems fine !
arno

[emulatorloo]

thanks a lot chrispick for those precious advice ... it also solved the problem for me though i dont use uad but powercore .anyway , it was the same without any plugs from the powercore . now seems fine !
arno

Hey arno, there is a lot of stuff on the TC support knowledgebase site about optimizing powercore settings. . .

http://tcsupport.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/t ... td_alp.php

This one really helped me -- , references logic, but concept is the same. The links is too long but here is TC answer pasted:

If you find that you have an extremely high CPU load when using PowerCore Plug-Ins in LOGIC on OS X, then go to 'Audio' menu of Logic and select 'Audio Hardware and Drivers...'.

When the window appears, set 'Process Buffer Range' to 'Small' or 'Medium'. (The larger the setting, the greater the CPU load.)

Another step to further reduce CPU load is to set the I/O Device buffer to 1024 samples, the optimal value for PowerCore.

If you are running on a multi-processing Macintosh, setting the ADMA buffer to a value of '2' in the Powercore control panel will also help you gain a small performance boost.

another one:

The optimum ADMA setting

Since the use of ADMA will also lead to higher latency, an optimal set-up will use only 1 ADMA buffer on a single processor system, and 2 ADMA buffers on a multi-processing system. As a general rule, you should set your audio-hardware buffer settings-those found in your I/O device control panel-as high as possible. PowerCore is optimized for I/O buffers of 1024 samples, but lower values may also be used at the expense of performance

Reducing CPU load with ADMA buffers:

Adjusting ADMA buffers can help you reduce CPU load caused by small I/O Buffers. This can be measured by loading a PowerCore plug-in in your audio application while monitoring the CPU meter of your host. Generally, the CPU-meter should reflect a very small CPU use by a PowerCore plug-in. If the PowerCore plug-in is using more than 1% of the CPU, you should tweak your system.

Increase or reduce the buffer-settings of your audio-hardware. The optimum setting is 1024 samples.
If this does not reduce CPU usage, increase the ADMA buffers to '2' on single CPU systems and to '4' on Multi Processing systems.
If you are using PowerCore in a Windows PC and using an I/O Device with MME drivers, switch to a device with WDM Direct-X drivers, or better still, with ASIO drivers.

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[psuescun]

Hi, I have the exact same problem... check the UAD website.

http://www.uaudio.com/support/software/ ... ps/G5.html

There is a specific PCI chipset used in many G5‘s that does not work properly with the one on the UAD-1 , this causes a conflict in the DMA mode on the UAD-1 (Direct Memory Access, which is the method for peripherals to access system memory without taxing the main CPU).

This implies that the DMA mode has to be disabled in the UAD-1.. so the Memory Access of the UAD has to go through the CPU (that‘s one of the things we wanted to avoid in the first place). Your UAD-1 is still doing the DSP functions (at least!) but it is not as independent of the main CPU as we all expected it to be.

A side effect of this is that the UAD meter AND the CPU performance meter are not "calibrated" and you can no longer fully trust what they read since there are "hidden tasks" that are not easy to calculate because neither of the apps seem to be fully aware of them.

Thats why even when the meter in the UAD-1 card reads 75% (approximately) you can‘t use more plugins; because your main CPU (the G5) gets taxed by having to read and write memory locations for the UAD-1 card.

I hope this helps you... the only solution I found (without spending more $$) is to accept that my UAD-1 no longer has 100% of available DSP power, but only 75% (at best...)

Another solution is to buy a PCI expansion chassis... with the appropiate PCI chipset.

Best regards,
Paul

[lampostudio]

I was having spiking issues even without my UAD plugs running. Someone at MOTU showed me how to get rid of beat detector and no more spikes, well maybe not as often anyway. I also recently installed another UAD card and what a difference that has made. It gives you more than double the power than one card.