New computer, headroom issues?

[johnw]

A few questions:
I have a new HP with i5 8400, 8gb ram, and mechanical HDD. In a composition using only about 10 MIDI tracks I get some meter redline popping noises on some of the tracks. The system resources on this CPU, i5 8400, runs about 20-30%, but when I switch off multicore option on the VST--which is Lush 101, a CPU killer--the system resources go down to under 10%. I'm not sure if any of this has anything to do with the popping noises, but there seem to be less of them when the CPU runs as a single core.
Also, is there a specific place in Mixcraft where one turns on the multithreading function, or is it automatic?

Thanks much!

[Acoustica Eric]

Hi, is this a dual core or quad?
Dual core in my experience perform almost worse than single core.

Mixcraft has a "force single core" option in preferences.
Lush 101 seems to be using about 10-20 percent of your cpu power, so yes it's a hog.
Raise your latency or buffer size a bit to compensate.

[johnw]

Thanks for the tips. The i5 8400 chip has 6 cores, no hyperthreading, and runs 2.8--4 ghz. It's considered the current ultimate gamer chip because of it's price to performance ratio. I will try raising the buffer (already at 592). THanks again!

[Harry7139]

Sometimes setting your latency settings a little higher for playback/mixdown will help. I usually record at 3ms but when I have a lot of tracks and plugins running I will sometimes get a "crackling" sound at that setting....so when mixing down I set latency at about 10 ms and it disappears.

[johnw]

Thank you, I will try increasing the latency. Strangely my problem is less manifest than when I posted. I went back to multi -core helped, and fiddled with compressors. Thanks again!

[dpaterson]

For what it's worth I've had some little quirks relating to multiple cores now and then (matter of fact when I first bought Mixcraft my very first post on these forums was related to the fact that SOMETIMES when opening Mixcraft my CPU utilization would be 0% and other times it would be jumping around at say 20% with not doing anything else in between loading Mixcraft and exiting Mixcraft and loading it again) (and for the record I solved it myself i.e. I seem to remember not getting too much "joy" from that thread).

Two things (in my case) cause this (and it's intermittent I must stress):

1 - SOMETIMES when I load Mixcraft the CPU utilization is high "right off the bat". I spent some time trying to figure out WHY and it turns out it's my network (Wi-fi) adapter. SOMETIMES it will be pushing the CPU utilization of ONLY the second core on my machine (while the other cores are idling). The fix is to either disable the network adapter (because it's Wi-fi I just turn it off by pressing the button on my machine) or to just exit Mixcraft and load it again (sometimes a few times before this stops).

2 - I've also discovered (and maybe this is the reason for the aforementioned behavior although I've not been able to definitively diagnose this) that SOMETIMES some plugins try to check for online updates and registration the moment Mixcraft scans them (and subsequently loads them). If you wait LONG enough well, then, CPU utilization EVENTUALLY drops to zero again (and all cores are then at idle).

(Oh and if you use ReadyBoost you need to wait until it has rebuilt its cache, which takes about two minutes nowadays on my machine, before opening Mixcraft although this is not a "must" i.e. the cache rebuild only pushes the CPU utilization to about 2% while it's rebuilding).

Regards,

Dale.

[johnw]

Dale, thanks for the excellent post. Useful info. I've noticed a variation in performance lately--now the machine seems to not create clipping, static noises, etc. I could probably obliterate all or most problems by using a VST like Hive or Dune 2, which are optimized for low CPU needs. Synthmaster and Lush 101 are what I have. SM is not bad, Lush is volatile (tho a great synth especially for those who can cook up their own sounds). I could also install an Nvidia card I have, and maybe that will take some pressure off. But lately, as I said, the i-5 8400 is a great chip. Thanks again!

[comedians]

Hello John

If you haven't read this thread https://forums.acoustica.com/bbs/viewto ... =4&t=14668 I would suggest you have a look through it. The post by Zaffi gives some excellent suggestions, some maybe a little deep but the first few are very sensible.

[johnw]

Thanks for the link. I read it a while ago, but a refresher is good.