Izotope Neutron 3 Uses Lots of CPU In Mixcraft

[AfxTwn]

Hi, I have Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio and have just got the Izotope Community Appreciation Bundle which includes the Elements versions of Neutron 3 and Ozone 9. I am using these to help with my mixing and want to put Neutron on each track after any FX. I have a project at the moment with 10 tracks on it and lots of FX (usually the ones that come with Mixcraft such as TB Reverb or Acoustica Delay etc). I can use as many of these as I want it seems without any problems with CPU usage (it's usually below 15% sometimes even under 10% for Mixcraft usage) but as soon as I start adding Neutron to tracks, the CPU usage starts going up massively and with an instance of Neutron on all 10 tracks then my usage is up in the 70% range.

This has the result of playback sounding ok but the animations for volume meters and movement along the timeline being slow and choppy.

I tested using Neutron just with a couple of drum samples only on two separate tracks and no other effects and CPU usage still started to go up significantly compared with not using it and having lots of tracks with lots of Acoustica FX. Adding Ozone onto the master track also makes things worse.

I have checked to see what programs I have running in the background on my PC and there isn't really anything, I don't have a browser open or anything else other than the Corsair iCue software for my keyboard running in the background and MSI Afterburner for my GPU but these are hardly using any CPU, below 1%.

Would I be better mixing each track down to a new audio track so that all of the FX etc are mixed into the audio and not being actively used and then put Neutron on? I'd just like some advice as to whether this is an issue with the Izotope plugins or Mixcraft or something I am doing wrong?

I have an Intel i7 9700K and 16GB RAM and Mixcraft and my VST's are stored on my NVMe drive.

Thanks for any advice.

Update: I just noticed that after playing back the files I get this error:

MixcraftNeutronFailedit.png (730.43 KiB) Viewed 962 times

Sorry I don't know how to attach images properly so you can actually see them. The error message reads: "A failure has been detected in the effect 'Neutron 3 Elements', this plugin has been muted. We recommend you save your project and re-start Mixcraft to avoid losing your work."

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

Try downloading and installing beta version 9.0 build 470 and see if that helps:

https://acoustica.com/mixcraft/support/beta

If it doesn't help, the next time that happens, quit Mixcraft and send us your mixcraft-log.txt file.

To find the mixcraft-log file, highlight the following line and press Ctrl+C to copy it:

Code: Select all

%appdata%\Acoustica\Mixcraft\

Press the Windows Key+R to pop up the Run box in Windows. Click in the Run box and press Ctrl+V to paste in the line from above. Finally, click OK to go to the location of the mixcraft-log.txt file. Submit an Acoustica Support Request and attach the log file along with a brief description of the problem.

Greg

[AfxTwn]

Hi, thanks for the reply Greg. I downloaded and installed the beta build but unfortunately it still resulted in a crash. I have opened a support request and sent the log file as requested.

Thanks for any help.

[cactus-head]

Hi,

This may not be solve anything but for what it is worth, I use several of the Izotope products and they are all seem to be CPU hungry. It could be how they function in Mixcraft, or it could be the nature of the plugins. Before everything else, run the downloader/installer for iZotope and see if there are updates for the plugins. After that, check below.

I've found a couple of things that help, especially with Neutron 3:

1. Under the Mixcraft Preferences > Display > Limit drawing during playback to 6 (or less) frames/second
2. Make sure your are using ASIO as your sound driver. Set your ASIO buffer to 512. Raise it if you are still running into trouble, lower it if you are getting reasonable playback. Find an optimal setting in conjunction with the other suggestions here.
3. When playing back, hide any Izotope VST windows whenever possible (sometimes you need them open of course to tweak things during playback)
4. If your track with the Izotope plugin has a separate VST reverb plugin before it in the chain, turn off the reverb plugin. The Izotope plugin will process the trails and everything from that effect and eat up processing power.
5. Don't put the effects on the master track if you have a full mix open. Mix down your tracks to a single stereo track then start a new project specifcally for mastering, and bring the stereo track into this project. Then apply your effects to the Master track.
6. Use automation to bypass or turn off the iZotope plugin whenever it does not need to be engaged.

Try these things in combination etc. See if it makes any difference. You might find a nice balance.

[AfxTwn]

Thanks for the reply cactus-head. I am just going through some testing with Neutron and Mixcraft to see if I can pinpoint what is causing MC to crash when using Neutron. It's looking like it might be a conflict with another plugin I am using by Freakshow Industries called Dumpster Fire (part of a bundle I got with their other two plugins - Mishby and Backmask).

Dumpster Fire is a weird pitch/time-shifting reverb effect which ties into point 4 of your suggestions, to turn off any reverb that's before an Izotope plugin. Greg suggested DF might be causing an issue in an email to me following me opening a support ticket. As I said, I am doing some testing so will update my ticket and this thread when I know what's causing the issue.

I will try the other points you mentioned, I think perhaps Mixcraft has some issues with the new VST3 plugins (not just Izotope) as other people on the forum have raised issues so maybe that will be addressed in a future update or with MC 10.

I am using an ASIO driver as I have a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 (Gen 1) audio interface as my main sound source and the buffer is set on that to 512 and Mixcraft is set to use whatever the audio interface is set to. I may try adjusting more if need be as I tend not to record live instruments, maybe a touch of synth stuff here and there. I have been using samples a lot and recorded sounds I have made myself and then imported into Mixcraft.

I do try not to have any VST windows open when playing back a project as much as possible but like you said, sometimes adjustments are needed. I think I have been spoiled with Mixcraft's included VST's which can be left open with no problems, the Izotope stuff is much heavier on the CPU.

With regard to point 5, I did mix down some of my tracks to new audio tracks so that the new track had all the VST/plugin information mixed into the audio file and nothing on the FX but I wasn't sure how to import those clips into a new project. I am still pretty new to making music and with Mixcraft I haven't had the need to do things like this before as I've never used something as complex or demanding as Neutron or Ozone, I just mostly use whatever came with Mixcraft and they are super efficient and hardly use any CPU no matter what I throw on each track or how much.

I am trying to give my projects a little more balance and mix them better as I have never really bothered before due to making mostly electronic experimental or weird stuff lol (lots of sample cutting up and time-stretching with tonnes of effects on). But I have noticed that sometimes there isn't enough room for some tracks in a project to breathe and break through everything else or the whole mix can sound a little muddy and have too much going on. As I don't make traditional music or more standard music that follows a lot of the rules that serve most music well, I find it hard to know how to mix my music. A lot of the time it doesn't even follow standard time or beat/bar frameworks (a lot of my stuff just doesn't fit into bars neatly so I always have the timeline set to time not beats). I just do everything by ear and spend ages manually cutting up samples by zooming in massively and playing it over and over to figure out where I want to snip, when I know there are probably much simpler ways of doing it.

Sorry went on a bit of a tangent there. All of that was a way of making an excuse for using Neutron's Mix Assistant mode and AI to help mix this stuff for me. I have just upgraded to the advanced mix and master bundle from Izotope as they had a ridiculous deal in my upgrade offer section of my account, plus I found another coupon code for a further 30% off so I saved hundreds and thought it a good idea to get the top tier of Neutron and Ozone etc while it was a lot cheaper.

I'd like to know how to mix properly but being completely honest, this is just for fun and for me, no one else is likely to hear it or particularly like it and that's fine as it's just for me but I much prefer making music than spending a long time mixing etc when I don't really know what I am doing or what sounds good. If it sounds good to me then it's ok I suppose, I just want to make it a little better and have more balance rather than getting something lost in the mix.

Sorry for all the waffle.

EDIT: Sorry I forgot to ask, with regard to point 4, a lot of my tracks have reverb plugins before Neutron 3 as I thought it would be better to apply Neutron's mixing after all effects so it would take those into account and provide a better mix. Is it better to just apply Neutron before any FX on a dry mix and then add FX after? I have also noticed a few of my tracks use the same reverb or other FX so I am going to set up a send track with those shared FX and then apply send to each track that uses them so that the effect is on a single instance rather than for each track that uses it. I already created a sub-mix track for a couple of tracks that were using the same samples just in a different order so could therefore be sent to a sub-mix and use the same shared FX.

[cactus-head]

I was just thinking from a trouble shooting perspective. For your mix, one could eq, compress etc. an effected track. One could also eq, compress, etc the clean track instrument. It depends on what you need ultimately for your sound; so number 4 is a suggestion if you were running into heavy processor problems you could switch off the effects before they hit Neutron 3 and see if it makes a differences.

An option I forgot to mention is you could also try using the VST2 versions (the non VST3 ) of the plugins. The ones with the red dots are VST2 versions (I added the red dots so you could see clearly).

VST iZotope.JPG (69.07 KiB) Viewed 894 times