Spark 2- cpu usage

[Le0]

Hello dear Arturia team and spark users,
I wanted to start this topic, not to criticise the spark 2 cpu usage, but to get improvements for my system and I think high cpu usage will last since this massive update, appart from bugfixes.

It was a hard kind of a choice for me to buy spark, because I was just starting out buying synths and drummachines and  actually I wanted to have analog equip ->  no bugs; daw crashes; but also very expensive.
But now I´m enjoying it though.

So here is my Point: HIGH CPU Usage is an argument in matter of live usage (switching kits etc.), so what kind of a pc or soundcard (settings etc.) is needed in that case?

I would be happy with feedback here and sorry for my bad english, if there is any:
Le0

[Le0]

my daw is presonus studio one one 2.6/ 64 bit -> so spark 2 is running in 64 bit.

my pc system stats:  core i5 @ 1.7 ghz; 8 gb of Ram
graphix:                     intel HD 4000 (chip); nv gt 630m (2048 MB)
ios:                            win 8.1

so I dont know why, but I do have massive loading times, when calling up the GUI.

I use a second monitor appart from my laptop monitor, it uses alot of graphix ram, because of the size and its hd resolution.

so I will go for my nvidia graphic settings-> (my extra graphic chip is turned off in 2d mode by default) and turn it on and see if there will be any difference.

But I think I have to admit so far, that it is not worth, buying a laptop, if you totaly go digital.
leo

[vanhaze]

Sorry to say but, to me, your computer specs are not that great anymore for modern DAW and plugin times.
However, maybe Arturia will do some optimisations on Spark 2 so it's alittle more CPU (and GPU ?) friendly.

I run Spark 2 on a macbook 2011, OSX 10.9.2, within Reaper and i notice that when Spark 2 GUI opened, the Mixer VU meter redraws in Reaper become clunky.
So indeed, it seems to hog resources somehow.

Robbie.

[napishu]

Sorry to say but, to me, your computer specs are not that great anymore for modern DAW and plugin times.
.

 

[Kevin]

Hi guys,
as I said in another thread we are aware of the bad graphical performance of Spark 2.
We will work on this in the upcoming weeks.

Kevin

[stuey]

Is there a way you could implement use of lower bit rate samples for auditioning kits and playing them, then once you are decided, conform to the higher bit rate samples? This is something I do with Reason drums quite a bit. I have 2 sets of sample, 16bit and 24bit, when i'm tracking things together I use the 16 bit versions. When i'm ready to conform the audio, I resolve back to the 24bit samples. This saves me time and CPU.

This would be very beneficial to Spark

Stu

[Kevin]

I might be wrong but I don't think using 16 bit samples saves time or CPU.
Can you give me some details?

[stuey]

Hi Kevin,

It helps in lots of ways. A 24bit sample will be bigger in size than a 16bit version. Therefore it will take up less space on your HDD, it will in turn take less time to load. Multiply that by all the samples embedded in the Spark library and you have a far smaller library being able to be access far quicker. This will save overall performance. I do it on a daily basis with Reason and It saves lots of time.

It is the same in the video world. You don't edit 4k or even 2k material straight off the timeline. You proxy the media to an easier to manage, editable format, you then conform to the high resolution content. The same practice will work for audio.

Stu

[Kevin]

I understand but since we are using a disk streaming engine I don't think this will improve a lot the loading time.
However this is interesting . I will add this to the feature request list.

[stuey]

Sure, but streaming smaller files is more efficient than streaming big ones

Thanks, Stu

[Kevin]

Sure, but streaming smaller files is more efficient than streaming big ones

Thanks, Stu

+1 for you