After update, some presets (high CPU) stop working properly

[yapete]

After the latest update of ANalog 4 and V Collection, several of my updates skip or are scratchy sounding. When I send them to my USB audio interface, some of the produce no sound at all anymore. Anybody has similar problems? Tried to set CPU priority to high, but no change. I have a Quad core 2.5 Ghz computer with 16GB RAM. Should not have these problems. Old version worked fine...

[LBH]

Hi and welcome to Arturia forums.

Can you please be more precise?
Are you having the issue, with excactly the same presets you used before without issues, or is it with some other/ new presets?
Can you name a couple of factory presets, that give you this issue now, but did'nt give you issues before the update?
Also please name some presets that does'nt produce sound.

Which excact CPU do you have? The name please.
2.5 GHz is minimum recommended requirements according to Arturias website.

Is your computer set to High Performance mode?

Just trying to get some useful informations to troubleshoot and find out if there is an issue.

[yapete]

Hi, all presets worked fine before the update. Some examples are Synthi B77 and pretty much all Synthi presets with 4 voice polyphony, as well as many Buchla presents (see more examples below). In general any preset that shows 50% on the CPU bar is giving a problem. If I run these through Windows Audio, they skip - it sounds like a high speed random LFO switching audio of and on with static and srcatching sounds.When run through Asio, it's even worse and when sending it to the audio interface the sound completely disappears on the 50% CPU presets. Sending to the audio interface worked fine before for all presets, but now even sounds that use only 33% CPU start sounding scratchy and skip! This is happening to a lot of presets  - all of which worked fine before. I had marked a bunch of these as my favorites, but now they just skip and scratch.

CPU: AMD A10-5750M APU with Radeon(tm) Graphics 2.5 Ghz - yes, set to high performance (this was not necessary before, but now it does not help. Also set Analog 4 to high program priority)
RAM: 16 GB
Running WIndows 8.1

Examples of presents that don't work anymore (there are many - I have 10,000 presets with all the extra packages)
Synthi:
B77, Puilus, Feedback Caverns, 60S Synth Strings, All Rise etc etc

Buchla:
Pad Me Up, Drone Peter, Nostalgie, Deckards Drone etc etc.

[LBH]

Hi,

Please clarify.

In general any preset that shows 50% on the CPU bar is giving a problem. If I run these through Windows Audio, they skip - it sounds like a high speed random LFO switching audio of and on with static and srcatching sounds.When run through Asio, it's even worse and when sending it to the audio interface the sound completely disappears on the 50% CPU presets. Sending to the audio interface worked fine before for all presets, but now even sounds that use only 33% CPU start sounding scratchy and skip!

Where do you read this percentages, and what percentages did you read before the update?

When run through Asio, it's even worse and when sending it to the audio interface the sound completely disappears on the 50% CPU presets. Sending to the audio interface worked fine before for all presets,

What ASIO are you talking about? What do you mean by sending it to the audio interface, and what's the difference from using ASIO the way you use it?
Which soundcard do you use?
Do you have the same samplerate and buffer settings for your soundcard, and use the same driver as before? Which settings do and did you use?


Is something else apart from thge things you mention different on your system from before - including other updates, new installs, settings etc.?

[yapete]

Thank you!!

Where do you read this percentages, and what percentages did you read before the update?

This is the percentage shown in the lower right corner of Analog 4 or any of the synths, like Synthi or Buchla (it's a bar graph). When I mean 50%, I mean the bar covers 1/2. I am pretty sure it showed the same percentages before, but I cannot check that now, since the software has been updated.

What ASIO are you talking about? What do you mean by sending it to the audio interface, and what's the difference from using ASIO the way you use it?
Which soundcard do you use?
Do you have the same samplerate and buffer settings for your soundcard, and use the same driver as before? Which settings do and did you use?

ASIO4ALL V2 512 samples at 44100Hz

I can use the ASIO to go directly to the computer speakers (or the plugged-in headphones), or I can send audio to a Behringer Audio interface via USB.
I made no changes to the the drivers, sample rates or buffer sizes.

The soundcard is a built-in Intel HD Audio. There is no other soundcard.

Otherwise I have not changed anything on the computer. It worked, I installed the update, and now it does not work anymore... Thanks again!

[gphantom]

You can try deleting Analog Lab 4 then reinstall from the beginning.  Sounds like there's a conflict somewhere.

[LBH]

One more question.

512 samples at 44100Hz

I exsperience reset issues with the standalone audio settings after the update. Have you checked that it's actually a 512 samples buffer you use?
This could be the culprit in this case.

You can also allways try a reinstall like i see gphantom also have suggested. In this case, i doubt it will change much. But why not try anyway.

This is the percentage shown in the lower right corner of Analog 4 or any of the synths, like Synthi or Buchla (it's a bar graph). When I mean 50%, I mean the bar covers 1/2. I am pretty sure it showed the same percentages before, but I cannot check that now, since the software has been updated.

To me it look like the CPU meters on the applications are showing the wrong usage. There is some kind of bug.
I suggest you read the actual CPU usage pr core in Windows. What do you read there?
If just one core is overloaded, then you have troubles. And most of Arturias softsynth/ and others rely on a single CPU core.

I think you overload a CPU core. But if you could run the presets before, then i think, that you also should be able to run it now, even if you have a 2.5 GHz AMD CPU from 2013, unless something has been changed in the new updates, that affect your system, or something is different from before on your system. But i think you must have run on the limit before, so just a small thing may be the difference from before.
I'm not sure your AMD 2.5 GHz CPU from 2013 live up to the minimum requirements, as a new AMD 2.5 GHz CPU from 2020 is much better than one from 2013.
You should set Windows power management to High Performance mode. This could help at least on the presets you say use 30%. You should have a lot of presets that use less CPU. Keep in mind that audio processing is a background service in Windows. Changing individual programs CPU priority will in best case not help much. Perhaps you can even make things worse.
There are other things in optimizing your PC, that might be better to try.

At this point i can't rule out that there are some CPU spikes or audio issues in the new updates. I don't think there is a generel higher CPU consuption, but i have not used the applications enough to be certain.

To all users:
Can anybody confirm the new updates use more CPU ressources or give CPU spikes?

[yapete]

Thanks again!

Have you checked that it's actually a 512 samples buffer you use?

No idea how to check that... It says it in the ASIO4ALL v2.14 settings.

To me it look like the CPU meters on the applications are showing the wrong usage. There is some kind of bug.
I suggest you read the actual CPU usage pr core in Windows. What do you read there?

In the Task Manager, under the "Processes" tab, it reads 16-17% for the presets that are not working (others are lower), but under the Details tab it says 25-27% "across all cores".  25% would mean it's probably maxed out if it runs on a single core.

Ok, looks like I may have to upgrade. Looking into options...

[LBH]

Have you checked that it's actually a 512 samples buffer you use?

No idea how to check that... It says it in the ASIO4ALL v2.14 settings.

Please read in Analog Lab manual section "2.2.1. Windows Users: Audio and MIDI settings". That was what i meant.

In the Task Manager, under the "Processes" tab, it reads 16-17% for the presets that are not working (others are lower), but under the Details tab it says 25-27% "across all cores".  25% would mean it's probably maxed out if it runs on a single core.

This readings does'nt make sense to me. Something seems to be wrong.
If you actually only have a 16-17% usage of your full CPU, then you should be able to run the presets without issues with your 4 core CPU, if your computer work optimal. Perhaps you have heat issues or other computer issues that reduce the computers performance.
But yes a load of 25% of the full CPU would give issues like yours, if the 25% load is on a single core on your 4 core CPU. However such a load should show 100% usage for the single core that carry the load.

Did you try a reinstall of Analog Lab? I think it's worth a try,l especially with strange CPU readings like this.

[yapete]

Thanks. I own V collection as well, and that has the same issues. So, I reinstalled one of the offending synths (Synthi), but it made no difference. I ordered a new computer - will be here Saturday.... There are other reasons why it may be time to upgrade... The new (desktop) computer has an i5-9400, 2.9-4.1 Ghz, so that should take care of it, I hope...

[LBH]

The new (desktop) computer has an i5-9400, 2.9-4.1 Ghz, so that should take care of it, I hope...

That's indeed a much better CPU. You can do much more with that CPU. I hope that's it. Good luck with your new PC.