CPU-load

[emetic]

I would like to know if anybody is having success with Spark in the real world, actually producing tracks and using live, not just in your test setup....

Perhaps you are unaware of other users having issues because there aren't many users left!

[elektrabel]

live PA: Cubase 6, Spark VST+HW, BCR2000
here you are a proof
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1407347/MVI_9046.MOV

at 4:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNSmUxVUCAk

[Koshdukai]

Perhaps you are unaware of other users having issues because there aren't many users left!

Usually it's quite the opposite. Satisfied users never come to the forums saying the product works flawlessly.

So, those that complain and still have unresolved issues with the product(s) are exactly the ones coming to the forums asking for help (like brother303 did and tomELLIS).

Ok, from my own experience, I don't have any issues with Spark 1.4.1 running standalone or the VST 2.4 under Ableton Live 8.3 on both of my laptops, an i7 8Gb with Windows 7 64bit and the other, a Core2 Duo 3Gb WinXPsp3.

I've used ASIO4ALL plus 3 ASIO audio interfaces (Propellerhead Balance @44.1K/48K/96K; Novation X-Station @44.1K/48K and Line 6 UX-1 @44.1K) with no noticeable performance issues on both laptops.

Now... on my WinXPsp3 laptop I have 3 user accounts and there's 1 which has a lot of "garbage" (drivers, services and background processes) installed/running that, when/if used, has a lot of audio dropouts and CPU issues on some music apps (not all). I never use that user account for music production, of course.

I'll try to get some CPU meter levels tonight and post here some numbers.

[guardner]

Hi All!

I'm a "power" user of Spark, using it in quite all of my tracks of forthcoming singles & albums. I really love sound and the way you can program beats & fx.
BUT I'm on MacOSX.6.8.
In Ableton Live I have the same CPU load (about 14/15%), when Spark is loaded as VST to a channel. I tried different soft synth with quite the same engines and they have the same CPU load.
You can not compare Spark to a usual sample playback VST, because Spark is using CPU hungry algorithms on every slot (that's why I choose it, because of the "non-digital" sound!!).
I think you have to choose your VST plugin on what you really want to receive with it (sample playback or sound design??).

The problem with CPU spikes to over 100% is a very strange thing I never had before, but I'm on Mac, so I can't help you here...

And again: I love the sound of Spark, because of the emulation of "real" machines, that s why I have to live with higher CPU loads...



best,
Marcus

[akiz]

Perhaps you are unaware of other users having issues because there aren't many users left!

The best answer to this, is Koshdukai's quote. Couldn't agree more with his opinion.
Also i'd like to add, that users who have problems regarding CPU or general performance issues use PCs. The most obvious reason, is that there are zillions of possible hardware configurations in the PC world and this makes troubleshooting very very hard sometimes. I won't mention the pirated versions of the Windows OS and a ton of apps that add to the mess... (this does not apply to ALL PC users out there of course).

I am a  Mac user and as Guardner said i have no issues with Spark. Both of my systems run Spark
without any performance issues so far, but the most amazing (regarding it's age) is my MacBookPro from 2007, which can run Traktor Pro and Spark in standalone mode at the same time for my Dj needs. 

Cheers!

[brother303]

Hi,

...So any further details concerning your setup may help us.
Kevin

What more details? I think I gave a clear description of my systems and the kits in Spark causing the highest cpu-load. What do you need to know? Ask and I´ll try to answer any question...

System: WinXP/SP3 on a Lenovo T61, 2,4ghz dual-core, 4gb ram, Native Instruments Audio control 1 with the latest drivers.

@Kevin: Sample rate is 44,1khz, buffer size seems to have no effect on this behavior. Regardless of the choosen value (256/512/1024 samples), it´s all the same.

I´m using the latest (ASIO-)drivers for my Audio Kontrol 1.

Examples for kits causing really heavy dropouts are KPR++ or the Pulsator-kit. Only useable when not playing more than 4-5 instruments at a time.

I do not have ANY issues with my audio setup when using Ableton Live,NI Maschine (vst) and some vst-synths in combination.

When I drop 8 one-shot drumsamples into an Ableton instrument rack and press "play" on the APC, it does nothing to the cpu-meter in Live. Same with NI Maschine, but when I drop 8 one-shot drumsamples into Spark and press "play", cpu-load shoots up to more than 50%, often more. No fx/comps/reverbs are used!

Whats going wrong here?

[Koshdukai]

On my W7 i7, under Live 8.3, playing a pattern of Pulsator or KPR++ I get around 23%~35% on Spark's meter and 30%~40% on Live's CPU meter :

Standalone, playing, is also around 20%~30% depending on the project:



Stopped, it's usually around 15%~19%:


On my WinXPsp3 (laptop close to your setup) it's around the same values:

[Kevin]

Hi,

...So any further details concerning your setup may help us.
Kevin

What more details? I think I gave a clear description of my systems and the kits in Spark causing the highest cpu-load. What do you need to know? Ask and I´ll try to answer any question...

I know that my requests are not very precise but this is because I dont know what can be the problem.

System: WinXP/SP3 on a Lenovo T61, 2,4ghz dual-core, 4gb ram, Native Instruments Audio control 1 with the latest drivers.

@Kevin: Sample rate is 44,1khz, buffer size seems to have no effect on this behavior. Regardless of the choosen value (256/512/1024 samples), it´s all the same.

I´m using the latest (ASIO-)drivers for my Audio Kontrol 1.

Examples for kits causing really heavy dropouts are KPR++ or the Pulsator-kit. Only useable when not playing more than 4-5 instruments at a time.

Thanks to sum up these details, I will have a closer look at this and try to find what can be the source of the problem.

I do not have ANY issues with my audio setup when using Ableton Live,NI Maschine (vst) and some vst-synths in combination.

Again I am not saying that your setup is the problem, but I have to find what does not work in combination with Spark.

When I drop 8 one-shot drumsamples into an Ableton instrument rack and press "play" on the APC, it does nothing to the cpu-meter in Live. Same with NI Maschine, but when I drop 8 one-shot drumsamples into Spark and press "play", cpu-load shoots up to more than 50%, often more. No fx/comps/reverbs are used!

Whats going wrong here?

The comparison is not as simple as that, Spark is not "just" a sample player but this should definitely not consume so much CPU.

Kevin

[brother303]

Hi mates,

@Koshdukai: Thanks for testing and those great screenshots, very impressing and helpful!

@Kevin: Thank you too for further investigations. I love Spark and I don´t want to drop it for a Mashinedrum, because I love the kind of "total integration" into my daw and the way it sounds. Hope we could get this issue sorted out.

Kudos! 

Greg

[CC4]

I never really seem to pay attention to the CPU load unless the sound starts to crap out, so I decided to share the findings on my machine...

My laptop:  Intel Core i5 2.40 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit SP1, Echo Indigo IOx soundcard

In standalone Spark runs at 12% CPU when still and seems to run around 16-22% when patterns & songs are playing back.  It seems to average at around 18%.

Spark inside FL Studio runs at 17% CPU when still.  When a song or pattern is playing back FL Studio's CPU load meter seems to run anywhere between 22% all the way up to 42%.  29% seems about average for a lot of the built-in presets.  "Alien Circuit" is one of the beasts inside Spark that sends it up towards my higher numbers.

[Terrym]

Hi all ,thought i would put my pennies worth in as i have been using spark from day one,  i do not have a problem with cpu due to running a six core machine but if you are using a dual core it may look like a drain on cpu power .i checked with three (drummachines) in active monitor that spark is a mid cpu  user i ran spark against machine and geist  in 64bit standalone   with geist chewing up the cpu most ,one thing i did notice is in spark the cpu said 10% but in active monitor it was 17%   .on my mac the over all cpu used by me was still only 2% of the cpu power .so don't go just by the reading in spark .also  i don't think spark is a multi processor  program   . hope kevin can clear this up for us.
hope this helped and keep making beats.
regards
terrym

[emetic]

Agreed. After a lot of testing on my workstation and laptop it seems it's an issue with Spark not fully utilising multiprocessor support...

[tomELLIS]

If i close the GUI while using it in Nuendo, i can never get it back without the whole thing crashing.
If i close the GUI in ableton it improves the performance slightly, but sometimes crashes when loading the GUI too.
I've testing a couple of the versions of spark, and all seem to have the same behaviour. I've tried with ASIO4ALL & my soundcard's native drivers (Delta 1010LT), on two separate versions of windows xp. Same problems over and over again.

I will test on my uber-stripped down, ultra stable laptop with NI Audio4  when i get the chance...

[Kevin]

Hi all,
I am not currently working on Spark but I should come back in the next few days.
We have an update on the way and should start a beta test soon.
This issue will be on my top priority task then.

Kevin

[low]

Hi all.
Same problem for me i'm afraid.
Just about usable in stand alone mode on 2 laptops(intel dual core and AMD dual core)
Completely unusable as vst.
Such a shame as i really like unit.
A fix would be great. Otherwise back it goes.

Cheers.
Bill