Pigments crackles n' pops in Cubase 7.5

[AlexGrow]

Hello,
I'm running a trial version of Pigments on Cubase 7.5 and it crackles n' pops almost all the time when I use it.
I also tried a standalone version, it pops more occasionally, but still.
My settings are ASIO, buffer 128 samples (2.9 ms), sample rate 44100.
My PC is i7 8700K, 32gb ram, NVMe SSD with Audient iD22 audio interface (USB2.0)

Is there anything wrong with my system or Pigments requires enormous PC power?

[LBH]

Hi and welcome to Arturia forums.

What have you done to optimize your PC for Audio production?

Have you
1. set the powermanager to High Performance?
2. prevented a lot of things that use CPU power to not load up?
3. other things - including following a optimize guide from for example your soundcard manufactor and/ or others?
4. Have you run some latency testing etc...?

Have you changed BIOS settings? If so which. Some might be ok to change if needed, while others not. And it shall be done carefully.

Pigments can use much CPU power. But not all the time. And i would say your PC should be able to run it at the soundcard settings you mention, unless something else is preventing it from doing it.

Hopefully Pigments will be optimized further - if possible while keeping the sound quality. Don't know if a quality setting can be implemented.

The number of voices/ notes you have playing also have an impact. How many voices/ notes do you have playingm when you have issues? With which factory presets?

[AlexGrow]

Who would have thought, but changing Power Manager to High Performance helped. However I haven't tried multiple tracks, just Pigments and some audio samples.
Yes, I run latency test, nothing crucial there. BIOS is untouched, except I turned off integrated sound card.
For some reason Cubase can't handle more than 3 voices, but I suppose it's not optimized for multiple cores for the latest CPUs (I read an article about it on Steinberg, they fixed it on CubX).
Standalone on the other hand, can handle 6 voices, but more are causing problems. It depends on presets, for example "PAD - Distant Generation" is very greedy for resources, even 3 causes pops.

It is strange behavior though, as my PC is quite a horse, and if it can't handle a newly released virtual synth, well it must be really good one.

[LBH]

Who would have thought, but changing Power Manager to High Performance helped. However I haven't tried multiple tracks, just Pigments and some audio samples.

It does. It's very important. In generel optimizing your PC for audio can help. That's why i suggest, you do so.

For some reason Cubase can't handle more than 3 voices, but I suppose it's not optimized for multiple cores for the latest CPUs (I read an article about it on Steinberg, they fixed it on CubX).
Standalone on the other hand, can handle 6 voices, but more are causing problems. It depends on presets, for example "PAD - Distant Generation" is very greedy for resources, even 3 causes pops.

I don't know about your cubase use CPU cores.

If you open your Windows ressource manager to see the activity of all your CPU cores, then you will see more load on a single  CPU core. That's unfortunately how audio applications usuaaly work right now. That's why a CPU single core performance with virtual instruments is very important. Your CPU look like it have a very good singlecore base frequency. Higher than mine, and a newer CPU than mine.

Your soundcard performance also have an impact on the stress on your CPU.

As said - Pigments can like all quality sounding virtual synths be CPU demanding. The lovely preset you mention "PAD - Distant Generation", can be demanding, but i would say you should be able to run it without issues on your machine.
In generel lower notes can be more demanding than higher notes.

It is strange behavior though, as my PC is quite a horse, and if it can't handle a newly released virtual synth, well it must be really good one.

No not really - but annoying. As said - many quality virtual synths is quite demanding. It's suggested to render to audio or freeze tracks, when you have recorded to free CPU power.
If needed then  using a buffer at 256 samples is'nt the end of the world. That is fine for many, especially when using virtual synth as you only have midi input time.

It's normal to raise the buffer much higher when mixing a project, to be able to run much more. The speed is most important when recording a plating performance.

[zerocrossing]

I’m having similar problem. I’ve optimized everything, so it’s not that. I can run other high performance instruments with no problems, but Pigments gives me issues on almost every preset.

[LBH]

I’m having similar problem. I’ve optimized everything, so it’s not that. I can run other high performance instruments with no problems, but Pigments gives me issues on almost every preset.

Please have a look at my reply to you here: https://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=94984.msg157798#new