Horrible performance issues C6 vs C5.5

Cubase
1

I’m posting to request helps or tips or possibly to point out a prob w/ Cubase 6.

I have a ten track project that I start by importing a general midi file. In cubase 5.5, 10 instances of halion one are loaded ( 1 per sound). In a nutshell, in C5.5, the project plays perfectly, with ASIO meter barely topping 20-25%. In C6, the project is unplayable.

Quick specs:
Q6600 Quad / 4gb ram/ Win 764 bit/ presonus firepod, 256 buffer setting. C5.5/32 bit vs C6 32 bit. The only difference is C5.5 v C6. Note that there are no external effects/etc – just the raw midi file connected to Halion One (C5.5) or Halion Sonic SE (C6)

C5.5:
Perfect playback, Audio Priority: Boost, Multi Processing, Disable CPU energy saving. 10x instances Halion One

C6:
Crackling out of control, ASIO meter all over the place, Audio Boost, Multi Processing, Steinberg power profile, 1X instance of Halion Sonic SE(10 channels)

Note that I’ve tried all combos of settings in C6 – Audio boost normal/high; Multi Processing enabled/disabled/Steinberg power prof enabled/disabled, etc. Even tried disabling all effects in Halion Sonic, etc.

Also system audio optimized – Aero disabled/Processor Scheduling set to background, all unnecessary services disabled etc. I’d really like to get C6 working w/ a simple Midi project-- as noted the only difference is between the Cubase versions and the internal instrument used (Halion One vs Sonic/etc). No external effects/etc. Just that in C6 playback is impossible. Thanks for any help!

2

I think this is your issue:

10 sample instruments in one vst will load a single core & overload the ASIO. (C6)
10 separate VST will spread the load between cores. (C5)

Add more instances of Sonic & spread out the sample banks between them. In theory there’s probably no point going over the number of instances to match your number of cores (including HT if applicable)

3

I will try this after work this evening, thx – sounds like u might be right. I will also try importing the 10 instance Halion One version.

I’ve been reading that there are a lot of performance issues in general w/ Halion Sonic SE – this single core instance might be the case.

4

Importing the Halion One version (c 5.5) gives flawless performance.

Conclusion:

Halion Sonic Se (and by extension Halion Sonic) are inexcusable CPU hog. Why do they default to importing midi files to a plugin that is just not gonna work? i.e. why import midi files to Halion Sonic SE by default if they are going to be unplayable? They should have (at the least) made Halion Sonic SE multi core compatible.

FYI: Have moved to Kontakt 4 for the ten parts that were unplayable, flawless performance, AND sounds better. My vote is that Halion Sonic SE (and Sonic) are fails as far as performance is concerned. Meanwhile add this thread to the 10+ threads that are detailing the horrible performance of Sonic SE/Sonic.