My i7 4770 seems to work really relaxed when I’m on Cubase Pro. No matter how heavy the project is, it goes from 10% during real time playback, and up to 20% when exporting the mixdown (and I think it takes too long)
So, why doesn’t Cubase use more of my CPU during those processes?
My audio interface is a Saffire Pro 24.
Latency: 14ms
ASIO-Guard Latency: 92ms
Multi Processing activated
ASIO Guard activated (tryied 3 options but it doesn’t change that much)
Audio Priority = Boost (tryied Normal but nothing changes)
Moreover, the ASIO Meter goes up to 90%, while the CPU Meter is 20%. I know this are different things but, isn’t it too much?
My main question here is: Is it normal or should I look for a bottleneck on my setup?
Thanks!
An i7 4770 provides a lot of cpu cycles, so likely your project only needs that much.
I assume you mean the VST not ASIO meter. The meter is taking into account all the computing resources it takes to deal with your project so it will be higher than your CPU which is only one part of it. You can try systematically removing/disabling things like EQ, plug-ins, VSTi’s, track count etc. to explore which elements you use are consuming resources.
Bottom line is if it all sounds fine with no glitches, dropouts, etc. then you are fine.
Helpful hint: Put your DAW config info into your signature.
Yes, I’m meaning the ASIO Meter. And it comes high when I use Ozone 6 or the RX. I know they are heavy but there are still too much difference between both meters…
Another “issue” that I find is that, while I’m exporting the audio mixdown, the real CPU meter doesn’t show any signs of being working harder. Shouldn’t this process demand more of it?
Could my PCI Firewire card be the problem and creating some sort of bottleneck?
Humm, I not sure what you mean by “ASIO Meter” as I’ve never heard of it and can’t find it referenced in the manual after searching. Perhaps you can post a screen grab of what you are referring to. There is a Performance Meter that can be displayed in the Project Window, Mix Console, and on the Transport - it is a slimmed down version of the VST Performance Meter (pg 1048-9 in the Ops manual). That’s the meter(s) you should be using for performance stuff.
Using that meter I built a test project with a lot of Halion and/or Kontakt Instrument tracks all with a bunch of EQ and a couple of reverbs on each track’s inserts. I duplicated tracks until the VST Performance just started maxing out. Comparing that to the CPU meters in the Windows Resource Monitor the 2 meters tracked with the Windows meter being about 5% lower - although they both maxed together at 100%. So yeah what you are seeing seems odd. Could the meter you’re using for the CPU be not displaying correctly. Maybe you could replicate what I did and duplicate VSTi tracks until you max out the Cubase meter and see what your CPU looks like then.
Next I muted enough tracks so the Cubase meter was at about 80% and tried to export the audio. That just hung Cubase and Windows showed it as not responding. So I muted more to about 50% and that did export. On the Windows CPU meter that took about 30%-ish more CPU than just playing them back realtime.
Are you by chance enabling multi-threading in both Cubase and your VSTi’s? I’ve heard that can cause problems although I don’t know any specifics, so that’s just a shot in the dark.
FYI, I’ve got a PCI Firewire card and it’s hard to imagine how it could be involved.
Yes, I meant the VST Performance Meter, sorry for the confusion.
I did a similar test and worked well. Both meter matched pretty close.
It seems that the Ozone 6 and the RX decrackler are the problem. If I try to play the RX decrackler in high resolution it’s impossible to hear anything, the “real-time peak” goes red. But if I run the RX as standalone (configured with the same ASIO drivers) I can perfectly work with it, even by reducing its buffer at minimum. I suppose that is an issue related to this plugins anyway…
What I’m still not getting is why my CPU is so relaxed when I perform the audio mixdown. If I’m running a project that demands 15% of my CPU during playback, when I export it just still working the same way. So, why doesn’t it take more power in order to perform the mixdown faster?
Regarding the PCI Firewire card I thought it could be a problem since my motherboard doesn’t have native PCI buses, it has PCIe buses instead. So, in order to work with a PCI card, its bus goes through a “PCIe to PCI bridge”.
So I was wondering if switching to a PCIe card could benefit anything.
By the way, I can reach latencies of 5ms (considering in + out), which seems to be good, isn’t it?
5 ms is good and would tend to suggest your card isn’t a bottleneck.
You might google the plug-in names and Cubase to see if there seems to be any compatibility issues. I assume they are 64-bit so you aren’t using a bridge for the plugs.
Regarding the CPU for export it’s hard to know what is really happening under the hood. It could be that the resources consumed by the audio engine are not especially time dependent. As long as both your playback and export sound OK, I’d ignore it.
Asio meter gets to the 25% mark in no time - literally a couple of VST instruments and VST fx - Meanwhile, my CPU meter dances between 1 & 5% .
Obviously as I add more, the meter rises. I reach a point quite quickly (long before what I need for the project) when I can’t add/do no more without crackles etc
If I push/test the CPU, it goes higher and CPU works fine. I only have this issue with Cubase - I use Pro Tools and Sonar too but I can throw a lot more virtual instruments & plug-ins at them.
so did you ever solve this… i have just 7 vst instruments loaded and about 4-5 inserts on each and its already peaking out (vst performance meter) while my cpu is barely hitting 20%.
