SL12 not using the GPU at all (Win11 Pro, RX 6800XT)

[Riggs]

I just upgraded to SpectraLayers 12 and uninstalled SL11, but the GPU processing is no longer working. I have it set exactly as I did in SL11 , my AMD 6800XT is selected under “AI Processing Device”, but it still only uses the CPU. Setting it to “Auto” makes no difference either.

I’m on Windows 11 Pro with the latest drivers and updates, exactly the same setup that worked fine in SL11. This happens with every module, standalone, ARA, DAW, etc. I checked Task Manager while unmixing a song and confirmed that only the CPU is being used; the GPU stays idle except for a few tiny spikes. In SL11, the GPU was used instantly and fully, as expected.

Now, the same song that would take seconds to unmix in SL11 takes multiple minutes in SL12. Please fix this, GPU acceleration is a key part of my workflow. Thanks.

[digitaldiggo]

Same here. GPU-Z shows no processing on GPU, Windows 10 at 100% CPU.
Nvidia GPU.

[st10ss]

Just to get sure, you did a reboot after the update?

[Riggs]

Yes, I did reboot after installing it, I forgot to mention that earlier, sorry. I remember reading somewhere that it’s recommended for SpectraLayers updates, so I make a point of rebooting every time.

[Jonas2021]

Interesting, here too.

Although the graphics card is selected, the CPU is being used, AMD Radeon RT 6800 XT (16GB).
But when I switch to CPU rendering, the demixing takes twice as long…

EDIT:
For the unmix vocals, sl12 uses the GPU.

[Snoopy-wtm]

Same problem here with my AMD Radeon 6700XT.

And, if rendering is set to “high quality”, the created tracks are emtpy…

[Riggs]

Yes, I can confirm this. The High profile is broken. Fast and Balanced still work, but they don’t use the GPU and are painfully slow.

Interestingly, unmixing just the vocals does trigger the GPU, for whatever reason, but the result is just an empty track, so that’s useless too.

I’m rolling back to SL11 until this is properly tested and fixed. Not exactly thrilled to be $72 down for a downgrade.

[Jonas2021]

@Riggs

unmixing just the vocals does trigger the GPU, for whatever reason, but the result is just an empty track

… not at my side …

[jim_knopf]

Bug confirmed here.
Not at my music PC but on vacation now:

• on my Asus ROG Z13 notebook I had only tested with CPU so far, and conversions took around 5-8 minutes depending on songs.
• Now I tried GPU (which is VRAM on this Notebook), which took ~4 minutes for conversion of a 7 minutes CPU conversion song, but delivered only empty tracks.

This GPU bug needs a quick fix as soon as possible.

[Jonas2021]

I have the black screen “only” in unmix song in high settings:

Song unmix black screen SL 12

Hi, after installing SL12, no layers are displayed after the unmixed song, either in standalone mode or as ARA in Cubase 14 (current version). The entire display is black. Am I doing something wrong, or is something wrong? [grafik]

[Riggs]

I really wonder how issues this obvious weren’t caught during testing. Just a week ago they were promoting SL12 all over social media with no hint of GPU problems, black screens, or any of this. Yet the moment the update goes live, we see all these reports of major problems, affecting AMD, Radeon, Intel, and Nvidia alike.

These aren’t minor bugs, they’re core features (GPU acceleration and the High profile separation) that are completely broken. I’m tired of paying to test unfinished software and seeing this become the norm. I hope they get a proper fix out soon.

[Kay_Thomsen]

The issue refers to GPU cards such as AMD Radeon RT 6800 XT based. Using for example Nvidia GPUs are working for that case. We are currently searching for a solution.

[Riggs]

See here:

SpectraLayers Pro 12: GPU selected for AI Processing, but CPU still doing most of the work?

Hello Steinberg team, I’m using SpectraLayers Pro 12 on Windows 11, and I’ve noticed that even when the AI Processing Device is set to GPU, the majority of the actual processing still seems to be handled by the CPU. I monitored the system via Task Manager and observed high CPU usage and very low GPU activity, even during intensive AI-based operations. System specs: CPU: Intel Ultra9 285K RAM: 64GB DDR5 GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti OS: Windows 11 While I understand that some minor inconsistencies…

High-end Intel/Nvidia based system.

User didn’t specify the card, but it’s Nvidia:

Song unmix black screen SL 12

If I select Module>Unmix Song, then select (yellow) the Bypass button in the popup dialog, rendering happens instantly to a blank page as per your screenshot. If I “unselect” Bypass (i.e. leave it in the default state), unmixing proceeds normally (no preview). I have processing set to Nvidia GPU.

[Kay_Thomsen]

This report here refers to the issue that AMD bases GPUs currently not correctly working on High Quality Profile Unmixing while other GPUs such as Nvidia RTX do work on that case. But there are also some improvements to come.

[digitaldiggo]

Nvidia Quadro P5000.
SL12 is set to use it, but doesnt. It always uses the CPU instead. I checked all 3 quality settings.

[Riggs]

Thanks for confirming it.

Just to clarify, in case it helps the devs, here are all my notes before I uninstalled SL12. There are two separate issues:

1. The GPU isn’t being used in certain modules or combinations.
2. Unmix Song produces empty tracks (black screen) in specific cases. (Examples below)

Unmix Song

Default preset
Fast & Balanced: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful
High: CPU (SLOW) | Result: empty tracks (black screen)

All preset
Fast & Balanced: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful
High: CPU (SLOW) | Result: empty tracks (black screen)

Vocals Only preset
Fast & Balanced: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful
High: GPU (FAST) Result: empty tracks (black screen)

Drums Only
Fast/Balanced/High: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful

Vocals & Drums
Fast & Balanced: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful
High: CPU (SLOW) | Result: empty tracks (black screen)

Drums & Bass
Fast/Balanced/High: CPU (SLOW) | Result: Unmix successful

• The only scenario where I could get the GPU to activate was when Vocals was the only selected layer using the High profile, but that just resulted in empty tracks.

• Every other layer combination that included Vocals with the High profile also produced empty tracks, but used the CPU instead of the GPU.

• Combinations of non-vocal layers (like the drums & bass example above) did unmix successfully with all Quality profiles, but only used the CPU. This is clearly not working as intended.

As for the other modules, here’s what I noted:

GPU (FAST/successful)

Unmix Chorus
Unmix Components
Unmix Crowd Noise
Unmix Drums
Unmix Instrment
Unmix Multiple Voices
Unmix Noisy Speech
Voice DeClip
Voce DeNoise
Voice DeReverb

CPU (SLOW/successful)
Voice Enhance

CPU (still fast & usable)
Unmix Levels
Unmix Mid/Side
Unmix Multichannel Content

[fradoca]

Another Bug using the GPU with the Unmix Soundtrack function at the maximum quality. Once finished the unmix process, i just mute the vocals and i press play to hear the music and the effects. If i select my NVIDIA 4070TI as AI Processing Device i can hear the leakage of the voices in the other two layers in play. The quality of result is not good. If i select the CPU as AI Processing Device i don’t hear any leakage in play and the final result is really good. I’m on Windows 11 Pro 64 bit 23H2

[Puma0382]

@Riggs

Just to clarify, in case it helps the devs, here are all my notes

Very good reporting/diligence.

I for one appreciate the time and effort spent, ultimately helping improve the experience for everyone using SL Pro…

[paulboco]

My results so far with SpectraLayers 12:

AI Processing Device: AMD Radeon RX 7600

• Using Unmix Song with Quality set to High would yield empty tracks.
• When checking Unmix Sax & Brass first, it would render the Sax & Brass track only.
• Quality settings Balanced and Fast both worked successfully.

AI Processing Device: CPU

• Unmix Song using all three Quality settings works properly.
• Unmix Sax & Brass first appears to work properly.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7600
RAM: 128 GB
OS: Windows 11 Pro 23H2

[Riggs]

More examples of Nvidia cards not working on that case:

Spectralayers 12 won't utilize GPU

Greetings! I have a problem, that my GPU idle when i’m unmixing the song. CPU under 100% load all the time. GPU only used 4gb of VRAM and has 30% load spikes for less than a second. That problem is for SL12. On SL11 a had noticed, that my old 1080 ti is faster, than a new 5070 ti. Whats the problem? CPU : Intel 13600KF GPU: NVidia 5070 ti.

NVidia 5070 ti
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti
NVidia RTX 3060

The isuse of GPU processing not working on High quality Unmixing is affecting Nvidia cards as well, not only AMD cards.