On Cubase 7.5 I am experiencing VST performance peaking. So much so that even if I zoom the peak display on a track I hear crackling. I’m only using 2 tracks in the project so shouldn’t be anything related to project overload issue.
I went through the project systematically and switch off plugins no difference, slight change with reverbs but that’s to be expected and wasn’t major.
I went to the device set up screen under the VST Audio settings. Turning off multi processing caused peaks to max as expected.
Turned off ASIO guard and saw a slight temporary drop on the average load meter. So this did not appear to be the cause.
Turned off Steinberg Audio Power scheme and the meters dropped back by around 20% which gave enough performance headroom to work.
So for me on my Windows 7 setup 32bit i7 2600k CPU there is an issue with Steinberg Audio power scheme and the Windows 7 power management which is set at High Perfomance setting (nothing turned off).
So the question is why would turning ON the Steinberg Audio Power scheme impact VST performance?
Anyone else seen an improvement on their VST Performance meters when turning OFF the Steinberg Audio Power scheme in Device set up panel?
I found that the Win7 High Performance (with ‘selected suspend’ off) setting and the Steinberg Audio Power scheme didn’t play play well together - I didn’t experience VST peaking, as such - but I did find my pc ran way too hot (i7 3770). All’s good with the Steinberg scheme off.
Performance is not an issue with Cubase 7 but there is a problem with some members and their poorly set up or feeble computers. If I was ‘Mr. Steinberg’ I think I’d be irritated by hateboys like bugishcompany.
He/she said
“Under no circumstances should 2 tracks with few plugins cause peaking.
This is simply bad unoptimized code.” WTF???
Actually I rather like Steinberg’s “bad, unoptimised code” - it works for me
“fanboys” eh? That does’nt make any sense to me, why would I complain ( just to show I’m not a "fanboy) when I’m happy with C7.5 running on my machine(s), just like most versions since SX1?
As far as you are concerned, ‘bugishcompany’, I could’nt give a rats.
Come on, even if you’re right in saying that Cubase 7 takes more power to run than earlier versions, it doesn’t make sense to blame Steinberg for someone struggling to record two tracks on an i7 2600 machine.
Dave,
This is the same cpu I use - I don’t have any peaking or crackling problems recording 16 tracks simultaneously. I don’t intend to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but have you run the latency checker (http://www.TheSycon.com) to see if there’s anything affecting your machine? This is an essential software check (in my opinion) before look here in the forum for answers.
Have used TheSycon latency checker process and my machine was optimised with no dropouts on C7.
However thanks for reminder Steve I will revisit the processes and check.
Outside of cubase I have noticed some odd problems with the Windows power management settings in that using the stock processes in Win7 to setup the power management did not always give me expected results as if some parameters were not saving. This could be why it doesn’t play well with Steinberg power management optimisation.
I’ll have to have a look again at the base machine set up. I turned power management off to try to remove that processing as an overhead, I’m assuming to power manage a machine the CPU and possibly memory have to run code and monitor the machine constantly which is always an overhead. Now I need to discover how can I be sure the power management code in Win 7 is entirely bypassed and not running.
Looking at percentages here I know this is likely to be something specific to my machine which may now be highlighted via the C7.5 code. If the code itself was the problem then the forum would be swamped and no one would use Cubase. That said I also note there has been many new posts recently about C7.5 performance metres peaking and it’s highly likely that those of us with older machines may experience issues given the hardware is being pushed harder.
It’s useful to pick up what others are seeing as there are so many variables not least that you can always come across hardware or software bugs that never effect you until they interact with new changes.
Ok further update:
Checked latency with TheSycon latency checker. All good no glitches.
Checked BIOS Hyperthreading on. ASIO Guard ON therefore the recommended option. However given some of the restrictions for listed for ASIO Guard I have turned it off.
Steinberg Power management OFF. Windows 7 Power management OFF.
Now VST Performance meters seem OK.
So above works for me on my Win7 i7 920CPU 4gb ram with C7.5.
Now if I can just work out what C7.5 is doing differently to C7.06 in parsing plugins (separate post), Im sorted
Dave - I’d be curious to see if there’d be any difference after turning Hyperthreading off. This was recommended in another thread. I turned it off in my BIOS last week.
Yesterday, I was running about 10 MIDI tracks, half a dozen Instrument VSTs, Kontakt 5 with 7 instruments in it each with there own Stereo out, 7-8 Audio tracks & some FX, and my VST Performance was well within range, never exceeding more than 25-35% at any given time.
In my sig - also i7-2600k.
One more thing: I read something new here the other day from one of the SB staff, that ASIO guard can be turned off for each individual VST instrument.
His suggestion was to try it globally first, but I see that things are better for you now with it on.
But anyway, although painstakingly labor & mouse click intensive, it is nice to have that option to try for each VST, if need be, FYI.
