DUNE 2 demo ASIO spikes

[Kriminal]

Rich hasnt commented on this yet? He has Cubarse, so should be able to sort it (assuming its not related to soundcard)

Sounds like a tough one to crack tho....

[Christophe]

did you try asio4all driver to discard a m-audio driver issue ?

[Richard]

That would mean that Dune2 is delivering its packets in time most of the time, but sometimes pretty late. For most users it is late but not too late so they don't hear a dropout and since they don't have an ASIO meter they don't notice anything. For me I notice these as ASIO spikes regularly, and when there is other stuff demanding CPU then it even yields dropouts.

Dune 2 does not deliver anything too late. Even when multi-threading is enabled, Dune 2 never waits for any data to be delivered from other cores (if the auxiliary threads used take too long to start processing, this merely makes the multi-threading ineffective, but it doesn't cause any harm or delay, it doesn't even eat CPU time).

What you can try is this: Insert a single instance of Dune 2 into an empty project, then use a simple patch without FX (e.g. the Init Patch) and hold down a chord or something (also increase unison to 8 voices, so you can measure the CPU load better). Now compare the CPU usage with and without multi-threading. If you have a quad-core system, you should get nearly 4x the performance. If you get less, then your system is not optimized well. In that case it's best to either optimize it, or just turn off multi-threading.

...since the problem only seems to be there with certain patches, maybe we can nail down a component that causes it? A filter type or something? I already tried turning off all effects on the Pigment patch, it reduced ASIO load but it didn't cure the spikes.

That is possible, but seems rather unlikely - firstly such an issue would affect everybody, and second, like you wrote, all problematic patches would have to have something in common, e.g. a particular filter or effect type. If you can list some or all problem patches, we'll take a look to see if there's anything they share.

[Teksonik]

This reply was posted at KVR:

Just testing the Demo and playing one instance polyphonic with two hands but without trying to push the plug to its limits.
After half an hour there are only a few Asio spikes but without any crackles.
This is the kind of spikes that often occur in Cubase with many other plugs too.

(His system specs)
Cubase 7.5 - 64 bit, Mobo Gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI, Intel Core i7-3930K, 16 Gb RAM, RME Raydat + ADI-8 AE, Win 8.1 - 64 bit

[Richard]

This reply was posted at KVR:

Just testing the Demo and playing one instance polyphonic with two hands but without trying to push the plug to its limits.
After half an hour there are only a few Asio spikes but without any crackles.
This is the kind of spikes that often occur in Cubase with many other plugs too.

I get such spikes too under Cubase/Win7, if the web browser, email, Skype etc is open. It happens with any plugin and is expected behavior as the audio threads get interrupted by some other app more frequently. If the audio threads have too little time to process data, you'll get the typical dropouts. Cubase can detect such dropouts and they're visible in the meter.

[JohnDowe123]

This reply was posted at KVR:

Just testing the Demo and playing one instance polyphonic with two hands but without trying to push the plug to its limits.
After half an hour there are only a few Asio spikes but without any crackles.
This is the kind of spikes that often occur in Cubase with many other plugs too.

I get such spikes too under Cubase/Win7, if the web browser, email, Skype etc is open. It happens with any plugin and is expected behavior as the audio threads get interrupted by some other app more frequently. If the audio threads have too little time to process data, you'll get the typical dropouts. Cubase can detect such dropouts and they're visible in the meter.

Well I get those spikes while using Cubase in general, but very rarely, like once in ten minutes. With Dune2 it is significantly more, varying from 1-20 times per minute.

That would mean that Dune2 is delivering its packets in time most of the time, but sometimes pretty late. For most users it is late but not too late so they don't hear a dropout and since they don't have an ASIO meter they don't notice anything. For me I notice these as ASIO spikes regularly, and when there is other stuff demanding CPU then it even yields dropouts.

Dune 2 does not deliver anything too late.

Well that's the definition of a droupout, isn't it? That the CPU needs too long to deliver audio data in time?

Anyway, I can try to nail down the patches that have the problem. Let's see what comes out. (I am on vacation for a week though, so give me some time)

[Christophe]

did you disable any energy saving feature in your bios ?

[Christophe]

you can check your DPC latency with :
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
you should check your cpu frequency with argus monitor to see if your power management scheme is the culprit :
http://www.argotronic.com/en/

[JohnDowe123]

@Christophe: my machine is already highly optimized for DAW operation. As I wrote earlier, all the stuff that is recommended for DAWs is done on my machine, like max performance power scheme, Cool'n'Quiet disabled, etc.

Latency checker reports all green and low values. Except some occasional hardpage faults, but I think you cannot do something against these?

[Christophe]

did you try latencymon ?
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
a nice article :
http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/art ... cy-issues/

[JohnDowe123]

Yes I tried both, and both report good values, except for the occasioal pagefaults as I said.

[2poor2]

Hi all.
this is my first post, i just registered, after reading this thread. afterall, i'm a Dune 1-2 owner, so, why not joining the party here, at synapse ?

i'm not a pro "musician", just a guy/amateur who loves pressing the midi keys and listening to what comes out of the speakers. but like everybody, there is that big dream, of releasing one track, one day, and somewhere in the world, someone likes it and buys it. hey, dreaming doesn't cost anything, right?

i am posting here, because i own cubase (6-7-7.5), have an M-audio Delta 1010 at 128-256 samples, on a I7 3770K (not overclocked) and 16(4x4) Gb of Geil Corsa 2400 Ram, on windows 8 64bit, asrock extreme6 motherboard, ssd drives (OS on 1, cubase save folder on SSD2). also have a midi keyboard Maudio Keystation Mini32, and i'm using the motherboard graphic card, where i run windows at 1920*1080 on a 24" monitor(DVI), and have it cloned on a TV via the hdmi out, just in case.
i have Dune 1 and 2 and a few other plugins, like Largo or Synthmaster, upgraded to padshop pro and have halion 5 (no, i'm not rich, had to sell plenty of personnal stuff and wait many many months,for each purchase, ex. Largo, i got it at 130€ instead of 200, with last Namm 25% off at waldorf... ), both can eat up lots of cpu/asio/ram/whatever, depending on the patch being used, they will be fine for all kinds of tests.

Because i read some of you guys don't have cubase to performing some tests, i thought it could be nice and useful for you guys, having a profile/setup like mine, so you can test whatever you want. i'm here, you can use me

i don't own an UAD card, and won't be able to test it. BUT, if you insist, you can offer me an Octo card, so i can do all the testings you need, with it

this will be the first forum where i register, for a long long time. i don't "even" have facebook, soundclouds or twitter/etc accounts. is it a bad thing ?

ok people, thanks for reading, and see you soon.

PS- thank you, Synapse people, for making the Dune 1-2 upgrade price really correct.
if the upgrade had been like 90+ euros, i guess i wouldn't have upgraded yet, by now. But with that price point, i was able to pick it(after announcement, i started saving) and also got Rob Lee's dune 2 soundbank. G R E A T

PS2- i tend to come up with 10000 ideas, etc, for features, new products, etc. Sorry, Mods, if i participate and write big comments. for a long time, i've been checking this forum at read only mode i hope i will feel good here, like at home, and hope you guys will enjoy my modest participations and contributions.

[2poor2]

hi.
let's hope mods will accept my comment. my last one (the first) posted a few days ago never got accepted.