So during my trial period of GP, I was trying to find a less CPU intensive DAW to run all my sounds for live. I am currently using Mainstage, and in the single GP Rackspace using less VSTs and plug-ins than what I’m using my Mainstage concert and I’m getting pops and crackles in the audio. I’ve tried running at different sample rates and buffer sizes (the recording was done at 44.1k, 2048 samples).
It doesn’t happen in Mainstage, only time it would is if I do a glissando and get a pop from a CPU overload from too many notes being played at once. So I’m just wondering what could be the reason for the pops and crackles in the audio whilst playing as it’s using less than half the CPU it would in Mainstage (65-90% vs.180-300%). The pops goes away when I bypass 3 instances of Omnisphere, so I’m just a bit puzzled as to why that’s the case if GP’s meant to be more superior as they advertise it to be in comparison to other DAWs.
Running a mid-2014 Macbook Pro i7 3.0GHz 16GB RAM.
I’ve attached a photo of the Rackspace and audio samples of the pops and crackles and from Mainstage as a reference.
The audio sample of the pops and crackles was taken after I’ve removed the Waves X-Noise plugin as that was using a substantial amount of CPU and had a large delay output (115ms).
@Wammies I am not sure I understand what you are trying to do here. It seems that you are trying to cram an entire MainStage concert into a single GP rackspace. You are comparing a Main Stage CONCERT with a single rackspace in Gig Performer.
Here’s the approximation of terms
A Main Stage CONCERT = GIG in Gig Performer
A Main Stage Patch = Rackspace in Gig Performer
It would be really helpful if you could take a look at the online manual or even just watch one of the short introductory videos so you can figure out how GP is organized.
You can find all support resources here: https://gigperformer.com/support.html
Btw… If you tried to cram all of those plugins into a single MainStage patch it would behave at least the same
@keyman Antonio - I am not sure why are you mentioning multiple cores? It would not be relevant in this situation. It is as if a guitarist could plug in his or hers pedals in parallel and expect the sound to be routed exactly they way he/she wants.
If all the pedals were connected in parallel (each has its own proverbial core) then all of them would sound immediately and be applied to the source sound coming directly from the guitar even though I wanted to go to my compressor, then to my amp, then to my deal/reverb etc…
Let’s not confuse the multicore processing with some kind of magical better performance. Many plugins will take advantage of multiple cores if it makes sense for the plugin to do so.
One thing I would caution you against is thinking of one host as a direct replacement for another host that ‘thinks’ the same way. I spent months doing exactly that and it significantly slowed my progress in changing from my previous host to GP. Once you start understanding how GP works instead of trying to make it work like Mainstage, I think you’ll find it to be a more stable, more capable host. That’s why there are a number of Mainstage converts using GP today.
@djogon
This is just a comparison with one patch I use in Mainstage.
I generally run 5-6 patches with different sounds, this patch is just a standard piano & pad with strings and a glockenspiel for some extra dynamics in built up bits and helps melodic/lead lines cut through the mix more.
So am I able to have different instruments in different rackspaces, and be able to use multiple rackspaces simultaneously for a song?
As @dhj already asked… are you really playing all those plugins at the same time?
In any case … 41% of CPU while you are not playing is a lot and yes - you will hear pops when you stretch your computer resources to their limit.
If you are not really playing all of those sounds simultaneously - consider separating them into separate rackspaces and then use the Songs and Setlists to connect various parts of your songs to different rackspaces.
@djogon Yes, I am playing all those plugins at the same time, simultaneously. If you listen to the audio demos I’ve uploaded to Soundcloud, you can hear that I am.
I won’t be using all of plugins the entire duration, but it comes as a surprise to me that GP is struggling to cope with the load. It seems like it is limited to only 2 instances of Omnisphere that with a medium to high CPU load in conjunction with the Production Grand piano library in Kontakt without pops.
Unless there’s some way for me to utilise the plugins from Logic and Mainstage in GP such as ES1, ES2 and the factory EQ, as I have a mountain of sounds in those VSTs that aren’t CPU intensive.
Otherwise am I not using the optimal settings in GP for it to handle everything smoothly?
You can do several things to run Apple instruments if you have to have them.
The obvious one is to actually run Logic/MS in parallel with GP. You can send PC messages and change patches automatically from GP via the IAC midi driver on your Mac so once set up - you can minimize Logic/MS. This will also use a different cpu core
Note that you can also run multiple GP instances - each will run in a separate core. Your main one can control the other GP instances.
We don’t recommend running more GP instances than the number of cores in your cpu
Finally - you can use an automatic sampler plugin like Bliss to automatically record and later play any instrument you have in Logic//MS within GP.
Thanks for the info djogon, I didn’t know that GP only uses one core per instance.
Wish I could somehow implement what you’ve said and test it out, but doesn’t seem like I can without buying the software. I just wanted to make sure that it’s fully functional for what I need it to do before I go ahead with the purchase.
You might want to review this thread as this topic has been discussed a lot.
There is also an article from our blog that talks about how to migrate slowly from one plugin host to another over time.
As for Omnisphere, I have found that a few instances of Omnisphere tend to just chew up cycles no matter what host I use. If I really need to use an Omnisphere sound on tour, I sample it into Kontakt, which is my goto sampler for everything.
But certainly, we do encourage everyone to test Gig Performer thoroughly before purchasing to be sure that it can do what is needed for them.
