Issues with Yamaha esp high. cpu usage

Plugins
1

Hello All

I have a m1 Mac book pro 64gb ram 2tb ssd.

I have an issue with the Yamaha montage m vst. There are times while using the Yamaha vst with gig performer where it uses over 40% if the cpu before a note is even played(at idle). When you begin to play the keyboard it rises much higher and starts to crackle.

This happens is with no other vst present while only using the the single eps plugin. Buffer etc is at 128 / 44100.

Is there anyone in the group using a M1 mac book with the Yamaha vst? I would like to know if Im doing something incorrectly or can tweak some setting to correct this issue.

There are times when the cpu meter goes down to 15 or so at idle and then it works fine. But I can’t re create this as it happens on its own.

Looking forward to any assistance…

2

Sounds like a very buggy plugin to me.

3

I believe so.

They will be bringing out a more beefed up version in possibly the next month or two and this may address some bugs. I just wanted to know if there was some one in the community with a difference experience than myself.

4

Please, keep us updated. The Montage M plugin is for many guys very interesting. Me included. Pity you can get it only buying the workstation…

5

True.

I prefer traveling light and prefer using the esp only.

I wouldn’t purchase the physical board if getting only the esp was an option. But i think this is what they are trying to avoid. As software is catching up with hard ware.

I do have a gpd winmax 2 on which i also run software but more as an experiment. It is mainly for my online recordings. It runs the esp much better (most of the time) as it has more horse power (higher cpu clock speed) than the m1 but i dont like windows my vst hosting while gigging. Mac just feelsnfar safer and stable so since im just getting comfortable with using software as my main instrument i prefer the mac.

The combination of mac os and gig performer (stability dependability and performance) makes me feel that im carrying around real hardware. I simply open the lid of the computer and im ready to go. No sound card issues, no bluetooth issue, no asio issue, etc justbsimply works.

I do like the esp a lot though and when it works Im more than comfortable using only that vst to run my complete gig as it is that good.

6

I agree with David that this plug-in is buggy. Montage ESP is just not ready for prime-time live. In Digital Performer and Gig Performer, the plug-in peaks the CPU in my M2 MacBook Pro and M1 Mac Studio. The new version is expected next month, and I can’t imagine that Yamaha wouldn’t address this glaring issue. I’m not bringing my m8x out live!

7

I have to agree for now but also am hoping that it will improve with the updated version coming.
It’s awesome to have all that power with the stability of gig performer I fell like I’m walking around with a Yamaha Mx in my computer.

I can say what has happened but lately it’s been doing better so I try not to turn off the computer as not sure what causes it to work fine.

When it working well it only uses around 9 percent of the cpu at idle. I’m not sure what combination causes it to work like this but once it’s in this mode it works fine so I try to not turn off the computer or close gig performer.

Excited for the updated version.

8

I would think Yamaha will get that plugin performing better. It’s too bad they left the original Montage owners high and dry after the original Montage had been discontinued after only a few years

9

Definitely buggy. + High usage (i believe this is the case on Windows as well).

There is a lite mode but it doesnt seem to make much difference on a M3 processor.

CPU usually is anywhere from 20-40%. I would suspect some CPU usage on the synth engines, but i was suspecting AWM only patches to be lean and mean.

i was doing some studio work for a client and my audio got glitchy and wasnt sure of the cause but it turns out it was the ESP Plugin. It gets worse when you use many instances.

Haven’t had any glitchy playback with Gig Performer but there is a worse bug.

If you have a gig file with many instances of ESP, weird things start happening (like more than 5-10 instances, not 100% sure of exact count). When you are creating the gig file everything seems to work fine. But save project, close Gig Performer. Re open gig performer. You will notice a few weird things:

  1. The ESP plugins will take a while to load vs other plugins (anywhere from 10-20 seconds per plugins, where most of my other plugins might just take a second to load).

  2. Occasionally the ESP plugins on loading them back up will crash Gig Performer.

  3. If project loads, some ESP instances will produce no sound, disabling-reenabling plugin dont help but changing to new patch and going back to patch you need will produce sound.

  4. Occasionally some instances will say the license or authorization is not found while other instances come up fine.

With all of these bugs, i have replaced most ESP patches with other VSTis, which is a shame because. ESP has some great Brass, String, and certain FM sounds hard to find on other VSTis that i have started relying on for live work when i use hardware.

One thing to keep in mind is that the plugin is still a 1.0 release (to my knowledge. i could be wrong as i check Steinberg download center for updates and Haven’t found anything i was kind of expecting a quick fix update after being out for a couple of months). Im suspecting some memory leak issues. i would hope Yamaha makes this better as i think this would be a game changer if they get right as it has so many great sounds in one package all under 10 gigs of file size. But right now just about every other VST i use like Keyscape, Korg, Arturia loads up blazingly fast and is super efficient but those manufacturers have been in the game much longer in terms of making VSTs. Plugin is probably ok if you just plan on using a few instances. But for a complex rig it isnt ready yet.

10

Yes I agree this is true it does take a while to load and even when you are opening the VST window to change songs etc it takes a while but for me it is totally worth it as it sounds amazing

It does start around 20 to 40% depending on how it feels when it comes to CPU usage

I am hoping and do believe that the new update which will be even more powerful will work much better and with less bugs. I feel like I have the montage keyboard in my computer and if I haven’t said it before It sounds gorgeous!

11

Guys… It should be nice if you could update the situation after release of ESP version 2.0.
Here Scott reports that with a Windows machine every problem has been solved.
But some comments on YouTube video say that with Apple Silicon CPU use is still very bad.

12

Hello All,

Ran some test on the Yamaha esp.

Let me start with a few pros first

The montage esp with its included advancement (full release) is even more awesome than before.
You now have an ‘almost’ full montage in your computer.

Editing/ programming/ making performance is awesome.

Quality of the sounds as usual are top notch (Yamaha Style).

You can make multiple instances of it. (Multiple montages!)

In terms of cons we have quite a few. I am still patient and hopeful that Yamaha will get to iron out every single one of these issues and we will then have a solid software.

  • There are still times when for no apparent reason a particular sound will just stop working forcing you to reload it. This is not good for live performance.

  • You almost have to use one instrument per instance. By one instrument I mean one engine. You cannot use both AWM and FM engines running them at full 128 polyphony at the same time. This will bog down your computer and take it to 100% CPU usage. (You can limit the polyphony in the settings of the VST and this helps to prevent that from happening).

  • The program is not consistent across platforms. It works better on Windows than on Mac. It also works better inside cubase than in other softwares wheather on windows or Mac.

I believe this is because cubase and programs like cantabilile (both of which I have tested it with on Windows) utilize more cores of the CPU to spread amongst multiple instances rather than stressing one core of your processor. In this case you can keep many instances inside one plug-in host and this works well as long as you keep the rule earlier in mind (It is best to load minimal sound\ patches per instance and only one engine per instance).

In the case of GP relayer, I have tried it on both Windows and Mac without success when it comes to multiple instances. Windows is the worst with GP relayer and inside mac os after opening three seperate instances with GP relayer excessive latency is introduced.

If the particular sound you insert uses a lot of elements this can also bog the chip down although the 128 note polyphony limitation generally helps to limit the stress on the cpu.

On the systems that utilize/ share multiple cores of the computer in a single VST host, it seems that you can open as much instances of the esp as you have cores and it will work allowing you to build your sound this way (as long as you follow the rule of only using one engine per instance).

If you do not need a busy performance in terms of sound or (sound engine) you should be able to get away with using the ESP without problems.

Since in Scott’s video he is not playing the songs in a “live” situation I believe he may have a high buffer (eg 512) as latency in his case might not be as critical. This might be why it may appear as if it is working fine. He is also using only one sound per instance.

So at the end of the day it is not ready for prime time and still does need quite a lot of tweaking.

13

Hi.
I believe the “problem” is ESP is using only one core of CPU.
I made a test. I opened Kontakt, wich is setted for using 12 cores, load a library, and pressing the sustain pedal run my hand in the keyboard controller up and down continuoslly. In the Windows Task Manager all cores show activity.
The same test using ESP show activity only in one core!!!
Yamaha should put an entry in the Settings menu of ESP in wich we could select more than one core to be used by the VST3i. This could to solve this issue.
Greetings from Brazil.

14

Yamaha ESP is an interesting piece of software for me.

On one case it is a complete or almost complete montage m keyboard in your computer. (That’s a lot of Power)

On the other hand it is still somewhat half baked as it relates to it being a vst.

It is obvious that Yamaha, at least up to this point, is not interested in this being a serious vst that can be used for live performance.

I cannot label the esp as reliable which is a priority.

Second to that it is very resource hungry.

On that note, this is why I have opted to upgrade my m1 to m4. I know that there are those who frown on upgrading unnecessarily but I decided to do so mainly because of this software…

It’s a love hate relationship with it. I have always loved the Yamaha realistic acoustic sounds and totally enjoy to play them. If I had to choose one vst from all the many I have to live with it would be the esp. I even prefer the sound and response of the esp acoustic s700 piano more than the other top tier vst I currently own.

This esp among others require a cpu with high clock speeds to function properly and hence the reason for my upgrading.

Maybe as time goes by Yamaha will put more interest in the software allowing multi core usage etc but until then I will continue to try and work around its limitation as it means that much to me to be able to lug around 3 montage Mx’s in my laptop computer.

15

Maybe Steinberg’s Halion 7 is a better option? Steinberg seems to know plugins pretty well (having inventing the vst protocol, as I understand it). And, as a part of Yamaha, I think they are absorbing Yamaha hardware technology into their software.

Just a thought…

16

Yeah

Time will tell…

17

Yeah it still leaves alot to be desired.

The usage is high…

The GUI seems like an afterthought. I wish it had a Soundmondo option.

Yet this thing has incredible sounds that are hard to find.