I’ve been testing Korg’s new 2600 soft synth. Without any sound, I’m seeing an audio CPU usage of 32% (and that’s after turning off all the effects)
Cherry Audio is at 4% and Arturia is at 2%
Anybody else seeing this?
Just updated my Korg collection
iMac, intel, latest Sonoma idles at 22%
MBP, m1pro, latest Sonoma idles at 32%
Both on current GP 5, both the AU or VST3 version of the ARP 2600
I think we will see minor patches from Korg in the next days/weeks as always, when a new instrument was released or major changes took place…
HTH
The same here:
MBP, m1pro, latest Sonoma: Korg ARP 2600 32%
Here’s the response from Skippy Lehmkuhl (PluginGuru, home of Unify) I received after mentioning this thread in a comment to a recent video he posted of their newest sound library.
" About this plug-in, it is different than others. They have modeled every circuit and have them running in real-time just like an analog synth would. It responds in mysterious ways just like the real ARP 2600 hardware does. These things are nowhere to be found on the Cherry Audio or Arturia versions. You have audio input to the Sawtooth waveforms, you have variability, even a unique instrument ID (1 - 255) that do slight variations to parameters which makes it sound ever so slightly different. All of these abilities cost computation - you don’t get this without paying for it. ALSO, this is version 1.0 and there will probably be some optimizations over time like happens with most software instruments. If you want to drive a Ferrari, you have to pay for it."
Here’s the live stream where the Korg 2600 is discussed in detail.
Hmmm — Well, well… so when you’re modeling down to the tiniest detail, you’re driving a Ferrari, and when you’re trying to make relevant modeling choices, you’re driving a Trabant? The art of modeling is precisely to find the model that best synthesizes the essence of the original synthesizer, not to reproduce every component like in PSpice and the like.
Well, at least this answer clarifies things. It risks disqualifying this plugin for live use and reserving it for use with a DAW.
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Agreed. John “Skippy” Lehmkuhl is a sound designer who sells libraries he makes and resells others to which he adds Unify versions of the patches. I can see where the Korg version would appeal to him.
If you’re not familiar with it, in my opinion Unify is a one-of-a-kind performance instrument for keyboard players. It’s amazing, and keeps getting better. Just like Gig Performer. 
Check out the 100+ free Unified libraries for various synths at the bottom of this page. Most of the Cherry Audio, GForce and u-he synths are included, as are a bunch of Spitfire libraries.
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That may be but why is it using 32% when it is not actually producing any audio?
I took his quote “They have modeled every circuit and have them running in real-time just like an analog synth would” to mean that the plugin is active all the time. I assume that a MIDI input acts more like a gate allowing always generated audio to pass to the output, rather than as a trigger to enable audio generation.
Simplified said, it might be the simulated power consumption of the circuits when they are running idle…
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And the (thermal) noise of the components.
I’m always get a philosophical about this: when everything was analog, it was always about noise reduction and minimizing distortion and unlinearities of components and circuits. Then digital came along and now it’s all about getting the analog sounds and their imperfections. Of course the digital variants weigh a lot less
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And what’s with the current craze around Lo-Fi? Good lord.
Just playing around:
KORG ARP 2600 and EP-1 around 35% CPU on my M1pro MBP 
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I would hope that if the CPU is at 32% when the 2600 isn’t making any sounds because it’s “always active”, then the CPU had better not increase any more when you do play sounds!
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It’s 35% +/-1 when playing (or idling)
Edit: maybe that’s an interesting feature for the future: CPU load recorder / log?
Korg has some info about reducing CPU usage with this plugin: https://support.korguser.net/hc/en-us/articles/35251307201689-Optimizing-CPU-Performance
Sigh … their customer support sent that to me. So I asked them how exactly would reducing polyphony help when the CPU usage is so high even when no notes are being played.
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First updates for the ARP 2600, EP-1 and VOX continental have been released (v 1.0.2)
A little bit OT: I have problems on my intel iMac: the ARP update didn’t install properly (installer went OK - but no plugin files in folders…) - Apple Silicon MBP is all OK.
Anybody with similar experiences?