Music Labs Real Guitar hitting 100% CPU

bigalminal · January 15, 2019, 8:33pm

I brought this up recently and was asked to contact the developers. I’ve had a response and here is the reply:

Quote.
“There is something wrong with Gig Performer’s CPU meter. I’ve tested Real instruments VST3 on Windows 10 1803, Gig Performer 2.6.2 and found that Gig Performer’s CPU meter always show 100% while playing Real instruments. At the same time Windows’s Task Manager shows 10-12% CPU usage which is correct.” End of quote.

I’m just wondering what to do about this and why it is happening. Is this a fault that could causes crashes? Or do I just put it aside and forget about it.

djogon · January 15, 2019, 9:29pm

Gig Performer’s CPU meter is NOT displaying the total CPU usage of your computer. It displays the AUDIO thread CPU usage which is using one CPU core. If you MAX that out - you will hear clicks and pops …

The Task Manager is showing you the CPU usage across all cores. If you have 8 cores and one core is maxed at 100% utilization - that would show in the task manager as merely 100% / 8 = 12.5% CPU usage. Hence 10%-12% in the task manager on an 8-core machine (either real 8 cores or virtual)

Some plugin manufacturers do have options of utilizing multiple cores for processing - Kontakt is an example, but this is background processing that each plugin decides how to do. This plugin is obviously using ALL of the available CPU power for a single thread.

dhj · January 15, 2019, 10:36pm

No, that can’t be what’s happening. I have Real Guitar as well and when I play it, Gig Performer’s CPU meter shows 3-4% at most.

EnjoyRC · January 15, 2019, 11:23pm

I was slamming a bunch of chords and peaked at 2-3%

bigalminal · January 15, 2019, 11:39pm

I’m really confused. David’s RG peaks at 3% but mine hits 100%. What is going on with my machine (Surface Pro 6, Core i7, 16gig ram)? It was brand new in November and I’ve already rebuilt it three times trying to correct problems.

dhj · January 15, 2019, 11:45pm

If you create a brand new gig file with just real guitar do you still see the problem?

bigalminal · January 16, 2019, 12:25am

Here is a very simple RG instance. CPU goes to 100% as before. I have realised something though. You guys are probably all using a keyboard as the input device. I’m using a PS 3 guitar controller wireless with a plugin dongle. I have Real Guitar set to joystick mode using the strumminator technoloy within Real Guitar. Could this be the difference and the reason for the 100% hit?

EnjoyRC · January 16, 2019, 12:29am

We’re both Mac. Try the VST 2 version.

bigalminal · January 16, 2019, 1:04am

I only have VST, or VST 3. No VST 2 offered. I tried again by clicking on the chords without using the PS 3 controller, and still got 100%.

EnjoyRC · January 16, 2019, 1:15am

VST is VST 2. Try the VST

dhj · January 16, 2019, 2:49am

I don’t know what joystick mode does but you should first see how it behaves when you use a regular keyboard if you can.

djogon · January 16, 2019, 2:31pm

Disconnect your MIDI controller, open up the MIDI IN block and click on some notes with your mouse to generate some sounds. What’s the CPU usage?

bigalminal · January 16, 2019, 6:43pm

I did that. It’s exactly the same 100%. The curious thing to me is that while folk here have reported much lower % use, the Music Lab guys got 100% like I did.

schamass · January 16, 2019, 7:03pm

Al, have you tried to switch to normal MIDI mode?
And has anyone of you others tried to enable the Joystick mode?
Just to try what happens…

bigalminal · January 16, 2019, 7:47pm

Thanks for the suggestion Erik. I tried midi, guitar and joystick mode and they all give 100% reading. I’m really curious as to what’s going on here.

dhj · January 17, 2019, 12:09am

So two questions.

if you are not playing any notes, what does the Gig Performer CPU indicate?
if you then play a single note and hold it, what does the CPU indicate?

bigalminal · January 17, 2019, 9:54am

9%
45%, for 1/4 second, then 100% where it remains steady until I release the note.

EnjoyRC · January 17, 2019, 12:15pm

Tell us about your Traktor Audio 2 IO settings, drivers, etc…
Are you using dedicated ASIO drivers or ASIO4ALL? Buffers?
Do other VSTs run with low CPU usage?

LeeHarvey · January 17, 2019, 2:13pm

I use Windows 10 and version 5.0.1.7367 (64-bit) of RealGuitar. I have no such problems with vst or vst3 with different PCs and ASIO or ASIO4ALL. But I remeber I had problems with an older RealGuitar version…

bigalminal · January 17, 2019, 7:56pm

The Traktor Audio 2 comes with its own driver from Native Instruments who make it the device. Here are the current settings.

I do not use Asio4All. I also have a Behringer interface U-Control UCA222 with similar settings as the Traktor, and it also causes the CPU to hit 100%.