Anyone else get some crackling shortly after saving the rackspace? (Windows 10 and maybe 11 too). (Could be shortly after opening a (large) gig file too).
I am grateful it goes away and it should not be an issue at gigs. I could guess what might cause this (ram related until Windows releases ram?).
But, I am just curious if anyone else has noticed this.
Disk activity can certainly cause it.
Ugh, its not just after saving. I think I am hearing it when CPU gets close to 50% (not really sure maybe less).
The NARF sounds use a lot of CPU intensive synths. So, I am definitely noticing it.
I thought my machine was powerful enough that I didn’t have to worry about this.
NG.
Jeff
Any chance of using an additional instance of GP?
What’s your system? And have you gone through all the Windows optimization for GP stuff?
I.e, also your audio interface, your sample rate and buffer size
I’ll get you all the details in the am. It’s a Presonus Audiobox Go. 256 buffer 44.1 sample rate (might not be using perfect terminology).
The good news is I think, based on a quick check, my prior rackspace are not crackling.
But it seems that the NARF songs I am using push my system more (Here I Go Again and Head Over Heels).
I am wondering if any other users are running into this
I’ll get you more details. (It’s a pretty powerful laptop, I think).
Jeff
If Windows isn’t optimised to the minimum (and better still to the maximum) even a powerful PC can run into problems.
I have an optimised spare PC i5-3200 - 8 GB RAM that supports gig files without a hitch, whereas I get cracks and lags on a non-optimised partition of a PC i7-12500H - 32 GB RAM (same OS configurations and audio interface).
Read this bible again if you don’t believe 
: How to optimize your PC for the Stage
.
I did work through the optimization guide and try to implement it. There were some areas that were a bit beyond my comfort level (I was concerned I would do something that would mess something up). But, maybe I’ll work through it again.
It’s a Lenovo Thinkpad P.16 (Gen 2)
CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-12900HX (integrated graphics)
16 cores (8 performance cores 8 efficiency cores)
Ram: 64.0 GB (63.7 GB usable)
Windows 11 Pro
It shows a low base cpu (2.3 GHz), but we have discussed the relevance of this with newer Intel chips and their so-called “turbo” technology (in my case up to 5.0 GHz)
Presonsus Audiobox Go Interface: Audio interface is set 256 buffer and 44.1 sample rate, using their ASIO driver (I will check I am using their latest drivers).
Aside from running through the optimization guide, I know there are a lot of things i can work on to reduce cpu load in these NARF songs.
I am really curious if other people have similar issues. The NARF soundsets (which are great!) rely pretty exclusively in the Arturia V Collection. The rackspaces may stress good systems (?).
And I don’t get the impression that a lot of done to optimize the rackspaces to reduce cpu load (maybe I am wrong).
The good news is there are a lot of things I can do to reduce CPU load in these songs/rackspaces. The issue is time and learning curve. (I am not quite as tech proficient as many members in this forum),
Here are some:
I will try the easy (for me) ones first. (Bypassing unused plugins and tweaking polyphony and quality in individual plugins).
If you have other thoughts, please post.
Thanks!
Jeff
I can reduce it by modifying (making compromises) with the songs. But, still getting some crackling. The CPU is only just about hitting 30% in GP.
(I think I have hit higher than that without artifacts.)
Your laptop, from the specs you mentioned, should have plenty of power to run fairly heavy rackspaces.
Just as a quick check, I suggest hitting Alt-Ctrl-Delete, clicking on Task Manager, then clicking on Performance in the left column. That will bring up a window like this:
See where mine says 4.32 GHz above? Just watch that on yours for a little while without anything else happening. For a minute or two without touching anything and nothing significant running in the background.
If yours drops down below 2 GHz then your system is throttling your CPU and that’s going to lead to crackles. Some systems will really fight your effort to turn off CPU throttling. If you can’t stop it from throttling then no amount of adjusting other things is going to fix your issue.
I would check this first. If it’s not throttling, then go forth with the other stuff.
Yes, without doing anything it hovers a little above and below 2.0
That on a heavier rackspace (but without touching anything).
On an empty rackspace it averages about 1.8
I wonder if my optimization was somehow reversed with OS updates?
Okay, I’m going to run through the optimization guide again. I suspect all my optimizations have been reversed. [I definitely set power management for power use and now its on “balanced”].
Fingers crossed. Thanks, Vindes!
Please let us know
I meant without GigPerformer or anything at all running. What you’re trying to find out is whether it’s slowing down your CPU when it thinks it can save some power.
In my experience the problem is that once it slows the CPU it doesn’t decide that it needs more power until after the crackles start. Then it’ll speed back up, but as soon as there are extra cycles it’ll slow down again, then crackle when it figures out it needs to speed up again.
Sometimes when Windows does updates it will undo your efforts to stop CPU throttling.
With a laptop you’ll want to find a speed it can run without throttling and not overheat. Modern laptops will generally refuse to get so hot that they damage themselves, so even if you tried to force it to a constant 5ghz it would “thermal throttle” when it gets too hot. You don’t want to be operating like that. You’d rather find something like 2.3 GHz and just have it locked there and not let it shut down cores. (AKA Core parking.)
As you can see on my image (which is a desktop) it’s just permanently going to run at 4.32 GHz. It’ll never “turbo” up to 5GHz or slow down. With laptops, windows and the motherboard bios’s don’t want you to do that. They want to maximize how long they’ll run on battery power, and keep the system running cool as much as possible. Those are good goals if you’re sitting on your couch on batter power surfing the net. Not good if you’re running GP.
I suspect the most important issue is it reverted to a “balanced” power setting. Let me change it back a “power setting” (and other changes) and see what happens.
I hope/suspect I will be good to go.
If I am still having issues I can try to set a minimum cpu setting.
Thx for pushing me in this direction. I’ll repost my results.
Jeff
Well, here’s another annoying thing I just found on my own system…
You can tell Windows not to “park cores”. On modern processors you might have 15 or more virtual cores. Windows wants to “park” them when they’re idle, which is nice for saving your electricity and keeping a laptop cool.
When there’s a jump in CPU demand for any reason Windows will then start them up. This takes time, and as that couple of milliseconds goes by you might get some crackles.
I’ve turned off Core Parking on this system before, but just decided to check again… Here’s what I found:
It used to be (at least I swear it was) that setting the following items to 100% in your Power Plan would disable core parking. But this is my active power plan, and obviously Windows is parking cores anyway. I just checked this on another W11 system (my main GP rig) and same story. It’s parking my cores despite the settings below. I did get some rare crackling on that system here and there over the past month or two and had “figure out what’s going on” on my to-do list. I guess now I know.
To disable core parking, see this link: How to disable CPU core parking in Windows 11 - Danny Moran
That worked for me to disable parking. At least for now. I really wish Windows would stop looking for new tricks to force power saving on us.
PS - if you go through this and find your system is running too hot you can (usually) slow down the base clock speed in your BIOS, but I wouldn’t get into that unless you have to.
A bit more information. Although I have not gone through the full optimization guide (again), I did change the “balance” setting to “power” (that is the most power oriented setting of the three available).
I am still getting some crackling, not sure it it improved. It might have, but psychology is a funny thing.
I watched the CPU meter in the Windows Task Manager while playing in a “problem” rackspace. I can get it to do into the 3ghz’s and even 4ghzs. But, when I push it (basically hitting a lot of notes), unsurprisingly, the crackling gets worse (unacceptably so). (I can get the CPU in GP to go into the 60% area, with awful crackling)
Interestingly, I think I have other rackspaces (not NARF) where I have high CPU around 50% without crackling.
I will run through the full optimization guide and see what happens. I can also try easy tweaks to the rackspaces (reduce polyphony where it has little effect, bypass plugins when they are not used. etc).
Thoughts: Should I try to set a minimum CPU on laptop? Should I try turning off core parking? Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Jeff
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