v4 problem

n-Track Studio Discussion Forum
1

another cpu usage problem

2

Hi,

I’ve been checking out v4 with a part of a song I’m working on. The portion I’ve loaded has just 3 audio tracks and 3 midi tracks.

With the mixer window open the cpu reading is around 50%. Trouble is, as soon as I “solo” one of the tracks the cpu usage climbs quickly into the red and the whole shebang locks up.

And this is without opening an eq window!!

Any ideas?

Mike F

3

I have a feeling there is a very basic thing with the floating point deal and P4s getting near zero values that still needs to be worked out. As I mentioned in the other thread, I had all sorts of problems with my P4 with silent sections, empty sections, with EQ, no EQ etc. My guess is Flavio will have one fix that will fix all these issues. At least I hope.

4

I’d like to understand the reason why I don’t see this with my AMD CPU. Obviously, the Intel chips and AMD chips handle floating point math differently?

I have a new laptop coming with a 3.2 ghz P4 in it. First thing I’m gonna do is throw n V4.0 demo on it and see what happens. The company is buying me a Dell Inspiron 9100 as a desktop replacement. They may call it a portable…I’d hate to lug that thing around very far though…its freakin HUGE!

TG

5

Interesting. I’ve just done another little test on this setup (3 waves and 3 midi files) and:

1. If I start it normally I get just over 50% cpu usage.

2. If I start it with one midi track soloed I get just over 30% cpu usage, BUT,

3. If I start it normally and THEN solo that same midi track the cpu goes from 50% through the roof and it locks up.

What’s happening?

Mike F

6

the pentiums do something different when the values get close to zero. instead of staying in the same mode, they switch to a mode that has more resolution, and process the close to zero numbers. problem is the spike of processing power. I think that’s how it is. I could be mistaken.

7

In regards to floating point math, I’ve had issues in the past with Pentium CPUs, so for music a ALWAYS use AMD CPUs and those work fine for projects with 20+ tracks, the most I get is 12-13% CPU usage from N-Track…

IMHO, Pentium chips are GREAT for gaming computers, AMD AWESOME for Music computers !!! Cheers !!

8

Hmmm, this is all very well but there must be loads of us with your processor that has trouble counting (as far as music is concerned). Does this mean that v4 is no good for us?

What should I do, buy another computer or go back to v3.3?

I guess I’ll go back to 3.3 and wait and see if v4 can be made to work for our musico/arithmetically challenged PC’s.

Hey Ho!

Mike F

9

Flavio, if you’re watching this thread, what do you think? I’d like to know if there is any work being done to help make N v4 and P4’s get along better CPU-wise. I’m getting ready to build a new computer and was originally going to go Intel all the way (P4), but now I’m thinking maybe I should change direction and go with Athlon.

…gary

10
I guess I'll go back to 3.3 and wait and see if v4 can be made to work for our musico/arithmetically challenged PC's.



Ver 3.3 is no different than 4.0. It behaves the same way. I imagine it is the same engine piece causing it.
11

If v3.3 is the same as v4 then why can I use this project fine in 3.3 but v4 locks up with only half of the tracks and I cant open the eq window or solo a track without cpu going into the red and lockup occuring.

Ok, I’ve posted a report on all this to Flavio. I’ve now sent him the .sgw file concerned together with some more info. so I’ll post the outcome in due course.

Mike F

12

Check out the post I made in the other thread about this. I can get the CPU to go up, but not spike, in V4 when the EQ is open and when the frequency analyzer is on, but doing a similar thing in V3 does not cause the same jump up in CPU usage (it does go up some obviously).

My machine is a P4. It just occurred to me that my P4 is a Prescott. Maybe this problem is fix in the Prescott. I don’t know much about the differences in P4’s. I need my old work machine back. It was an early 2.2 ghz P4. I’d like to see what happens in that.