Jason BassI never used to get this but as I use superior drummer a lot now I’ve noticed in the past couple days when I’m working on kits I’m getting a LOT of audio pops and clicks and audio degradation for some reason I never used to get before. I am on Sd3 (was on SD2 before that never had this issue then either and never had it in SD3 until a few dats ago). I read that mic bleed can tax the CPU a lot so I actually got rid of a LOT of the mic bleed channels (the cener, L&R, etc and just kept the OH Dyn and OH Cond and 3 Ambient channels that I killed he drums on and just used for cymbals mainly, as well as killed the mic bleed on like the kick and snare channels so I only have those sounds on those tracks to give it as little bleed as possible).
Background I’m using a 2017 iMac 27″ 5k retina display with a 4.2ghx i7 16GB Ram and a 3TB Fusion drive and a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo (thunderbolt) (and an Axe FX III Mk II non-turbo which was off for this instance and wasn’t using my aggregate device with both the Apollo and Axe FX, was using only the US Apollo and SD3 in standalone mode, but I have noticed it in Ableton as well) and running Ventura as my Mac is just old enough to not be able to run Sonoma.
For this test I went into performance and gave SD3 7 processor cores (it’s an 8 core machine) to try to give it all that I could to see if i could eliminate the pops and clicks but nope, still there.
Screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/rPsZbnb.jpg Activity monitor on my Mac showing even giving it 7 of the 8 available 4.2ghz i7 cores it’s still taking up 56.8% of the CPU, which seems quite high
https://i.imgur.com/y978M2o.jpg Another Activity monitor this time showing how it is using 9.61GB of RAM (when I have 16GB) in standalone mode with nothing else running but activity monitor, which also seems quite high
https://i.imgur.com/PwoNc9a.png The Mixer window in Superior Drummer 3 showing how I have the separate tracks laid out tracks going to busses, busses going to outputs for the DAW, EQ’s on the bus tracks and 2 compressor’s one on each bus with overhead/room/bleeding tracks, deleted MANY other bleed tracks to save on CPU
https://i.imgur.com/oscHVbs.jpg The kit in question, pearl masterworks with a pearl snare everything from the SD3 library
https://i.imgur.com/35Lh51M.png SD3 Performance tab where you can see I gave it 7 of the 8 CPU cores, yet still had audio pops and clicks and stuff, if anyone has any ideas?
Thanks!
ShootieYou didn’t mention Buffer. Typically solved by changing your Buffer Size in your interface/Daw/ or SD3 Audio settings when in Standalone.
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Ilja KörrerHi, it’s a known issue I also ran into. SD just needs 1 core!!! That’s what I did and voilá everything worked without clicks an pops.
Cheers
Jason BassWell I went to 7 cores because it was happening with 1 core in standalone… but it does seem to perform the exact same with 1 core as with 7.
Jason BassYou didn’t mention Buffer. Typically solved by changing your Buffer Size in your interface/Daw/ or SD3 Audio settings when in Standalone.
I didn’t see anywhere in SD3 to set buffer size, but I guess it’s taking it from the DAW even in standalone mode, which it’s set to 128 as it’s always been (as I often play guitar/bass/keys/vocals into it and need the lower latency and always found 128 to be the goldilocks buffer size where I could perform without unusable latency but still not incur messed up audio, whereas going to 256 I incur latency that makes it very difficult to track fast guitar playing and anything less than 128 and the audio is a mess).
I could try raising it but like i said, never had an issue with it before.
Jason BassYou didn’t mention Buffer. Typically solved by changing your Buffer Size in your interface/Daw/ or SD3 Audio settings when in Standalone.
I didn’t see anywhere in SD3 to set buffer size, but I guess it’s taking it from the DAW even in standalone mode, which it’s set to 128 as it’s always been (as I often play guitar/bass/keys/vocals into it and need the lower latency and always found 128 to be the goldilocks buffer size where I could perform without unusable latency but still not incur messed up audio, whereas going to 256 I incur latency that makes it very difficult to track fast guitar playing and anything less than 128 and the audio is a mess).
I could try raising it but like i said, never had an issue with it before.
But yep, i set the buffer to 512 and in standalone the kit that was giving me all kinds of pops and clicks before is now crystal clear. THAT sucks. Since I record guitar/bass/live keys/vocals into my audio interface all the time and anything higher than 128 buffer size while i’m doing that introduces unusable latency. But also generally doesn’t have messed up audio when i do those things live at 128 buffer size so i’m gonna probably have to constantly mess with it and put it at 128 when i track anything played live then switch to 512 when not tracking live to get the clear/unpopping/clicking audio. I just don’t get what changed as it never used to do this, which is why i was ALWAYS at 128 buffer size with no issues.
drumjack52Jason: Your problem is that Fusion drive. It’s part spinner and part SSD and performance WILL suffer because of that. That and only 16 gig of ram won’t help you because by default SD3 loads all samples into ram unless you run in cache mode with SD3. Don’t know what SD3 library you’re running but in Death & Darkness for the kit with DW drums the ram used is over 13 gig. Combine that with the Fusion drive and no wonder you’re having issues. I’d suggest upping the ram in that iMac to the 64 gig max and that can be done by you.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowConsidering that you are using an Apollo to record your audio, why aren’t you taking advantage of its near zero latency capabilities for your recording chain? It would not matter if you had to use a higher sample buffer in this case.
jord
drumjack52Considering that you are using an Apollo to record your audio, why aren’t you taking advantage of its near zero latency capabilities for your recording chain? It would not matter if you had to use a higher sample buffer in this case.
jord
Unless I’m misunderstanding things if he stays in the box or using the effects of the Apollo dsp the low latency mode on the Apollo doesn’t matter and it doesn’t seem like he’s doing that. I still say it’s that Fusion drive and the lack of ram. Fusion drives are not good for any kind of audio work. Period.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowDefinitely no argument regarding the Fusion Drive, considering the mech part is only 5400rpm. I was referring more about the buffer increase. Turning off software monitoring in Logic and using the Apollo to monitor your input when recording, there is no perceived latency. Using the DSP on the Apollo is another conversation. I’ve been using the UA Apollo for the last decade and I love it for recording.
jord
drumjack52Definitely no argument regarding the Fusion Drive, considering the mech part is only 5400rpm. I was referring more about the buffer increase. Turning off software monitoring in Logic and using the Apollo to monitor your input when recording, there is no perceived latency. Using the DSP on the Apollo is another conversation. I’ve been using the UA Apollo for the last decade and I love it for recording.
jord
But he’s not recording anything from outside the computer. It’s all internal to the iMac. So how can the Apollo monitoring help in that case?
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowHe does. Here’s an excerpt from his post.
But yep, i set the buffer to 512 and in standalone the kit that was giving me all kinds of pops and clicks before is now crystal clear. THAT sucks. Since I record guitar/bass/live keys/vocals into my audio interface all the time and anything higher than 128 buffer size while i’m doing that introduces unusable latency.
That’s where the near zero latency would come in handy.
jord
1
Thanked by: drumjack52Jason Bass“Considering that you are using an Apollo to record your audio, why aren’t you taking advantage of its near zero latency capabilities for your recording chain? It would not matter if you had to use a higher sample buffer in this case.”
I do. 90% of the time I’m just using the apollo, but i’m still getting pops and clicks and stuff in superior drummer now if the audio buffer is set to 128 in audio and MIDI settings, but if I set it to 512 it’s clear as a bell. I mainly only use the AXE FX for playing and recording the guitars and basses through USB. And with the AXE FX just recording guitar and bass tracks into ableton with it selected as the primary interface I have no problems/no pops and clicks and such when using it at 128 for recording that. But I basically can’t “jam” IN ableton with guitar and track separated drums, I have to track separate drums and have ableton set at 512 buffer and just jam with the Axe FX going to my mixer along with the Apollo, then track the drums when I’m done with a song, and bounce everything (freeze and flatten all drum tracks so it’s just like 11 audio tracks with no plug in instruments or effects other than recording the guitar model in from the Axe FX when I record it along with the drum tracks.
Jason Bass“Unless I’m misunderstanding things if he stays in the box or using the effects of the Apollo dsp the low latency mode on the Apollo doesn’t matter and it doesn’t seem like he’s doing that. I still say it’s that Fusion drive and the lack of ram. Fusion drives are not good for any kind of audio work. Period”
Thing is wile the Fusion drive is not as good as a straight up SSD drive it is a hybrid HDD/SSD drive and mine being a 3tb has 128GB of SSD, and the rest is HDD, the purpose being that the things you use a lot (like these SD kits for example) should be loaded in and from the SSD portion not the HDD portion, so in theory it shouldn’t be an issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_Drive
And while NOW 16 GB of RAM is considered LOW (it didn’t used to be) i looked at activity monitor while i was having the pops and clicks and of course SD3 was the top memory hog by a long shot but it was using 9GB of RAM, out of 16GB, so it SHOULD have been able to handle it fine (the record of the things using RAM did not remotely add up to another 7GB, niwhere close, MAYBE 12gb tops which still left 4GB free and available. So I don’t necessarily think that would be the case.
Jason BassDefinitely no argument regarding the Fusion Drive, considering the mech part is only 5400rpm.
Everything I can find on it says the HDD portion of the fusion drive is 7200rpm
Jason BassHe does. Here’s an excerpt from his post.
But yep, i set the buffer to 512 and in standalone the kit that was giving me all kinds of pops and clicks before is now crystal clear. THAT sucks. Since I record guitar/bass/live keys/vocals into my audio interface all the time and anything higher than 128 buffer size while i’m doing that introduces unusable latency.
That’s where the near zero latency would come in handy.
jord
Give this man a cigar! You are right, I record guitar/bass/keys/vocals and such live in addition to working in the box.
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