Extremely long loading time for Studio One Pro 6 using EZKeys2!

[Hakan Lindholm]

I have extremely long loading time (as well as closing time) for Studio One Pro 6 when using it together with EZKeys2 (10-15 seconds each)

It is the combination with EZKeys2 that is the problem. It works fine with EZDrummer3, EZBass etc and other VSTi.

I wonder if any of the EZKeys2 or Studio One users here on the forum have had this problem and what might cause it and how to fix it.

I have now also tested it with Reaper it is the same problem extremely long loading time when using EZKeys2 so I guess the problem lies with EZKeys2

 

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

• This topic was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Hakan Lindholm.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Hakan Lindholm.

Topic

[John]

Hi,

I am not sure where to find that exact diagnostics window in your screen shot but if I create a project with 4 instances of EZkeys 2, 4 instances of EZbass and 3 instances of EZdrummer 3, it takes the Project 18 seconds to load and it closes in 1-2 seconds. I am not sure which libraries and presets you are using, which of course affects loading times.

I have an SSD drive on my MBP, so maybe that’s the difference?
38 seconds is not extremely long if you are using that many instances and with a regular spinning drive, or do I misunderstand?
If you want to compare further, you could always zip archive the .song file and attach to a post here, so I may open it on my system.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Hakan Lindholm]

I think the hardware is ok

Intel i7-900K CPU 3.60Ghz, RAM 32GB, Win11 22H2, C: drive on Samsung SSD 990 Pro 2TB. All software installed on C:

I have prepared a simple test file with 1 audio click track, 2 midi tracks EZKeys2, 2 midi tracks EZBass, 2 midi tracks EZDrummer3.

DAW: is Studio One Pro 6.5 (but similar problem with EZKeys2 in reaper).

The diagnostics view is from Studio One.

It is still a very long loading time in this setup and it is EZKeys2 that takes the time. EZKeys2 takes 24 sek in this setup to load in Studio One. It is ca 8 times longer loading time than for EZBass or EZDrummer3 (also 2 tracks each).

I attach a zip with the studio one setup.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

• This post was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Hakan Lindholm.

[Glenn Stanton]

sometimes the A/V settings can be scanning temp files (e.g. handles for audio) or plugin content – so check any A/V settings to exclude your DAW and any related child files, as well as the raw content folders. you can use your performance and resource managers to watch and see if that is one of the causes.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

Glenn

www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile

[Hakan Lindholm]

I have just checked. There is no difference with A/V scanning (virus protection) turned off.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

[Glenn Stanton]

maybe run the Samsung Magician to check the disk performance. maybe it’s having problems which aren’t obvious with the task or resource manager.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

Glenn

www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile

[Hakan Lindholm]

I have just run the Magician, the disk is fine. Also it a brand new disk just just  a few weeks old.

From what I can see it has something to do with EZKeys2, it seems that it goes into some tight loop when loading, drawing heavy resources locking things out.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

[John]

Hi,

this is what it looks like for me when loading your Project:

So while EZkeys 2 takes longer time to load than EZbass and EZdrummer 3, it’s still pretty fast given that library samples are loaded into RAM.
If you have fewer instances of the plug-ins active in your project, it should load faster but it’s still a big difference between our systems.

I would have to ask my colleagues for more input here.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Glenn Stanton]

last check — overall system latency. https://resplendence.com/latencymon — while this is typically for determining latency for audio performance, it can pinpoint other system issues like interrupts etc causing performance impact.

even new hardware can have “early mortality” on the bell curve of electronics lifespan. so even stuff only a few days or weeks old can have failures. just the nature of the beast when billions of transistors are involved 🙂

Glenn

www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile

[Brad]

Are you loading 4 different instruments and presets? Just so I am clear, your system has just one drive.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: macOS Ventura (13)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[Hakan Lindholm]

The test file (studio one *.song file and 6 midi files) I am using is attached above as a zip file.

The measurements and load times are from that test file.

It is a very simple setup only 7 tracks,
1 empty click track,
2 instrument tracks each loaded with EZDrummer3,
2 instrument tracks leach loaded with EZBass and
2 instrument tracks each loaded with EZKeys2.

If Studio One is available it is just to download the ZIP (attached above) and test run the test setup, or enter a similar setup.

I have 5 disk drives, 1 SSD 2 TB, and 4 HDDs.

I am curios what experience other users have with EZKeys2 with Studio One pro 6 regarding load times.

(It is easy to measure loading time for plugins in Studio One. 1 – close the song in Studio One but leave Studio One open (startup screen). 2 – in the recent files list on the startup screen Right click on the song file name, 3 – Select Open with options from the list Open with “profil document loading”, that brings up the diagnostic screens as attached earlier in this thread)

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

[Glenn Stanton]

i’m using Cakewalk by Bandlab, and a recording template w/ 20 instruments including Kontakt (has 3 including Hammersmith Pro) (1 each EZK/B/D), AD2, and more. template on new create takes about 15 seconds the first time. re-open the newly saved project – ~5 seconds. so it’s loading about 3gb of sampled instruments, recorded audio and purely VI. note, the way CW does it is to allow the background loading like Kontakt to continue so realistically i can hit play on a project with Piano in ~8 seconds. multiple SSD – project and content are on one, OS on another, and one is “cloud” services. project and content are using USB 3.1, OS is internal M.2, cloud is M.2 host unit on USB 3.1

if only using the EZK/B/D on a project, load is about ~3 seconds, time to be ready to play ~4 seconds.

HP Victus laptop, no significant optimization done w/ W11 Home. all A/V, cloud, internet, etc services are almost always running, large projects (>50 tracks and/or > 5 min) during audio render i turn off networking to avoid potential WiFi interrupts. A/V exceptions used on the DAW and related programs and files.

for me: SSD solved most performance issues over normal rotational HD. SSD even if the content is fragmented, there is no latency there (or it’s nanosecond) vs HD which if fragmented will have significant rotational latency issues.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

Glenn

www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile

• This post was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Glenn Stanton.

[Brad]

Document Diagnostics
Loading the document ‘2023-12-09 Test1 Loading Time EZKeys2’ took 4.478 sec.

99% of the time was spent loading plug-ins.

These items have a high average load time:

• EZkeys 2

In total, the most time-consuming items are:

• EZkeys 2 (4.205 sec)
• EZbass (0.207 sec)
• Music File (0.013 sec)
• Envelope File ( < 1 ms)

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: macOS Sonoma (14)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Brad.

[Hakan Lindholm]

That is interesting.

I just made the same test setup (see attached files above) in Cakewalk by Bandlab. It is faster. To reopen the song from the start screen takes ca 15 sek. And the same ie to reopen the song from the start screen in Studio One takes ca 24 sek. In both cases EZKeys2 takes the most time. I did test it with Reaper before and it was almost the same as for Studio One a little bit faster but not much.

I have W11 and all my software are installed on the a new SSD (no hard drives are involved)

It is mentioned above  that CW continues loading in the background. Is that a general configuration?
It sounds that it could be a likely problem if Studio One is locked until everything has been completely loaded.
Also I am a bit confused over how the loading of data is done by EZKeys2. Does each instans of EEZKeys2 load up the complete sound bank again? Even if it is already has loaded by the previous instans?

Well I think my next step will be to put in a second SSD and move over all Toonetrack software onto that drive.

It would be interesting to know how the experience from other Studio One users are with EZKeys2.
If this is the case for most users of SO then I don’t have to investigate this no further.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

[Hakan Lindholm]

Well that was very interesting 4,2 sek compared to mine 19 sek to load EZKeys into Studio One.

But it is good news it probably means that there is a fix for it.

I will put in a second SSD and move over all Toonetrack software to that.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

1

Thanked by: Brad

[Brad]

Hakan Lindholm wrote:

Well that was very interesting 4,2 sek compared to mine 19 sek to load EZKeys into Studio One.

But it is good news it probably means that there is a fix for it.

I will put in a second SSD and move over all Toonetrack software to that.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: Windows 11

My samples are all on Thunderbolt M.2 SSD. I tried switching to format to AU and the results were basically the same.

EZkeys version: 2.0.3
Operating system: macOS Sonoma (14)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[Author]

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