EZMIX 3 CPU Usage

[T-Bone Hood]

Hi, I would like to state first I am loving the new version. One issue I have is the new AI Amp Captures use a lot of resources compared to ezmix 2 in Studio One 6 Pro. Any setting to maybe turn off something to help that?

Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Petter Adsten]

Hey T-Bone! We are aware that the AI Amp Capture presets need more processing power than the older EZmix amp models. This is due to the nature of the AI technology that is being used.

You could try using the preset on a mono track. If the preset is in stereo, the CPU usage can be almost cut in half that way on some systems.

With that said, what are your PC specs? We are especially interested in the CPU you are using. And what sample rate and buffer size are you using right now? 65% does seem high compared to what we were getting during testing.

Petter Adsten - Toontrack
Support & Betatesting

[T-Bone Hood]

pu_name=Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
cpu_cores=8
cpu_sse2=1
graphics_device_name=Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600;Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600

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Thanked by: Petter Adsten

[Petter Adsten]

And Sample rate/Buffer size? Does it seem like the performance is worse in Studio One compared to the standalone app?

Petter Adsten - Toontrack
Support & Betatesting

[T-Bone Hood]

focusrite 2i2 3rd gen @ 48kHz 24bit buffer 128
In the standalone it is fine. I tried it in Cubase 12, Ableton live 11 and Cakewalk by bandlab and all show high cpu usage. It would be good to put maybe a switch to turn on a lighter mode are something. I am liking the UI at least so I can now see the settings of my older packs and presets. Hopefully this gets squared away so I can utilize the newer AI Amp Captures.

1

Thanked by: Petter Adsten

[benpowellguitar]

In Reaper, I estimate the new guitar presets are using 4 to 5 times more CPU. In fact, I’m getting audible underuns with even a single instance which surprises me since I can normally comfortably run 10+ EZ Mix 2 instances without issues. Admittedly, my laptop is 5 years old (8th gen i5, 8GB ram, buffer 128 samples) but still. I don’t get the issues with EZ mix 2 presets running in the new plugin and CPU is similar to the old version.

Operating system: Windows 10

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Thanked by: T-Bone Hood and Petter Adsten

[Petter Adsten]

Thanks for letting us know about your experience using the AI amps. We would encourage anyone experiencing performance issues or similar to contact us here or via the support form. We will forward all feedback, your system info and suggestions to our development team. A “lightweight” mode sounds like a great idea for older, slower systems that have a harder time running the AI amp presets.

Petter Adsten - Toontrack
Support & Betatesting

1

Thanked by: T-Bone Hood

[benpowellguitar]

Thinking about it, it must be something more fundamental than just high CPU usage as I’m only showing 5% load.

[T-Bone Hood]

Hi, open ezmix 3 in your daw and search tight riffer and choose it. mine is 55%. Only the new AI Amp captures are using a lot more cpu.

[benpowellguitar]

Mines not quite that high – about 5% CPU time (compared to less than 1% for a older preset). But windows shows an overall jump of around 10%. Interestingly the audible cracks disappear after the laptop had been on for a short while.

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Thanked by: T-Bone Hood

[benpowellguitar]

Tried a few other presets with mixed results. 5051 with screamer was unusable as the audio stuttered constantly (this is without any other plugins running). Others like Plexi worked better but periodically still some audible cracks.

I also compared presets with those from the Big Rock Guitars and Metal Amps packs and I’ll be honest there wasn’t much improvement and IMO certainly not enough to justify the big increase in required resources.

1

Thanked by: T-Bone Hood

[benpowellguitar]

A little bit more testing…

The glitches only seem to be present when using in real time i.e. they aren’t audible when applied to an already recorded track (actually I ran two tracks with no problems. The CPU usage is the same so I suspect the issue is when the AI is trying to assist in real time – probably my pc just isn’t fast enough.

I compared the Pure Recto 1 patch from the Metal Amps pack with a similar sounding new patch and, apart from a little more low end from the latter (which could be just different EQ), I am really struggling to hear any improvement from the AI captured amps vs IRs. Granted, this is a very small sample set of one, but still, I was expecting something more significant.

[benpowellguitar]

Well I ended up buying a new laptop. This one has a Ryzen 9 7000 series processor and handles the AI capture amp models just fine (< 1% CPU usage).

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Thanked by: T-Bone Hood

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