[Wes Pickering]

Hey Sam,
Unfortunately, it seems that efficient CPU usage has not been a priority since around the time DreamPop came out. The one workaround I’ve found is that the samples themselves aren’t triggering the CPU load but it seems all the extra processing that the different kits have does. So, for most things, I pull up an older EZX, like the original Pop/Rock kit, and then I manually load samples from the other packs into the different slots. It’s not ideal, but it’s functional enough. I can then process samples using plugins from within my DAW.

If anyone from the Toontrack team is reading this, please know that I LOVE the products that you make, but CPU efficiency really is top priority when choosing any plugin to use on a track, and the problem has steadily gotten worse over time.

w

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Thanked by: Jared Merrill

[Wes Pickering]

So, after tons of experimentation, here is my suspicion of what’s going on with Dream Pop. There’s something happening with either the samples themselves or how the samples are packaged. While every other EZX performs smoothly, Dream Pop still completely overloads my system. In addition, when loading a Dream Pop samples (e.g. a snare drum) into one of the other kits, even a single instrument from Dream Pop is far more taxing on CPU than any of its counterparts. So, if I have the standard Modern kit loaded but I switch out the snare for one of the Dream Pop snares, there is a noticeable jump in CPU usage that isn’t there when I load a snare from the Rock EZX.

[Wes Pickering]

Ok. Good news and bad news to report. I COMPLETELY uninstalled all things EZDrummer (including all the many EZXs I have) and cleared out all the folders under Library/Application support. Then I re-installed it all, with updates, one by one.

The good news is that EZ2 is running stably enough to pull up old session files with full mixes and run smoothly again.

The bad news is that “Dream Pop” (which I was very excited about playing around with) is still an absolute nightmare:

As you can see, both inside Logic and running standalone, “Dream Pop” completely destroys CPU. Again, this is the only plugin that runs this way on my machine. I’ve tried running “original mix” as well as turning off the “humanizer” function to try to lessen the CPU burden with only marginal improvement. Total bummer and not what I have grown to expect from EZ over the years.

[Wes Pickering]

No, logic is not open in that last screenshot. After taking the screenshot, I opened Logic and rescanned plugins just to check. But I’m having the same crazy CPU usage both inside Logic and standalone with Logic closed.

[Wes Pickering]

The result is still pretty much the same.

I tried running EZDrummer standalone as well as resetting/scanning in Logic X and no change. However, I just remembered something that might be helpful. Before I installed the Product Manager, I already had EZDrummer2 up and running. But for some reason, the Product Manager couldn’t see that I had EZ2, and it forced me to re-download/install/update before it would install Dream Pop. That’s when all this craziness started.

[Wes Pickering]

Here’s a look at the activity monitor with EZ2 open.

[Wes Pickering]

What I’m getting is crackly, glitchy audio whenever audio is actually played through the plugin. I’ve also had the audio core completely overloaded and reset so that no audio comes out of Logic until you go into settings and de-activate/re-activate core audio.

[Wes Pickering]

Bad news. Even after uninstalling both Dream Pop and EZ2, the Product Installer forces you to install the update to the latest EZ2 before the plugin will even show up in Logic. Without Dream Pop running, just having one instance of EZ2 has the CPU running at 75%, and that’s on a blank session with no other channels even open. That makes EZ Drummer 2 utterly useless.

As I said before, I have NEVER had any problems running Toontrack plugins on my machine. EX Keys still works like a champ, but EZ Drummer 2’s latest update has me completely stuck.

[Wes Pickering]

You’re not the only one having this problem. I just recently upgraded EZ2 and installed Dream Pop, and the EZ2is now unusable. The CPU spike is at at least 50% just running EZ2, and it’s at 100% when you hit record enable.

I’m in the process of uninstalling EZ2 and Dream Pop. I’m going to try downgrading to before the last EZ2 update and see if that helps, and if that works, I’ll try reinstalling Dream Pop and then the update. I have never had CPU problems with Toontrack products before, even multiple instances of EZ Drummer 2 on separate channels.

my computer is:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Running Logic Pro X 10.3.2
Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6

I would definitely appreciate some help with this one. EZ has been my go-to drum software for years now, but I can’t use it at the moment.

[Author]

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