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Originally Posted by tbonesteak4dinner
I did try DP a while ago and unfortunately it wasn't my thing. I've actually gone through most of the major DAWs at some point, testing notation along the way. Cubase was the closest, but their visual quantization vs actual quantization for notation was the nail in the coffin for me. I think me and the piano roll are going to need to get nice and cozy...
Unfortunately I've had first hand experience with that multiple times, I was just hoping a more robust CPU would be able to spread those CPU heavy plugins to one of the many cores and spread the load evenly. I should have known it'd be about the same. Pro Tools is in love with CPU core #4 for my system, it's got seven other perfectly good cores and doesn't give them half the attention. It even overrides OS processer affinity when I force it manually to stay away from core #4. I assume that's because one big plugin is just camping out there and taking all of its resources.
As for VEP, I've actually used it multiple times to get through projects in the past, just never in a slave machine, so I do have a couple questions. If I run a heavy synth or two on the slave machine, does that actually reduce the CPU overhead on the master machine? In my testing, I ran a server on the same computer as Pro Tools, as I just wanted to take advantage of the additional buffers. The ASIO driver load never went down, so the only performance gains were from the additional buffers. If I run it from a slave machine, would it actually offload those resources to that machine even if I chose not to add an additional buffer?
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I guess you're seeing the dreaded pyramid of CPU usage where the middle cores get hammered most. That evens out noticeably when you are not record armed but that is obviously no help with your workflow.
Yes you would need to use the additional buffers in VE Pro. At least I always have done and have them set to x2. That is the price you pay for using VE Pro. However, I find it is definitely less demanding overall than running the same VIs in ProTools at a higher buffer because there is MUCH less CPU spiking. On my slave PC, the CPU usage is right up there so there is definitely a LOT of processing being offloaded. Ultimately, I find it way more solid and stable than running the VIs in Pro Tools and get very few -9171/3 errors. I also get significantly better performance running VE Pro locally on the same Mac as ProTools. It's all about juggling compromises!
At least the piano roll editor in PT is a very good one and second only to Cubase IMO!