Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > Legacy Products > Pro Tools 2019

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 08-25-2019, 03:13 AM
danyg danyg is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Belgium
Posts: 313
Default CPU question mono vs stereo

I made some tests without clear/satisfying results and I was asking myself:
if

- a MONO channel with with mono plugins has less CPU usage than a stereo channel (we get a lot of stereo bounces these days from mono tracks) ?

- there is a difference between PT plugins behaviour and 3rd party plugins - I tried 40 Waves Plugins in mono and stereo and got no real difference in CPU

- is it worth to split the stereo tracks that don't need to be mono (or just a loss of time)

What is your experience? Thanks

PS: OSX PT 2019 - I'm not talking about multi mono.
__________________
Mac Studio - Ventura- 64 Gb ram - SSD int 2T - SSD ext 4T - Antelope Galaxy 32
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 08-27-2019, 03:08 PM
danyg danyg is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Belgium
Posts: 313
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

no-one with more information?
__________________
Mac Studio - Ventura- 64 Gb ram - SSD int 2T - SSD ext 4T - Antelope Galaxy 32
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-27-2019, 03:14 PM
off the wall's Avatar
off the wall off the wall is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NYC-NJ
Posts: 662
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Quote:
Originally Posted by danyg View Post
I made some tests without clear/satisfying results and I was asking myself:
if

- a MONO channel with with mono plugins has less CPU usage than a stereo channel (we get a lot of stereo bounces these days from mono tracks) ?

- there is a difference between PT plugins behaviour and 3rd party plugins - I tried 40 Waves Plugins in mono and stereo and got no real difference in CPU

- is it worth to split the stereo tracks that don't need to be mono (or just a loss of time)

What is your experience? Thanks

PS: OSX PT 2019 - I'm not talking about multi mono.
I always split real mono tracks if delivered as stereo. It just makes panning, bussing etc easier. It also takes 1/2 the voices. I gotta believe that most plugins use less CPU in mono but have no real proof that is so.
__________________
offthewallproductions
Mac Pro 5,1 3.46 Ghz 12 core, Open Core 0.9.8, Radeon RX580 GPU, GC-TITAN RIDGE TB3 PCIe card, M.2 NVMe SSD boot drive on PCIe card, 48GB RAM, macOS 12.7.4
Pro Tools Ultimate 2024.3/HD Driver 2023.3 HDX, UA Octo PCIe card in external TB3 chassis, MTRX Studio I/O, C|24 control surface.
Genelec 1031AP/7070A 5.1 monitoring.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 08-27-2019, 03:51 PM
BScout BScout is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 4,143
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

https://www.soundizers.com/

panning stereo tracks that are actually mono is an annoyance which is the first reason to get rid of them.
__________________
Pro Tools Ult 2024.3, HDX 2, MTRX/SPQ, RME BBF Pro + MADIface ProS1 x 2, Fire HD10 + Max11, Dock, iPad Air5 Mac Mini 14,12, 12 core, macOS 13.6.5RAM 32GB, SSD 4TB, GPU 19 coreQNAP TVS-872XT 148TB TB3
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 08-27-2019, 07:46 PM
cwsand's Avatar
cwsand cwsand is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 3,907
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Quote:
Originally Posted by off the wall View Post
I always split real mono tracks if delivered as stereo. It just makes panning, bussing etc easier. It also takes 1/2 the voices. I gotta believe that most plugins use less CPU in mono but have no real proof that is so.

Yes, and they just make the session larger.
__________________
Help Us Help You
______________________________________
Chris

Pro Tools 2024.3
Focusrite LS56
Focusrite Pro40 (3)
Slate Digital VRS8
Analogue Tonebuss 24 Channel
UAD-2 OCTO Core Accelerator
UAD Volt 2
macOS 10.15.7
32 GB DDR4 RAM
4.01GHz Quad-Core Intel Core I7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 2 GB
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 08-28-2019, 12:38 AM
danyg danyg is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Belgium
Posts: 313
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

- BScout,

I have Soundizer but I find the algorythm a bit too "strict". If there is a tiny bit of noise on one side of a stereo kick or snare it doesn't convert it to mono. Wish it was a bit more loose (if that makes sense).

- off the wall,

Quote:
It also takes 1/2 the voices.
So Vanilla can play 256 mono tracks ?

Quote:
I gotta believe that most plugins use less CPU in mono but have no real proof that is so.
The CPU window is so sluggish. You can almost read nothing concrete
__________________
Mac Studio - Ventura- 64 Gb ram - SSD int 2T - SSD ext 4T - Antelope Galaxy 32
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 08-28-2019, 06:30 AM
off the wall's Avatar
off the wall off the wall is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NYC-NJ
Posts: 662
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Quote:
Originally Posted by danyg View Post

- off the wall,


So Vanilla can play 256 mono tracks ?


No, Vanilla can play 128 VOICES at 48k. That would be 128 mono tracks or 64 stereo tracks.
__________________
offthewallproductions
Mac Pro 5,1 3.46 Ghz 12 core, Open Core 0.9.8, Radeon RX580 GPU, GC-TITAN RIDGE TB3 PCIe card, M.2 NVMe SSD boot drive on PCIe card, 48GB RAM, macOS 12.7.4
Pro Tools Ultimate 2024.3/HD Driver 2023.3 HDX, UA Octo PCIe card in external TB3 chassis, MTRX Studio I/O, C|24 control surface.
Genelec 1031AP/7070A 5.1 monitoring.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 08-28-2019, 09:05 AM
JFreak's Avatar
JFreak JFreak is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Tampere, Finland
Posts: 24,853
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Quote:
Originally Posted by off the wall View Post
No, Vanilla can play 128 VOICES at 48k. That would be 128 mono tracks or 64 stereo tracks.
That is incorrect -- Vanilla can play 128 audio tracks, mono or stereo, and don't care about voices at all. AFAIK that is, correct me if things have changed lately with the new voice packs that I don't have and think are Ultimate-only anyway.

Voice is a DSP concept that means i/o point of mixer.

EDIT: this thought haunts me now, please someone test if creating 128 stereo tracks is possible with vanilla (cannot test myself with this license bundle)
__________________
Janne
What we do in life, echoes in eternity.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 08-28-2019, 09:10 AM
off the wall's Avatar
off the wall off the wall is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NYC-NJ
Posts: 662
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Quote:
Originally Posted by JFreak View Post
That is incorrect -- Vanilla can play 128 audio tracks, mono or stereo, and don't care about voices at all. AFAIK that is, correct me if things have changed lately with the new voice packs that I don't have and think are Ultimate-only anyway.

Voice is a DSP concept that means i/o point of mixer.

EDIT: this thought haunts me now, please someone test if creating 128 stereo tracks is possible with vanilla (cannot test myself with this license bundle)
I was just going by what AVID had to say about it here:

https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/comparison

What is a voice?

"A voice is a single audio stream that roughly equates to one mono audio track. A mono audio track will use one available voice. A stereo track will use two available voices. The voice limit is Pro Tools' capacity to play back a multitude of simultaneous voices. The higher the voice limit, the more tracks you can play back in Pro Tools to work on bigger, more demanding sessions."
__________________
offthewallproductions
Mac Pro 5,1 3.46 Ghz 12 core, Open Core 0.9.8, Radeon RX580 GPU, GC-TITAN RIDGE TB3 PCIe card, M.2 NVMe SSD boot drive on PCIe card, 48GB RAM, macOS 12.7.4
Pro Tools Ultimate 2024.3/HD Driver 2023.3 HDX, UA Octo PCIe card in external TB3 chassis, MTRX Studio I/O, C|24 control surface.
Genelec 1031AP/7070A 5.1 monitoring.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 08-28-2019, 09:12 AM
JFreak's Avatar
JFreak JFreak is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Tampere, Finland
Posts: 24,853
Default Re: CPU question mono vs stereo

Yes, that is a voice. But standard software is not about voices, that ad material is talking about tracks (mono or stereo bcs greater-than-stereo are not available). Voices are only used/calculated in HD/Ultimate. Maybe if all users could do their math it would have been simpler for Avid to allow 256 voices for standard software but as most are only counting tracks limiting to 128 seems sensible.
__________________
Janne
What we do in life, echoes in eternity.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Stereo to mono question stixman Tips & Tricks 1 09-01-2016 01:45 PM
A question about mono/stereo plug ins on mono tracks. rockguitarist1255 Pro Tools 10 2 12-24-2011 07:33 PM
mono/stereo question studiokeyz 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 5 01-13-2008 01:25 PM
Stereo / Mono question Daubian Tips & Tricks 2 03-16-2007 04:26 PM
Stereo or mono, that's the question. rgr VENUE Live Sound Systems 5 03-06-2006 02:32 PM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 10:02 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com