One plugin maxes out CPU

[GregX]

Hi, I bought a new HP Z4 G4 workstation, but I still can't run Amplitube nor Moog Mariana without Protools (and Reaper) glitching and running out of CPU.

The PC has Intel Core i9-10900X CPU @ 3.70GHz, 256 G RAM, driving a MOTU 828x through USB3.

I've run LatencyMon, and it says I can support real-time audio. I've got past the Amplitube 2 amp/1 amp processing bug, and closed Microsoft Edge, and have a session with only Mariana in it, but nope, it glitches, and I would like to run it into Amplitube, and a reverb.

Have you seen this? Is there something fundamental I'm doing wrong? It should be able to run one plugin without glitching.

Thanks,
Greg

[Darryl Ramm]

What exact interface are you trying to use? It should be an ASIO interface dedicated to Pro Tools. With Windows sound and other apps set to use a different audio device. What driver version is that interface using?

What *exact* error are you getting?

Pro Tools version? Plugin versions? Are the plugins especially up to date?

Always start troubleshooting by trashing prefs, so just do that as well. See in the troubleshooting instructions under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page.... but don't do other troubleshooting things there until you have answered the questions and tried stuff mentioned here....

What is the H/W buffer size and session sample rate? What happens when you test with a 44.1 kHz session with the largest H/W buffer you can set, yes ignore the latency for this test. If that is stable what is the smallest H/W buffer size Pro Tools can record at? Do not confuse recording (or software monitoring) and playback, Pro Tools only uses the H/W buffer size you specify when recording or software monitoring, not when just playing back content already recorded. So test while recording or monitoring an input.

Have you optimized the PC for Pro Tools... see under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Do everything you can there.

Post a Sisoft Sandra report.

[GregX]

Thanks for all the great ideas. I'm using the MOTU ASIO to get to their 828x audio interface. I'm just 'software monitoring', as I play on the keyboard. There are no errors, just the audio keeps clicking/ dropping out, and the CPU meters in Pro Tools go to max.

Latest Pro Tools, latest everything, software-wise. I run at 96k, but have tried slower. Will try again. Lots of other plugins work fine, but Moog Mariana or IK Multimedia Amplitube eat up all the CPU in just one track.

1024 sample buffer. Will try your other suggestions. Thanks.

[Darryl Ramm]

Does this look like it is consuming all CPU (across all cores) or on one core? Does it stay at full utilization or bounce around on the graph? Does it settle down after a while? Be careful what you are looking at, e.g. look at the individual CPU core consumption in Windows Resource Monitor.

Consuming all CPU (across all cores) is pretty unusual. Would be good to hear folks running these plugins on Windows if they see anything like that... but OTOH if Amplitude was behaving badly I'd expect folks to be complaining loudly.

I would disable or better uninstall any antivirus software, including from Microsoft.

Unlikely to be the issue but make sure OneDrive is not enabled, I would fully uninstall that crap.

Unlikely to be the issue but make sure all other apps and Window is set to use the systems sound device, not your interface.

In Pro Tools make sure "ignore errors" is not checked in Setup > Playback Engine, if Pro Tools is unhappy you want it to throw an error.

Otherwise I'd just work though everything already mentioned, including trying to optimize everything you can.

Does this system have a clean Windows install that you did? I don't trust HP even with Z series to not screw up their systems with crapware. If you cannot make progress within a reasonable amount of time I would spin up a clean Windows test install onto a spare partition or SSD and do a quick minimal Windows install and install just Pro Tools, the interface drivers and those plugins and just test of that works OK. Use a clean installer from Microsoft, don't use an OEM recovery partition which may reinstall crapware. If so you can migrate over to that install and eventually clone it back over your current boot drive. Sometimes going that route is just faster than trying to keep troubleshooting.

[EGS]

As already suggested by Darryl, do all steps here:

https://avidtech.my.salesforce-sites...ndows-11-Guide

Do ALL: Optimizations
Do ALL: Troubleshooting

Do ALL of these - until the problem is identified & fixed.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by GregX

... Moog Mariana or IK Multimedia Amplitube eat up all the CPU ...

Latest/current versions? I'd uninstall these 2 plugs, re-download the current installers, and re-install. (Amplitube 5 works fine on my rig.)

But you have to start with the optimizations - as discussed above.

[GregX]

Thanks, EGS, I'm amazed at your 5+GHz processor.

I'll be getting to work on your directions, and Darryl's.

I have a Firewire board in there too, that didn't work for the MOTU interface on this computer, so will be removing that too, to see if it fixes anything.

I was amazed to find that you can reduce the processor load by half in Amplitube by setting it to the two-amp mode and then going back to one amp. That can be done a couple of times.

[albee1952]

Just to give you some hope, I have a lesser Z4 G4 here(XEON quad @3.7GHz) and have no problems with Amplitube 5. I don't have the Moog plugin you mentioned to test. Not sure if this matters, but when I first got it, I connected my Mbox Studio to one of the onboard USB ports with a USB-c adapter and I had a lot of lost connections. That cleared up once I installed a PCIe card with several USB3 ports(including a single USB-c port). I don't know that this is a solution, but I felt the Z4 was lacking in ports anyway, which is why I added the card.

[GregX]

Thanks for the tip on the USB-C card, albee1952, and the encouraging words. There's no USB-C card in this computer, so it may be a good idea to add a PCIe card for it, especially seeing as I just removed the Thunderbolt card.

My audio interface is a MOTU 828x, a few years old, but pretty reliable, but only uses USB-2, so perhaps that is a bottleneck, waiting to load packets or something.

I've 'trashed my preferences' and started some of the other things, have run Sandra, but will run again. Am now running Moog Mariana at 48k now, and it works, with three center System Usage bars at around 44%. Running at 96k pegs the system usage to 100%. No crackles at 48k. Can bounce it and read it into the 96k session.

[Darryl Ramm]

Motu interface is not likely to be the issue here. USB2 to the interface will not be an issue in itself (sure exclude other USB issues though). Motu make nice quality interfaces and drivers.

And even if it was and Pro Tools is unhappy with getting audio from an interface it will throw errors. Make sure ignore errors is *not* checked in the playback engine dialog.

Again, make sure you are using the latest driver, and Pro Tools is exclusively using the Motu ASIO device, and Windows and all other apps are *not* using the Motu device for sound.