CPU question mono vs stereo

[danyg]

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.

[danyg]

no-one with more information?

[off the wall]

Originally Posted by danyg

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.

[BScout]

https://www.soundizers.com/

panning stereo tracks that are actually mono is an annoyance which is the first reason to get rid of them.

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by off the wall

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.

[danyg]

- 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,

It also takes 1/2 the voices.

So Vanilla can play 256 mono tracks ?

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

[off the wall]

Originally Posted by danyg

- 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.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by off the wall

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)

[off the wall]

Originally Posted by JFreak

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."

[JFreak]

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.