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  4. MIR and CPU Strategies in Older Computers

  • MIR and CPU Strategies in Older Computers

    P
    P

    Today was inevitable, a day of CPU reckoning. But this too will be overome with knowledge, time, and probably more hardware. So for now, help me with the knowledge part if you can.  

    I have a Mac Pro early 2008 8-core 2.8 GHz with 18GB driving five instances in VEP 5, and a Mac Mini Server (current model) with 8 GB running seven instances.  MIR is hosted in the MacPro, and all seven Mac Mini instances send to the MacPro for processing and final output. 

    It's been great fun designing a template for these wonderful sounds one by one, auditioning live. But today I loaded a full song in Logic. Clearly I lacked the horsepower to drive it all.

    Next step: I downloaded a MIR demo for the Mac Mini, and I'll assigning MIR to its own seven VEP instances, hoping to relieve the older, slower Mac Pro of some CPU drain. I hope to report what happens.

    Questions:

    1. The CPU meter in Logic doesn't seem overloaded. In fact, it looks like a modest drain compared to some larger songs in EXS that have squeaked by. Can this be explained? 

    2. Are there any settings that might help me maximize MIR on either or both computers? 

    The overloads cause the usual stuttering and garbled playback. Thinner parts of the arrangement sound fine. But the tipping point comes well before any tutti.  

    Thanks for your support. 
  • P
    P

    "2. Are there any settings that might help me maximize MIR on either or both computers?"

    For starters, increase the MIR latency. A bump from 512 to 1024 stopped a lot of stuttering. 
  • DietzD
    VSL Team
    DietzD

    Hi,

    If you’re running out of CPU power during work, there are several options to alleviate the situation. Depending on how far you have to go down the following list, the sound of your arrangement could change considerably, of course:

    HTH,

    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • K
    K

    It's also important to note that the MIR latency should be greater than the host buffer size in order to decrease CPU usage properly.
  • Cyril BlancC
    Cyril BlancC

    Thanks to Dietz and Karel for the two last post. 

    It has been a long time that we where looking for this kind of guidance.

    You could add this guidance in a chapter of the manual

    Thanks again

    Best

    Cyril
  • P
    P

    Yep. I really do appreciate the list too. End users usually buy hardware only when the software requires it, so tips like this are helpful, even if they're a buzzkill of sorts. Just stick them in an appendix. Happily, as I straighten out these issues, I'm delighted to find that MIR is feasible on a four-year old MacPro. 

    The point that Karel made about buffers is in the MIR Pro manual v1.0 on page 8: "MIR latency below or equal to the host buffer size will give sub-par results." So far, this was the lion's share of my problems. Currently I'm doing well with Logic at 512 (sadly high, due to the age of my computer), and MIR at 2048. MIR at 1024 is workable too. But Logic / MIR at 512 / 512 was not working for more than a handful of instruments. 

    Also, I'm going to collectivize some separate articulations to reduce the number of MIR icons. 

    Some clarification requests: 1. "..."in the Preferences, assign as many threads to MIR Pro as possible."

    I can't see any way to assign threads to MIR specifically. Dietz, did you mean assign as Default Thread Counts (per instance) in the Multiprocessing section of the Server Preferences? 

    2. "...- switch off Character Presets."

    How is it switched off? Does setting it to "Pure" switch it off? 

    3. Relative to overall MIR and VE Pro performance, would an upgrade to Lion from 10.6.8 help? 

    Thanks as always.