Need help with MIR Pro on multiple PC setup. (Having CPU overloads) .

[muziksculp]

Hi,

I need some advice/assistance as to what's the best way to setup my system to use MIR-Pro without having pops and clicks issues caused by CPU overload, which is occurring as soon as I have more than 5 or 6 MIR-Pro instances plugged into Cubase 7. 

My system consists of three PCs.  (One Master PC and Two Slave PCs) The Vienna Instruments on both slave PCs are hosted via VE-Pro 5.  The Master computer is running Cubase 7, and MIR-Pro , Please note : There are no Vienna Instruments installed on the Master PC. 

So… What is the best way to resolve the pop/click issues I'm having due to CPU overload in Cubase 7 ?

i.e.  Do you recommend that I use MIR Pro on both PC slaves in VE-Pro 5. (which would mean I need a second MIR Pro license for my second slave PC. )  Also noting that this option would not give me a consolidated MIR Pro environment, so I need to make sure both MIR Pro settings on each slave PC are similar, plus it will not see all my instruments represented in one MIR Pro stage, but rather they will be split up into two MIR stages. (I'm guessing this is not the best way to deal with my issue). 

OR…

Do you recommend I use MIR Pro in VE-Pro 5 on the Master PC, instead of using MIR Pro in Cubase 7,  then send the audio from the VI-Pro instruments on the slaves, and process them in MIR-Pro in VE-Pro 5 on the Master PC, then send there audio to Cubase 7 from VE-Pro on Master PC ?  and if this is the better method. how do I do this ? I'm new to the VSL system. So I would appreciate some feedback/instructions on how to go about this option, provided it is the best/recommended option to be able to have a healthy number of Vienna and 3rd-party instruments to be processed via MIR Pro. 

Sorry, if I'm complicating things since I'm new to using the VSL system (VSL VE-Pro 5, MIR Pro, VI Pro 2) on multiple PC systems.  

I would appreciate some assistance/feedback in getting my system to work efficiently with MIR Pro,  and hopefully I can place a healthy number of VSL Instruments, and 3rd-Party VST instruments into a MIR Pro venue, and enjoy processing them without CPU overload issues.  

Oh... by the way, VSL instruments processed via MIR Pro sound fantastic, but I wish I could use the system without having CPU overloads / Pops & Clicks. Hopefully I can sort this out with your assistance.  

Thanks,

Muziksculp 

[Dietz]

Hi Muziksculp,

Just to make sure that I'm understanding you correctly now (as I obviously misunderstood your issue in VI Control's forum): Your instruments are on the two slave PCs (Windows 7, I assume?) inside VE Pro. MIR Pro is used as VST plug-in inside of Cubase 7 on your master PC (Windows 7?). You're sending MIDI from Cubase to VE Pro on the slaves, while routing back the derived audio to Cubase on the master PC. When sending these audio streams into MIR Pro plug-in, you get clicks/drop-outs which don't occur as long as you don't instantiate MIR Pro.

... is this the problem, or did I misunderstand you again?

Kind regards,

/Dietz

[muziksculp]

@Dietz said:

Hi Muziksculp,

Just to make sure that I'm understanding you correctly now (as I obviously misunderstood your issue in VI Control's forum): Your instruments are on the two slave PCs (Windows 7, I assume?) inside VE Pro. MIR Pro is used as VST plug-in inside of Cubase 7 on your master PC (Windows 7?). You're sending MIDI from Cubase to VE Pro on the slaves, while routing back the derived audio to Cubase on the master PC. When sending these audio streams into MIR Pro plug-in, you get clicks/drop-outs which don't occur as long as you don't instantiate MIR Pro.

... is this the problem, or did I misunderstand you again?

Kind regards,

/Dietz

Hi Dietz,

Yes, that is correct.

All  3 computers are PCs/Windows 7. (1 Master running Cubase 7 and MIR-Pro, two Slaves running VEPro 5, and VIPro 2).

Thanks,

Muziksculp 

[muziksculp]

Hello Dietz,

I think I solved the issue of pops & clicks. 

It was a simple solution [:D]   Basically, I set my Audio Interface (RME UFX) to a latency of 128 samples , this is the setting I like to work at, I then set the MIR Pro latency to 512 Samples.

Tested this setting with ten vienna instruments loaded into MIR Pro , (Note : the Vienna Instruments are hosted via VE-Pro 5, on one of my slave PCs) I chose the 'Vienna Konzerhaus GrosserSaal v2. in MIR PRO (which is running on the Master PC) and it is working very nicely, no more pops/clicks.

I will conduct further tests, by loading additional Vienna Instruments into the MIR Pro Stage, and see how my system handles the additional procesisng load. I will report my test results on this thread. 

Cheers,

Muziksculp  

[Dietz]

 Great to hear! Does this mean that you're up & running now?

Best,

[muziksculp]

@Dietz said:

 Great to hear! Does this mean that you're up & running now?

Best,

Hi Dietz,

Not just yet. I need to test MIR Pro with more instruments loaded, to find out how far I can push my system. 

I will be posting some feedback on this as soon as I get a chance to test it.  In my initial test, I used 10 Vienna Instruments in MIR Pro (with no pops & clicks).

I will be increasing the load gradually, and see how it goes.  I'm very excited to begin using VI-Pro 2, MIR-Pro, and get to discover my current selection of VSL libraries, and possibly add more VSL libraries, and even additional MIR Pro Room Packs in the future. I love the flexibility VI-Pro 2 offers, and MIR Pro adds another level to this flexibility from an acoustics perspective. I'm sure you will have more interesting products to look forward to in the future.

Your products are First-Class, and so is your customer support.   

Many Thanks,

Muziksculp 

[muziksculp]

Hi Dietz,

Here is an update on my system's performance with MIR Pro.  I ran tests at various latency combinations.  and here is what I feel is the best my system can offer :

I am able to get a maximum of 16 instruments (VI-Pro2) into the MIR Pro stage, basically each instrument's stereo output is going to Cubase 7, where I have a MIR Pro inserted into each of the 16 audio channels. Cubase 7 is set to a latency buffer of 256 samples, MIR Pro is set to a latency of 1024 samples.  more channels of MIR Pro would cause pops/clicks to appear due to CPU overload. I could incerase Cubase 7 (I'm using RME UFX ASIO audio interface) latency to 512 samples, but playing in real time does not feel very comfortable with latency set at 512.

I'm guessing that I can work with a max. of 16 MIR channels, since I might be able to group some instruments into the same channel. (i.e. all Hi-Brass can be assigned to the same MIR Pro output channel, All Low-Brass assigned to another channel, ...etc. etc. for other groups of instruments).

I can most likely have more MIR Pro channels if I increase both MIR Pro and Cubase 7 Buffers, but playing in real time at these high-buffers is not feasible. Which means I could use these high-settings to use MIR Pro in a Post-Production scenario. Where I would assign, and edit the instruments on the stage after having recorded the performances into my DAW. But, I'm not sure I need to go this far. Since I feel 16 audio channels of MIR Pro could be sufficient to get a good spatial placement of the various groups of instruments, I can then apply an algorithmic reverb, or VSL's Hybrid Reverb to polish the overall mix. (By the way, I love the VSL Suite's EQ, it is one of my favorite EQs).

Do you think I will be able to load more instruments if I was using MIRx ,  I will be running each MIRx plug-in on each of the two slave-PCs and not in Cubase 7 (given that MIRx works withing VI-Pro2) as a plug-in, I would guess that the two PCs running MIRx would be able to handle this task more efficiently, since I will be distributing the processing power required by on the two Slave-PC systems ?   What are your thoughts on this detail ? 

Please let me know if there is anything I'm missing here, or if you have any additional tips to further improve the results I posted.

Thanks & All The Best,

Muziksculp  

[Dietz]

Hi Muziksculp,

@Another User said:

Please let me know if there is anything I'm missing here, or if you have any additional tips to further improve the results I posted.

I think that for now, it would be worth some additional efforts to find out whether there's still some undetected bottle-neck in your system, or if you have indeed reached the ceiling of its performance.

All the best,

[muziksculp]

Hello Dietz,

Thanks for the feedback.

I will try to see if I can get down to what might be causing the bottleneck in my system, and will report back on this thread if I find a breakthrough/the cause of the bottleneck in my system's performance with MIR Pro. I have a few variables in my system that I can look into, but not plenty. 

My Master PC is an Intel i7 X990 (6-core , 3.47 Ghz) with 24 GB RAM.  So it is a pretty capable machine. How many MIR-Pro channels do you feel I'm supposed to be able to load in Cubase 7, since you indicate you feel there is some type of bottleneck.  (i.e. 24 or 36 or more channels ?  @ a buffer of 256 for master PC, and 1024 for MIR Pro ? ) . I know this is a hypothetical question, but I would like to get some type of benchmark that I could compare my system against given my PC specs.  

Cheers,

Muziksculp 

[Dietz]

BTW: You never told us what sample-rate you're using. With 96 kHz MIR Pro (and pretty much any other audio application and plug-in) will need more than twice the resources than it would with 44.1.

Kind regards,

[muziksculp]

@Dietz said:

BTW: You never told us what sample-rate you're using. With 96 kHz MIR Pro (and pretty much any other audio application and plug-in) will need more than twice the resources than it would with 44.1.

Kind regards,

Sample Rate = 44.1 Khz

[muziksculp]

Hi,

Here is an update on my MIR issue.  

I ended up buying 2 X MIRx (Bundle) Licenses for each of my PC-Slaves running VE-Pro 5, and VI-Pro 2 , I have MIR-Pro on my Master PC, which is running Cubase 7.  

This setup has solved my CPU overload issues, since I'm able to split the CPU load on two PC Slave Systems. I am now able to load, and play quite a good amount of VSL VI-Pro 2 instruments, and have MIRx enganed, and Synchornized via the Synch. button on each slave, All I have to do is select the same venue on each slave.  MIRx is not as tweakable as MIR-Pro but it does a great job in providing a great sounding acoustic environement for my VSL instruments. I can use MIR-Pro to tweak, or use non-VSL instruments if needed on my Master PC.

Hope this is helpful to other VSL users who might be experiencing CPU limitations when using MIR-Pro 

Cheers,

Muziksculp 

[Dietz]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Muziksculp! [Y]