Maschine plus hardware CPU tips

S Righteous
S Righteous Member Posts: 140 Helper
edited September 2022 in Maschine

Just checking if there are any good tips for keeping the CPU low on the hardware.

I had a program today which kept hitting 80% CPU, which caused the info symbol to appear and things became erratic. I never saw 90% because it would spike from 80% to the warning. So I saved my program, rebooted the M+ and reloaded the program and then it was running at 60% CPU with no issues. Same content - different results, so there must be other things contributing to CPU spikes, like possibly undo history?

I booted up an empty project and then loaded my 16 groups one by one to see what their individual CPU usage was, most were 15% (on average). Of course this is no real indication, because if I added up all the CPU usage of the individual groups, it was 200%.

I also thought I might resample a bunch of my samples, once an arrangement is close to finished. Make sure I don't need Maximizer, EQ, Transient Shaper - all of which I make liberal use of, along with Reverb (but I'm not going to bake reverb into the samples!). So I loaded my project which was running at 60% and deleted a lot of plug-ins from 12 groups. This was only a 5% savings on my CPU hit, so not worth the bother of resampling samples without plug-ins.

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Comments

  • DeepThumb
    DeepThumb Member Posts: 155 Advisor

    Hi, send FX on groups instead FX on sounds could be a solution. YT has some videos about it.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,050 Expert

    Maschine FX do have some impact on the CPU but it’s negligible compared to other plugins. Reaktor (Monark), Massive and FM8 have more measurable impact. However, even for those, there’s considerable optimization in the background, because loading more instances of the same plugin increases CPU load much less than expected.

    IME, Kontakt, Phasis and Raum do not scale as well.

    Loops are worst: 6 to 7 Audio modules in Stretch mode already overload the CPU. Check whether you have Audio modules in your Groups and set them to Re-Pitch if possible.

  • S Righteous
    S Righteous Member Posts: 140 Helper

    yeah, I haven't used Audio tracks yet, and probably never will if they are CPU heavy. Good to know.

    I have an Octatrack which can do real time time-stretching - it's not the nicest sounding, but neither is my music. . . I would rather it be a rougher algorithm and work without fail, then sound nicer and crash.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,050 Expert
    edited September 2022
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/32571#Comment_32571

    As mentioned, you can use the „rougher“ algorithm (Re-Pitch). There are at least two threads about this topic here…

    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/6009/why-does-my-cpu-runs-red-when-i-load-8-songs-with-each-16-audio-slots

    This included posts about CPU load of FX and later on Loops:

    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/5743/features-in-maschine-sw-but-not-on-maschine-standalone


  • Space Cat 303
    Space Cat 303 Member Posts: 106 Advisor

    I have a project (almost finished) which now exceeds 90% (!), but I have no problems with sound or crashes, it is very loaded with effects and instruments, I converted some patterns into audio samples and erases the converted track and it is by doing this that I recover the most CPU load. Everything else (delete effects, unused samples, patterns changes almost nothing in CPU load.

    I would add that since the big update in May, the M+ holds the CPU load really well, up to the red zone, without any problem.

  • S Righteous
    S Righteous Member Posts: 140 Helper
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/32629#Comment_32629

    So you are saying that deleting the midi data, and replacing patterns with a single sample of that recovered CPU? I had assumed that midi data was the least taxing on the system, and the audio path, with plug-ins etc was the most taxing on CPU.

  • Space Cat 303
    Space Cat 303 Member Posts: 106 Advisor
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/32630#Comment_32630

    I expressed myself badly, erase the midi data, included erase the instrument that goes with this midi data, and leave just the sound sample of the recorded pattern.

  • S Righteous
    S Righteous Member Posts: 140 Helper

    If I understand correctly, you mean if there was a software instrument, sample that, and delete the CPU hungry instrument plug-in. That makes sense.

    I mostly use one shot samples, sequenced with midi, and assume sampling that into a single loop wouldn't do much for CPU savings.

  • tribepop
    tribepop Member Posts: 152 Advisor
    edited September 2022
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/32479#Comment_32479

    110% what Ozon is saying here about using the Audio modules running in”stretch” mode. Two or more instances of stretch mode will kill your projects even if your CPU load is low. I primarily use the audio module in stretch mode as a way to get a loop to the right tempo and pitch and then I just resample it into a new audio module in “Re-Pitch” mode and it works just as good at a fraction of the resources.

    I have projects with a bunch of groups, FX, and instances of massive or the other synths on the M+ and I barely break 50% on the busiest parts of the songs so there’s definitely a way to get the M+ to run smoothly, you just have to experiment and trim the fat where needed.

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