Monitor view cranks up the load factor

[RandyHyde]

Bringing up a monitor view on my host adds about 20% to the load. Is this expected? This doesn't seem right (it's not like we're adding any additional audio processing, are we?)
Cheers,
Randy Hyde

[Bob L]

My system with a 42 chan session playing adds 2%... sounds about right for the extra meter processing on all the monitor mixes.

What OS?

Bob L

[RandyHyde]

My system with a 42 chan session playing adds 2%... sounds about right for the extra meter processing on all the monitor mixes.

What OS?

Bob L

XP Service Pack 3.
Also, I'm finding that video refresh of the F Mixer is horribly slow while I have the monitor F Mix up.
edit (after some more testing):
Actually, the screen redraw issue is related to the Mackie devices. If I have all three Mackie devices operational, screen redraws are horribly slow.


Do we need to do a channel disable on all the extra inputs?
Cheers,
Randy Hyde

[Bob L]

Well... each active chan does add to the load... this was some of my original complaints about the slowness of the data being sent to the Mackies and MotorMix units for the displays... lots of data... now with 24 chans... perhaps its noticeable.

I have one MCU master to test... I had to do the templates blind for the Extenders... I have tested 16 chans with the Icon and Extender which should be pretty similar to the Mackies.

I will actually have three units here on Monday to setup and see what is going on.

I believe its going to work out nice in the end...

Bob L

[RandyHyde]

Well... each active chan does add to the load... this was some of my original complaints about the slowness of the data being sent to the Mackies and MotorMix units for the displays... lots of data... now with 24 chans... perhaps its noticeable.

I have one MCU master to test... I had to do the templates blind for the Extenders... I have tested 16 chans with the Icon and Extender which should be pretty similar to the Mackies.

I will actually have three units here on Monday to setup and see what is going on.

I believe its going to work out nice in the end...

Bob L

Yes, after lots of experimentation, I've determined that the real culprit is running the 3 Mackie units. Without MIDI control, performance is fine. But with the three Mackie units, screen redraws slow to an absolute crawl and my Load factor jumps from 33-35% to 55-60%.

Note that the performance hit isn't so bad with only one Mackie unit. Is there any way to write the information to the three units in parallel?
Cheers,
Randy Hyde

[Bob L]

Not easily... but when I get my three units in the next day or two, let me see what I can do... first I want to see if I have the same kind of loading issue as you are.... I wonder if your bios has the usb ports set down to the slower legacy mode instead of full speed mode... perhaps you might want to chack that in the meantime.

Bob L

[Butch Bos]

Well after 2 shows on 4.0a and all works great
Can not see any extra load with monitor view at all
Load % same in 3.1 and 4.0a with same show file
I could even rip a cd on the host with NO dropped buffers

AND I always know if the gate or the comp is working by the 1 meter AND my EARS but dual colors or maybe just a dot if the gate is on at all
would help the less trained operators (ducking and running now)

Did I mention I love the monitor View it is sooo much faster now

Butch

[Bob L]

Good news... yes... it seems 4.0a was the fix that solved the loading issues... and the good news is that the fix exposed some interesting internal Windows stuff that could improve the engine performance by quite a bit more with a bit more work.

I am hopeful when these new changes are implemented we will see a great reduction in video driver interference and slipped buffers, maybe even a serious improvement in Win 7 and Win 8 performance.

Randy... I am working hard on some code changes that will hopefully improve the Mackie template performance issues. I have received my three units and now have a serious chance to debug the bogdown with various modifications to the way the large amounts of data are handled... hopefully this will happen over the next few days.

Bob L

[mojogil]

Regarding Butch's point, how difficult would it be to change the gate indicator to a simple dot and leave the meter for the comp?

[TomyN]

Well, I'd not like to see the meter working only for the compressor. Especial on long release times, it would be nice to watch the current state of the gate on the meter. For me adding a simple dot (red = closed, green = above threshold and yellow = below threshold, but still open due to hold / release) would be all I'd want.

[Bob L]

I'll look into it.

Bob L

[Jeff Scott]

Well, I'd not like to see the meter working only for the compressor. Especial on long release times, it would be nice to watch the current state of the gate on the meter. For me adding a simple dot (red = closed, green = above threshold and yellow = below threshold, but still open due to hold / release) would be all I'd want.

+1...that would be a great idea.

[Carl G.]

I'll look into it.

Bob L
I know nothing about the code involved... so I say this with caution....That option would follow the useful Valley People Gatex lighting, while freeing up the meter for simultaneous view of compression gain reduction. Byt that seems like like a lot of programming (and graphics) just to view what we can already view (but separately). BTW... in SAWStudio... (for those recording/mixing down project) the graph over waveform readout is a great way to ballpark depth of the gate threshold) :)

EDIT: As pointed out in another thread.... If you want to watch gating threshold simultaneously with Compression threshold in the same channel, simply patch the Levelizer in the channel desired for use of the compression threshold while using the channel strip for the gating function.