How does Bitwig 2 handle multicore?

[shaneturner]

Hello! I'm running an 8-core 6900k with hyperthreading enabled on Win 10. I am wondering about how to manage CPU, as I run some heavy plugins (I'm talking about you, Ircam Trax!) that can easily annihilate a virtual core.

So I'm running a setup with a few plugins, and the bitwig DSP meter is showing a nice blue wall. However when I open up Windows Task Manager-->CPU performance monitor, I see that half of my cores are more or less unused. If I move the plugin with the heaviest CPU load to its own track, I notice the crackling reduces significantly. Does Bitwig 2 assign individual channels to different cores? Thanks for any replies! So far really liking Bitwig 2.

[ejgallego]

I read somewhere that it uses one core per track, but I don't know if that is true (I think it makes sense)

[incubus]

I can only say this (for what it's worth) .........

That CPU is sick, and if you are experiencing issues, something wrong overall.

In the beginning (before win 10) I had some cpu issues, but since then with a SIGNIFICANTLY lower cpu, I've been fine ( a 4770k, not overclocked)

Not sure what else to say.

[stamp]

I read somewhere that it uses one core per track, but I don't know if that is true (I think it makes sense)

Yes, it's true

[ThomasHelzle]

Yes, multithreading is per track as in pretty much all DAWs.

For very heavy plugins, per-core performance is still an issue if the plugin itself doesn't multithread.
I run my CPU 33% overclocked with 4.1 GHz and have no issues even with heavy plugins.

I would also advise to try if you get better performance with the "Each plugin" setting or the "Only as bit-bridge" setting in Preferences -> Plugins. On my 6 core, 12 thread machine, "Each plugin" performs best. It seems that up to 4 cores the other setting may be better but with very high core numbers performance shifts towards the "Each pluign" setting.
Restart Bitwig after changing the setting, loaded plugins can not be switched from one mode to the other.

Cheers,

Tom

[amg56]

It does put everything that is on the same track on one thread. For that reason, it's not a good idea to use an Instrument Layer device to stack up VST instruments that CPU-intensive. Those VST instruments will eventually jam up a core and break up your audio. In that case, you will find that splitting them out onto individual tracks, and then grouping the tracks for the overall processing greatly improves your CPU situation. The app is then able to break up the processes over multiple cores.