Slow VST Scan - Jamstix or StompBud owners please help me!

[pough]

Over the last few days I've been running tests on Tracktion's VST plugin scan. On my system, it's been ridiculously slow - up to 2 hours! So I've been moving plugins around and scanning to see which are to blame for this. I've even written Perl code to parse the log file and create a CSV to import into a spreadsheet, which compares and collates times.

It's looking like VSTs which load large sound files by default will not only slow Tracktion down while they're being loaded, they also slow down every plugin loaded afterwards!

My tests show that VSTs load up within 2-3 seconds at the worst (some at the start load at a rate of about 6 per second!) until they hit Jamstix. After that, it's about 10-15 seconds per plugin. After StompBud, it gets as bad as 30 seconds per plugin - even tiny ones that should load in less than a second! (And J/K happen to sit in the middle of the folder list, right before N.I./NUSofting and well before my long list of Voxengo plugins...)

I'm going to keep testing by putting Jamstix and StompBud in other positions in the scan, but can others with these plugins please run a scan and send me log files to parse? It would be very helpful.

[valley]

my guess is that those plugs are either not freeing their RAM, or more likely, that they are causing high levels of RAM fragmentation which is causing Windows to hit the page file unecessarily.

That's a great catch though, as it at least offers some clues as to why some users can't use Ts plugin scan, whilst others have no issues.

good sleuthing pough!

[Lunch Money]

Awesome. I bet Mackie will find your discoveries interesting.

{edit: awesome work I mean, not awesome that you get 2hr-long scans. )

[pough]

I wonder if Mackie will note this. Ben? Should I send an email to Mackie support about this? It may very well be Tracktion not bothering to free things up, but I have no idea. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't crop up during most tests; you have to be like me and not only have some RAM hogs in the middle, but also a crapload of plugins trying to be loaded afterwards, too. I'm looking at my list of plugins and making a note of quite a few that can go away, but I do think this is still an issue worth addressing.

[TerryR]

I have Jamstix and have not noticed long scan times. But I don't have a large number of plugins installed.

[pough]

I have Jamstix and have not noticed long scan times. But I don't have a large number of plugins installed.

Thanks. Can you send me your log file or a portion of it?

[pough]

Your log file will be called "log.txt" and is found in the "~tempororay files" (or something like that) folder in your Tracktion program folder. The portion of it dealing with the scan will start with

Code: Select all

10:09:15 pm searching in C:\Program Files\Steinberg\vstplugins

and the scanning looks like this:

Code: Select all

10:45:11 pm VST: Chainer VST.dll
10:45:12 pm VST: Chainer VSTi.dll
10:45:12 pm VST: Ethnosphere.dll
10:45:13 pm VST: 4Front Auxiter.dll

[rpc9943]

try getting the latest jamstix

RonC

[pough]

try getting the latest jamstix

I'll do that eventually, but I'd prefer to track the issue down first in case it really is an issue for Tracktion. I may as well try to find out what the problem is. If we bypass it with a new version of Jamstix but the naughtiness really remains, it'll crop up again later.

I at least want to comfirm that other installs of StompBud/Jamstix will cause some slowdown of the remaining plugins. Otherwise it points to an issue with my system and not Tracktion or the plugins. I mean, the simple solution is to rename the folders so that these plugins get scanned last, but that's more a band-aid than anything else. I wanna get to the root of the problem.

[levitator]

pm containing log file sent

[koolkeys]

I haven't personally noticed a long time with Jamstix, but I do see what you mean. I also don't have a huge amount of plugins these days compared to what I used to have.

Next time I fire up Tracktion, I'll do a complete rescan and get the log file. I'm sure that Beno will come around, but if not, this can be forwarded to him.

Until then, I do suggest getting the latest beta of Jamstix. It has multi-threaded loading and doesn't take quite as long. It helps with not bogging down your system while it's loading, which is something that many were having problems with.

Brent

[rockstar_not]

make sure your anti-virus is disabled before you scan. That used to really bog down my plugin scan, but it was quite a bit shorter than 5 minutes.

Jamstix recently installed by the way - didn't notice it taking any longer than other plugins to register for the first time.

-Scott

[koolkeys]

Yeah, I'm not sure that Jamstix is affecting everyone, but I can see how it might if the plugin scan was waiting for it to load the samples. But like you, I have not personally had it take much time at all.

Brent

[valley]

it might not be just jamstix though, it may be that and a couple of other larger plugins working in tandem to slow things down.

[pough]

it might not be just jamstix though, it may be that and a couple of other larger plugins working in tandem to slow things down.

Jamstix and StompBud (both of which load big sound files, IIRC) seem to be the main culprits, although I should do a lot more testing to make sure. Here's a PDF of my first test. It shows where Jamstix and StompBud seem to introduce a huge speed bump. It's quite noticeable that after they slowly load, nothing manages to load quickly. How fast should Muon's mdrive load? It certainly shouldn't be 30 seconds!

This is just a preliminary; the trouble is time. When I left home for work, I was running a scan with ALL the plugins except StompBud to see what effect JamStix has on its own. And it will be interesting to see if it's just a problem with some plugins or if Tracktion in general lets things get bogged down. It might be a bit from column A and a bit from column B...

And yes, I know I have way too many plugins. I've done a lot of testing and then forget to get rid of them. I'll do that. After I find the root of this problem!