u-he

MacGrimace · Post by **MacGrimace** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:19 am

Hello All,

I'm evaluating Zebra, before purchase and I'm getting crackling, spitting and distortion on a number of presets,

-HS Argoblitz for one.

What's baffling is Ableton only shows about 35% CPU. The Apple Activity Monitor shows about the same thing. I would think the usage would me much higher for how bad some presets fall apart. Some presets sound incredible, but I don't want to spend the bucks if my system is too weak to fully utilize the synth. I turned down the Voices to few, but it didn't help. Anything else to make Zebra ride nice? Is this fairly typical results on a typical Macbook?

It's surprising, my MBP runs everything else just fine. It's an early 2011, 2.2GHz i7 with 8GB or RAM and Ableton 8.3.4 32-bit.

Ready to spend, but seems like somewhat of a waste right now.

Thanks for any feedback

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:58 am

That is odd. I'm running Windows x64 vst rev 866 and I played 8 notes sustained on HS Argoblitz. It ran right around 3.5% cpu usage. Zebra should be relatively light on the CPU compared to a lot of the more recent instruments out here. I have an ivy bridge Core i7-3770 3.4GHz cpu, not overclocked.

Are you using the AU or VST? Try the other one, see if it makes a difference.

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:16 am

Your cpu usage is not the problem.
I have a 2010 2.88ghz coreduo2, using in Live, and have no such problem.
It's very possible though that the output level is too high for the patch or daw output.
There are certain presets that do go into the red and cause distortion, in Live though, but if you turn down the output in Zebra, you will realize that this is exactly the problem.
So just lower the output then save.

Going into the red and distorting the sound is also possible, with many presets, if playing 6 note chords, at full velocity as well.

Lower the output and see if that works.

werp · Post by **werp** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:30 am

silly me...
now how do I delete my own post?
Blushes...

MacGrimace · Post by **MacGrimace** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:51 pm

mcnoone wrote: There are certain presets that do go into the red and cause distortion, in Live though, but if you turn down the output in Zebra, you will realize that this is exactly the problem.
So just lower the output then save.
....

Lower the output and see if that works.

Lowered Output down to 2.00, did not help on any of the presets that crackle. Thanks for confirming it's not CPU.

Bathrobe · Post by **Bathrobe** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:02 pm

i know that the ace demo is crackling as a demo restriction.
maybe it's the same with zebra.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:19 pm

try putting the live limiter after zebra on the track as a quick test

you should have no trouble cpu wise... how many applications are open? how much free hard drive space do you have? maybe restart your computer and try again...

MacGrimace · Post by **MacGrimace** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:18 pm

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I ended up going out to Ableton and getting the latest update. [https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/how ... ompletely/ (https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/how-to-uninstall-live-completely/)]I completely uninstalled Live[/url], reinstalled. Zebra now sounds as good as advertised !!!

Amazing synth. Getting ready to buy.

Thanks for all the immediate replies, makes troubleshooting so much easier with all the sanity checks

u-he

KVR Audio

Expected behaviour? Evaluating Zebra2 .. lots of crackling