IK Multimedia T-racks Tape Machine Collection

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Excuse my naivety, I’m no computer expert but how can I check that. I tested the tapes in Logic, Live 10 and Studio One, all of which are showing approx 25% cpu usage with one instance of Tape Machine.
I have my DAW’s set up for multi core processing (apart from Live as they dropped that..).

No I’m thinking I may have bigger problems than this demo...

If anyone has any tips, please PM me. Cheers!

There's nothing to excuse. How CPU usage is calculated in DAWs is not a straightforward process, and it's ok to have questions about it.

I'm no Mac person, but if it's anything like the PC version, Studio One's CPU meter (if that's what you're using) basically shows the CPU usage of the most stressed core. So if S1's CPU meter shows 25% with a single instance of the tape machines on one track, that just means one of your 10 cores is running at 25%. The other cores will be running at less than 25%. Probably close to zero in reality. And there's no way to see that the other cores are close to zero using S1's CPU meter.

So how would you test it? Simple:

1. Create an empty project
2. Add a new track
3. Add the tape machine plugin
4. Measure CPU usage

Result: Around 25% right? Good. Now...

5. Add another track - this part is important
6. Add a new instance of the tape machine plugin to your new track
7. Measure CPU usage

Question: is your CPU usage still at about 25% in Studio One? If yes, that would pretty much confirm that it's using 25% of one core, and adding a second instance a new track, means it will be using 25% each, of two cores, with 8 cores left basically doing nothing. If your CPU is at 50%, then I'd be surprised.

Now...just to keep confirming...

8. Repeat back steps 5-7 as many times as you can until your CPU starts maxing out (make sure each instance goes on a new track - don't double up).

Question #2: how many instances can you run before you max out your CPU? Is it about 4 (25% of total CPU power per instance)? Or is it closer to 40 (25% of a single core per instance, times 10 cores)? My experience tells me it will be the latter.

The answer to that question will pretty much confirm how much CPU it actually uses. So please try this out report back. I think it's an important thing to bring up and very on-topic for this thread.

Note: a DAW like Reaper, calculates CPU entirely differently than Studio One. Reaper's plugin window will show something more akin to average CPU usage across all cores. There's a way to see the max core usage too from what I recall. But S1 does the maximum stressed core because once you max out one core, that's when you'll get audio dropouts.

[simmo75]

I'm no Mac person, but if it's anything like the PC version, Studio One's CPU meter (if that's what you're using) basically shows the CPU usage of the most stressed core. So if S1's CPU meter shows 25%, that just means one of your 10 cores is running at 25%. The other cores will be running at less than 25% (could be next to zero).

How would you test it? Simple:

1. Create an empty project
2. Add a new track
3. Add the tape machine plugin
4. Measure CPU usage

Result: Around 25% right? Good. Now...

5. Add another track - this part is important
6. Add a new instance of the tape machine plugin to your new track
7. Measure CPU usage

Question: is your CPU usage still at about 25% in Studio One? If yes, that would pretty much confirm that it's using 25% of one core, and adding a second instance a new track, means it will be using 25% each, of two cores, with 8 cores left basically doing nothing. If your CPU is at 50%, then I'd be surprised.

Now...just to keep confirming...

8. Repeat back steps 5-7 as many times as you can until your CPU starts maxing out

Question: how many instances can you run before that happens? Is it about 4 (25% of total CPU power per instance)? Or is it closer to 40 (25% of a single core per instance, times 10 cores)?

The answer to that question will pretty much confirm how much CPU it actually uses.

A DAW like Reaper, calculates CPU entirely differently than Studio One. Reaper will show something more akin to average CPU usage across all cores. There's a way to see the max core usage too from what I recall.

Thank you very much for taking the time, really appreciated.
I’ll give it a go when I’m done with work.
Cheers!

[reggie1979]

Probably just hungry. They are meant for mixing maybe and thus require the changing of buffer settings?

[cprompt]

Of course they too are required by law to charge you the appropriate tax for your location, like we are.

Hi Peter,

I know you're right and that they should charge VAT like you guys do, and that because they don't means it's not a level playing field.Be that as it may, they don't and often it's cheaper to buy from a reseller than the dev directly simply because of this. I have a stack of T-Racks and Amplitube gear that I've bought over the years so either way, IK has done ok out of me

I'm gonna try these new plugins soon. I love tape plugins and these certainly look the part. I'll be interested to see how much CPU they take under Reaper/Windows as Reaper is often touted as being one of the more CPU efficient DAWs.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Probably just hungry. They are meant for mixing maybe and thus require the changing of buffer settings?

Yes, they are meant for mixing/mastering for sure, but I did reply with this on Gearslutz which may help (and also get to the heart of the matter: the actual sound/sonic quality of these great plugins):

On a set of complex tape plugins like T-RackS Tape Machine Collection the CPU is not going to be light utilization because in order to replicate the sound of these machines we really needed to go deep. Note that the internal sampling rate of these processors is [edit: corrected] 384kHz, and the physical model of the magnetic recording process is running at that sample rate so as to sound completely analog (meaning no aliasing nor artifacts).

It is important to note that these processors are not saturators, they are accurate emulations of what happens on the real deal tape machines down to the finest sonic detail and the way they sound should really explain this more than words. It would be great to discuss the sonic quality of these processors, too, since that's the whole reason they exist and why they may be more intensive than you may have expected before you hear the end result which should explain.

[bmanic]

Haven't demoed these yet but in my opinion, as someone who owns 3 tape machines, Softube did a pretty good job with their Tape plugin and it's not at all heavy on CPU.. so it IS possible.

Will give the IK plugins a go but I'm extremely allergic to the custom shop and IK business in general so these have to be pretty special to warrant a purchase.

[reggie1979]

One thing I don't understand and I'm going to be kinda general here is that why wouldn't you just put one on the master and do that? Is it like VCC where it's best to put it on all channels?

[mcbpete]

Peter - Your web team might need to reword the T-RackS 5 MAX page now:

T-RackS 5 MAX gives you all the processors included in T-RackS 5 Deluxe plus all the individual gear models available in T-RackS Custom Shop.

Was looking forward to having these nice new machines as part of my Max collection, but guessing it isn't to be ...

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Peter - Your web team might need to reword the T-RackS 5 MAX page now:

T-RackS 5 MAX gives you all the processors included in T-RackS 5 Deluxe plus all the individual gear models available in T-RackS Custom Shop.

Was looking forward to having these nice new machines as part of my Max collection, but guessing it isn't to be ...

IK doesn't add to their max bundles after purchase. It's the "max" as of time of purchase unlike say Waves and their bundle additions. As far as I can recall, it's always been like this with IK.

[mixtur.se]

Peter - Your web team might need to reword the T-RackS 5 MAX page now:

T-RackS 5 MAX gives you all the processors included in T-RackS 5 Deluxe plus all the individual gear models available in T-RackS Custom Shop.

Was looking forward to having these nice new machines as part of my Max collection, but guessing it isn't to be ...

IK doesn't add to their max bundles after purchase. It's the "max" as of time of purchase unlike say Waves and their bundle additions. As far as I can recall, it's always been like this with IK.

And no upgrade paths for existing users either, just a random cross-grade deal for everyone

[bmanic]

Aww shit.. these sound excellent.

[plexuss]

Probably just hungry. They are meant for mixing maybe and thus require the changing of buffer settings?

Yes, they are meant for mixing/mastering for sure, but I did reply with this on Gearslutz which may help (and also get to the heart of the matter: the actual sound/sonic quality of these great plugins):

On a set of complex tape plugins like T-RackS Tape Machine Collection the CPU is not going to be light utilization because in order to replicate the sound of these machines we really needed to go deep. Note that the internal sampling rate of these processors is 192k, and the physical model of the magnetic recording process is running at that sample rate so as to sound completely analog (meaning no aliasing nor artifacts).

It is important to note that these processors are not saturators, they are accurate emulations of what happens on the real deal tape machines down to the finest sonic detail and the way they sound should really explain this more than words. It would be great to discuss the sonic quality of these processors, too, since that's the whole reason they exist and why they may be more intensive than you may have expected before you hear the end result which should explain.

I always wondered what exactly gets emulated with tape emulations? WIth real tape it's all about the magnetized areas on the tape passing over a coil to induce a current, etc. Is this what is emulated? the physics of magentic particles and electromagnetism? or... ? Do these IK Tape emulations emulate down to this level?

[reggie1979]

Aww shit.. these sound excellent.

See?

[acousticglue]

CPU is heavy because it's magnetized

[elxsound]

Aww shit.. these sound excellent.

I hate that I trust your opinion. Similar allergy too.