Enabling surround mode = performance difference?

[Tagirijus]

Hey there,

I am currently setting up a new workflow in which I can have a XY controller in MXXX to controll the send/input ratio in Reaper - intended for radio play productions. Basically I have a track which sends to main (as default) and also to a reverb track. Now I set up a XY controller (2 MPs) in MXXX to controll the panning on X and the depth of reverb on Y (so I can "walk around" a radio play character, yeah!*). For this I had to enable the surround mode so that the plugin can output more than 2 channels.

Now I am wondering why there is an enable button at all in the plugin after all. I did a quick test and it seemed to me that the surround mode enabled, BUT only L+R chosen in the plugin does not need more resources.

So what is the point of being able to disable it? Or what could be the advantage?

I am asking, because it is enabled in every Melda plugin, when enabled in one plugin ... and I just hope that it won't become a problem at some point. ... just the paranoid me.


* I did this technique in FL Studio before with their "patcher", which allowed routing quite easily in the FL mixer. And by the way: I used this technique in "A Singing Comet", which was a sonficiation I made some years ago for the ESA, which even went viral.

[vectorwarrior]

Yeah, I've wondered this too. You could easily do a performance test with it on or off and see if you spot a cpu difference. I haven't had time to do this yet but would be interested to see.

[Tagirijus]

Yeah, I've wondered this too. You could easily do a performance test with it on or off and see if you spot a cpu difference. I haven't had time to do this yet but would be interested to see.

My quick test was (don't ask me why, haha) in MAutoDynamicEQ. Reapers CPU output was the same with the same settings, when chosen L+R in both: surround enabled and disabled. But for sure one could do a more solid testing. Anyway: maybe Vojtech could just say something about it, if he finds a bit time.

[MeldaProduction]

It actually depends on the DAW. Anyways by default the plugins are in L+R channel mode, so the additional channels are simply ignored, so no problem with performance

[Tagirijus]

It actually depends on the DAW. Anyways by default the plugins are in L+R channel mode, so the additional channels are simply ignored, so no problem with performance

But the question was: does enabling surround technically decrease performance relatively after all? Say, e.g. in Reaper?

[ericzang]

When using vst2 in Reaper, normally I use them not in surround/ambisonic mode. When I switch to surround, I see that the side chain channels that were once declared as channels 3/4, are now moved to 9/10. This would cause an issue with previous projects that were using sidechaining based on 3/4 and thus are still sending their sidechain there.

Btw, I cannot get surround nor ambisonic mode to activate in the vst3 versions in Reaper (v6.14, Win 10 x64, M14.09). Meaning, the Melda checkboxes are marked in the channel config window and I get the notification that it will change to ambisonic mode, but no extra channels are available to the plugin after a reload or even host restart.

[acousmod]

For VST3 to work up to 64 channels in Reaper you need its last beta version.
Prior ones show only 24 channels (Steinberg's official limit in VST3).
You have also of course to set the track with the same number of channels.

[ericzang]

Thanks, strangely I still can't get vst3 to expand to more channels. Not critical for me though, I'll wait for the Reaper update.

[Tagirijus]

When I switch to surround, I see that the side chain channels that were once declared as channels 3/4, are now moved to 9/10. This would cause an issue with previous projects that were using sidechaining based on 3/4 and thus are still sending their sidechain there.

Yeah, I recognized this as well. Was a bit confusing .... I just try to use 9/10 as sidechain from now on for future projects, hehe.

[MeldaProduction]

True, we were quite surprised with guys from Cockos about that . Anyways enabling surround should have near zero impact unless the channels are actually sent by the DAW and the plugin is set to Surround/Ambisonics mode.

[Tagirijus]

Cool, thanks for the feedback, Vojtech!