Acustica Audio Plugins are killing my computer.

[hitherepeople]

"Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

Available at most pharmacies.

Medicare doesn't cover it.

[plexuss]

At least with Acquas they can be bypassed/frozen to manage resources, but Nebua 4 on macPOS can not - they disabled bypass and turning it off when frozen! That means with Nebula 4 instances will consume the same CPU even when bypassed or frozen. That really limits N4's usefulness.

I wish AA would just enable bypass and releasing CPU when frozen so it can actually be used - otherwise you get to your CPU limit pretty qulckly with N4 and cant move forward.

Wow that sucks!
I don't have that issue in windows and I am completely baffled as to why that would be like that.
It doesn't even begin to make sense
Have you done a support ticket? I have 2 different friends who are both on Mac and don't have this issue.
I have no idea what else to suggest

Oh its way beyond support tickets believe me. There is a whole hot messy thread on this also involving giancarlo (aa ceo) who got raked through the coals and even warned by mods for doxing people as an attempt to justify this completely boneheaded issues. he claims its done that way "to prevent cpu spikes". he must be refering to his own brain. anyway they broke their own product and refuse to fix it.

[dasoundjunkie]

At least with Acquas they can be bypassed/frozen to manage resources, but Nebua 4 on macPOS can not - they disabled bypass and turning it off when frozen! That means with Nebula 4 instances will consume the same CPU even when bypassed or frozen. That really limits N4's usefulness.

I wish AA would just enable bypass and releasing CPU when frozen so it can actually be used - otherwise you get to your CPU limit pretty qulckly with N4 and cant move forward.

Wow that sucks!
I don't have that issue in windows and I am completely baffled as to why that would be like that.
It doesn't even begin to make sense
Have you done a support ticket? I have 2 different friends who are both on Mac and don't have this issue.
I have no idea what else to suggest

Oh its way beyond support tickets believe me. There is a whole hot messy thread on this also involving giancarlo (aa ceo) who got raked through the coals and even warned by mods for doxing people as an attempt to justify this completely boneheaded issues. he claims its done that way "to prevent cpu spikes". he must be refering to his own brain. anyway they broke their own product and refuse to fix it.

Yeah, the the thread at GS were I put up the SNOW mix using AudioGridder, prior to doing so and just commenting on it got me scolded by him as to being off topic mentioning AG. Other users wanted me to relate what the experience had been like (since the biggest issue with AA has always been the fact that they are resource hogs) and once the mix was up and SNOW was showcased in a very positive light there were no other comments (or apologies for that matter) from him.

I get that they get a ton of shit for the CPU hit on their products so no skin of my nose but this? Not even close to the realm of acceptable. Seeing as I'm not on mac I cannot even begin to suggest what to do about it but I'm going to ask the 2 guys I know that work with N4 on mac to see if they have any suggestions. What's you system config? I'll pass it along and maybe we can help you find a solution.

[plexuss]

I get that they get a ton of shit for the CPU hit on their products so no skin of my nose but this? Not even close to the realm of acceptable. Seeing as I'm not on mac I cannot even begin to suggest what to do about it but I'm going to ask the 2 guys I know that work with N4 on mac to see if they have any suggestions. What's you system config? I'll pass it along and maybe we can help you find a solution.

Thanks! If you find out anything let me know.

The issue for me is I didnt find this undocumented issues until I started using N4 more and more. The increases use came along with purchasing more and more 3rd party libraries. I knew something odd was up but figured is was a DAW or OS issue. Eventually I had the time to troubleshoot and after some time found it was N4 not realising processing on bypass or feeezing. Ticket open. Ticket closed. about 3 times in a row. Then I brought it up in a thread and thats when AA shit all over me and said it was something they needed to do to "reduce CPU spikes" and were real aholes about it.

Bottom line, I can't use N4 in any serious way because of this. $2000 in 3rd party libraries wasted because of SLOPs (stupid lazy obscurant people). Its just SLOPpy.

[hitherepeople]

I'll tell you one thing. I really never gravitated towards this because of the CPU factor, and I believe they are quite expensive? (really not sure)

But I'm stayin' clear now I know they sound fantastic but it's just too much bad info

[dasoundjunkie]

I get that they get a ton of shit for the CPU hit on their products so no skin of my nose but this? Not even close to the realm of acceptable. Seeing as I'm not on mac I cannot even begin to suggest what to do about it but I'm going to ask the 2 guys I know that work with N4 on mac to see if they have any suggestions. What's you system config? I'll pass it along and maybe we can help you find a solution.

Ticket open. Ticket closed. about 3 times in a row.

I know EXACTLY what this feels like.

[dasoundjunkie]

Just talked to my guy (as a matter a fact I'm on whassap with him now). He asked me what DAW and OS version you have and have you tried deactivating instead of bypassing N4?

[plexuss]

Just talked to my guy (as a matter a fact I'm on whassap with him now). He asked me what DAW and OS version you have and have you tried deactivating instead of bypassing N4?

Yes I have. Bypass, deactivate or freeze does NOT release N4 CPU load OR latency. This, I am told by AA, is the intendend function on macPOS regardless of version, DAW or plugin format. My mac is a 2010 Mac Pro and a 2012 Macbook Pro.

[dasoundjunkie]

Man I wish I had good new but it seems that I can't. The only thing I can tell you though that I don't think what AA told you was completely honest. Kiko Hurtado (the guy who uses N4 on every project on Mac) does not have the issues you describe but his build is way more recent. TBH I think that AA just can't be bothered to have backwards compatibility beyond a certain point.

This in turn gives me some food for thought about my continued use of them long term. In your position I would be f**king LIVID!
Sorry I couldn't help

[plexuss]

Man I wish I had good new but it seems that I can't. The only thing I can tell you though that I don't think what AA told you was completely honest. Kiko Hurtado (the guy who uses N4 on every project on Mac) does not have the issues you describe but his build is way more recent. TBH I think that AA just can't be bothered to have backwards compatibility beyond a certain point.

This in turn gives me some food for thought about my continued use of them long term. In your position I would be f**king LIVID!
Sorry I couldn't help

I guarantee he has the same problem. Have his do this: create a track with 10 instances of N4 with, say, an EQ program loaded. It doesn't really matter what program because it wont be used. Then, replicate the track as many times as necessary to get the CPU meter high. Then, try bypassing all the tracks, check the CPU load. then unbypass and disable them, check CPU again. Put an audio track on each track and freeze the tracks, check the CPU. I bet the CPU load won't go down in either case of bypassing, disabling for freezing.

This is not noticeable with a low to medium CPU load with N4 but when when you are in high load it becomes obvious.

Also, latency: load an N4 in a project with a reverb, which are usually high latency. Do something that reproduces the latency, like play a midi keyboard into another track - there should be a delay between hitting a key and hearing a sound. That is caused by N4. Then bypass, disable, freeze and the latency won't resolve. This means once you instantiate a high latency N4 you cant do anything real-time anymore.

This is why it took me so long to find this problem: it doesn't become apparent unless you are using enough N4's to cause high CPU and/or high latency. I have the latest version of N4 and the problem has not been fixed by AA.

[PieBerger]

It is recommended to use higher buffer settings when using lots of Aquas in a project. Otherwise, if you are mixing as you go and need to keep your buffer low, for realtime MIDI input for example, freeze/bounce/resample are your friends here.

Another way to keep overheads low is to only use the modules that you really need in a channel strip, at any one time or better yet, just use the standalone EQ, Comp, Pre etc whenever they are needed. They included all of the different sub modules in each Aqua suite for this very reason. AFAIK Jade is the only Aqua that dynamically adjusts the latency reported to the host depending on which modules are active in the channel but disabling modules in all other Aquas reduces the CPU load.

Some Aquas are worse than others, a single instance of Crimson for example eats up CPU cycles on my 4.2Ghz i7 like nothing else, but I can use multiple instances of the Pink 2412 or Magenta compressor without it breaking a sweat. As a very general rule, Aquas running a higher Core engine version number are better optimised. You can check Aquarius to see the Core engine for each Aqua that you own. Aquas with a true stereo path, for example Erin, are more CPU intensive, watch out for those too.

[PieBerger]

and I believe they are quite expensive? (really not sure)

They have pretty regular sales and a decent loyalty discount scheme. I paid less than 50e per plugin on average; I've purchased 10 Aquas and still haven't crossed over into the next loyalty discount bracket (500-1000e).

[beingmf]

I bet the CPU load won't go down in either case of bypassing, disabling for freezing.

Sure it does. Otherwise users wouldn't talk about "I need to freeze tracks, but it's worth it" etc.
What's your DAW? In Reaper, I just offline N4, and it's not processed any longer. I wonder if it's some setting in your DAW or OS?

[dasoundjunkie]

I bet the CPU load won't go down in either case of bypassing, disabling for freezing.

Sure it does. Otherwise users wouldn't talk about "I need to freeze tracks, but it's worth it" etc.
What's your DAW? In Reaper, I just offline N4, and it's not processed any longer. I wonder if it's some setting in your DAW or OS?

Apparently its a Mac OS problem. I'm on Windows and I've had no issues with this. Also, the problem is not on Acqua but specific to N4

[plexuss]

I bet the CPU load won't go down in either case of bypassing, disabling for freezing.

Sure it does. Otherwise users wouldn't talk about "I need to freeze tracks, but it's worth it" etc.
What's your DAW? In Reaper, I just offline N4, and it's not processed any longer. I wonder if it's some setting in your DAW or OS?

Apparently its a Mac OS problem. I'm on Windows and I've had no issues with this. Also, the problem is not on Acqua but specific to N4

It's an issue in the macPOS version of the N4 plugin that was purposely implemented by AA to "prevent CPU spikes" which is a lame excuse to disable such core workflow functionality in our jobs. Just a shameful decision.