Suggestions for a CPU friendly alternative to Pigments?

[EnGee]

Hmmm! It seems results are depending on many factors! Anyway, my test is different. I tested on Live 11 on Win 11 and macOS Monterey 12.6.1
Win 11 computer has Ryzen 5800x with 32GB, SSD and nVidia 3070. Audio interface is Tascam US 4x4 HR with 48k and 128 buffer. I have disabled Turbo mode in the BIOS, so CPU runs at default without any boosting (so I enjoy the silence).
MacOS is on M1 miniMac with 16GB/512GB.

Pigments is latest on both. Audio interface/keyboard ..etc are all the same as I use a switch connected to both computers.

Preset "Siren" with a chord of three notes max is 23% on Windows while it is about 15% on Mac!

Not all synths like that! Some runs better on Windows and some are not. But in average in Windows computer Pigments is less than Massive X in CPU usage and sometimes less than PhasePlants. It depends on the preset of course, but for me in both systems I'm happy with the Pigments performance in general.

Only Icarus 2 is about half or less the CPU usage of Pigments. PhasePlants is about the same, although the latest versions seem more efficient than Pigments, but not like Icarus 2. Massive X is more than all others, but it is rare to hit 30% for me.

Cubase still with shit performance on my Windows machine. Almost unusable!! But on Mac it is OK. Still Logic and S1 has better performance by a mile than Cubase. Live is also better than Cubase.

On Windows:

Pigments usage in W11.jpeg

On Mac:

Screen Shot 2022-11-19 at 8.25.19 PM.jpg

[DJ Warmonger]

I didn't complain about Pigments' performance until they added granular mode. A granular pad playing multiple notes at 88200 Hz can overload my Ryzen 3900X on its own.

Also, it has suprisingly high RAM usage - exactly 500 MB per instance. Load 20 of these in one project and suddenly my 16 GB system starts to choke.

[DCrown]

What is high on cpu for me, isn't necessarily high for you. Depends on your system, the friendship between your pc and plugin, daw settings etc
I demoed pigments and it was not too high on cpu I remember, but synth isn't generally for me; not sure whether cpu performance has been improved in current version of pigments, I demoed the current version! Most cherry audio synths are too high on cpu here, phase plant was extremely high, one reason are quite a lot of presets that use a whole lot of cpu.
You have to install and demo to find out whether your computer likes a plugin or not.

[Urs]

Coding cpu efficient plugins require very good team of computer programmers and mathematicians. u-he, Synapse Audio, Cytomic etc are a few great examples.

I wouldn't Put U-he on that list.
Try to add some Amp Release on a init Diva preset and play some Chords.

You should have tried Diva *before* we optimised her. It runs a pretty decent circuit simulation, it was like 1-2 voices max before optimisation

[Urs]

the ugly truth nonetheless: since hive 2 (the new filters, i guess), this also can be said about the initially very efficient hive...

You need to try Hive 2.1.1 then.

In Hive 2.0, I agree, we simply processed the whole voice always, and that was more CPU than a simple patch would have needed. A simple patch would use as much CPU as a complex patch, and the majority of existing presets wasn't using all of it.

In 2.1.1 we have optimised resource management so drastically, it uses less CPU than Hive 1.0 for the same patch.

[Korg Supporter]

the ugly truth nonetheless: since hive 2 (the new filters, i guess), this also can be said about the initially very efficient hive...

You need to try Hive 2.1.1 then.

In Hive 2.0, I agree, we simply processed the whole voice always, and that was more CPU than a simple patch would have needed. A simple patch would use as much CPU as a complex patch, and the majority of existing presets wasn't using all of it.

In 2.1.1 we have optimised resource management so drastically, it uses less CPU than Hive 1.0 for the same patch.

Without the wavetables and fancy filters? Maybe. However, playing a Hive 2.1 1 patch with all 32 oscillators, long release time, dirty character, sideband filters, and all 16 voices brings my Intel Core i7 6560U to 50% (or close to 25 % on my AMD Ryzen 7 3700X). Still lighter than Diva though.

[Korg Supporter]

You can multisample the plugin and play it in Renoise/Redux or DiscoDSP Bliss.

[Urs]

the ugly truth nonetheless: since hive 2 (the new filters, i guess), this also can be said about the initially very efficient hive...

You need to try Hive 2.1.1 then.

In Hive 2.0, I agree, we simply processed the whole voice always, and that was more CPU than a simple patch would have needed. A simple patch would use as much CPU as a complex patch, and the majority of existing presets wasn't using all of it.

In 2.1.1 we have optimised resource management so drastically, it uses less CPU than Hive 1.0 for the same patch.

Without the wavetables and fancy filters? Maybe. However, playing a Hive 2.1 1 patch with all 32 oscillators, long release time, dirty character, sideband filters, and all 16 voices brings my Intel Core i7 6560U to 50% (or close to 25 % on my AMD Ryzen 7 3700X). Still lighter than Diva though.

If you know a synth that does the same patch with less, send me that patch (for both synths) in an email, I'd love to check it out.

[Korg Supporter]

the ugly truth nonetheless: since hive 2 (the new filters, i guess), this also can be said about the initially very efficient hive...

You need to try Hive 2.1.1 then.

In Hive 2.0, I agree, we simply processed the whole voice always, and that was more CPU than a simple patch would have needed. A simple patch would use as much CPU as a complex patch, and the majority of existing presets wasn't using all of it.

In 2.1.1 we have optimised resource management so drastically, it uses less CPU than Hive 1.0 for the same patch.

Without the wavetables and fancy filters? Maybe. However, playing a Hive 2.1 1 patch with all 32 oscillators, long release time, dirty character, sideband filters, and all 16 voices brings my Intel Core i7 6560U to 50% (or close to 25 % on my AMD Ryzen 7 3700X). Still lighter than Diva though.

If you know a synth that does the same patch with less, send me that patch (for both synths) in an email, I'd love to check it out.

Alright, sent an email. Spire and ArcSyn are the best contenders that can do the same or similar stuff. I don't own Dune, so I can't replicate it. Here are the patches for reference if anyone wants to try them out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NxxlkU ... share_link

[Urs]

Thanks! - I usually go for Serum, Sylenth1 and Spire as the benchmark for the kinds patches I'd use Hive for, but I now also have Dune3 (thanks Richard!) for reference. Don't know ArcSyn, will give it a go!

[EvilDragon]

On Windows:
Pigments usage in W11.jpeg

On Mac:
Screen Shot 2022-11-19 at 8.25.19 PM.jpg

Don't trust Live's CPU meter, it is a filthy liar.

[syntonica]

On Windows:
Pigments usage in W11.jpeg

On Mac:
Screen Shot 2022-11-19 at 8.25.19 PM.jpg

Don't trust Live's CPU meter, it is a filthy liar.

Some DAWs give exact results. Some DAWs seen to "reserve" CPU in chunks and will report higher overall, with some unknown amount of headroom.

For exact in-DAW CPU usage, I rely on Reaper.

[martiu]

Thanks! - I usually go for Serum, Sylenth1 and Spire as the benchmark for the kinds patches I'd use Hive for, but I now also have Dune3 (thanks Richard!) for reference. Don't know ArcSyn, will give it a go!

ArcSyn is crazy, you will like it

[Korg Supporter]

Thanks! - I usually go for Serum, Sylenth1 and Spire as the benchmark for the kinds patches I'd use Hive for, but I now also have Dune3 (thanks Richard!) for reference. Don't know ArcSyn, will give it a go!

ArcSyn is crazy, you will like it

Yeah. It's kind of like an indie version of the Hydrasynth engine. Also think of it as Oberheim Matrix meets MicroQ/Blofeld meets RADIAS or some other plastic sounding VA

[EnGee]

On Windows:
Pigments usage in W11.jpeg

On Mac:
Screen Shot 2022-11-19 at 8.25.19 PM.jpg

Don't trust Live's CPU meter, it is a filthy liar.

Really? So which DAW has a good measure? I have only Live and S1 installed in Windows and the same with Logic installed in mini Mac.

I thought Reaper is too good to be true, so I don't trust it, but I didn't rely on anything scientific really! Just a feeling!!

I have other DAWs not installed (Reaper 6, FL Studio, Samplitude and Cubase LE) which one is better than Live in measuring? I might install Reaper to compare between the two OSes and might do it with S1 also.

Anyway, related to the topic, I don't see the point to use very efficient CPU synths! If I really want to use very efficient (more efficient than Hive and any other soft synth, I would use my hardware synths!). I find Massive X, PhasePlant, Icarus, Dune 3 and Modwave as great alternatives to Pigments, but why? Pigments lately has improved performance and it is a very good synth! Although still Massive X and PhasePlant my first go to synths really.

Hive and other low CPU synths are useful if I use more than 10 tracks excluding drums (which never happened in my case! Even if the metre is 40% it doesn't mean it would go 80% if I add another heavy preset! It might be with 10 tracks 50% at most. Anyway, I don't do orchestra work, neither obsessed with tracks count. Don't get me wrong! I like Hive, but I don't see the point in doing it a nerdy synth! Give us either a visual generator for the script or try to implement advanced features in the oscillators (like in Massive X) and try to compete with CPU usage with those top synths, not Sylenth1 U-he, give us a real time controllable sync and make it great and screamy like in Korg Odyssey or GForce Oddity