VPS Avenger 2.4 [RELEASED - FAQ in OP]

[noiseboyuk]

Ok, I'm done trying to help anyone with this issue.

You're not helping anyone with the issue - it's pretty obvious that it isn't a user-error or system configuration problem.

I've got it sitting open on a patch unplayed in Ableton right now as I type this with the GUI open - I can watch the CPU monitor spike regularly to 200%+ while literally nothing is happening to it.

Absolutely fine on my rig.

CONTACT FRIGGIN SUPPORT.

[aMUSEd]

OK, same question to you and Amused that I asked in the post above. With no common factor to distinguish your specs with others who have no problem, have you contacted support? If not, why not?

There is a common factor, though - every person still reporting these spikes is using an Apple Silicon CPU.

Why not contact support? Because it's a well-known issue discussed even before V2. There's no point in contacting support for a non-unique issue, particularly when the developer is publicly dismissing the issue.

I don't think that is the case as this issue seems to go back a few years.

I aim to contact support, I'm just trying to get enough evidence first of the variables affecting the issue occurring.

[Dirtgrain]

CONTACT FRIGGIN SUPPORT.

We heard you twice the first time. Don't be a ____.

[moonchunk]

Hello Dear Friends!

I am anxious to try Avenger 2.0.

I purchased VPS Avenger by Vengeance Sound in 2017. I'm looking at the email I received from that purchase.

I dug around the vengeance sound and finally figured out how to upgrade.

First I went here:

https://www.vengeance-sound.com/plugins ... venger%202

In small red letters it said "check in account"

Maybe this website is difficult for someone else with a visual impairment like myself because of the style of the fonts and the screen color. All I can attest to is that I find it less than simple - and simple translates to "sales".

I finally found out that when it says to look in one's account to find out about the upgrade, it specifically means to look under YOUR PRODUCTS, then click on where it says VPS Avenger. I guess it's a bit like a treasure hunt - normally there would be a link or a mention of the exact page where the upgrade info is. As it was I looked at my main account page, and then inadvertently saw Avenger 2 upgrade needs to be purchased but because there's a weird font on a black button I skimmed right past it. "Purchase Upgrade". On the 2nd or 3rd try I did see it.

Now I'll spend another few minutes trying to find where the expansions can be purchased.

https://www.vengeance-sound.com/samples.php (I see, they're called samples, not expansions.)

But generative is not found when I search that page for the new Generative AI expansion...

Ahh, Oh, those are the sample packs that go way back, prior to avenger. This is the place to go:

https://www.vengeance-sound.com/plugins ... EXPANSIONS

Thomann US has avenger 2, full version (not upgrade) for $135, which is about six dollars more than the upgrade from avenger 1 to 2 price before the "Black Friday discount" is applied. But I'm happy to support a software developer so no problem.

* * *

In retrospect, the experience of downloading and installing for version 2 is better than the old code meter days. That should be said. (Just don't let your anti-virus or VPN be running I guess).

[plexuss]

Thomann US has avenger 2, full version, not the upgrade for $135, which is about six dollars more than the upgrade from avenger 1 to 2 price before the "Black Friday discount" is applied. But I'm happy to support a software developer so no problem.

I'm not. Happy with v1 considering the update price.

[moonchunk]

Thomann US has avenger 2, full version, not the upgrade for $135, which is about six dollars more than the upgrade from avenger 1 to 2 price before the "Black Friday discount" is applied. But I'm happy to support a software developer so no problem.

I'm not. Happy with v1 considering the update price.

I hear you. I've been through hell and high water with some of these developers, but everywhere is a struggle. I don't imagine it was with pleasure that they charged so much for the upgrade with a sale on Avenger 2 like that - but they're not taking as much advantage as some entities in this crazy world. I pray everyone is helped to do the right thing.

I also purchased Parawave Rapid for $90 (& will be getting some of their expansions which are $34.99) - the sale ends after 12-4-23. I try to support my developers. I'm new to his work, but Mirko is a very great sound designer by any standards. On the same scale as Luftrum.

Thus far I've been extremely happy with Rapid's sound (very different from Avenger 1 IMHO - I think I love that set of oscillators and filters) and CPU usage.

The reason I wanted to upgrade Avenger has to do with, not just the fact that the developer works hard, but with the fact that Mirko works here as well and does additional genres - because Rapid's development is on a slow down apparently.

[medienhexer]

So...

M1 Pro user here, also with the CPU spikes, once the audio thread is running (after playing the first note), it doesn't even need to play any voices at all to spike over 100%. GUI open or not. Just does it. Avenger's internal meter stays at 1-2% for Init, but Logic's meter goes nuts.

THAT BEING SAID:

I find it impossible to update to v. 2.0.3.

VManager tells me, version 1.8.6 is the latest installed version, newest 2.0.3
Finder tells me the .component is version 2.0.0
PlugInfo agrees. 2.0.0 for .component and .vst(3)
Logic's Plugin Manager tells me it's 2.0.2

I have downloaded through VManager
I have downloaded from the User Account

The installer is called 2_0_3, but even manually deleting the component before installation and then manually rescanning Avenger in Logic's Plugin Manager always turns out 2.0.2.

Are all of you with the issue sure that installation was succesfull?

Either the file versions are set incorrectly or I just get the wrong version in my downloads every time.

Is there somewhere in the GUI that Avenger can tell me which version is installed?

[medienhexer]

One question, though: is Avenger built on JUCE? I had a very interesting exchange with UVI a while back because Falcon had spikes, as well. And that appeared to be related to JUCE and the way that threads in live tracks (record enabled) were scheduled and assigned to the eco cores instead of the performance cores.

I don't think it was specifically a JUCE issue, the discussion in their forum turned up that the JUCE team just hadn't found a way around the issue. It had to do with the priority you have to assign to your processes (via thread pools?) and those, for some reason, were ignored by Mac OS or Logic. UVI were able to at least fix it to a point where spikes were mostly resolved by at least one additional track being played back, so that the scheduler would shift the live track to a performance core.

I must say, @otristan was a pleasure to communicate with in that process.

[medienhexer]

https://forum.juce.com/t/mac-m1-thread- ... s/52188/36

[medienhexer]

Ah, sorry, found the version number in the GUI. It's 2.0.3 according to the Avenger GUI.

So, the file/bundle version isn't set correctly and whatever information Logic reads when testing the plugin, that info is outdated, too.

And apparently, the version number in VManager is set by .plugin files in Application support? Unfortunately, deleting the old .plugin doesn't resolve the issue in VManager.

[DCrown]

Avenger 2 is a milestone in the history of synthesizers.

After having experienced the new features, it's almost unbelievable you pay less than 200 and get a Lambo, a Rolls Royce and a Mercedes at the same time, and upgrade is like a gift.

[moonchunk]

[my original post] How do I get the expansions I bought installed. When I drag them in I get errors, then I go back into V Man and I see that the files I downloaded and activated (green ) are now yellow, and the files do not any longer appear in the external drive I had set up?

[Now I've "fixed" it - but only by giving up on using the external location. It seems that the new content folder was created in the only location, but the expansions were all downloaded to the default location anyway (ProgramData folder). So I tried to enter the default location (ProgramData folder), replacing my prior external drive folder. At which point I got a prompt asking if I would like to move the old data (unfortunately not what I just downloaded) to the new (default) location. I clicked "cancel" (not sure if it was correct, but I immediately panicked because it seemed to have a mind of it's own and started the process of overwriting my new files in the ProgramData folder. So in the file write window I clicked the quit button immediately. Hopefully nothing bad was done to the new files.

Then, after immediately exiting, V-Man refreshed and the yellow text is now back to green. So I went into the DAW and opened Avenger 2 and now the expansions DO show up. But I need some stress relief.

I guess I'll just leave the stuff here since it doesn't seem to work with an external drive and is super scary to work with.

[Oops, unfortunately now I'm plagued with missing content in the new Expansions.]

[DCrown]

I deleted everything that is related to Avenger and Vengeance but the xp, my own preset and factory content
Then I re-installed VMan and installed V2. 03 and it works

[ozinga]

[

I've raised it a lot of times as well - not one single confirmation that they have contacted support. Why?

I have contacted support last year about Logic and Avenger.
I had idle cpu jumps, glitches or playhead jumping back while playing.
and they said that they got similar tickets but they did not have these issues with their Logic Rig, so hard to pinpoint.
Funny thing is these used to happen on my Full speced M1 Max Macbook Pro but not on my plain M1 Macbook Air.

With Avenger 2 I get occasional CPU spikes with dense patches but nothin terrible like before.

i alo use Automatic Setting for Processing Threads in Logic. Found out that selecting the highest setting degrades the performance.

[ozinga]

[my original post] How do I get the expansions I bought installed. When I drag them in I get errors, then I go back into V Man and I see that the files I downloaded and activated (green ) are now yellow, and the files do not any longer appear in the external drive I had set up?

[Now I've "fixed" it - but only by giving up on using the external location. It seems that the new content folder was created in the only location, but the expansions were all downloaded to the default location anyway (ProgramData folder). So I tried to enter the default location (ProgramData folder), replacing my prior external drive folder. At which point I got a prompt asking if I would like to move the old data (unfortunately not what I just downloaded) to the new (default) location. I clicked "cancel" (not sure if it was correct, but I immediately panicked because it seemed to have a mind of it's own and started the process of overwriting my new files in the ProgramData folder. So in the file write window I clicked the quit button immediately. Hopefully nothing bad was done to the new files.

Then, after immediately exiting, V-Man refreshed and the yellow text is now back to green. So I went into the DAW and opened Avenger 2 and now the expansions DO show up. But I need some stress relief.

I guess I'll just leave the stuff here since it doesn't seem to work with an external drive and is super scary to work with.

[Oops, unfortunately now I'm plagued with missing content in the new Expansions.]

You just had to repoint it in V Manager to your old location on External Drive. (Content Location/Choose)
I think after that I restarted V Man and everything was in place as before.