Vital - Released

[pdxindy]

Regarding the LFO's... (reposted from the presets thread cause this is the main theead)

If one is using Loop Point mode, then select a particular point as the start point, then move the point, the start point stays where the point was. Not sure if that is intended behavior or not.

Also the mode name Sustain Envelope should be Release Envelope cause it triggers on note release.

Both the mode names Loop Point and Loop Hold don't really describe what they do. I think both modes could be combined into one mode called Loop and it should have a start and end point option. Then if one selects a point as start, but no end, it will behave the same as current Loop Point mode and if one selects a point as end point without a start point it will behave as current Loop Hold mode does and then one also has the added flexibility to have both start and end points.

It would also be useful to have an Envelope Hold mode where one picks the hold point where it stops and then continues on note release. Or the Envelope Mode could have an option to select a hold point. That would work too.

[Jorgeelalto]

I think it looks that way becuase the font is thin. When it is thicker, it looks more white (like in Pigments)

That's the only problem I have with the synth right now, it's made for high pixel density screens. I'm sure it looks nice on a 1440p, 2K, 4K (and possibly laptop 1080p scaled), but I'm using 1080p in 24" (so not scaled), and it looks like that. My screen is definitely going a bit "old" but yeah, if they could increase the font weight a bit, I'm sure it would work for us.

[Sleepwalker]

LFOs: im usually using Sync mode however this shold be named free mode I think, because its not syncing to anything.

Its the only mode that runns freely, and what I often do in psytrance sounds is to modulate its speed. Curently im using Vitals macros maped to the LFOs speed/frequency.

For this example lets say the LFO modulates the filter cutoff with a standard sine wave.

There is a bug I belive, because everytime I start using that macro maped to lfo frequency, it jumps around for a brief second as if it sudenly went into sample and & hold mode, then as I keep on moving the macro it moves smooth as expected. And it happens every time I let go of it and come back. Very annoying.

Either ive missed something essential or its a bug.

[Sleepwalker]

CPU usage.

Interestingly I tried it on both my laptops now. It runs very well on my 7 year old i7 quad core laptop. This one also has a dedicated graphics card.

About 30% cpu with 8 x Vital set to 2x quality mode.


While on my 4 years old i5 dual core, with intel graphics, it gets drop outs and struggle around 50-60% avrage cpu usage. The sound drops out for a second any time I open or close a Vital window.

I set all the Vital instances to lowest x1 quality and that helped. Closing the web browser helped even more. And it seems I can continue working for a bit now with much less dropouts.

I read from the Vital forum that this is confirmed: The plug uses graphics cards, and if you only have intel type internal graphics the cpu will strugle a lot more. The dev also confirmed it being heavy on cpu im general, but should be on par with Diva he said. Which is a heavy one indeed. But Diva I can run much less. Usually no more then 5 instances. So I guess it depends highly on how much stuf we have going on actively in the synth.

He said because of all the animated graphics on the synth this is why cpus would strugle if they dont have a dedicated graphics card to take the load off it.

I regret now I didnt bring my studio i7 laptop and took the live performance i5 laptop instead, traveling from south europe to family in north europe for the xmas, staying 3 weeks!

[fgimian]

Honestly as per my previous comment, that's not my experience regarding CPU usage. Vital (based on my own experience) is not even in the ballpark of Diva.

It's roughly on par with u-he Hive and Spire and significantly more efficient than Serum and Massive X. I'm on Windows 10, i7 7700K with a GTX 1050.

It's actually one of the big selling points of the synth to me.

Clearly there are several variable at play here.

[Teksonik]

He said because of all the animated graphics on the synth this is why cpus would strugle if they dont have a dedicated graphics card to take the load off it.

I wonder if a switch to turn off the animations such is found in Matt's Helm synth would be a good idea?

Clearly there are several variable at play here.

If we could narrow down what those variables are it might help Matt make some optimizations in future versions.

I don't have a problem running Vital on any of my systems but of course any optimizations would benefit everyone.

[Sleepwalker]

Honestly as per my previous comment, that's not my experience regarding CPU usage. Vital (based on my own experience) is not even in the ballpark of Diva.

It's roughly on par with u-he Hive and Spire and significantly more efficient than Serum and Massive X. I'm on Windows 10, i7 7700K with a GTX 1050.

It's actually one of the big selling points of the synth to me.

Clearly there are several variable at play here.

Its your graphics card that makes it run so easilly. Great for everyone with decent grapich cards! Its a huge setback with only intel style graphics. I have both on two different laptops and its pretty obvious. Just FIY I produce 95% on the studio laptop with dedicated gpu.

Maybe it would help if there was a function to turn of all the animated graphics. I can ask the dev at the vital forum I guess.


Because on my live performance and dj laptops I always use Lenovo Thinkpad X1 series because its the most solid built and stable I know when going touring on festivals and clubs. However these all only have the intel graphics. I see a lot of pro perfomers use these laptops.

In that sence it would be great if we could turn off the animated graphics for these mashines. Using graphic cards for plugins is a pretty new thing I think. I certainly will not use Vital as it stands today in my livesets. Thats just asking for trouble.

[Sleepwalker]

I wonder if a switch to turn off the animations such is found in Matt's Helm synth would be a good idea?

Yeah, thats a great idea!

[mtytel]

I read from the Vital forum that this is confirmed: The plug uses graphics cards, and if you only have intel type internal graphics the cpu will strugle a lot more. The dev also confirmed it being heavy on cpu im general, but should be on par with Diva he said. Which is a heavy one indeed.

To clarify, I was talking about combined DSP usage and UI CPU usage which isn’t clear here. DSP usage in Vital should be much lower than Diva when at 2x oversampling

[Sleepwalker]

I remember running 70 instances of Surge on I think a 2007 model laptop with 3gb ram, no ssds, and the first core 2 duo intel cpu, before the whole i3/5/7 line. This was a tiny Lenovo Thinkpad X61, with only intel graphics. I was shooting it out against Zebra and some other good synths at the time, and it was no competition at all. Surge became my favorite synth since then, for many reasons.

Was wandering why the dev never made it have animated waveforms. I understand the reason why now hehe. Seems to tax a lot from the system.

But 70 instances of Surge, all playing at the same time, on a core 2 duo from the bronse age of computers? Pretty impressive. Very little ram use also and that was maybe the biggest reason I could run so many. 32bit windows had a limit of around 3gb usable ram I belive.

If we could shut of all the animations on Vital when on laptops without dedicated gpus that would be awesome. IF it would help that is.

[ijiwaru]

[Delete]

[Jorgeelalto]

Doesn't it just not render/process the graphics when the plugin window is closed? It would reduce the CPU usage a lot of the time.

[Teksonik]

You can test it. Just load Vital with the Init Patch, idle with no audio being processed. Observe the CPU usage in Task Manager (or whatever it is on a Mac). Then close the GUI and observe the CPU usage.

With the Init patch in idle state there are no animations going on.

But it's kind of hard to program a synth when its GUI is closed.

[fisherKing]

it's 'activity monitor' on a mac.

when i open vital (standalone), i get between 17-35% cpu usage; right now (in logic, as a plugin), i've got 8 instances of vital running, with complex patches, and dense chords... and averaging 50-100% cpu (with a single peak at 256%!), but no stuttering, or pauses.

i've been using up to 3 instances in some projects so far, so all seems well (here). didn't know i could go over 100% & live to tell the tale...

Screen Shot 2020-12-13 at 11.56.31 AM.png

[muki]

But it's kind of hard to program a synth when its GUI is closed.

exactly my thoughts:
makes tweaking kind of a challenge with gui closed