u-he

breaks · Post by **breaks** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:13 pm

Hi KVR'ers

My name is Trevor, long time lurker, first time poster!

Just looking for a reality check with Diva and audio/cpu overload.

I have recently put together a new system, as follows:
i7-4930k (6 core)
32 gb ram (fast kingston spec)
2 x gtx760 in SLI
Motu 2408-mkII w PCI-424 card and latest drivers
Dedicated SSD for Win7 64
Dedicated SSD for Ableton Live 9 64bit, and all plugs/synths/libs

Full disclosure, I've emailed u-he support, but my curiosity wasn't resolved)

I hope I'm not expecting too much, but with my system, I cannot even play single notes on Diva without overloading the audio/sample/cpu meter in Ableton.

I load Ableton with nothing else - 1 midi track and 1 instance of Diva.

Load up a patch, say, "Rotterdam" - can't even play a single note!

When I see other folks on here say they are running Diva "no problems" with lower spec'd systems than mine - it burns! It hurts sooo bad

What the heck?

Just curious, with my system , do you thin it is reasonable to expect to at least be able to PLAY the Diva sounds out of the box, as is?

u-he support of course told me to lower the poly/accuracy, etc. and yes, I get that - but I thought I would at least be able to play the sounds to hear them - I mean - how can I even get to hear the sounds at full glory to lay down a groove or anything at all?

Am I being unrealistic? Anyone else here able to play "Rotterdam" as is?

Thanks everyone, look forward to your thoughts, cheers,
trevor

UltimateOutsider · Post by **UltimateOutsider** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:29 pm

Something is seriously wrong with your rig brother. Diva plays on my 5 year old i7 950, full quality, poly no problem.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:36 pm

breaks wrote:Just curious, with my system , do you thin it is reasonable to expect to at least be able to PLAY the Diva sounds out of the box, as is?

Yep, that's a reasonable expectation. I would suggest there's something else going on, the patch has got a maximum of 6 voices and it plays on my laptop just fine.

What revision number is printed on the bottom right of your Diva?

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:40 pm

Before I updated my system, I was running the smallest Xeon E5 CPU (4 core) with MOTU 24IO/PCIe-424 and only 4GB of RAM .
Everyone told me DIVA would choke it, but it never did (But TBF, I'm still running the Demo so I do get the demo noise).
I'm sure you already do this, but just to make sure, do you have the multi-core option set to on?

breaks · Post by **breaks** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:46 pm

I'll be home in a couple hours and I'll check,at work right now

- thanks for replying

I downloaded the demo about two days ago from the u-he website so I assume it is the latest, but I'll check

I did choose "multicore" setting on Diva. And I also downloaded a demo of Cubase to see if maybe it was just Ableton, but I got the same results.

This same thing also happens with many patches on Serum, and that's what got me to thinking about trying Diva....(that, and I recently bought Zebra and really like it, but it seems to not cause a lot of overload)

I run diagnostics on my PC and all seems well.....what the heck might it be...?

Any advice how to diagnose this?

fml......as usual

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:09 pm

I had a very similar problem, I could run diva fine, 4 instances on fast or great. But then suddenly one day not even one note with release before getting CPU overload.

I reinstalled, formatted the computer and looked out for virus on my system. I gave up.

Then after a while I took a look at my CPU temperature: 98° degrees. that was the cause of the throttling (Specified CPU temperature was 75°). Then I remembered that I had removed one case fan (an intake) because of noise.

So I went out and got an aftermarket cpu cooler, it brought down CPU tempt by 50° and I could run 4-5 instances of diva again.

So, check your CPU temperatures it is worth a look.

JC_ · Post by **JC_** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:09 pm

That's a sweet ass PC. I would probably check the CPU temperature and make sure it's not going crazy hot when you are playing music. It could be the CPU heatsink not installed properly (very common problem apparently).

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:53 pm

My money is on multi-core being turned off.

woodsdenis · Post by **woodsdenis** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:50 am

buffer size ?

firepile · Post by **firepile** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:28 am

breaks wrote:Am I being unrealistic? Anyone else here able to play "Rotterdam" as is?

Absolutely, no problems. Have a i7 4770, this patch uses about 20% CPU with Accuracy set to "divine" (in Studio One).

Go into Control Panel under Power Options and check that the power plan is set to "High performance". If I change to "Power saver" here, it suddenly uses 80-90% CPU...

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:05 am

I have a slower cpu and have no trouble playing poly patches...

what sample rate and buffer size are you running?

breaks · Post by **breaks** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:07 am

SOLVED!

(btw, I did mention that multicore was turned on in a response above)

The cpu temp was a good suggestion, although when I built the rig I put one of those corsair self-contained liquid cpu coolers on, easiest installation ever and seems to work like a charm

I guess due to how strongly it was being emphasized how "CPU hungry" the synth was, I honestly didn't know if my system was out of whack, or if it really was that cpu hungry? So, thanks to the confirmations here I obviously needed to work it out.

When I got home I had a reply from Ableton support which walked me through some typical win7 optimizations, and that was helpful. I thought I had done most, but went through them again anyway. I saw a few things to check along the way

Checked/Did the following:
bluetooth disabled
motherboard wifi disabled
disabled onboard Realtek audio (i think this could be the winner)
turned system back to "High Perfomance" from "Balanced" - thought this was done already?
turned off some random services like telephony and misc stuff i don't need

there was a couple more settings....trying to remember now just in case it helps anyone else...i'll update this post when I remember...damn....there was one other thing that I felt was significant...

Anyway, boom - purring like a kitten! Lowered my sample buffers back to a reasonable 64 samples and jammed out with a full track and with Diva on devine setting! AAAAHH YEAAAA Basically I jammed with Diva simultaneously with Serum, Zebra, Kontact drums and an audio track - never went over 50% on the old Ableton "cpu" dial.....man what a long time I've waited for this.

Drinks.....drinks for everyone!

Guys...guys....can't tell you how relieving this is, feels amazing!! Gonna buy Diva for sure just to celebrate!

Thanks everyone, I'll see you out there in the world

JC_ · Post by **JC_** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:50 am

Good to hear man! Also, thanks for telling us what you did - It's always helpful to know.

Happy music'ing

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 3:23 am

Definitely thanks for posting. I should have suggested the performance thing myself as Win 8.1 reset mine to 'Balanced' after doing one of their necessary updates and it took me a couple of hours before I remembered checking and putting it back.
Although I don't have any issues such as yours, I have never disabled the Realtek Audio and will be doing this on my next session because of seeing it on your list of improvements here. (Bluetooth was not installed in the first place and except for a USB wifi that is only put in during C/R authorizations and removed after, there is nothing else.) I also have a batch file that I ran before opening the DAW when I was on Win 7 but haven't got around to putting it on the new system. (removes unnecessary background services during sessions.)
Thanks again, every bit counts!

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:56 pm

->

u-he

KVR Audio

Diva, cpu.........reality check....