KVR Audio

Liz Gupton · Post by **Liz Gupton** » Mon Oct 21, 2024 4:14 am

i7 8700K, 32G RAM, Focusrite 6i6, Windows 10, ASIO

Any plugin that uses IR is a clicky audio mess. Amp sims, mostly. With a buffer size of 64 I can play anything, except IRs. With IR's I have to take that all the way to 1024, which is unplayable.

My more modest system (i7 6700, 2 fewer cores, poorer cooling) has no trouble with IRs.

Amped Roots, Neural Amp Modeler (this one's supposed to be very efficient), Ignite Emissary, glitchy audio in all of them. I can throw multiple instances of anything else, including NI's and Arturia's stuff, and I have no trouble with a buffer size of 64. Throw an amp sim on there and it's no-go even at 512. But turn off the IR and they work fine (but sound not great).

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Oct 21, 2024 5:01 am

Many Tonex and NAM captures/profiles do not use IR's. The miked speakers are part of the captures.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Mon Oct 21, 2024 8:48 am

Uncle E wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 5:01 am Many Tonex and NAM captures/profiles do not use IR's. The miked speakers are part of the captures.

Given that this is in 'Computer Setup', the OP might be looking for help as to why they cant get IRs working, rather than an alternative to IRs.

(Unfortunately they've only made statements, so its not at all clear what they're asking.)

lmv · Post by **lmv** » Wed Oct 23, 2024 5:18 pm

Liz Gupton wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 4:14 am My more modest system (i7 6700, 2 fewer cores, poorer cooling) has no trouble with IRs.

I see you don't mention what OS your "more modest system" runs. I really hate Windows 10 so now I'm curious.

Liz Gupton · Post by **Liz Gupton** » Thu Oct 24, 2024 3:20 am

lmv wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2024 5:18 pm I see you don't mention what OS your "more modest system" runs. I really hate Windows 10 so now I'm curious.

It's also Windows 10. It's a Dell business class machine, one generation older than my main machine, which is a purpose built software development machine that is also getting long in the tooth, but should handle audio stuff. Both have 32G RAM, plenty of SSD storage, i7 processors, though the older one only has 4 cores.

We're talking one track with one instrument VST plus an amp sim. CPU usage is in the single and low double digit range. It's not a CPU issue, it's an audio system issue.

In answer to someone else, what I'm looking for is someone who can suggest a possible cause, beyond "sounds like it's broken, look for a problem."

medienhexer · Post by **medienhexer** » Thu Oct 24, 2024 4:36 am

Uncle E wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 5:01 am Many Tonex and NAM captures/profiles do not use IR's. The miked speakers are part of the captures.

Eric, I think, profiling is partly implemented with convolution, which is the basis of IR cabs and IR reverbs. If so, you’d see the same performance issue.

Fannon · Post by **Fannon** » Thu Oct 24, 2024 4:44 am

You could run a latency monitoring tool like https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon and see how your systems compare.

How well real-time audio works on a machine depends strongly on this. If you have a fast CPU, but some drivers are causing high DPC latency, you'll still get stutters. How low your latency is can depend a lot on the overall system configuration (components and also some things you can configure).

Maybe you can identify a bottleneck.

lmv · Post by **lmv** » Thu Oct 24, 2024 9:12 pm

My next guess in that case would be the sound card. Maybe one machine has a good sound card and the other has a lousy one.

Do you have an audio interface or USB sound card that you can test on the bad machine? I have this one that is also a USB hub and I bought for the price of a beer many years ago. It is supposed to be lame because it was so cheap, but it turns out it sounds pretty good.

Pictus · Post by **Pictus** » Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:54 pm

Liz Gupton wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 4:14 am Any plugin that uses IR is a clicky audio mess. Amp sims, mostly. With a buffer size of 64 I can play anything, except IRs. With IR's I have to take that all the way to 1024, which is unplayable.

- Try a different USB port.

- Verify if the CPU is overheating.
https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

- Verify if there is a BIOS update for the motherboard.

- As you are using an external audio interface, in the BIOS disable the onboard audio
and anything you do not use like WiFi/Bluetooth.

- Use the latest Audio driver.
https://downloads.focusrite.com/focusri ... i6-2nd-gen

- Try some tweaks viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694

- As already mentioned, verify the DPC latency, the tweaks helps a lot!

- If all fails, do a clean Windows installation from scratch.
For faster/better installation of Windows 10/11. (Do not disable UAC and do not enable WDAC policy!)
https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

Liz Gupton · Post by **Liz Gupton** » Mon Oct 28, 2024 12:20 am

lmv wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2024 9:12 pm My next guess in that case would be the sound card. Maybe one machine has a good sound card and the other has a lousy one.

Do you have an audio interface or USB sound card that you can test on the bad machine?

Both machines are on the same desk, and I swap my Focusrite 6i6 (1st gen) between them as needed. So, they use the same sound card.

Thank you Fannon and Pictus for tech suggestions. I'll look into those.

I can't use any plugin that uses IRs