I just purchased the mastercomp plugin and I must say, it is one of the best software compressors I've heard.

But....the CPU usage is a bit over the top. In cubase SX2 it is using approx 60% of my host CPU!! (I'm running a 2.6GHz P4 with 1 gig RAM). It is basically unusable as a mix compressor for that reason. I'm pretty dissapointed with that.

However in Wavelab it only uses 18% which seems far more reasonable.

How does it hold up in other apps like Sonar/Samplitude etc?

I'd REALLY like to be able to use it as a mixbus compressor, but currently it uses more CPU than a convolution reverb!!

Will there be any improvements to the coding in future updates that would allow better CPU efficiency in Cubendo?

-Z-

10 days and no response....

Is this an active forum or what?

-Z-

I use a Pentium D 3.0 Ghz and SX3. One instance of Master Comp use about 30% of the cpu power. On my previous machine, a P4 1,8 Ghz it used to be about 50-60%. Have not tried MC i Wavelab.

Perhaps some of the SSE2/3 instructions could be used (if they are not already) to further optimize this baby?

Are you using "fat mode"?
30% sounds reasonable....

Forgive my ignorance....but what are sse2/3 instructions....?

These are Intel's (licenced by AMD for more recent processors) SIMD instructions (Single Instruction Multiple Data) and they run on specialised processing units on the CPU. They accelerate operations that are typically performed on streams of data - eg video rendering and audio processing.

Depending on the specific mathematical operations used in a video codec or an audio plugin, x87 floating point instructions can be replaced by instuctions which use these specialised units. Often - not always - there is a substantial speedup.

Yes, that's FAT mode.

Sorry to be late...

The abnormal CPU usage in Cubase may be caused by processing in higher sample rate or the FAT mode is engaged. Typically the 18% of CPU sounds like processing without FAT in low sample rates (44.1 or 48kHz) while 60% is like it worked in 192kHz and FAT mode engaged or at least FAT mode engaged.

The PSP MC cannot be optimized with SSE2 or any other similar instruction set. This is because of the very high internal precision of entire algorithm which cannot be used in those instructions.

Regards,

Thanks for the replies and explanations....

All of my examples were at 44.1 with fat mode engaged. The plugin really sounds better in fat mode, so I don't see the point in using the lo-res version. I have other plugins that are less stellar sounding and easier on CPU. I bought the mastercomp for it's great sound (fat mode).

Again my CPU results (44.1 FAT)

wavelab: 18%
Cubase SX2 60%

Why the huge difference?

Thanks,

-Zak

I agree that FAT mode sounds better. As far as the CPU - what are you buffer settings in Cubase? I am wondering whether Wavelab is perhaps not operating the plugin at low latency (which uses more CPU) and is thereby conserving a lot of CPU cycles.

My soundcard (MOTU424) is set to 512 in both SX and Wavelab. Perhaps the PDC in SX is causing the higher CPU usage. As far as I know, wavelab doesn't use PDC, being a 2 track editor.....

Thanks for the replies.

-Z-

I don't know any reason for such different in CPU usage, I have no problems on any of our notebooks here. It is possible (but not sure) that there is a kind of difference in driver usage in both applications.

My understanding on Vista is that when working in a 64 bit application no VST plugs will be able to use x87 instructions. The full feature set for Vista (larger address space etc) means SSE only. Does this accord with your own information?

64 bit addressing space has nothing to do with 64 bit operands in SSE. These are different stories.
What is more the MC cannot be optimized with SSE not only because not all CPUs support 64 bit floating point numbers but also because of its architecture which doesn't allow sirious pararell computations.

Regards,

CPU consumption in Live 5 with FAT mode engaged is running around4 40%.
In Sound Forge 8, same settings--runs around 7-8%.

That was for 44.1khz, 24 Bit.
Good soundcards (MOTU Traveler) 3.2 dual processor.