I feel with you - and yes, my nerves were definitely a bit frayed
But the relaxation that came in Set 2, when the replacement keyboard came in, was like getting into a nice and cosy jacuzzi
Problem with having that failure happen at 8:30 on Saturday night: what backline hire company or music store will even answer the phone at that time? So I’ll definitely travel with the full backup set from now on - got myself a nice Studiologic SL88 Grand now to replace the AKAI - plays like a dream! But I’ll definitely carry both the SL and my Kurzweil to future gigs - easy on the nerves to know the replacement sits ready in my car…
Greets!
I haven’t allowed windows to update for almost two years. With all the music gear, drivers, software, etc., if windows updates, it simply either destroys or mangles my computer’s stability. For the most part, (I am a MS Certified Engineer with a 30-year career behind me…), windows updates are anything but ‘critical’ or ‘crucial’ or even so much as important, especially for what we do with our computers and music production/performance. If you are an unfortunate victim, er… ‘customer’ of Microsoft with Windows 10, I completely empathize with you! WIN 10 does not allow the computer’s owner to turn updates off. They can be ‘thwarted’ by designating a ‘slow network connection,’ (Windows won’t allow itself to update as long as this is the ONLY active network; once you make the mistake of connecting to another WiFi network, the madness begins!)
Windows 8.1 Pro is the best OS for everything. I will not purchase a computer without it!
I just played my first solo gig at a local bar and had several problems right off the bat that I’ve never seen before. First off, C3 can’t see my SL88 Studio USB driver. It’s get power from the USB hub, all other USB devices on the hub are fine, but no SL88. Easy enough… MIDI cable to Babyface Pro.
Middle of my first song, my BF randomly turns the main output volume to zero. Got sound in my in-ears but nothing in the mains. Took me a few seconds to figure out what happened and had to restart the song. Joked with the crowd about it, but it was damned embarrassing.
Second song, playing clav to a backing track for Use Me, and Kontact says screw you, I do what I want. Tried for the rest of the song to bring my clav back while singing… nothing. Switched songs, and all instances of Kontact have MIDI going in but no audio leaving. Restarted C3 and had no more issues for the night.
Thank God for a forgiving crowd. They loved the rest of the night enough I got more dollars in tips than there were people in the bar, and I’m booked for 3 more gigs there. Real head scratcher there though.
@Torsten, I owe you man. Thanks to your post I had MIDI cables on hand.
@BigTwisty We had that happen over the weekend. We were playing a show, and our main backing track/C3 laptop decided to cut out (thanks for the warning, it cut but stayed in time when it came back). The audience wondered what the hell was going on. We have rehearsed a breakdown during practice, and it payed off. Our front man decided to do a couple of “unplugged” tunes. I disconnected the problem laptop, plugged in the backup, and, within 2 acoustic songs we were 100%. As we were playing, the venue canceled the band he hired for his next gig and hired us on the spot (what???). Amazing. Very few pity tips, but they loved us. Of course our band was inaccessible, as we were on a stage off of the bank of a large pond (that they called a man made lake) accessible by a dock. Crowds are usually forgiving if it seems you were prepared but had technical difficulties. If you had problems because of a failure to prepare, that is another story.
@Torsten I have an MPK261 connected and powered by USB. My SL88 connects to the MPK via 5 pin DIN. I believe that one USB connection can service all midi if you have the right hardware with extra DIN ports (Like both the SL88 and MPK261). I parked my Yamaha Motif (it was heavy) and went 100% C3 for the last 2 gigs. I try to avoid using USB to power stuff (planning to power the MPK261 with 12v dc). Folks at Soundcraft (since I use a UI24R) stated that usage of USB powered devices with wifi taking power, as well, may reduce performance of audio interfaces. My only fear is that when I used the Motif, my CPU rarely went above 50%. Now, running all sounds (Addictive Keys, O2, H6, FM8, Sylenth, NI Classic Keys, LL) keeps my usage at 45-85% and CPU with occasional 115% (i7 8550) at 52 degrees C. I am using states to disable unused VST instruments that are hogs. Still, a lot of button pushing etc. to disable VST’s to avoid clicks/pops from overuse of CPU. I believe that an SL88 Studio and MPK261 can do literally everything (even launching tracks in Ableton on the same computer as C3).
I could never be Torsten, but thought I would make a comment. I use a POWERED USB hub and had zero problems. If you do not use a powered hub, there may not be enough memory address space to support many devices all at the same time. Have you used Brad’s new profiler to see what is taxing your system? There are also some things you can try within C3.audio engine.
I haven’t updated my subscription. The profiler would be the reason for subscribing. Does the profiler offer significant information? Yes, I need a powered USB hub. At this point I have 3 USB inputs 1 is audio interface, 2 is MPK261 USB powered and 3 is USB dongles for ILOK and eLicenser.
This may be the tipping point for subscribing again.
Lol. There is a video on site about the profiler. I use it quite a bit. I have a powered audio interface, direct into laptop, My main keyboard is directly into the laptop. Powered usb hub into the 3rd port on laptop. In the hub, I have 2-keyboards, 1-foot pedal, and usb mouse. The profiler is here: https://blog.cantabilesoftware.com/introducing-the-performance-profiler-and-more-1695dcfd0986
EDIT: also play around with the C3 engine settings. That’s how I got my newer laptop to perform much better.
(Ugh. USB dongles. iLok…another ugh! I use Ilok software for B5. Works most of the time. No wonder your load is high)
So, that link to the profiler is very cool. I think I am going to reup here soon. Yes I have a small hub for my eLicenser and ILOK. If those are resource users, the plugins and dongles may have to go.
I bought a small, aluminum, 7-port powered usb for $65. The way they work, the first 4 ports (nearest power input) split an even voltage which is enough to power most things. The last 3 ports have a reduced voltage for less consuming items. So, if I use more than 4 ports on the hub, my usb mouse would be moved to port 5, as it is battery powered. I have done a ton of research on this to know what I was getting into before I pulled the trigger. Experiment with one device loaded then add devices on and watch your load increase. It’s like overloading a cheap extension cord…CPU will heat up quickly.
Thanks for the information! I plan to do as much as possible, because we run a very complicated setup with many power factors. I am going to look for the hub you mentioned. If you have a name for it, that would be nice, but it sounds like any powered hub may work.
I don’t see how adding power to a USB hub does anything with addressing. What it DOES address is the fact that a USB port only has to supply 500 mA at a bit below 5 V to be compliant to USB standard. Having to share that between multiple devices can cause problems.
Yeah, CPU peaks would be worrying me as well. I try to keep my songs as small as possible, including only the racks I need within a specific song. Cantabile performs quite well with pre-loaded setlists; any plugins not used in a song will not really impact CPU.
One of my principles in creating my songs: I want to make sure that when all racks included in a song are activated, I don’t get CPU spikes. I found that de-activating and re-activating racks over the course of a song may create CPU spikes during the switching process, so I’d rather activate and de-activate routes to my song racks and leave them all active. If a song creates so much load that it requires deactivating plugins, this is a sign for massive risk of spikes when switching. In these cases, I try to reduce CPU load → see @brad 's new profiler.
@BigTwisty
I was trying to say if it wasn’t a hub problem, he may have been running out of resources which could mean there’s not enough memory address space to support that many devices all at the same time. Just came out wrong.
A powered USB hub connects to your USB port while having an external power adapter connected to it. It therefore draws power from a socket independent of your computer’s power supply. A traditional USB port provides 500mA of current. A bus powered hub distributes this equally among the devices connected. A maximum of four devices can be used with a hub connected to a single USB port.These devices will receive only 100mA of current each. While this may be adequate for devices that do not consume much power, it may not be enough for devices such as USB hard drives or external DVD drives. When you are connecting multiple devices to a USB hub, Windows may display “USB Hub Power Exceeded” if the connected devices are not receiving adequate power.To solve this problem, a powered USB hub provides the complete 500mA of current required for stable operation of the connected devices. Apart from providing adequate current at the ports, a powered USB hub provides over-current protection for the devices connected to the hub. This would mean that current provided to the USB ports in a hub is limited to a certain value after which it is cut off; excess current will not be transmitted to your devices, and they are protected.
Also…this is the usb hub I bought. I could only find it at Walmart though. It is a very solid unit and perfectly fit where I wanted to mount it. Was considering a floor unit, but mounted this one, and it works great. Most powered hubs will work, but get an aluminum bodied one. The plastic ones are worthless.
@Torsten So you enable/disable the MIDI route TO the plugin, rather than disabling the plug in, if I am hearing you correctly. The CPU usage does not refer to resting state. At rest it is like 14 percent. Once (for example) O2 is sounding, the CPU load goes up and I start to get worried. I am still looking at alternatives. And thank you to @Corky for the product info!
My strategy is to have 5 or less songs preloaded in memory, and grouping patches in songs that reflect certain musical modalities. For example, a pop scenario that would have Addictive Keys, LL, NI Classic Keys, H6, Sylenth and VB3. A texture modalitiy with Addictive Keys, O2, H6 and keep the VB3 in the mix. A Funk Modality with E Pianos, Sylenth, Addictive Keys and VB3 etc.
I have racks, but I must say I am a racks lite person. Maybe I need to spend more with racks. After your post, I am looking at a backup controller, as I have a backup everything else (audio interface, LT, Mixer, amp etc).
Good to know this, Corky. Based on that I turned everything off, disconnected all USB devices (a mouse and a keyboard), plugged in only the Korg K49 set to Standby, restarted the computer, switched the K49 from Standby to USB. No improvement. I’m guessing that part of the keyboard is dead. Regardless, the workaround – using the 9v adapter and the 5-pin DIN to USB converter – essentially amounts to the same thing as getting a powered USB hub. I was just hoping that I had not turned on some feature in Windows or Cantabile.
