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.