I use Pianoteq (a modelled piano VST) for most of my piano sounds, but I have noticed that the load time is substantially longer (about double) that of something like Sampletank, even when ST has several instruments loaded, or even LL4 which is also a modelled VST.
Is there a reason why, and does anyone know of a way to speed this up?
Thanks
Dennis
Activate profiler before you load Pianoteq, and see what the results you get.
thanks Corky, but what exactly am I looking for haha, a lot of data on that!
What I can say is that when PT loads Profiler freezes. When I load, say, a ST piano it keeps running…so exactly what that means I have no idea haha!
How long does it actually take? Sounds like something funny is going on, it should be quick. Especially compared to Sampletank.
Yeah that’s what I thought Fred! Takes about 14 seconds. ST about 4-5
Try reloading Pianoteq. It should be immediate. If profiler is freezing with only PT then that would be the culprit. Reload .
Just a quick question, are you loading a single instance of PT , just by itself…just to test it?
yep! It is actually the default startup preset. makes no difference when I load it, even after running the profiler. So it must be something with PT - I might put a post over on the forum.
So last night, mid-song at a gig PT caused Cantabile to freeze. Got this funny noise through the speaker then Cantabile posted the error message about Pianoteq module (or words to that effect) and I had to restart Cantabile. Not good. There is definitely something going on here.
Dennis,
Did you not try to reinstall PT? It could possibly be corrupted. I personally would uninstall PT, then reinstall. At least you know PT is the culprit.
Corky I did install the latest version just now, but load times are the same so I suspect the issues (whatever they are) are till there.
I might try that (total uninstall, then re-install) and see if that does anything…some guys at the PT forum reckon they are getting it load in under four seconds and others report up to 10 seconds, although no-one, so far, has indicated crashing a host.
Just a note to add to your grief, my Pianoteq is running just fine. I am currently on Cantabile version 3603. I am using PT 6 Stage, and it loads in less than 2 seconds. That is loading only PT by itself, not in a rack.
Different computer configurations…different hosts. I haven’t tested it on my slower machine recently, but I remember it loading near as fast.
Modeled Vst instruments use the cpu to “create” the sound instead of a sample library, and most of the programs are in the “mb” range like Lounge Lizard is 40mB compared something like Keyscape which might have a patch that is 1Gig in size…
I’ve never had a problem with PT6 in C3 either. Are you mixing 32bit and 64bit by chance? Usually not an issue but that’s the only thing I can think of.
haha, no none of the above!
Not sure if this is relevant, but the system resources indicator (left hand edge of Tempo box at the top) shows PT using up to 48% of RAM ( I assume it’s RAM meter?) when being used and it varies between 3-16% when not being used, as in played.
That is page faults. Mine runs around 3% with PT loaded.
To be precise: it’s not a RAM meter but it displays the two values:
The first is the (Cantabile-internal) measure of how close the system is to failing to fill the audio buffer in time (anything above 100% will crackle, even if the CPU isn’t overloaded at all; the second is a measure of how busy the system is swapping memory between RAM and storage (HDD/SSD).
More details in the Monitor panel:
On my system, Pianoteq (v6.5.4) loads within one second, both directly as a plugin as well as within a rack.The base time load is 4-5%, when playing 13-15%.
If your time load varies wildly when not playing, this indicates some other processes outside Cantabile stealing your CPU cycles and distracting the system from servicing the audio buffer.
Cheers,
Torsten
Thanks for that. My ssytme has 8gig of RAM and TBH I have never had an issue before. Just tried totally removing PT and re-installing - made no difference.
I think I will need to simply stop using it and just use ST3 pianos - they all load (even with EFX) in about 1-2 seconds! Not as good, granted, but at least there’ll be no more on-stage embarrassments because of dodgy software (on MY system). It could all boil down to a Windows 10 issue as well…I still cannot upgrade the OS to anything past 1607
Unfortunately this may be a symptom of a greater problem though. It may manifest the most trying to run Pteq but I’d want to run it down- it might be bringing your system down in other ways you’re not noticing, and I’d be a little paranoid about giging with it. Although, I guess if you’ve been using it without issues you’re ok, at least with VSTs you’ve already established as working.