Synth CPU Usage Info

CPU overload and CPU usage seems to be the biggest question on Synth right now. We did make the choice to allow users to exceed CPU instead of arbiratirly limiting the device.

The Synth can play up to 8 voices but some configurations will exceed the CPU with 8 voices. CPU Tips:

The most important thing to remember is that if you assign a voice to a Synth and that voice isn’t in use it will still use the CPU if it is playing or not.

PMD and Grain are the most resource intensive. For Grain rolling off the density if you are having CPU overload will help. For PMD array is how many filter banks are being used, so if you turn that down it will change the tone but get better performance.

No need for polyphony on single note arps or sequences, use 2 voices if the gate lenght is over 100, 1 voice is all that is needed if under 100 on gate length. The exception is playing back chord packs via the sequencer or chord modes on the arp.

CPU high messages mean you are at the edge of the CPU limit, you can usually get away with staying in this area if you “finish” a scene the first time you see this message. Audio clicks are more likely to occur on Chords once you are in the high CPU range so this is something to watch out for once you see the CPU high message.

Some factory patches can fixed easily if you are getting clicks or CPU messages by changing the number of voices - For example Atcha_Sunrisepeaking - I made this patch and didn’t experience clicking despite it being in the high CPU range, but it has too many voices assigned to an ARP while only using 1 voice for each synth slot, just remove a couple of the blue voice and you wont exceed the CPU. I’ll update this if I think of more tips but those are the first things I can think of off the top of my head.

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If you have other questions on the Synth please feel free to ask them here. I’ve collected a lot of questions and will start a separte long Q&A thread tomorrow with answers to things like:

USB audio, new grids, midi, etc. Edit: made a separate thread about it here - Polyend questions

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I just wanna say I’m loving SYNTH. However I am wondering if the machine can indeed get more synth engines and fulfill wishes down the road if we’re having some issues with CPU so early due to what you said “allowing users to exceed cpu instead of limiting the device”.

If more complaints keep happening, is limiting the device the only option to cut down on cpu issues or is there plans to try to do some cpu optimization and keep it where it’s at and hoping for more engines and stuff down the line?

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I wonder how often users will get the CPU messages at the beginning when they are just exploring and learning (and not caring about the sounds they produce) vs when they use their Synth normally, to play and create music. At least in my case I can say that I saw the CPU message a few times while just testing and playing around but I’m not seeing it now that I’m past that point and I’m only using the Synth to actually produce music that I will use or enjoy.

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Same. Last night I was creating modular type things with it and didn’t even notice any cpu warnings at all in the 2 hours or so I was playing it!

If it doesn’t really do anything to your sound or performance when seeing it then don’t worry about it. However some future cpu optimization could still be really nice if they can do it.

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Do the effects use a significant amount of CPU, and would it make a difference which model is selected for an effect?

One thing I noticed about the CPU indicator: it is always present in the Synth pages, but it’s never visible in Mixer and Effects pages (even though I have lots of clicks). In the Menu and Preset screens I can see the indicator when I enter those from any Synth page, but it’s not visible when I enter those pages from the Mixer or Effects.

Anyways, I’m totally happy with the sound, and the limitations regarding the number of voices is something I can definitely work with. One other thing I noticed: the PHZ engine often produces clicks that are unrelated to CPU load (i.e. even when the other synths are off and the voices are limited to 2 or 3), they appear to be somehow related to voice stealing. Is that a known issue?

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They use a small amount of CPU but it isn’t inconsequential, disabling them when not in use is something we have considered in a firmware update. Also the next firmware update should address issues with the clicking. We’ll post an open beta on backstage in the coming weeks.

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