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LayR AUv3 - Huge CPU hit normal? (With no patch loaded)
Just tried LayR AUv3 for first time and as soon as I loaded it into AUM my CPU shot up by 30% with no patch loaded or notes playing.
Is this normal? Are there settings that can reduce this?
I’ve just bought it so haven’t explored its settings and usage yet. I’m on an iPad Pro 2017 ...
Comments
With the initial preset (1 basic sine oscillator) I'm also seeing ~30%.
Loading one of the Brice presets using 8 layers, and playing chords, it hovers ~30% as well.
I enabled 'Legacy Engine' under settings in the standalone app, then reloaded the AUM session, but CPU reduced by only a couple %.
2017 iPad Pro, AUM at 512.
This happen to me in NS2 (iPhone 8+). Switching to legacy mode didn’t help (at least not alone). Try also the maximum buffer size and limit voices to
64 (smallest), see if this cleans the plaque.
Yes that makes a big difference thanks!
No problem!
Dev (Very nice and very responsive!) insists LayR is very CPU efficient but it is from sterile environment measures. we common folk running the app on our devices .. our mileageS vary. I just hope there is not a big sound quality dip when changing the aforementioned settings’ values.
Should add the max voices + buffer was what made the difference for me ... still using latest engine.
Would like to see a 1024 buffer option in LayR to match AUM options and also possibly reduce CPU further.
Yeah, that would be nice 👍🏻 I never cared much for smaller buffers or low latency modes and such in any app because I usually use older hardware and the performance hit is just not worth it.
The dev is not incorrect. A lot depends on what you mean by efficiency. While LayR’s baseline may seem high compared to some, I have run complex patches on my iPad Gen 6 that involve more than 30 layers with complex envelopes and filtering that would require many instances of other synths to approximate.
If you are doing a simple patch it might seem CPU hungry.
Cool, thank you for this.
Yeah I did notice that once I load LayR and the initial CPU usage jump, it doesn’t really matter what I play inside it the CPU usage level doesn’t budge much anymore.
FWIW, I tend to use LayR for the sorts of things only it can do. I can get lost forever in a dreamland. Brice’s nighttime cinematics is what sold me.
Maybe a but like some Native Instruments synths built in Reaktor, which seem to run at constant high CPU regardless of how many notes are playing, as if the processing required for each note is pre-allocated in some way.
Makes sense. Actually the developer was here yesterday and shared a a technical explanation on the app’s CPU usage. It’s in an older LayR thread but I don’t see it right now and too tired to look for the specific post.
This is exactly what LayR is doing. LayR is designed to be massively polyphonic. 128 to 256 individual synths all running in parallel. I say this again and again and it never really sinks into the public consciousness 😁
You may only hear one voice when running the simplest patch but internally it's processing all of them, even the ones you're not hearing. LayR is not just one monophonic synth it's 128++ synths. You could try running 128 mono synth AU instances and see what happens to the CPU! You get the best from LayR when it's being pushed. The more layering, the more its efficiency becomes apparent. It runs with pretty much constant CPU usage all the time.
(The legacy option was for devices older than an air 2, no need to enable it these days)
[edit] appending this comment...
Like all tools LayR has a place to fit in a workflow. If all you need at any one time is a single mono voice you're better off running a mono synth instance. But when you want those huge sounds, especially live on stage, then that is LayR's raison d'être.
Hi there🙂 see my previous comment, above.
@LivingMemorySoftware Thanks for this ... it’s gratifying in a nerdy kind of way that my analysis was correct 😬 It’s definitely a synth I would use for big sounds and many notes ... which is why I bought it
As the music professor said in the film Shine, “don’t you just love those big fat chords?” ... Oh yeah!,
One request ... It would be great to have a 1024 buffer size option in LayR, as this is what I work with in AUM, to maximise processing capability (at the expense of a little latency), to help squeeze a little more performance out of our devices. Is this a possibility?
Thanks for the generous discount too btw! Hope it generates a ton of sales for you 💰
I’ve dropped the max poly to 64 and buffer to 512, and this drops CPU to a workable level in my set with a whole bunch of other apps in play ... this will be more than adequate for my needs ... maybe an über-efficient 32 note option and 1024 buffer size would be great for sets where processing is a premium ...
+1 on the 1024 buffer size
Don’t know about the 32 sounds.. feels very low for a big hammer like LayR. But maybe I’m wrong.
The buffer size option in LayR is only for the stand alone version. The AU uses the host settings.
Good to know thanks! In which case it was the max voices setting which made all the difference in reducing CPU demand in AUM.
@LivingMemorySoftware Yes, indeed good to know! These are the sorts of details that are rarely in the manuals but can really make or break the user's experience. I appreciate your responsiveness!
@LivingMemorySoftware hey man, amazing work :-)
Could please you add a plus 48 pitch bend option for MPE goodness ;-)