Why is task manager showing higher cpu than Cakewalk with SSL plugin?

[Jacques Boileau]

While doing some test I came across a strange behavior. I had noticed that a plugin seemed to have high CPU usage. But loading it in an empty Cakewalk project, I noticed that task manager and Cakewalk reported very different CPU usage. Normally, if I simply load the basic project, task manager and Cakewalk's engine load report very similar CPU usage of around 1.5% on my PC. Then if I add an instance of SSL Native Flex Verb on the track, the engine load goes up to around 12% but task manager shows 21% CPU usage, almost double. Of course this fluctuates, but task manager always shows much higher CPU usage than Engine Load.

One other very peculiar observation I made is that if I remove the plugin on that track the CPU goes down a bit but stays high in task manager, as if the plugin is stuck in memory. It goes down to only about 15% with the plugin removed, while the Engine Load in Cakewalk goes down to almost 0%. I imagine that the problem reside with the plugin, not with Cakewalk, since I can reproduce the same behavior with other VST hosts (ex. Cantabile). But I am very curious what this might be caused by and there are very knowledgeable people and devs on this forum that might be able to explain this.

Not all the SSL plugin exhibit this behavior, but of the 12 I own, 10 create this behavior. It seems SSL plugins are quite CPU hungry unfortunately. If I compare Izotope Neoverb, which has an Engine Load of 3-4% to Flex Verb's 8-9%, it is quite a dramatic difference. And when I remove Neo Verb, the Engine Load comes down to the base level of 1.5%.

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Jacques Boileau

[Jacques Boileau]

I just wanted to update this thread with new info. First I contacted SSL, they are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it. Second I just noticed that there was an update to the SSL Native Channel Strip 2. Thanks to another thread here giving info of an SSL download manager I saw that there was an update for that plugin.

I installed the new version, 2.2.7, and the problem described in the OP is fixed in this new version compared to the previous version 2.1.8. 👍

Bus Compressor 2 still has the problem unfortunately. Hopefully they will update all their plugins as well in the near future. 🤞

[reginaldStjohn]

I think one of the developers mentioned that the performance module is just monitoring the audio processing and not the GUI and other system tasks, at least in one of its modes.

Check out the documentation. I think it explains it.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=ControlBar.09.html

Edited April 18, 2023 by reginaldStjohn

[Starship Krupa]

On 4/18/2023 at 8:25 AM, Jacques Boileau said:

It seems SSL plugins are quite CPU hungry unfortunately. If I compare Izotope Neoverb, which has an Engine Load of 3-4% to Flex Verb's 8-9%, it is quite a dramatic difference.

Good heavens, Neoverb is the most resource-hungry reverb plug-in I've seen. And SSL have found a way to have theirs eat up even more resources?

I think that when plug-ins are especially resource-hungry, that's bad for business in more than one way. If the assumption is "the current computers can handle it," not everyone has a "current" computer. The more plug-ins I can run, the more I tend to use (=buy).

[Starship Krupa]

Question for Jacques: have you tried your engine and CPU load tests comparing the usage with the plug-ins' GUI's closed and open? It surprises me how many plug-ins show a big difference when they are or are not displaying their UI, especially in Task Manager.

[Jacques Boileau]

16 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Question for Jacques: have you tried your engine and CPU load tests comparing the usage with the plug-ins' GUI's closed and open? It surprises me how many plug-ins show a big difference when they are or are not displaying their UI, especially in Task Manager.

I just tried it. The Engine Load stays relatively the same but the CPU load in task manager goes down a bit, from 21% to about 17%. So the GUI does a have some effect, but not that much. As @reginaldStjohn stated, Engine Load probably does not include GUI load, which makes sense.

But what really baffles me is that removing SSL Flex Verb keeps the CPU load of Cakewalk at 15%! In task manager Cakewalk, with just the basic project loaded takes 1.5% of CPU. If I load Flex Verb it goes up to 21%, if I close the Flex Verb GUI it goes down to 17% and then if I remove Flex Verb it goes down to 15%. Never does it go back to its initial 1.5%! I just wonder how a VST3 could keep its host using CPU cycles AFTER it is removed.

[JnTuneTech]

6 hours ago, Jacques Boileau said:

I just wonder how a VST3 could keep its host using CPU cycles AFTER it is removed.

I have to ask - do you remove the VST3, save, close & reopen the project for the comparison? If not, undo could be keeping the VST3 running in the background, - just a thought.

[Starship Krupa]

8 hours ago, Jacques Boileau said:

I just wonder how a VST3 could keep its host using CPU cycles AFTER it is removed.

I'd guess that somehow it's not terminating correctly.

2 hours ago, JnTuneTech said:

undo could be keeping the VST3 running in the background, - just a thought.

I doubt this is the case, because I replace FX and synths like crazy and would soon overpower my system.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

3 hours ago, JnTuneTech said:

undo could be keeping the VST3 running in the background, - just a thought.

It's cheaper processing wise to just reload the plugin rather than keep it in some sort of cache. What is kept is probably the plugin state, as it happens when you save track presets.

[Jean]

You may have come across an issue that I was having a few weeks back. (I mentioned it on another thread somewhere in the forum) I was installing all my stuff on a new computer and was getting huge spikes on one of my CPU threads in the CbB performance module.  The culprits in my case were (as far as I can see) plugins that use Open GL graphics. Within CbB, I had the performance module in the control bar set to show ‘system performance’ (not ‘audio performance’) and when I loaded certain plugins, one core would spike right up into the red. And would then remain there even though I disabled and/or remove said plugin and sometimes had to close out of CbB completely. (Task manager also showed the same)

Some of the problem plugins with which I was able to resolve the issue were Oeksound Soothe 2 and Spiff because in their ‘settings’ option I was able to disable the use of Open GL. Also a couple of the Soundradix plugins had the same option. Some of my Leapwing plugins, I had to roll back to an earlier version (in their release notes, an update had added Open GL.)

However, the SSL X-EQ-2 plugin, I just had to abandon, because I couldn’t find a way to disable Open GL (I’m assuming that the plugin does use Open GL – but it is an assumption) I can’t recall off the top of my head if the same thing was happening with other SSL plugins, but I can check if you want (I think I have the SSL flex verb)

My graphics card is an Nvidia, which should be fine with Open GL, but I’ve not found that to be the case on my system (and it could, indeed be just my system even though I’ve updated Nvidia graphics card to the lates drivers) If you have any of the above plugins in which you can disable Open GL, try that and see if it resolves the problem.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

47 minutes ago, Jean said:

However, the SSL X-EQ-2 plugin, I just had to abandon, because I couldn’t find a way to disable Open GL (I’m assuming that the plugin does use Open GL – but it is an assumption)

The SSL plugins probably use a 3D rendered interface, just like the IK stuff.

[GreenLight]

Thank you for this thread! I noticed the very same weird CPU load issues (with CPU load staying even after the project was closed!) and narrowed it down to the SSL Bus Compressor 2 and then searched and found this thread.

I upgraded SSL Bus Compressor 2 from the problematic v1.2.3 (that was the latest when I bought the plugin in July 2023) to v1.5.5, where the CPU issue seems fixed! As a bonus, somewhere between those two versions a GUI zoom was implemented. 👍😀

By the way, is there any version history or "What's new" available for the SSL plugins? Maybe in the SSL Download Manager? (I don't use that, currently.)

Edited April 14 by GreenLight