User Manual

AUDIO EFFECTS PROCESSING
881
List sorting
Click the column headings in the Effect
Performance list (Figure 75-6) to sort by name,
performance, etc. Each heading can sort from top
to bottom or bottom to top (or high to low, low to
high, etc.) Click the heading to toggle the sort
order. When sorting by Performance or Time of
Max, the list reorders on the fly, as demand
fluctuates during playback.
PG/RT
The PG/RT column (Figure 75-6) shows whether
the plug-in is running in real time (RT) or pre-gen
(PG) mode. If you hover the cursor over the RT
indicator for a plug-in, you’ll see a tool tip that
explains why the plug-in is running in real time. If
a real-time (RT ) plug-in displays exceptionally
high performance load, try running it in pre-gen
(PG) mode.
Performance meter and Time of Max
The Performance meter (Figure 75-6) provides a
visual representation of each plug-in’s individual
CPU load — essentially how hard it is working —
as a percentage of the overall processing currently
being handled by Digital Performer’s audio engine.
Above the blue meter, there is a maximum peak
load indicator shown as a colored line. The color of
the line depends on which DP theme you are using
(shown in yellow in Figure 75-6). The Time of Max
column displays the sequence timeline location
where this maximum peak occurred, which can
help identify sections of the sequence that are
particularly demanding from a CPU standpoint,
especially for virtual instruments. Use the Clear
Max mini-menu command to clear all max peak
indicators and the Time of Max column.
Individual versus Coalesced
The Effect Performance mini-menu provides two
views for this window: Individual and Coalesced. In
Individual mode (the default setting) each effect is
displayed separately in the list (Figure 75-6). In
Coalesced mode, processing overhead is combined
by effect type (Figure 75-7). For example, all
instances of iZotope Ozone would be gathered into
a single item in the list. You can freely toggle
between these two modes. Two columns show
combined average CPU load and peak percent of
overall CPU load.
Figure 75-7: Coalesced mode.
The Time of Max column is not available in
Coalesced mode because each line in the Effect
Performance list may represent multiple instances
of plug-ins which have maximum CPU peaks at
different times.
Tips for reducing plug-in performance load
For pre-gen virtual instruments, make sure the
MIDI track feeding the instrument is not record-
enabled (which temporarily puts them in RT
mode).
Some instrument plug-ins, such as MachFive and
Omnisphere, can host multiple instruments in one
instance of the plug-in. You can reduce overall
performance load by creating a separate instance of
the plug-in for each instrument (i.e. a separate
instrument track), rather than loading multiple
instruments into one instance.