Hi DG

I've just checked this out and see that yes this is checked. HOWEVER, I've noticed that my idle CPU usage for VE PRO (when full of connected PLAY instances) is now dramatically lower than it was. It WAS about 120% at idle and 200% in use. Now it's 60% at idle and about 120% in use.

The only thing I can think of that's changed is that I've installed Mavericks, so maybe there's some of this optimization magic going on there, who knows. Either way the fan is quieter and I'm a getting lower workable latency on big projects so I'm not complaining....

dan

Everything seems to be working well here in Mavericks. I have no measurements to confirm it, but it feels like there's more overhead, as if I have a 10% faster CPU in big projects. This might be something to do with the compressed memory trick removing virtual memory use. So, it's not like my 2012 MBP is suddenly running like a 12 core new Mac Pro, but it does seem to be a real and noticeable improvement.

A couple of plugins seems to be having trouble running in VEPRO with OSX 10.9 - SWAM plugins from Sample Modeling, and Steven Slate Drums 4 seem to be having trouble, but as a workaround running SWAM plugins in the host software instead of VEP, and switching off Disk Streaming in SSD4 seems to have resolved those problems.

As people say, you need to switch off App Nap for VE PRO.

so... no further word on this? Can you find out a way to idle the CPU when there's no audio or maybe just no MIDI going through it?

It would really shut up those noisy fans....!

No, CPU use is quite light without Play instances. Also, it is quite light (18%) even when 3GB of Play instances are loaded 'preserved' into a template, but no Cubase project is loaded and they are not therefore active.

The CPU use goes up to a constant high around 125% as soon as a Cubase project is loaded which connects to the 'preserved' Play instances, even when I haven't hit 'play' on the sequencer transport and therefore there is no active audio or MIDI activity.

When the project is playing, and there is audio, the CPU goes up a bit but only as you would expect in line with the amount of polyphony being needed.

I run quite large Hollywood Strings templates inside VEPRO 64bit on OSX, slaved to Cubase 7.

I notice that as soon as Cubase loads a project and connects to the template, the CPU runs up to 125%, and my MBP noisy fans kick in to cool it down.

Is there no way that the CPU could have no or reduced usage when there's no audio going through it? Or even, no MIDI information being received, since there's such a strong correlation between MIDI coming in and audio coming out?

I'm sure a lot of power and heat is being wasted, and the fans would be less noisy this way. A lot of the time I am editing stuff and there's no or very little sound coming through.

Is this technically possible?

Dan

I'm getting this now since the latest update 5.1.12684

- on a Mac OSX 10.8.4 with MIR PRO 24 in the 64bit server

Roughly speaking without Play3 they are around 1MB. With Play3 they are about 3MB, so, not too much bigger and it looks like the difference could be accounted for just by those projects having more instances running, with more complex programs.

As I say, the problem is only when loading older templates from previous versions of both Play and VEP. New templates save quickly now.

no one replied to this so maybe it's not a common problem.

Anyway the solution seems to be to create entirely new templates for the latest versions of Play and VEP. I've just done this and saving is normal not slow. A bit of a drag meaning I have to re-create any old templates by loading everything back up but at least it can be done.

Why is it that a Vienna Ensemble template with maybe 8 instances of Hollywood Strings inside VE PRO instances takes about 15 minutes to save? It's insane - it only takes 3 minutes to LOAD, and that's because of loading samples into RAM. This is only meant to be saving the settings.

Bug?

I''m using the latest current versions of Play 3, HS and VE PRO. 

hi folks. anyone else had this?

in windows 7 64bit, when i scan for plugins, 32bit ve pro 5 crashes when it finds my two ilok plugins - electric keys and play 32bit. 

i'm therefore unable to use these plugins in 32bit mode. anyone had this or know a workaround?

thanks

dan

Sean - you're guilty of speed reading. The problem isn't exactly the dongles, it's VSL's lack of warning about the very high replacement costs, and their 2 year warranty, which they don't make clear.

VSL just need to tell people more clearly that's all. It's not a dongle moan.

Being an optimist, I think a reason for their silence is that this issue has forced them to think about a different strategy, and they're now remaining silent until they've made a decision and are ready to implement it.

I'm right aren't I Paul? ;-)

Dan

Personally I don't find their actual policy that bad, because if your dongle is less than 2 years old you pay nothing.

The BIG problem for me is that they don't make this policy clear anywhere and therefore people can get caught out. Just buy a new dongle every 2 years, and consider it to be fairly cheap insurance. You can use your spares in an emergency - they will give you demo licenses until it is properly inspected and replaced.

Ah yes there it is under the Instances tab - I missed that. Thanks Karel!

Now I have the amazingly lush sounding EMT-140 reverb by VNXT Sound (for Nebula) running live on the slave machine. At last! The best reverb I've ever heard, useable during tracking. This is good news indeed!

Dan

I've been experimenting with the new effect send feature in VEPRO 5 which seems to work very well.

However, I want to use it with a moderately high latency Nebula reverb, and I wondered if there was a way to switch off the inbuilt delay compensation? I don't need it and it's adding unwanted extra latency during live recordings.

Thanks if anyone knows this!

Dan

No response from VSL yet about whether they will improve their warnings or not.

Hello VSL!  Are you there?!

Maybe they just don't know how to say: "Steinberg charge us less than €20 per activation - we just like to add a little cut for ourselves", in a way that won't upset their customers.  Well, so fine, VSL have their hands in the Handling Fee drawer, so what?  The important thing is that they try harder to warn customers about the MASSIVE costs they might face if a Key is older than 2 years and it dies.

There are 4 important questions that VSL need to answer:

1. Do you charge €20 per license for EVERY replacement code? Including individual instrument downloads? And therefore people might be paying over €1,000 if their USB key dies and is over 2 years old?

3. Could you please include specific warnings about the 2 year warranty, and the exact costs of replacement if a USB key gets over 2 years old, when people buy software, so that they are clearly warned?

4. Could you email customers when their USB key is getting close to 2 years old, as a reminder to buy a new one, with another warning about the costs in the event of a failure?

My point is that the very high costs in themselves are not the main problem. The main problem is that VSL have a 2 year warranty and an extremely expensive replacement program, WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE, and therefore customers have no ability to plan ahead and do the sensible thing - buy a new key every 2 years and regularly transfer their licenses across to avoid getting caught out.

Is this too much to ask?!

well who knows whether they charge €20 for separate instrument licenses, I have no idea. They asked for that for my VE PRO and VI PRO licenses. either way I think someone from VSL ought to say hello and explain exactly what people have to pay for what, so they can make an informed decision what to do instead of getting caught out ...!

I started this thread because I was toying with the idea of buying in to MIR, and the positive reactions had got me as far as adding it to the next shopping list.

However (see my other thread elsewhere), it turns out that if your USB key fails and it's over 2 yrs old, VSL charge you €20 per license for a replacement. If you have 50 licenses, that's €1,000 just to use the software you've already bought. So in view if this awful policy, I'm certainly NOT buying anything else by VSL unless I really feel that there's no alternative.

(This hidden policy came to light when my USB key recently failed).

For your further information, it's interesting to note that VSL wanted to charge me two fees to replace my license - one (€20 per license) for each activation code, and then a €20 Handling Fee.

However, in their own terms and conditions they only mention the Handling Fee. Does that mean the €20/license fee is actually a breach of their own terms of conditions?  It looks like it.  Buyers beware!  It turns out that VSL is an internet Scam Site! Seriously though, I would recommend that anyone in this situation should refuse to pay.

Here's their T&C again (my bold emphasis)

5. Defect of the ViennaKey

In the case of a defect or damage to the ViennaKey Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH or a third party authorized by Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH (e.g., distributor) will check the ViennaKey. In the case of a legitimate claim the ViennaKey and the Vienna Symphonic Library Licenses included shall be replaced in return for a handling fee. The Licenses will only be replaced provided that they are licenses issued by ViennaSymphonic Library GmbH. Further claims against Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH are excluded.

I think maybe it's time for an official response to this, who agrees with me?

Update and warning for you didger -

I asked Steinberg their policy and they said that because most of the licenses on this USB Key were Steinberg, they made an exception and provided the VSL activation codes, whereas if it was all VSL licenses the request would have to go through VSL.

My advice, which I've just done now, is to buy a new Vienna Key every 2 years and transfer all your VSL licenses onto that. It's a PITA but at least it beats pulling your eyes out with anger at the extreme cost of lots of replacement codes.  With your spare dongles, you could make a nice necklace. Or use them for temporary demo licenses.

Anyway surely in a few years everything will be in the cloud... no more USB pains, we can hope....!

Is it really true that this very high €20 per license fee is just something which Steinberg charges VSL, and so they are only passing on their cost?

Even if so then the whole system could still be improved.  They should send out email warnings after two years for example, that the warranty has expired, with the option to buy a replacement or purchase an extended warranty. Also, the actual potential costs should be specified as a clear warning when buying, not just a very vague 'a handling fee will be charged' hidden in the T&C.

How likely is it that typical composers will be keeping track of how old their USB keys are, remembering to replace them every two years and then transferring all the licenses across?  Does anyone reading this do that? Only people burned by a key failure I bet.

Yeh I know, it's easy to throw out harsh words when you're annoyed.  I think though if *you* got an unexpected obstacle while under work pressure, then charged money with no justification offered, and then a different company solved it quickly without asking for money, you'd be annoyed at the policy of the first company.

As for this not being Steinberg policy DG, you might be right. Maybe I just got a trainee who did something generous without realising it, who knows.  

SO anyway yeh I'll calm down and shut up and get on with my work now.  But before you blindly worship VSL, you'd better cross your fingers and hope you don't lose your whole VSL collection on a dead USB Key - it might be a pricey fix if you have to pay their generous 'handling fees'.

As for Money Grubbing DG, it's American for Money Grabbing. Don't ask me why I said that, I'm from the UK. Perhaps, it's the 'grubby' implication.

DG - have you thought about the fact that if VSL knew this they could have told me to contact Steinberg instead of offering to waste my time and take my money?