# Synchron Player CPU meter not matching my Task Manager CPU meter



## Robert_G (Mar 31, 2022)

I've been taking a lot of time to learn the Synchron Player inside and out as I plan on dedicating a lot of time to Synchron libraries.

Here is a quote from the VSL Synchron Player Manual.

8. "CPU Real-Time Display: *Shows the actual CPU load on your computer.* Lower latencies and higher voice counts will result in a higher CPU load."


Either my settings are completely messed up or that statement is not true.
I have taken several scenarios and watched different instrument CPU meters peak at anywhere from 30-70% while my Task Manager CPU meter in Windows 10 is running between 5% and 8%.

How can a single instrument be using that much while my computer task manager CPU meter says its almost idle?
Am I missing something in my settings?
Thoughts?


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

*bump*

Still can't figure out how to spread the load.
My task manager CPU barely moves.....never even hits 10%, but the Synchron CPU monitor on single instruments is constantly hitting 30-70%.

I can't be the only one having this issue.


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Someone mentioned using https://bitsum.com/ for better thread management over stock, it was in regards to VEP but I'd assume it'll help your case too.

EDIT: I keep meaning to try it myself but have not yet.


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> *bump*
> 
> Still can't figure out how to spread the load.
> My task manager CPU barely moves.....never even hits 10%, but the Synchron CPU monitor on single instruments is constantly hitting 30-70%.
> ...


Also are you sure your CPU isn't getting throttled by power management? That might explain the discrepancy.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> Also are you sure your CPU isn't getting throttled by power management? That might explain the discrepancy.


I'm not sure what you mean, but my CPU is barely even being used. It never goes above 10%. The only CPU meter that is going that high is the one on the Synchron Player. I'm wondering if there is a setting in the Player that isn't playing nice with my computer. 
I have my Windows power management set to 'AMD Ryzen high performance'


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> I'm not sure what you mean, but my CPU is barely even being used. It never goes above 10%. The only CPU meter that is going that high is the one on the Synchron Player. I'm wondering if there is a setting in the Player that isn't playing nice with my computer.
> I have my Windows power management set to 'AMD Ryzen high performance'


I'm not familiar with that profile and what it's setting are. I just made my own which I call 110%, and it's 100% go juice all the time, which - yes, is bad for the planet, but good for audio processing. I would take a look and make sure minimum processor state is 100%, etc.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> I'm not familiar with that profile and what it's setting are. I just made my own which I call 110%, and it's 100% go juice all the time, which - yes, is bad for the planet, but good for audio processing. I would take a look and make sure minimum processor state is 100%, etc.


Thats basically what my setting is.....doesnt care about the planet....just gives me max performance on everything


----------



## BasariStudios (Apr 11, 2022)

CPU Meter in a DAW or on a Player has NOTHING to do with the actual Meter on the TaskBar, it is 2 different things and they are not comparable, it will never match. One is Audio Performance while the one on the Taskbar is the actual Meter of the PC Processor. The one on Players and DAWs does not measure your CPU Cycles but how the DAW and the Audio perform.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

BasariStudios said:


> CPU Meter in a DAW or on a Player has NOTHING to do with the actual Meter on the TaskBar, it is 2 different things and they are not comparable, it will never match. One is Audio Performance while the one on the Taskbar is the actual Meter of the PC Processor. The one on Players and DAWs does not measure your CPU Cycles but how the DAW and the Audio perform.


Totally agree with you, so why does the Synchron Player CPU spike so fast when my actual computer CPU is almost idle? 

Also, what steps or options are there to make the Synchron Player CPU not spike so much?


----------



## BasariStudios (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> Totally agree with you, so why does the Synchron Player CPU spike so fast when my actual computer CPU is almost idle?
> 
> Also, what steps or options are there to make the Synchron Player CPU not spike so much?


That's not an easy answer. The very simple answer is its bottlenecking somewhere, the really long answer is really long. Size of Library, Complexity of Library, what else is open, CP Configuration, Components Configuration, Components mathhing, mismatching amd compatibility, Audio Drivers, Optimisation and many other things. I am on 10900k, overclocked. I bring the DAW down on its knees sometimes but the CPU is 60% free.


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> Totally agree with you, so why does the Synchron Player CPU spike so fast when my actual computer CPU is almost idle?
> 
> Also, what steps or options are there to make the Synchron Player CPU not spike so much?


What happens to the sound? Any anti-virus on? Synchron is disk intensive and if the anti-virus is riding it's back like a monkey on a cat that'd be bad. 

SSD issues can also cause the CPU meter in the player to peak, on my external usb NVMe drives I have the preloads set higher than the internal drives.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

BasariStudios said:


> That's not an easy answer. The very simple answer is its bottlenecking somewhere, the really long answer is really long. Size of Library, Complexity of Library, what else is open, CP Configuration, Components Configuration, Components mathhing, mismatching amd compatibility, Audio Drivers, Optimisation and many other things. I am on 10900k, overclocked. I bring the DAW down on its knees sometimes but the CPU is 60% free.


Yeah...sounds a lot like my useage.

A 12 core Ryzen 3900x with 128GB RAM is a pretty decent computer. Everything is on my computer is pretty high end. The Synchron Player is installed on my main drive which is a 4.0. generation internal NVME. There is nothing faster. I'm not sure I can optimize anything any better than it already is.

I'm starting to realize that the Synchron Player is a greedy bastard that doesn't like to play nice when you are using the FULL Synchron libraries with multiple mics. It needs a bit of finessing for sure. I'm hoping future updates will tame it a bit, but my gut says it wasn't designed to be tamed.


----------



## Ben (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> Totally agree with you, so why does the Synchron Player CPU spike so fast when my actual computer CPU is almost idle?


The Taskmanager does not measure as frequently as the Synchron Player does, and therefore misses a lot of load spikes. It's great for measuring continuous loads, but not so much for real-time audio.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> What happens to the sound? Any anti-virus on? Synchron is disk intensive and if the anti-virus is riding it's back like a monkey on a cat that'd be bad.
> 
> SSD issues can also cause the CPU meter in the player to peak, on my external usb NVMe drives I have the preloads set higher than the internal drives.


I get that old style TV white noise....crackling, fuzz, some snapping.....it's not pleasurable....but it only happens when it hits above 100%...which I have to be more intentional in doing.

My sample libraries are all on exclusions....no antivirus interference.

Again....I am using all FULL libraries with the Surround to Stereo downmixes with the 'Wide' mixerpreset. It uses a lot of mics. I know I'm pushing it a bit, but I'm not doing anything that wasn't in the box of what I bought.


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

Ben said:


> The Taskmanager does not measure as frequently as the Synchron Player does, and therefore misses a lot of load spikes. It's great for measuring continuous loads, but not so much for real-time audio.


I agree with that, but we are talking the difference of basically idling (task manager) to hitting the upper limit (Synchron Player)


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> Again....I am using all FULL libraries with the Surround to Stereo downmixes with the 'Wide' mixerpreset. It uses a lot of mics. I know I'm pushing it a bit, but I'm not doing anything that wasn't in the box of what I bought.


When everything is loaded up do you have a lot of ram left? Making the preloads higher might offset the some of the heavy lifting to ram. 

Imagine if you were doing the same thing (at the same level of detail) in one of the other players. Your PC would start on fire!


----------



## Robert_G (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> When everything is loaded up do you have a lot of ram left? Making the preloads higher might offset the some of the heavy lifting to ram.
> 
> Imagine if you were doing the same thing (at the same level of detail) in one of the other players. Your PC would start on fire!


Lots of RAM left.

Actually, I've pushed the Kontakt Player a lot harder. Love the Synchron Player, but it doesn't even come close to the Kontakt Player for ease of use and how hard it can be pushed. In fairness, the Kontakt player has been around and perfected for a lot longer.


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

Robert_G said:


> Lots of RAM left.
> 
> Actually, I've pushed the Kontakt Player a lot harder. Love the Synchron Player, but it doesn't even come close to the Kontakt Player for ease of use and how hard it can be pushed. In fairness, the Kontakt player has been around and perfected for a lot longer.



Yeah you should try making your preloads 16384, or even the largest size.


----------



## RSK (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> if the anti-virus is riding it's back like a monkey on a cat that'd be bad.


If the actual thing is anything like the image you just put in my head then yeah, that would be truly awful.


----------



## RSK (Apr 11, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> When everything is loaded up do you have a lot of ram left? Making the preloads higher might offset the some of the heavy lifting to ram.


Almost everything regarding using sample libraries is a tradeoff of CPU vs memory.


----------



## Zanshin (Apr 11, 2022)

RSK said:


> Almost everything regarding using sample libraries is a tradeoff of CPU vs memory.


Agreed!

By default the Synchron Player seems biased towards being memory efficient. I am curious if the large preloads would kick it the other way.


----------



## Craig Allen (Jun 25, 2022)

Zanshin said:


> Agreed!
> 
> By default the Synchron Player seems biased towards being memory efficient. I am curious if the large preloads would kick it the other way.


On another thread, my Synchron overloads went away when I changed Preload size (from default 3k) to 8k. I may try larger as well.


----------

