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Spitfire Eric Whitacre Choir - CPU spikes on rhythmic patches.

shropshirelad

Senior Member
I'm having problems with EWC and CPU spikes. The weird thing is that it's only happening on the Rhythmic patches, everything else behaves impeccably. I'm in conversation with Spitfire support but wondered if anyone else with this library has run into this problem or if anyone had any suggestions. The library was originally on an SSD formatted in APFS. I've tried moving it around to another SSD and to my main drive. Same issue. I've experimented with the preload buffer times - even at max values the problem persists. As I say, everything else about EWC behaves perfectly and I don't run into this issue with any other library or plugin. Not even ARO :) Any help or ideas gratefully received. Video demonstrating issue attached.

 
It happens to me too. I assumed it was related to whatever tempo-syncing process they use, and my computer being old.
I'm sorry to hear this but also pleased to know that it's not just me! My mac is getting on a bit too but I don't think that this is the problem. Hope to hear from others now - perhaps we can push for a fix.
 
OK, Spitfire are acknowledging that there's a problem with this & the sync to temp functionality. The matter's been referred to the developers, so I await a reply with bated breath.
 
I have the same problem, iMac 2019. Have you heard anything from Spitfire?
BTW, I just noticed that there now is an option in the Spitfire app to optimize the files of Eric Whitacre Choir. Maybe that soles the CPU spikes?
 
Haven't heard yet. The optimise option was there when I purchased but had no effect on this issue.
 
The Rhythmic patches in EWC are similar in CPU usage as Symphonic Motions (and Kepler, a Kontakt library) on my 2019 iMac (i9-9900K). I would venture a guess that they use the same or similar code to trigger and timestretch the samples.

Symphonic Motions has the option to select a lesser-quality pitchstritch/timestretch algorithm to lower CPU usage, which works quite well with an almost imperceptible difference in sound. You just set it back to the highest value when bouncing or freezing. If EWC is using the same algorithms, adding this option would be an easy update for Spitfire.

Also, if one of the mic mixes works for you, using one of them in lieu of having multiple mics enabled (either in EWC or Symphonic Motions) helps as well.
 
OK. I had not noticed the optimize option before so I just ran it. Took about 45 min! Hopefully it did something.
Thanks for posting - I'd assumed that the issue was due to my ageing iMac but if it's happening on newer machines too, it's more than likely a problem with the software. I'd be interested to know if anyone doesn't have this issue and what spec their machines are? The 3 of us with problems here all use iMacs of various vintages.
 
I am using an iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020) with a 3,8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7 and 128 GB of RAM.
Running macOS BigSur 11.6.5 (20G527).
Bought and installed EWC yesterday, including the "Optimization" after installing it.

Unfortunately I still got the same problem as you guys.

And I honestly can't see any reason why the playback of one single articulation (only the rhythmic ones as well here) could overload my CPU, when I have nothing else loaded except one instance of EWC.

Has anyone heard any fixes / news about this matter?

Thanks :)
 
I am using an iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020) with a 3,8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7 and 128 GB of RAM.
Running macOS BigSur 11.6.5 (20G527).
Bought and installed EWC yesterday, including the "Optimization" after installing it.

Unfortunately I still got the same problem as you guys.

And I honestly can't see any reason why the playback of one single articulation (only the rhythmic ones as well here) could overload my CPU, when I have nothing else loaded except one instance of EWC.

Has anyone heard any fixes / news about this matter?

Thanks :)
I never did get this sorted - I believe that I did speak to Spitfire about it at the time. Bit rubbish, really.
 
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