Visual indicator of "DSP" usage

    I would like to see a Visual indicator, either in VC or the Hardware or both... a visual indicator that shows the DSP resource used by the "total" of the amount of patches used.
    I know its possible to see the power that each patch takes out of the DSP, but sometimes when using multitimbral mode its better to see how much power left you have to load another patch.
    Some indicator like the one found in the UAD cards or Tc would be great.

    There is a big difference between effects and synthesizers:


    Effects are usually running their algorithms all the time, so the cost is pretty much constant over a long time.


    A synthesizer, especially the virus, has a highly dynamic engine that must respond to notes on different channels. The current cpu/dsp load can only be determined in the moment it happens. Then it is actually too late to display this.


    You can have a brief overview about the patch potential usage when you take a look at the "battery bar" like element in the play pages.


    -timo

    Timo, they could always just read the DSP usage and display an average for the last x reads or something. Doesn't make a difference if it's "too late" to display it. It'd be sort of like an RMS meter for the virus DSP. I'm sure access could do it. The amount of work it'd take might be more than it's worth though when you can just bounce down tracks once you start noticing voice stealing.

    we've tried that. but there were to many dimensions involved. as for dimensions i mean parameters. for instance, polyphony but also aspects like a sound doesn't necessary consume the same amount of DSP power over the lifetime of one voice. we're totally happy to present something better, once we find a way. and that's just me being really honest here.


    best, marc

    You couldn't just say, sample the DSP usage every 50ms or so and then average the results from the last 5-10 seconds worth of samples? I'm sure you guys probably considered something like that already but I'm curious as to the reason why something like that wouldn't work?

    Great Marc, I am glad you guys are open to another idea should one come around. I think a better indicator would be great too. I would rather see a numbered % readout over that of the little bars which represent a cell phone battery life type of readout. A numerical readout such as 50%, 80% etc would be far easier to understand instead of guessing.

    Zitat von zebastian21

    I would like to see a Visual indicator, either in VC or the Hardware or both... a visual indicator that shows the DSP resource used by the "total" of the amount of patches used.
    I know its possible to see the power that each patch takes out of the DSP, but sometimes when using multitimbral mode its better to see how much power left you have to load another patch.
    Some indicator like the one found in the UAD cards or Tc would be great.


    Hm, actually three blue LEDs in LFO section already can be programmed to show LFO, Ext Input, Output or Voice steeling, although I haven't tested how they react showing the voice steeling. I guess you first hear that voices have been lost rather than see it. :S Maybe AccessMusic can add yet another option (or replace current voice steeling behaviour) when these LEDs light up sequentially showing DSP amount left. For example 85% DSP left - first LED flashes, 70% DSP left - first lights, 55% left - first lights, second flashes and so on. Finally all LEDs light = 10% DSP left so you can expect voice steeling.

    Is there no way of counting CPU time, or doing the reverse and seeing how long the DSPs are idle for (ie working out how much is left).


    I'm sure a little latency isn't a problem, if you see a spike after you've pressed a note, its no stretch of the mind to realise that the spike was because of the note.


    I think if you could just give a voice drop indication like the old red clip LED indicator that signals when the Virus is having to decide what needs to go first (I'll bet that this starts to happen before you can usually tell by ear that its happening).


    Does anyone need to know the precise level of DSP being used?


    Or is it enough to know that they are in danger of running out of it - and possibly the the ability to compare the demand of one configuration to another (perhaps this can be calculated from the parameters rather than empirically from runtime usage - or maybe It's more complex than that)...


    If you can indicate a polyphony and say when voices are dropping, the user could combine the two to know how much 'mileage' they are getting from a particular patch, and see that it improves when they change something...


    (actually the only bit of voice dropping that annoys me is when the virus drops the new voice, too, leaving nothing playing - just why?)

    Maybe a polyphony overload msg could be a solution, that shouldn't be to hard to program? Knowing the counts of voices and DSP usage etc. is useful but if that's too hard to program at the moment, just knowing you maxed out would be pretty nice, esp. if you're not necessarily hearing the dropouts in your mix.....