Per-track plugin issue and feature request...

sreams wrote on 3/26/2003, 5:05 PM

I've been doing work lately involving per-track plugins. Some of these plugins include Waves LinEQ and LinMB as well as iZotope's Vinyl.

The feature request is this... the way CDA operates now, all plugins on all tracks are processing all the time. Waves LinEQ and LinMB are very CPU-intensive, and I am quickly running into a CPU limit having to simultaneously run 8 instances of each (each takes around 10% of the fastest CPUs out now).

A second related isue... CDA appears only to cut the -input- to per-track plugins when other tracks are playing. This is a problem when using a plugin like Vinyl, which generates audio (record noise) even when it sees no audio input. Either muting the output of inactive plugins or disabling them altogether (as mentioned above) when other tracks that aren't using them are playing would solve this one. For now... the -only- workaround is to destructively commit Vinyl in Sound Forge. Not a very flexible alternative.

-S

Comments

freendeed wrote on 4/19/2003, 7:51 PM

Geez, Scott, I freaked when I saw this post. It's almost word for word what I posted about two months ago. I made a long detailed post and suggestions to SF too and they said they would look into it. I also informed Izotope as it seems Ozone causes more problems than other plugins but this may be because it uses much more CPU than most other plugins. I can only get about three instance on my 1.2Ghz before it chokes. I made the suggestion that it would be cool if presets could be recalled as then you could use a single instance of Ozone on the master and have it bring up the correct preset at the correct time. Of course this is a failing of the DX standard but I asked Ozone why not make Ozone available as a DXi and let the "presets" be called up with a MIDI patch change?

For what it's worth it does the same thing in Sonar (eats up CPU even when there's no data at that point on the timeline). But Ozone DOES work right in Samplitude (when used per-object) so it's something the host is doing wrong. This really ticked me off too when I found out as to me this is what CDA was made for. If I can't make adjustments to each track and preview them against each other in real time I might as well be using Soundforge or any other "one track" editor and just burn the resultant files in Nero or something.

kylen wrote on 5/1/2003, 10:46 PM

I have not seen a post or planned resolution to this problem from Sonic Foundry yet. After wasted time, money, and effort I can share the solution I found while waiting patiently for some response.

I am using MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0 ($39 believe it or not) to shape, balance, and polish the sonics of an entire CD project that is well over due. I am able to use their mastering processors as well as 1 directX plugin per 'event' or song as well as 1 directX plugin across the master. I have had many Ozone's inserted and can actually turn them off in MAGIX as I go on to the next track or project event.

To give you an idea of where I'm coming from I am a beginning home mastering enthusiast and work on somewhat beat up mixes that have barnacles and spikes growing from each potential gem (due mostly to bad recording/mixdown rooms). My process includes cleaning, EQing, balancing ruff dynamics & resonances (Sound Forge w/Ionizer mandatory), fine dynamics & EQ smoothing (Ozone,PSP), adjusting loundess & saturation when needed (PSP & T-RackS), dither & rendering, writing the CD. I use a Pentium 4 PC running Windows XP.

By the time I get to adjusting fine dynamics & EQ I was hoping to be able to have each song in CD Architect as an event so that I could adjust each of the pre-Masters to fit with each other sonically, etc. Currently I can only begin to use CD Arch at the dither & rendering stage (because of my heavy effect use). Like someone else said, freendeed I think, I can individually master (and have) all the individual songs using Sound Forge and simply use CD Arch for fades, PQ, moderate number of event effects - and maybe a master effect or two.

I still would like to use CD Arch 5 and now that I'm getting past my own difficulties performing sound shaping & balancing across the entire project I'll see how well CD Arch red book writing to CD works.

I'm very surprised about having to conduct such an expensive experiment, this is not the usual case. The other SF products I use have features that all perform as advertised and better in many cases. Please fix this major problem so we can enjoy all of the features of the product.

RikTheRik wrote on 5/3/2003, 5:41 AM

I hope much to see an update for CD architect in these days... I think they were busy with Vegas recently. CD Architect actually reminds me of Vegas 3.0c which then was dropped.
I just read that Sofo has been bought by Sony. Hopefully they will continue to support most of their products !!!

freendeed wrote on 5/11/2003, 5:48 AM

Yeah. Other than this problem I love CDA. But it's a huge problem. Really about the most major problem you could have for a mastering/burning app. Buying software is like picking a spouse: can you love if they never become any more than they are right now?

rockhill wrote on 5/11/2003, 4:33 PM

hi i'm new to the forum and have recently purchased CDA5. I have a free solution to the plugins per track problem.

Go to vb-audio.com and download the free FFX-4 DX manager. This is a DX chainer/rack plugin that you load into the 1st slot in the per track CDA chainer. Then load your mastering plugins etc. into the ffx-4. It will let you chain 4 plugins one or more of these can be an instance of itself so letting you chain as many plugins as you want. All set ups are saved by CDA.

Heres the thing: if you use the bypass plugins button in FFX-4 your plugin are switched off properly and frees up your CPU.

I hope this helps

sreams wrote on 5/19/2003, 5:30 PM

Thanks... but this isn't really a solution. When rendering, there is no way to automate the disabling of plugins.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 5/19/2003, 11:33 PM

SREAMS
"A second related isue... CDA appears only to cut the -input- to per-track plugins when other tracks are playing. This is a problem when using a plugin like Vinyl, which generates audio (record noise) even when it sees no audio input. Either ..."

How about putting the Vinyl plugin on the master ? And blank event between tracks if necessary....

geoff

sreams wrote on 5/20/2003, 4:10 AM

Wouldn't that be a problem if I just want Vinyl on a single CD track? That's what I'm getting at. I can't see a way to apply Vinyl to just one track unless I commit it destructively.

jlindberg wrote on 7/28/2003, 10:58 PM

Scott,

I just purchased Ozone and was getting down to doing some mastering on a CD and .. doggone it! ... I just discovered the same "feature" you did some months ago. As of your last post in this thread (5/20) it didn't sound like there was any fix or work-around short of going into Forge and creating a "mastered" version of each track but, as has been noted, this really dilutes the value of CDA as a mastering tool.

At least I know I'm in good company. :-)

-- Jeff --

PS: To be fair to the folks at Sonic Foundry, this is the first thing I've bumped into on CDA 5.0 so far that I am not happy with so I guess I can't complain too much.