Why is HalionSonic sucking up so much cpu power?

[Steve Pin]

Running one instance in Cubase 5 sucks up pretty much all my cpu power. Using 5 or 6 tracks of Halionsonic in a poparrangement, using a total of 10-30 voices, makes my pc choke. Asio performance peaks to 80% and the sound stutters and distorts.
Quite dissappointing considering the fact that with the good old Hypersonic 2, you could use 3-5 instances within your Cubase arrangement with many voices without any performance problems!
Changing parameters in HalionSonic options like streaming balance and osc ECO mode makes no difference at all.
I always thought that disk streaming like in HalionSonic (just sample playback imho)depended less on the pc/asio performance then synthesis like most VSTI's. Or is this poor Steinberg design/programming under the hood? Haven't found anything like this with NI so far
Don't feel much like upgrading my pc (Athlon dual core 6000 3Ghz, 2Gb, Win XP SP3 blackviper) just like that to maybe fix the problem.

Hope and pray that a serious update comes up soon....
_________________
Athlon64x2 3GHz, 2 Gb, 2 x 420 Gb, TC Konnekt live, Win XP home SP3, Cubase SX3.02, Cubase 5.5.1, TC Powercore element, UAD-1,

[Niles]

I'm sure it has something to do with your specs, you are just a bit above Halion Sonic's minimum system requirements.
Although it is indeed a pretty CPU hungry VSTi compared to Hypersonic or NI stuff.
My 2.4 quad can handle around 64 voices of the Natural grand (Max CPU 90%) @ 512 buffersize.

I think a pretty powerful CPU is required for optimal performance within a project
_________________
Hardware: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4Ghz), 4GB Geil PC2-6400 DDR2, Ati Radeon HD 4800 series, 2x WD3200AKS's and 1x WD740ADFD, RME Multiface + HDSP PCI
OS: Windows XP Home (SP3)
SB Software: Cubase 5.5.2 & Wavelab Essential 6.01 & Hypersonic 2.0.0.600 + NB-3 hypermodule & Halion Sonic 1.0.0.0
Controllers: AKAI MPK49, Frontier design Alphatrack.

[Steve Pin]

My 3Ghz processor in stead of 2 should be fine. Beside that, my pc is tweaked for optimal audio/video editing, so enough cpu power available.
Niles, you should try to add an extra instrument beside the natural grand, like these dual layer guitars or synth's. Surprisingly how soon you get into cpu hungertrouble with HalionSonic!
_________________
Athlon64x2 3GHz, 2 Gb, 2 x 420 Gb, TC Konnekt live, Win XP home SP3, Cubase SX3.02, Cubase 5.5.1, TC Powercore element, UAD-1,

[Niles]

Steve I hear what you say.
But the specs of our system are not spectacular higher then the minimum specs asked for the program. So Steinberg would always refer to: "A more powerful system may be required for certain tasks or larger projects."
Next to that we both use XP, which isn't supported by Halion Sonic (maybe there's a problem - which I don't think though).

I used only the Natural Grand to try to make a fair comparison. Because when someone is using loads of different presets it's hard to compare the results with other people's DAW's. If we use the same preset in an empty project with the same buffer settings, the comparison result is more reliable.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you that this VSTi should be a lot more efficient with its resources.
I'm a bit dissapointed about the performance too. For me Halion Sonic is not the Hypersonic replacement I was hoping for. And if I compare the quality of sounds, editing possibilities and overall capabilities of this product against the system load, I think Steinberg is way behind on the competition with this product.

Let's hope a future update will make this VSTi a bit more efficient.
_________________
Hardware: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4Ghz), 4GB Geil PC2-6400 DDR2, Ati Radeon HD 4800 series, 2x WD3200AKS's and 1x WD740ADFD, RME Multiface + HDSP PCI
OS: Windows XP Home (SP3)
SB Software: Cubase 5.5.2 & Wavelab Essential 6.01 & Hypersonic 2.0.0.600 + NB-3 hypermodule & Halion Sonic 1.0.0.0
Controllers: AKAI MPK49, Frontier design Alphatrack.

[JacoPark83]

I think at this point it's a reality - HS is a CPU hog. There's really no defending it at this point. Hopefully SB will fix this. Until then I'm waiting.
_________________
James G. - XP Home, HP a1210n w/ Athlon 64 3500+, 2Gig RAM, Presonus Inspire 1394 interface, Cubase Studio 5

About Jaco Pastorius Park: http://www.ilovejaco.org/ About Jaco Pastorious: http://www.jacopastorius.com or http://www.jacop.net/

[bob1474]

Hi there, A quick look through some topics (including my earlier posts) on this forum reveals a trend that yes, this program does suck up a lot of power. I did a powerfull upgrade, (needed anyway, but did not want to be "forced" into it)but one should not expect a NEW program to be less streamlined than an older version, although I suspect Steinberg will say HALionSonic has nothing to do with Hypersonic. So far no word from Steiny on any updates (?)
_________________
pc#1= Core I7 unlocked 875K cpu (liquid cooled)- 4 gig ram, XP home (32bit) linked (byFX Teleport) to pc#2=2.3 gig P4 cpu, 2 gig ram XP & pc#3= (also Teleported)Laptop=2 gig cpu, 2gig ram using Vista. Cubase Studio 5.5.1, Alesis Multimix 8 firewire .Faderport,and various input devices.

[Niles]

[zephonic]

Forget about the minimum sys reqs. HalionSonic does not work well on my 2007 Intel iMac Core 2Duo (2GB RAM). It habitually brings the whole system down.

Ironically, the instruments are fairly small in size (I never have more than 200MB loaded) but somehow I run out of memory anyway.

On a positive note: I think it is terrific value for money. Even the piano sounds good! I got the 99 EUR upgrade from HalionPlayer, which was a POS, and now I do not feel shortchanged anymore.

Nonetheless, as it stands even EastWest's dreaded PLAY engine runs more efficiently than HS. Updates please!

[DjRavix]

the 1.5 update has some performance Improvements

Optimized Cross Modulation-, Sync- and XOR-Oscillators results in up to 30% improved performance.
Optimized streaming performance and loading speed.

For more info on HALion Sonic 1.5 See:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/newsandevents/halion4blog/blog_details/archive/2010/12/09/article/insights-1395.html
_________________
PC Related Hardware:
Intel Q6600, 4GB Ram(CL4), 74GB Rapture/640GB WD/1TB WD
DC-FW800 PCIe
8800 GTS (G92), 2X Acer X222W
Audio Related Hardware:
828MK3, 61SL MKII, Virus A, AirFX, Perception 200, iNano, M1 Active Mk2
Audio Related Software:
Cubase 5.5.2, Sound Set Synthesizers, HSO, The Grand 3, HALion Sonic, MS-20, Polysix, Mono/Poly, LegacyCell, MDE-X, Predator, SubBoomBass, RP-Verb, RP-Delay, VPS: Multiband Sidechain, VPS: Metrum, VMS: Multiband Compressor, VES1, VTS1, FF Bundle, Oxford Inflator, Sylenth1, Z3TA+