Fabfilter plugins causing CPU spikes and host freezes

Discussion in 'PC' started by brick, Oct 18, 2017.

  1. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    Often it occurs when interacting with the plugins (e.g creating / moving EQ curves) but sometimes just opening the plugin is enough to cause a jump to 100% CPU usage and freeze my PC for up to 30 seconds. Basically loading any Fabfilter plugin renders my project unstable / unusable.

    Even after reinstalling multiple times, and trying different versions of Total Bundle it still causes freezes and CPU spikes. I've tried VST3, VST2 etc. I also tried going back to old versions of single plugins which used to work fine (eg. Pro-Q2, Pro-MB2) rather than bundle but now they cause freezes too. :dunno:

    I am using Win 7 64bit & FL 12. I see no one else on sister site reporting these issues so I don't know what could be causing it? How do I remove all traces of Fabfilter plugins so I can try and start fresh? For instance, when I uninstall one version and reinstall, it doesn't always ask me to re-register so it must be leaving traces somewhere. Thanks!

     
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  3. thantrax

    thantrax Audiosexual

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    Try disabling the FF VST "MIDI Learn" feature.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2017
  4. Alpha0ne

    Alpha0ne Producer

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    If u use MSI Afterburner (GK-tweaker) or other software running in background, try to disable them. And try toi shielt ur OS from telemetry software. These can also cause CPU-spikes where u think its your DAW-related software.
     
  5. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    Thanks, I tried but didn't seem to make a difference.
    I don't have any such software running that I am aware of sadly. The CPU spikes to 100% disappear when I remove the Fabfilter plugins from the project, so I have no doubt it is them causing the issue.
     
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  6. 4ger4ger

    4ger4ger Member

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    Try enabling/disabling Allow threaded processing, try enabling fixed buffer sizes and use host's maximum buffer size.
     
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  7. Alpha0ne

    Alpha0ne Producer

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    is your daw offline via firewall? sometimes plugins tend to call home.
     
  8. boomoperator

    boomoperator Rock Star

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    Not related, or is it? I had Pro tools going berserk, lots of CPU spikes after a Windows update last week. I had to delete preference & cache files to run at all. Right now overall stability is still gone, the program hangs 3 times a day. So maybe it's Microsoft?
     
  9. Clayton123

    Clayton123 Producer

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    I mean this is probably dumb but what's your machine look like? The computer is powerful enough to handle audio production yeah? Other than that I'm with these other people basically just go through all the settings and make sure you know what everything is and everything CPU heavy that you don't need is disabled. Maybe you have Linear Phase - Maximum turned on by default?
     
  10. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    No, although I did consider this. I have legit FL 12 so I didn't think to block it. Maybe I'll try temporarily and see if it helps. I know it's good practice with "non-legit" plugins regardless, I wish you could block single .dlls rather than the whole of FL.
    I think not, as I mentioned it only happens when I add / interact with Fabfilter plugs and it stops when I remove them from my project. Thanks for reply though.
    I shouldn't have any issues - 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD. My CPU is a little old but it's not causing any issues with other plugins. I was hoping you might be onto something with Linear Phase but it's on Zero Latency.

    Maybe I'll try DMG Audio plugins instead, I have a soft spot for Fabfilter but I can't seem to fix this.
     
  11. relexted

    relexted Producer

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    Best Answer
    Dropouts while changing fabfilter parameters, I think this might help you out https://www.fabfilter.com/support/faq/#how-can-i-disable-graphics-acceleration-on-my-computer

    How can I disable graphics acceleration on my computer?

    With some graphics cards and host software combinations, the GPU-accelerated graphics acceleration system in our latest plug-ins might cause problems. You can turn off graphics acceleration to find out if this fixes the problem.

    Tip: If you experience problems, first try to update your graphics drivers to the latest version!

    Windows: Click the Start button, type 'regedit', Enter to open the Registry Editor. (You might have to give permission to continue.) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FabFilter. Right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it GraphicsAcceleration and ensure its value is 0.

    Mac OS X: Open Terminal and type: defaults write com.fabfilter.Common GraphicsAcceleration 0

    The above steps will turn off graphics acceleration for all FabFilter plug-ins. To re-enable it, change the value 0 to 1 in the steps above.
     
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  12. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    I don't imagine you will see this @relexted as it was over three years ago(!), but you may have just fixed my problem and I can't thank you enough! You've really made me very happy this weekend. I never saw this reply at the time, and haven't used Fabfilter plugins since. I decided to give a new release another try this week and still had the exact same issues of 100% cpu spikes and freezing DAW, unusable mouse lag only with Fabfilter plugs. This tweak appears (fingers crossed) to have fixed it immediately.

    I would never ever have suspected such a fix would work for me. I wonder what it is about my specific GPU and host combination that causes this (GTX1070 / FL Studio 20, although I had the same issue in FL12 also).

    Edit: added username tag so you can see how grateful I am! ;)
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
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  13. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Moderator Staff Member

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    Been using FF One/Saturn2 VST2x64 a lot for 2 weeks now, like in every session im doing, have not experienced something like freezing. Win 8.1 Pro x64 on Ableton 10.1.25. GTX 550Ti with rosetta/open Pandemics running at the same time. No freezes and cpu spikes.
     
  14. Anubhav Ukil

    Anubhav Ukil Producer

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    Sadly, it is not the GPU and Host combination but it is just the Host.
    I used to use FL Studio as well and I came across this and several other issues.
    Now I am all good.
     
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  15. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    Good to know. I was just going by this which Fabfilter said "With some graphics cards and host software combinations".
     
  16. Anubhav Ukil

    Anubhav Ukil Producer

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    I meant No disrespect to you. I was just saying, FL Studio is the culprit. The only DAW that caused overloading of a project on Threadripper 2990 wx (if you don't know, it has 32 cores and 64 threads and is overclocked to 4.25 GHz) which, when replicated point to point exactly on Reaper, Studio One, Cubase and Ableton it took way less CPU ( reaper won with lowest value and ableton with higher than the rest but still way better than FL).
    Also, most DAWs have Default PPQ way more than FL Studio's.
    :bow:

    FL Studio is good. No disrespect.
    But it has lot of bugs and people do know that. Especially, it has the worst multi core utilization and has a lot of issues with GPUs.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2021
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  17. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    Besides better or worse DAWs handling this, every day I see more problems with plugins with GPU accelerated GUI. It sucks
     
  18. brick

    brick Noisemaker

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    Of course, no disrespect or anything taken. Thanks for your input :mates:
     
  19. relexted

    relexted Producer

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    Glad to be of help :shalom:
     
  20. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    That's because VST are loaded in a wrapper and not natively, that's the only reason for all such issues. That's why I use stock plugins whenever I can in FL. Misbehaving plugins can even corrupt the FLP.
     
  21. Illadelph

    Illadelph Producer

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    There is a lot to setup and understand about audio, OS & DAW in the end

    Fackin waste of time,

    Roadies these days just spend a week installing plugins:rofl:
     
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