Does Reason have proper multicore support?

[mcatalao]

You might be a little short sighted if you think AMD and INTEL are the only CPU brands around...

As far as desktop/laptops? Yep, that's pretty much it. Those are the main players in the market still today. Now if you're talking mobile platforms like Chromebooks, Atom-based stuff, tablets... then the waters get a bit more murky.

What it mean is that if they'd go down other brands might take that place. IMHO they've rounded too much corners, so lets see how it goes. But i agree with you guys, its important to have competition.

[ScuzzyEye]

You might be a little short sighted if you think AMD and INTEL are the only CPU brands around...

Fortunately, the various ARM manufacturers are what's driving Intel to make smaller, more power efficient CPUs now. I say now, the ARM CPU can be traced back to 1983, but it wasn't a blip on Intel's radar until just a couple years ago. I've always been rooting for a RISC design to step up. I owned a dual CPU DEC Alpha. I also played around with a RLX ServerBlade with a Transmeta CPU.

Yeah, mobile computing is neat. But for the foreseeable future it'll be lagging behind desktop (and even laptops) for raw music rendering power. Getting more done with less power is good for any class of CPU.

[Sinistereo]

You might be a little short sighted if you think AMD and INTEL are the only CPU brands around...

Fortunately, the various ARM manufacturers are what's driving Intel to make smaller, more power efficient CPUs now. I say now, the ARM CPU can be traced back to 1983, but it wasn't a blip on Intel's radar until just a couple years ago. I've always been rooting for a RISC design to step up. I owned a dual CPU DEC Alpha. I also played around with a RLX ServerBlade with a Transmeta CPU.

Yeah, mobile computing is neat. But for the foreseeable future it'll be lagging behind desktop (and even laptops) for raw music rendering power. Getting more done with less power is good for any class of CPU.

Back in the Itanium days, Intel was floundering, and companies like AMD (first generation Athlon) and Transmeta (the threat of Crusoe) were making them truly nervous. Intel did what they do best, and slapped some heads, reorganized, got it together, and continued to be the primary innovator in semiconductor fabrication technology. Speaking as an Intel alum who has friends who still work at the mothership, AMD hasn't been viewed by Intel (or the market) as a serious competitor in a very long time.

Mobile processors, on the other hand, recently started making the 800 pound gorilla *very* nervous!

It's still nice to have competition. Too bad AMD had to play dirty pool with customers.

[djsegwon]

I'm running 6.5.3 with an HP z600,
2*Intel e6545 processors( hyper threading NOT enabled)
12 GB RAM
2* 250gb HHD
! I wanted to run hyper threading but read an article on Cubase website it wasn't good for the audio processing or something of the sort ,but my Cpu functions like a beast, runs reason 6.5 without even blinking! I'm gonna update to reason 8.3 soon then I mite have to turn on the HT! But I doubt it

[jengstrom]

You can read this. (MAC and Win). It explains how Reason handles multicore
and how you can experiment with it yourself. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdwy2at4fgmbc ... e.pdf?dl=0

If you understand how to do it, please share!

I tried it on a 6 core a couple of years ago, but had no luck. There should
also be a shortcut for it IIRC, but not sure if that gives you the control you
want. I`ll post here if can find my notes.. I have a 5960x (8 core) and it
would be fun to try this again.

Cheers

I'll add this, which you can use to test before fiddling with that more advanced customization feature.

If the processor really has two nearly idling physical cores, you may be able to increase/decrease the number of threads in use for audio rendering, by pressing the following, unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts in Reason:

To increase: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-plus>
To decrease: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-minus>

[tiker01]

You can read this. (MAC and Win). It explains how Reason handles multicore
and how you can experiment with it yourself. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdwy2at4fgmbc ... e.pdf?dl=0

If you understand how to do it, please share!

I tried it on a 6 core a couple of years ago, but had no luck. There should
also be a shortcut for it IIRC, but not sure if that gives you the control you
want. I`ll post here if can find my notes.. I have a 5960x (8 core) and it
would be fun to try this again.

Cheers

I'll add this, which you can use to test before fiddling with that more advanced customization feature.

If the processor really has two nearly idling physical cores, you may be able to increase/decrease the number of threads in use for audio rendering, by pressing the following, unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts in Reason:

To increase: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-plus>
To decrease: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-minus>

unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts

[tronam]

I have no explanation why, but Reason utilizes all 4 of my "Skylake" logical cores.

[avasopht]

I have no explanation why, but Reason utilizes all 4 of my "Skylake" logical cores.

Maybe you've accidentally accessed those esoteric thread settings

[avasopht]

I'll add this, which you can use to test before fiddling with that more advanced customization feature.

If the processor really has two nearly idling physical cores, you may be able to increase/decrease the number of threads in use for audio rendering, by pressing the following, unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts in Reason:

To increase: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-plus>
To decrease: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-minus>

Hmm, any esoteric reset in case I've accidentally invoked that function unawares and have no idea what the settings are?

[Olivier]

I'll add this, which you can use to test before fiddling with that more advanced customization feature.

If the processor really has two nearly idling physical cores, you may be able to increase/decrease the number of threads in use for audio rendering, by pressing the following, unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts in Reason:

To increase: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-plus>
To decrease: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-minus>

Hmm, any esoteric reset in case I've accidentally invoked that function unawares and have no idea what the settings are?

As far as i know these settings aren't sticky. Restart Reason and you are back at the default.

[tronam]

I have no explanation why, but Reason utilizes all 4 of my "Skylake" logical cores.

Maybe you've accidentally accessed those esoteric thread settings

Nahh, it's a clean install of R8 on my new system. No settings were migrated over. It's some variation of R8, OSX El Capitan and the latest 6700k skylake chipset because in the past the 4th core always used to be fairly idle. Now they're all utilized roughly equivalently, although the 1st core generally has a little bit higher utilization.

[riemac]

I have no explanation why, but Reason utilizes all 4 of my "Skylake" logical cores.

Maybe you've accidentally accessed those esoteric thread settings

Nahh, it's a clean install of R8 on my new system. No settings were migrated over. It's some variation of R8, OSX El Capitan and the latest 6700k skylake chipset because in the past the 4th core always used to be fairly idle. Now they're all utilized roughly equivalently, although the 1st core generally has a little bit higher utilization.

Do you use the Reason 8.4 beta?
Just kidding;-)

[tronam]

I have no explanation why, but Reason utilizes all 4 of my "Skylake" logical cores.

Maybe you've accidentally accessed those esoteric thread settings

Nahh, it's a clean install of R8 on my new system. No settings were migrated over. It's some variation of R8, OSX El Capitan and the latest 6700k skylake chipset because in the past the 4th core always used to be fairly idle. Now they're all utilized roughly equivalently, although the 1st core generally has a little bit higher utilization.

Do you use the Reason 8.4 beta?
Just kidding;-)

I wish.

[willy3k]

AMD FX-8350
Reason 8.3
Windows 7 x64
I think that something is wrong with the FX-8320

[AttenuationHz]

You can read this. (MAC and Win). It explains how Reason handles multicore
and how you can experiment with it yourself. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdwy2at4fgmbc ... e.pdf?dl=0

If you understand how to do it, please share!

I tried it on a 6 core a couple of years ago, but had no luck. There should
also be a shortcut for it IIRC, but not sure if that gives you the control you
want. I`ll post here if can find my notes.. I have a 5960x (8 core) and it
would be fun to try this again.

Cheers

I'll add this, which you can use to test before fiddling with that more advanced customization feature.

If the processor really has two nearly idling physical cores, you may be able to increase/decrease the number of threads in use for audio rendering, by pressing the following, unsupported and esoteric keyboard shortcuts in Reason:

To increase: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-plus>
To decrease: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + <numpad-minus>

OMFG


I have been having major performance problems rewiring reason into pro tools and kind of had a feeling it was RE causing bother. I tried this with the project and it cut the performance issues right down. you sir are a legend!

its still an issue though how do I make reason always use all cores?

CtrlAltShift+-.gif (2.08 MiB) Viewed 2942 times

Tested it with the benchmark song and it made no difference! But with ReWire its a considerable change strange...

[Faxxer]

AMD machines are rock solid, it's all I'm willing to build for my business customers. Intel is highway robbery.

As for Reason and AMD....I got an 8320 with a Sound Blaster X/fi and it never cracks or crackles no matter how many tracks I throw at it.

Just sayin

[jengstrom]

OMFG


I have been having major performance problems rewiring reason into pro tools and kind of had a feeling it was RE causing bother. I tried this with the project and it cut the performance issues right down. you sir are a legend!

its still an issue though how do I make reason always use all cores?

CtrlAltShift+-.gif

Tested it with the benchmark song and it made no difference! But with ReWire its a considerable change strange...

When Reason is in ReWire mode, it is specifically programmed to only use a single CPU core through a single OS thread for the audio rendering part.

Why?: ReWire makes Reason run the audio rendering calculations inside the ReWire host "process" (Pro Tools for you) where Reason is a guest, and can't cooperate with Pro Tools regarding use of multiple cores. Many VST/AU plugins (and maybe other types) include their own main setup and threading code where they try to use as many cores as possible in parallel.

So if Reason would also try to use multiple cores when ReWired, it could make some plugins glitch or cause issues with the DAW itself in many situations.

E-mail support can help you, if you tell them how many cores you increased to when you used the keyboard shortcut, they can put that in such a config file. But if you have any trouble with plugins or any type of audio glitches later, they are probably caused by a conflict when Reason and ProTools + plugins tries to use the same multiple cores at the same time.

[AttenuationHz]

OMFG


I have been having major performance problems rewiring reason into pro tools and kind of had a feeling it was RE causing bother. I tried this with the project and it cut the performance issues right down. you sir are a legend!

its still an issue though how do I make reason always use all cores?

CtrlAltShift+-.gif

Tested it with the benchmark song and it made no difference! But with ReWire its a considerable change strange...

When Reason is in ReWire mode, it is specifically programmed to only use a single CPU core through a single OS thread for the audio rendering part.

Why?: ReWire makes Reason run the audio rendering calculations inside the ReWire host "process" (Pro Tools for you) where Reason is a guest, and can't cooperate with Pro Tools regarding use of multiple cores. Many VST/AU plugins (and maybe other types) include their own main setup and threading code where they try to use as many cores as possible in parallel.

So if Reason would also try to use multiple cores when ReWired, it could make some plugins glitch or cause issues with the DAW itself in many situations.

E-mail support can help you, if you tell them how many cores you increased to when you used the keyboard shortcut, they can put that in such a config file. But if you have any trouble with plugins or any type of audio glitches later, they are probably caused by a conflict when Reason and ProTools + plugins tries to use the same multiple cores at the same time.

Ah that is insightful. When it is rewired though no other plug-ins are present in pro tools except reason on an instrument track. I tried ReWire in Reaper too and that put's reason on core 0 and it is very evident on WTM that it is using cpu 0. What is interesting about Reaper is when I press play Reason goes onto other cores and shows cpu usage as if it is in standalone mode. Zero performance issues in Reaper. If only I could figure out how route the midi!

I will email support thanks.

[kuhliloach]

Interesting. I was just reading this article about why CPU speeds have not increased over the last ten years. For techies:

https://www.comsol.com/blogs/havent-cpu ... ast-years/

[philosurfer]

is there a mac shortcut that works for this?

[KIKBAK1]

Am I missing something here?

Here are my computer specs
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Processor 2 x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon,
Memory 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3072 MB

I did a little impromptu stress test with 13 instances of expanse, using the "4 exodische -AP" patch (which is pretty cpu heavy).
So after hearing the snap crackle and pops, I opened up the activity monitor and noticed 60% of my cpu was idle. I dont get it?
How can I use up all of reason's dsp, but have 60% cpu not being used? Check out the attachments for pics. And just in case in case anyone's wondering, yes "multicore threading" is enabled and my audio buffer is at 1536.

[Ostermilk]

Am I missing something here?

Here are my computer specs
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Processor 2 x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon,
Memory 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3072 MB

I did a little impromptu stress test with 13 instances of expanse, using the "4 exodische -AP" patch (which is pretty cpu heavy).
So after hearing the snap crackle and pops, I opened up the activity monitor and noticed 60% of my cpu was idle. I dont get it?
How can I use up all of reason's dsp, but have 60% cpu not being used? Check out the attachments for pics. And just in case in case anyone's wondering, yes "multicore threading" is enabled and my audio buffer is at 1536.

DSP has to be completed within each buffer cycle in order for the audio stream to be continuous and uninterupted and does not always correalate with CPU utilization.

I'll try and simplify using public transport as an analogy. A bus can carry 50 passengers without impacting on it's average speed. CPU limit = 50 passengers the bus doesn't overheat and it will keep to schedule, no problem.

Complicate the process a bit the bus has 10 stops (or DSP buffers) to fill along the way, a couple of people get on and off the bus each stop the bus stays on schedule as the time it takes to get those people on and off (the DSP load) are no big deal. Now change that and now you have to get 40 people on and off at each stop, it takes a long time (high DSP load) even though the bus may never have more than 45 people on it at any one time (lower CPU load than it is capable of) the bus will still end up getting delayed due to the time it takes the poor ol' driver (the DS processor in this case) to deal with all those passengers at each stop.

Your solution then is to cut down the amount of passengers that get on and off so it doesn't delay your schedule or to some extent by increasing the buffer size so you can get more on and off in one go without delay.

You'll find that overwhelming the DSP limit is generally more common than bringing you CPU to it's knees when audio processing.

The analogy probably doesn't bear up to close scrutiny but should give you the general idea of why what you're seeing is the norm rather than any exception.

[KIKBAK1]

Thanks for the great analogy Ostermilk. And i do understand what you're saying. I guess Im finding it mind boggling that 13 instances of Expanse would bring the dsp to its knees, I mean 12 cores & 64 gigs ram is nothing to chuckle at

[Ostermilk]

Thanks for the great analogy Ostermilk. And i do understand what you're saying. I guess Im finding it mind boggling that 13 instances of Expanse would bring the dsp to its knees, I mean 12 cores & 64 gigs ram is nothing to chuckle at

It's because with audio everything is happening on a really tight schedule to work in near real time. Bear in mind you'll likely be coping with bigger DSP loads than most of us and that on most more regular computing tasks your machine will have clocked off and be having a nap after 10 minutes while mine will have just started on a long and arduous shift...

[EnochLight]

Thanks for the great analogy Ostermilk. And i do understand what you're saying. I guess Im finding it mind boggling that 13 instances of Expanse would bring the dsp to its knees, I mean 12 cores & 64 gigs ram is nothing to chuckle at

Something worth mentioning as well - Expanse is one of the most CPU/DSP intensive synths available in Reason, as the decision was made not to sacrifice sound quality over CPU cycles. While it squeezes every last bit of optimization out of Reason and the RE SDK that it can, it still can be heavy on the CPU. This is a modern plugin in every sense of the word, and requires some massaging to get the best mileage.

That said, have you tried the esoteric keyboard commands mentioned earlier in this thread (by jengstrom - a Propellerhead) to spread Reason out more evenly over your cores? Might be worth a shot to squeeze more performance out in a pinch...