Thread: Real Time CPU
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Old 04-27-2012, 04:21 AM   #28
Spectralis
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Join Date: Aug 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by n0rd View Post
Think of it like this:
One person trying to lift 120lbs (12 notes) can't do it...
Two people each lifting 80lbs (8 notes) each can.

Even though you have the same (SynthMaster) plugin on two different tracks, it's actually like two plugins working independently and Reaper can place them on different cores.


Each plugin takes a bit of time to process. Having too many plugins in a chain on the one track means the total time is too large to maintain "real-time" performance. Having plugins in a chain makes them dependent on each other. Having plugins on different tracks (typically) makes them independent.
I think the problem isn't related to how long it takes the CPU to process chains of plugins but how heavy the plugin load is on each track. In the test I made there is no chain of plugins per track - just a single one. Which leads me to believe that Reaper can distribute the load over the CPU very well as long as it's distributed over multiple tracks but if it's on one track then it can't. IOW each track is limited to the power of a single core in a multi-core setup.

Why the host as a whole can distribute load perfectly well but a single track can't isn't clear.

Last edited by Spectralis; 04-27-2012 at 04:42 AM.
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