Throttling/limiting threads to enable CPU intensive plugins to work

sonicartist · 08-04-2022, 08:49 AM

Hello!!

Long time casual user of Reaper but testing now for a move from Pro Tools and really loving so much here as I dig deeper. Currently working on an expansion pack for Slate Drums and the developers at Slate recommended Reaper as the development DAW.

A showstopper here, however, is using some of my UAD plugins with Reaper Batch Processing. With many UAD plugins, their hardware is required and there are limitations on how many plugins you can run concurrently depending on how many cores your UAD hardware provides. Some of their more intensive plugins, the HELIOS EQ plugin for example, are not playing well with Reaper's Batch Processor. The Batch Processor runs full speed ahead and quickly fills my UAD resources resulting in errors and files not being processed properly. There are thousands of files in the cue at any given time. It is true that Reaper BP provides a single thread option which technically would do the job if I had several hours to wait for each instance, but there are far too many batches during mastering for such a long wait.

What I am proposing and hoping you can do is to offer some kind of throttling or limit on how many files can be Batch Processed at the same time so that it won't CPU/Core intensity of the plugin won't matter and Reaper BP will work for ANY of the amazing UAD plugins.

Thank you so much for an amazing DAW! Loving the community and certainly the genius of Cockos.

vitalker · 08-04-2022, 10:34 AM

Hm, doesn't "Force single-threaded processing" work for you? It's a check just above Output format in Batch converter.

sonicartist · 08-07-2022, 09:58 AM

Single Thread takes days per articulation of each drum per track/mic channel. To give you an idea of what I'm dealing with, a single snare drum is made up of over 20,000 individual samples/files. Most of my Batch Processing is addressing 1500 files per track, and each instrument's articulation (Center hit, rim shot, side stick, etc) is made up of 12 to 18 tracks/mic channels.

With the type of threading control I am proposing, anyone would simply setup the BP for the master folder and all sub folders for each track. Currently, I have no option OTHER than single thread within Reaper and that option takes 2 days per articulation. Not really an option at this point.

vitalker · 08-08-2022, 08:53 AM

Check the latest pre-release build out.

mschnell · 08-08-2022, 11:46 PM

Interesting !
Are hardware-supported UID plugins meant to be able to allow for offline rendering ?

If yes, they need to come with a software-part of the plugin that handles this by simulating appropriately delayed answers in the plugin interface if the hardware is still busy with something else (i.e. tasks for other tracks/threads). They should never produce errors in such case.

I don't suppose Reaper and it's settings is able or supposed to do anything about that.

-Michael

sonicartist · 08-09-2022, 03:30 PM

You would think UAD would do that, but I spoke with them and they don't. Reaper Batch Processing is the ONLY BP I could find that even addressed the throttling issue with a Single Thread option but that would literally take days for each of my instances and is not really a viable option for me.

If Reaper can provide the Single Thread option, hoping they could create a selection of Thread use, say a range or a specified number. This would solve the issue for ALL users of Batch Processing utilizing UAD plugins.

mschnell · 08-09-2022, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicartist

You would think UAD would do that, but I spoke with them and they don't.

A real shortcoming of that system. No match to the price you need to pay at all !

So the hardware is only feasible for realtime use. For offline rendering you are better off with the pure software versions of those plugins (or other parties' alternatives).
-Michael

vitalker · 08-09-2022, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicartist

If Reaper can provide the Single Thread option, hoping they could create a selection of Thread use, say a range or a specified number. This would solve the issue for ALL users of Batch Processing utilizing UAD plugins.

I see you can choose how many cores you want to use.