Topic by JorgV

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Topic: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

Hi there,

Pianoteq 9 sounds great, but when using the vst3 in Cantabile I notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8. Also, a lot of CPU spiking (and crackling), also visible in the built in performance meter in Pianoteq. Performance is better in the standalone version. For now, v9 is unusable for me for live perfomance in Cantabile, so will keep using v8 for now.

Is this to be expected for v9? Anybody else with the same experience?

Reply by BlackForest

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

JorgV wrote:

Hi there,

Pianoteq 9 sounds great, but when using the vst3 in Cantabile I notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8. Also, a lot of CPU spiking (and crackling), also visible in the built in performance meter in Pianoteq. Performance is better in the standalone version. For now, v9 is unusable for me for live perfomance in Cantabile, so will keep using v8 for now.

Is this to be expected for v9? Anybody else with the same experience?

I have the same crackling experience with the stand alone version on my Windows audio PC.

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Reply by Heinrich2

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

BlackForest wrote:
JorgV wrote:

Hi there,

Pianoteq 9 sounds great, but when using the vst3 in Cantabile I notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8. Also, a lot of CPU spiking (and crackling), also visible in the built in performance meter in Pianoteq. Performance is better in the standalone version. For now, v9 is unusable for me for live perfomance in Cantabile, so will keep using v8 for now.

Is this to be expected for v9? Anybody else with the same experience?

I have the same crackling experience with the stand alone version on my Windows audio PC.

I also noticed higher CPU usage and higher chance of crackling on my M1 Mac mini under extreme conditions. This never happened with V8. Seems to be the price for the Pianoteq improvements. Yet still usable.

Reply by sonata

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

I have the same problems with Pianoteq 9.
I also notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8.
Also, a lot of CPU spiking and crackling.
For now, v9 is also unusable for me, so I will keep using v8 for now.

Reply by daniel_r328

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

sonata wrote:

I have the same problems with Pianoteq 9.
I also notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8.
Also, a lot of CPU spiking and crackling.
For now, v9 is also unusable for me, so I will keep using v8 for now.

Oddly, on my intel-based macbook pro, I have the opposite experience: things have been running considerably more smoothly than they have in v8.

I did hear some crackling at lower external bitrates (44.1khz) but at my current settings (192k, 384k), no problems to report

Reply by brundlefly

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

I first noticed that rendering audio offline from recorded MIDI takes just over 50% more time with the v9 VST3 in Sonar on an i9 Win11 laptop, and just confirmed the CPU load playing the v9 VST3 in real time on my i7 Windows desktop is also on the order of 50% higher. I haven't checked the standalone app.

Reply by Torsten B. Hagemann

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

JorgV wrote:

Hi there,

Pianoteq 9 sounds great, but when using the vst3 in Cantabile I notice significantly higher CPU usage than v8. Also, a lot of CPU spiking (and crackling), also visible in the built in performance meter in Pianoteq. Performance is better in the standalone version. For now, v9 is unusable for me for live perfomance in Cantabile, so will keep using v8 for now.

Is this to be expected for v9? Anybody else with the same experience?

I get exactly the same, I hope that it gets fixed, because there are some nice new things in v9, but for now it is not suitable for live performance (nor rehearsals).

Hardware: Studiologic SL 88s + SL Mixface, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, Lenovo Yoga I5 Windows 10 Pro
VST host: Cantabile
Other instruments: hammond (GSi VB3 II), saxophone (Selmer), harmonicas (Hohners)

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Reply by sonata

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

Here is an example:
When I play the factory demo for the “Blüthner Improv” preset in the stand-alone version, I have
a CPU load of approx. +80% in v9 compared to v8.

I work with Windows 10, 32 GB RAM, fast SSD.

Reply by julien

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

Hi,

Higher cpu usage (in standalone version, not only in vst) is expected as it is part of the soundboard improvements we have made, they do come at a cost -- it may depend on the specific instrument you are playing.

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Reply by sonata

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

julien wrote:

Hi,

Higher cpu usage (in standalone version, not only in vst) is expected as it is part of the soundboard improvements we have made, they do come at a cost -- it may depend on the specific instrument you are playing.

But that doesn't make sense if you can no longer use these sounds because of the high CPU load on Pianoteq. There should at least be an option to simply disable the CPU-intensive improvements so that you can at least work with the sounds at the level of Pianoteq 8 without having to constantly switch between versions 8 and 9.

Reply by hornet900

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

I noticed it on my Asus laptop (i5 8th gen). So the only solution I found is to set polyphony to "pessimistic" without sacrificing the preset's settings. I don't know how much it drops the polyphony, but it is a solution. The problem is because the many microphones of each piano preset. If reduce them to just 2 microphones, the problem solved. But I prefer the first solution.

Reply by vorpal

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Re: Pianoteq 9 vst3 higher cpu usage and lots of spikes in Cantabile

hornet900 wrote:

I noticed it on my Asus laptop (i5 8th gen). So the only solution I found is to set polyphony to "pessimistic" without sacrificing the preset's settings. I don't know how much it drops the polyphony, but it is a solution. The problem is because the many microphones of each piano preset. If reduce them to just 2 microphones, the problem solved. But I prefer the first solution.

Just installed v. 9 last night on my older iPad mini with an A12 chip. Running the standalone app. Two things immediately apparent that I chalked up to the older hardware:

1) presets now take 20-30 seconds to load.
2) CPU use is up dramatically, especially noticeable on the Sombre presets for my piano packs. Lots of crackling and cutting out, even on simple playing.

For # 2, I set the polyphony to 'Pessimistic' and brought the sample rates down to 22000 and the sample size to 256 and it became playable. This helped and I could play the new presets.

Will test on my much newer laptop and see how it behaves.

Last edited by vorpal (26-11-2025 19:26)
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