Reason Glitching with some VST

[Benedict]

Hi All, I thought I posted this the other day but I must not have as I can't find it.

In the last little while, I have been having issues with some VST causing Reason to glitch. Not all VST do it but commonly if one does, anything else from that Dev will do it too.

Confirmed culprits are:
- Hy-Poly
- WusikStation & 8008
- VidPlay

There are others too but I don't have them now seeing initially I just put it down to scruffy coding.
Now it seems to me that it is something that some Devs do that either upsets my machine or Reason.

Win 7 (last update), Reason 11.3, Balance on ASIO (latency doesn't affect)

Anyone else noticing this?

[Loque]

I have regularly bugs, crashes and problems with VSTs, rarely with RE. Some devs fix it, some dont, some fast, some very slow...

If you would define what you mean with "glitch" it could help to understand whats happening.

[zoidkirb]

Reason 10.4, Win 10, Hy-Poly (free version)
I spent about 5 minutes messing about with the presets and didn't hear any glitches yet.
Side-note, this seems like a very sounding nice synth with a lovely clean UI.

[Benedict]

Yes Hy-Poly is a somewhat limited synth but has a definite charm. I am suspicious that it is a highly colored signal path.

Yes I also agree that VST are commonly not as robust as RE

Glitching as in glitching, like buffer/latency issues. Not crackling but still like time is not progressing quite as tidily as it should so there ae po_ps as things try to stitch themslv_s back togther.

With VidPlay the Seq timing also skips. Maybe it is just a video card thing. I know some Devs are getting into GPU for GUIs (but it can happen with some VST even if the GUI is closed which suggests more CPU)???

You can add Acoustica plugins to that list too.

[Loque]

I am sure you disabled power savings, disabled multi core in the VST and all that stuff. You just didn't mentioned anything here and there are a lot of possibilities for pops and clicks and glitching.

[Benedict]

Umm, weren't we supposed to enable the multi-core and other Reason settings to make more VST run better?

Also if only some VST do this then why only those? Why all from one Dev but none from another? Surely that does not suggest my stupidity?

I get just a tiny bit of this glitching when Tokyo Dawn Labs Nova is open. I don't notice it on Slick. Nor on Klangelm stuff. Nova is more graphic-y than the others.

It may just be a combo of my machine, Win 7 and R11.3

[Loque]

It all depends. If you have power savings on (you still said nothing about it), you get a glitch on each CPU peak.

If the VSTs has some kind of multi core or multi threading going on, it intervenes with Reason's multi core and multi threading support.

It also depends on synth, patch, fx, the number and types of plugins within a chain and so on.

Sorry, i dont want to sound rude, but i maybe read too many comments about bad performance here and bad performance there, but they missed the important points most of the time. If you think a specific dev has a CPU/performance problem, contact him.

From my POV i have no problems with TDR. They can get a bit heavy on CPU, because they do a lot under the hood. And as you mentioned, some gfx stuff can cause problems inside of Reason, but when i look on the smooth and fast Gfx of FabFilter, i would say the problems could be fixed by the devs and yuo already mentioned that it also depends on how they draw their GUI.

My general recommendation: Turn OFF power savings, try different background/foreground performance settings, reduce voices, unison, envelope release times and fx, especially reverbs or just buy a better CPU with a single core performance and at least 4 or more (real!) cores and of course a good and fast audio card.

[BlkRd]

Toneboosters v3 plug ins give horrible high pitched glitch noises when you move the nobs on the gui. I have reproduced this on all three of my computers. It means I use Bitwig or Maschine most of the time as I cant have use Reel Bus without risking pericing glitches. Its ok when its running and i dont touch any settings, but make changes or automate and you get the glitches. All work fine in Bitwig and Maschine

[Benedict]

I have been using Reason for 12+ years and yes Power Settings are off. You know I am a Power User and take casual dissers to task, so yes your tone does come off as rude rather than helpful. I am sorry for that.
You don't have the issue that is great news.

So it appears as something that is not necessarily Reason or even those Devs.

Even with CPU in Reason showing no bars and nothing but one of those devices on-board the issue shows so it unlikely taking my i7. It may be that my machine is getting cranky in its old age or some other conflict.
Most things I haven't tried in other DAWs but I did run Wusik 8008 in Reaper and it was fine.

Maybe when I get a new machine with Win 10 I will find this goes away. Mostly not a drama as I can use other things but I have noticed it with quite a few things now and am looking to understand.

[Benedict]

Update:

I just loaded the HY-Filter3 Free VST to see how it went compared to the HY-Poly synth. Interesting results:

Initially no glitching at all. Works as expected. Odd seeing the synth was glitching all the time.
Then I wanted to see how it would go with a CV Env. The Filter knob goes leaping around and there is now glitching.
Set The CV out on Europa to 0 and glitching gone.
If I close the VST window and raise the CV again, it works with no glitching.
I also noticed that as it glitches, there are some noticeable spikes in the Reason CPU Meter. I have never seen that before.
That suggests that the fancier GUI (or having it move) is making Reason and/or CPU/GPU mighty unhappy.

[Benedict]

If the VSTs has some kind of multi core or multi threading going on, it intervenes with Reason's multi core and multi threading support.

This morning I turned off the Multi-Core Rendering in the Reason Audio Prefs on the guess that is what you meant here: and I have had VidPlay, Hy-Poly, Hy-Filter & Acoustica Coral2 all open and running at once with none of this glitching or oddities around CPUsage.

[Loque]

If the VSTs has some kind of multi core or multi threading going on, it intervenes with Reason's multi core and multi threading support.

This morning I turned off the Multi-Core Rendering in the Reason Audio Prefs on the guess that is what you meant here: and I have had VidPlay, Hy-Poly, Hy-Filter & Acoustica Coral2 all open and running at once with none of this glitching or oddities around CPUsage.

Ok.

Its better to turn it off in the VST or reduce the occupied cores.