[Possible Bug] 2CAudio - Kaleidoscope

[EggplantTown]

Does anyone have it? It keeps making reason lag. So it just stops responding as soon as I add it but reason doesn't crash, it just never responds again. This happened after linking the resource folder that comes with it, so now every time I load it in it just auto doesn't respond (and it doesn't resolve even if you wait).

I can easily run it on Ableton without any issues except a high CPU usage on a powerful processor which is to be expected as said by the developers.

Any solutions?

[platzangst]

Since nobody seems to have any ideas, I'll chime in - but first I'll preface by saying that I do not have this plugin, nor am I by any means an expert.

Also, for an issue like this, it might be helpful for others to know details of your system, like Mac or PC, which version of Reason you're running, maybe even which chip you're using. Occasionally which OS you use or even whether you're using an Intel or AMD chip might have a bearing on what's going on.

But if I had to make a guess, it's this: the product page talks about the plug-in using multi-threading and tapping many "cores" at once, and I may be wrong, but I believe that VSTs that run through Reason are not able to access multiple cores or threads. It's been a while since I heard this discussed, so I may be mis-remembering it, or it might have been changed in some update. But if not, then restricting Kaleidoscope to one thread would probably really hamper its performance, possibly to the point of non-responsiveness.

I don't know if that's strictly a "bug", since these are deliberate operating strategies on either side, they're just conflicting in this case.

[EggplantTown]

Since nobody seems to have any ideas, I'll chime in - but first I'll preface by saying that I do not have this plugin, nor am I by any means an expert.

Also, for an issue like this, it might be helpful for others to know details of your system, like Mac or PC, which version of Reason you're running, maybe even which chip you're using. Occasionally which OS you use or even whether you're using an Intel or AMD chip might have a bearing on what's going on.

But if I had to make a guess, it's this: the product page talks about the plug-in using multi-threading and tapping many "cores" at once, and I may be wrong, but I believe that VSTs that run through Reason are not able to access multiple cores or threads. It's been a while since I heard this discussed, so I may be mis-remembering it, or it might have been changed in some update. But if not, then restricting Kaleidoscope to one thread would probably really hamper its performance, possibly to the point of non-responsiveness.

I don't know if that's strictly a "bug", since these are deliberate operating strategies on either side, they're just conflicting in this case.

I reinstalled the plugin and turned multi threading off in the settings before choosing the resource folders path, still got the same reaction after linking the resource folder. Not responding.

Windows 10, Reason 10.5.2, Intel i7-7700k, not overclocked.

It's a shame, this plugin is insane.

[platzangst]

I reinstalled the plugin and turned multi threading off in the settings before choosing the resource folders path, still got the same reaction after linking the resource folder. Not responding.

Well, for one thing, I'm not sure the multi-threading in the Settings is entirely linked to how multi-threading is handled through VSTs.

That aside for now, you've mentioned "after linking the resources folder" a couple times now, so are you saying you were previously able to use the plugin?

If that's the case, then there would seem to be something about this resources folder causing a problem. The first step would be to somehow UNlink the folder and see if that makes things better. And if that does help, then there may be something about that folder that needs work. For example, I have heard about some people who have had trouble with things like removable drives.


Although it probably isn't directly related to your issue, several years ago I had a problem with some free VSTs that took around 20 minutes to load. I finally asked one developer about it and he told me that it was a bug that cropped up often with users who had a lot of fonts. Since I do some graphics work myself, I did indeed have a massive font folder, and what these VSTs all had in common was that, while loading, they all accessed that font folder, probably for display purposes of some kind, and that delay was caused by the VST scanning the entire list of fonts.

If there's something about the resource folder that's causing Reason to choke, perhaps you need to find a different way to access that material. Or you may just be stuck with a workaround - even the product page suggests you don't use it like any other VST, but that you make sounds with it solo and then export those sounds to other projects, so you may be best off making sounds with it on Ableton and rendering WAVs or whatever to use in Reason.

[EggplantTown]

I reinstalled the plugin and turned multi threading off in the settings before choosing the resource folders path, still got the same reaction after linking the resource folder. Not responding.

Well, for one thing, I'm not sure the multi-threading in the Settings is entirely linked to how multi-threading is handled through VSTs.

That aside for now, you've mentioned "after linking the resources folder" a couple times now, so are you saying you were previously able to use the plugin?

If that's the case, then there would seem to be something about this resources folder causing a problem. The first step would be to somehow UNlink the folder and see if that makes things better. And if that does help, then there may be something about that folder that needs work. For example, I have heard about some people who have had trouble with things like removable drives.


Although it probably isn't directly related to your issue, several years ago I had a problem with some free VSTs that took around 20 minutes to load. I finally asked one developer about it and he told me that it was a bug that cropped up often with users who had a lot of fonts. Since I do some graphics work myself, I did indeed have a massive font folder, and what these VSTs all had in common was that, while loading, they all accessed that font folder, probably for display purposes of some kind, and that delay was caused by the VST scanning the entire list of fonts.

If there's something about the resource folder that's causing Reason to choke, perhaps you need to find a different way to access that material. Or you may just be stuck with a workaround - even the product page suggests you don't use it like any other VST, but that you make sounds with it solo and then export those sounds to other projects, so you may be best off making sounds with it on Ableton and rendering WAVs or whatever to use in Reason.

I meant multi threading in the settings of the VST. So in the VSTs settings there is an option to turn multi threading off. Which I would assume would process the VST to work in such a way as to not use multi threading, otherwise I don't see the point of having such an option.

Plugin cannot be used before linking the path of the resource folder, as much as I'd like to use it without it.

It's definitely not a resource/font problem. I have installed 2 free "Ploques" plugins yesterday and I could run them without any issues. And it's not a delay, I've legitimately left reason on for 30 minutes to see if it would resolve and it didn't, so I think it's safe to assume it wouldn't respond again no matter how long I'd leave it open for.

Thanks for trying to help anyway, have a good one!