Some VSTs have problems at higher buffer size?

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stillifegaijin
Posts: 250
Joined: 27 Oct 2020

15 Feb 2021

Can someone please explain why this is a thing?

I have been having an issue with the Arturia REV Plate-140 plugin in for awhile. It starts out fine but after a couple minutes it begins glitching out with weird little distorted pops. They just get worse and build up the longer it's on so I stopped using it.

A couple days ago I got Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC for free through Plugin Alliance cause I own a Focusrite pre-amp. I installed it and as I was experimenting with it, figuring out it works, it started to glitch out and pop, eventually making one loud pop like a condenser mic going out, all the lights and meters on the plugin in lit up and then all my audio died. I had to restart my entire system. I got mad, cursed Plugin Alliance, and uninstalled the plugin.

The next day I decided to once again dig into the Arturia reverb to see if it was still "broken." While running tests, for some reason I went in and changed my buffer size. Normally for mixing I run at 3072, the highest option I have. As soon as I dropped the buffer to 2048, or anything lower, the pops and glitches in the reverb stopped.

So, I got brave and reinstalled the Focusrite plugin. I kept my buffer size at 2048 and it works fine! I moved the buffer up to 3072 and within seconds it glitched out and crashed my audio again.

Why do these two plugins seem to not work at buffer sizes higher than 2048? Is it something with the way they are designed or programmed? Is it more likely something unique to my system? By the way...Reason 11 on a 2010 Mac Pro 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon with 64GB RAM, running Mojave. My audio interface is a Digidesign 002 Rack.

Something about this problem seems entirely counterintuitive to me so I would love for someone to be able to explain it! Has anyone had this issue with other VSTs?

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Loque
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15 Feb 2021

Do you use an ASIO driver?
Reason12, Win10

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stillifegaijin
Posts: 250
Joined: 27 Oct 2020

15 Feb 2021

Loque wrote:
15 Feb 2021
Do you use an ASIO driver?
No. As I stated I’m using a Mac.

client6
Posts: 78
Joined: 10 Jun 2020

30 Mar 2022

I know this is an old thread but did you ever find any resolution for this situation? I am having the same issue with bx_refinement.

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ScuzzyEye
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30 Mar 2022

In general, for best performance, buffer sizes should be kept to powers of 2 (e.g. 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, and 2048), because of how memory is accessed in by the CPU. 2048 is also the largest buffer size offered by many interfaces. It may be that 3072 really is too large, or is unaligned, and is triggering a bug in the plugin's code. Unless 4096 is offered (being the next actual power of 2), I'd drop down to 2048, or file a bug report with Brainworx, and see what they say.

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stillifegaijin
Posts: 250
Joined: 27 Oct 2020

30 Mar 2022

I have since gotten a new interface and have been mostly mixing at 4096 since the new interface offers that option. In fact, the new interface doesn't even offer the weird 3072 sample rate, probably for the reason ScuzzyEye mentioned. But, honestly I'm not sure about issues with those plugins. I can't even remember trying to use them recently. I probably got used to avoiding them. I'll test them in a bit and report back!

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stillifegaijin
Posts: 250
Joined: 27 Oct 2020

31 Mar 2022

Retested Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC and Arturia Plate-140. The Brainworx/Focusrite works fine at 4096. Arturia still makes pops and crackling noises after a few minutes. It seems better at 2048 and definitely fine at 1024 but I guess the higher buffer sizes glitch the Arturia reverb out.

I get a new computer tomorrow and if the rumors are true I should no longer need to mix at high buffer sizes. Maybe I'll try the plate reverb again then.

PS - I also noticed awhile ago that Generate ( https://www.eventideaudio.com/plug-ins/generate/ ) sounds totally different at different buffer sizes. I've had to print the sound that I preferred.

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