Do you think the nowday's Reason is too CPU-heavy?

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Heigen5
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30 Apr 2022

All the machines with at least 8 cores should use less CPU than Reason uses imo. But what is the truth regarding Reason and the CPU usage?

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dakta
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30 Apr 2022

I don't know, but I was impressed with earlier versions of reasons ability to run on older hardware back in the day because I couldn't really have anything particularly modern back in the day, I remember running it on an old compaq P3? 450mhz machine running possibly windows 2k? and it did allright. Too long ago to remember what version of reason it was but it ran allright.

I run R12 on a Ryzen 3600 and it basically eats everything that I've thrown at it so far so it's not a big concern to me right now.

Have to face it though, there's a lot for those cycles to do - I don't know how the instruments/rack devices work at low level but given they effectively emulate hardware thats a lot of processing right there as the number of devices go up, so in a way I'm surprised it's always done as well as it has

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Greg Savage
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30 Apr 2022

I don't think so, haven't run into any issue with it in terms of performance minus the initial rollout of Reason 12
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huggermugger
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30 Apr 2022

No, but it's the slowest program to load of any software I own.

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raymondh
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30 Apr 2022

Yes, I think there isn't enough consideration for CPU.

1. Reason 11 is much heavier on CPU compared to Reaper. I do not have any comparison though to other DAWs.
2. Render in Place is excellent in Reason, but it's not a proper track freeze.
3. You can't turn off Rack Extensions so they consume no CPU. You can turn off VSTs and that makes a huge difference. They need to implement that for RE's too.

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Billy+
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30 Apr 2022

Yes and I would happily pay for nothing extra other than performance improvements, maybe one future version will be available that is nothing but improvements that enable more devices to function on lower spec devices.

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Loque
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30 Apr 2022

The truth (lol) is, that when i use only stock synths and fx of old times, I can add a trillion of them in my project before the CPU starts wheezing.
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QVprod
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01 May 2022

I don’t know the last time I maxes my cpu in Reason. And I’ve never had an 8 core machine. My 2006 quad core Mac Pro held up pretty well even on Reason 10.

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Heigen5
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01 May 2022

Well the Brutal2 Benchmark Reason file got me to 2:20 minutes before crackling starts, so I guess it's not that bad maybe. The benchmark file and the thread is this: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7520702

Well yeah, it seems like my 10 cored i9 @3,7Ghz is enough at the moment, but somehow I kinda hoped that it would be even more powerful than it is.

petecampbell
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01 May 2022

I have a really powerful computer (Mac studio Max) and I can't run half the amount of plugins and instruments as with Logic or Reaper. Reason is really not CPU efficient. Maybe this will come when m1 native support is released.

jlgrimes
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02 May 2022

Heigen5 wrote:
30 Apr 2022
All the machines with at least 8 cores should use less CPU than Reason uses imo. But what is the truth regarding Reason and the CPU usage?
It has gotten more resource intensive over time.


There was a time when Reason was very CPU efficient basically when it didn't have any recording, RE's, and VSTs. As the years went by Reason has seem to become less and less CPU efficient.

When I was on a Mac a few years ago even before VSTs, I would get pops and clicks using Reason. I think this was even before VSTs in standalone. VSTs seem to make it worse. There was an update to reduce the CPU use which did help but it still doesn't seem as smooth as other DAWs. I recently went to Windows around 2019, and Reason's performance to me seems about the same (although I rarely use standalone now). I still get pops and clicks at buffer sizes like 128 on a Focusrite Scarlett. Other DAWs (Reaper, Live, FL, Studio One) works fine even at lower buffer sizes.

Whats weird is I can't play the REs in standalone Reason at 128 samples without pops but I can by opening Ableton and using Reason as a plugin and even get to lower the buffer size to 64 samples.

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jam-s
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03 May 2022

jlgrimes wrote:
02 May 2022
I still get pops and clicks at buffer sizes like 128 on a Focusrite Scarlett. Other DAWs (Reaper, Live, FL, Studio One) works fine even at lower buffer sizes.
Other DAWs cheat by having a small buffer size only for the few "live" tracks which are in a recording state, while most of the other tracks use a much larger buffer (or even pre-rendered/cached) audio. In Reason all MIDI tracks are always in "live mode" as the different instruments could intermodulate each other via CV.

ltbrunt00
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03 May 2022

I may be in the minority, a few months ago I built a new computer. Intel Core i5 12600k, 64GB of memory and Reason runs flawlessly. All my problems of the past are no longer a issue. I wish I would have built a system like this years ago. I would recommend anyone serious about their music and who can afford it build a system like this. I now can have multiple Reason projects loaded up without having my computer grind to a halt.
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chimp_spanner
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04 May 2022

I think it was bad at launch, but gotta be honest, on my mid (I guess?) spec machine, I do not encounter any clicking or popping, and I run consistently at 64 samples. I never put the buffer size up. Can't even remember the last time I had to.

For reference my system is an i7 11700, 16GB, RTX3070. Off the shelf, not a custom build. It's definitely a pokey machine but not the fastest. While there are still some glitches and problems, RS have done a good job of improving performance IMO. It feels very light to me.

avasopht
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04 May 2022

petecampbell wrote:
01 May 2022
I have a really powerful computer (Mac studio Max) and I can't run half the amount of plugins and instruments as with Logic or Reaper. Reason is really not CPU efficient. Maybe this will come when m1 native support is released.
Scheduling might be the main issue here.

With slight scheduling inaccuracies on a multithreaded music application, synchronising the mixing of the buffers from multiple threads can cause the main thread to lose cycles while waiting.

The main mixer thread also needs to synchronise with the ASIO driver.

Then throw in cable routing which could cause interdependencies between threads and you've now introduced lots of potential delays where threads are just sitting idle.

If you're getting dropouts but don't seem to be at or near 100% CPU, probably scheduling.

What does the task manager performance tab show when you're getting dropouts?

Tiny Montgomery
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04 May 2022

ltbrunt00 wrote:
03 May 2022
I may be in the minority, a few months ago I built a new computer. Intel Core i5 12600k, 64GB of memory and Reason runs flawlessly. All my problems of the past are no longer a issue. I wish I would have built a system like this years ago. I would recommend anyone serious about their music and who can afford it build a system like this. I now can have multiple Reason projects loaded up without having my computer grind to a halt.
No I'd guess you're in the majority. Its a mistake to see this board as representative of typical users, this is where the disgruntled come to gripe.

robussc
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04 May 2022

My 2009 iMac runs just fine as long as I’m stingy with VSTs. the DSP indicator barely moves. But add a couple of Arturia VSTs and suddenly it’s spiking.
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orthodox
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04 May 2022

I don't think it's too heavy. It's, erm... acceptable.

Tiny Montgomery
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04 May 2022

Heigen5 wrote:
01 May 2022
Well the Brutal2 Benchmark Reason file got me to 2:20 minutes before crackling starts, so I guess it's not that bad maybe. The benchmark file and the thread is this: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7520702

Well yeah, it seems like my 10 cored i9 @3,7Ghz is enough at the moment, but somehow I kinda hoped that it would be even more powerful than it is.
Why? In what way are you hindered by this perceived lack of power? What were you hoping to achieve with the power you thought you would get?

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QVprod
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04 May 2022

Tiny Montgomery wrote:
04 May 2022
Heigen5 wrote:
01 May 2022
Well the Brutal2 Benchmark Reason file got me to 2:20 minutes before crackling starts, so I guess it's not that bad maybe. The benchmark file and the thread is this: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7520702

Well yeah, it seems like my 10 cored i9 @3,7Ghz is enough at the moment, but somehow I kinda hoped that it would be even more powerful than it is.
Why? In what way are you hindered by this perceived lack of power? What were you hoping to achieve with the power you thought you would get?
Fair question to ask. I guess tests like this might be fun to run? But ultimately it’s unrealistic to how most are probably using Reason which makes it not all that useful in the end.

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homemadenoise
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08 May 2022

I never have problem on desktop which is fairly powerful. Laptop is fine as well. I have only found problems using some VST's. Not sure if that is a Reason problem or just those VST's are resource hogs.

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Heigen5
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Location: Finland / Suomi

21 May 2022

While my i9 is fast and stuff, I've been in the situations, whereas only one 16-poly Antidote takes my PC on the knees. This is called a 'performance bug'. When I get back home I'll test this more of, but yeah, Reason has a problem in it's performance sometimes.

avasopht
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21 May 2022

Heigen5 wrote:
21 May 2022
While my i9 is fast and stuff, I've been in the situations, whereas only one 16-poly Antidote takes my PC on the knees. This is called a 'performance bug'. When I get back home I'll test this more of, but yeah, Reason has a problem in it's performance sometimes.
Antidote is single-core so it can't benefit from all those i9 cores.

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fullforce
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21 May 2022

avasopht wrote:
21 May 2022
Heigen5 wrote:
21 May 2022
While my i9 is fast and stuff, I've been in the situations, whereas only one 16-poly Antidote takes my PC on the knees. This is called a 'performance bug'. When I get back home I'll test this more of, but yeah, Reason has a problem in it's performance sometimes.
Antidote is single-core so it can't benefit from all those i9 cores.
Can you explain this? How does the RE decide how many cores to use. Isn't that something that should be handled by the rendering engine?
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avasopht
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21 May 2022

fullforce wrote:
21 May 2022
Can you explain this? How does the RE decide how many cores to use. Isn't that something that should be handled by the rendering engine?
The real-time DSP processing of each individual RE can only run on a single core. Reason decides which core each RE (or device) is assigned.

There are also scripts that process properties and the UI e.g. custom display (something like that ...). No idea whether they are assigned to the same core or not.

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