Spectrasonics: Omnisphere 2.8 and Sonic Extensions

[Muziksculp]

Hi,

I think I finally found the cause of the high-CPU usage when using some patches from the Undercurrent Extension of Omnisphere 2.

i.e. : When I load the patch named 'Memory Waves' , and play a few chords, the CPU shoots sky high, and even when loading this patch, and not playing a note, it bumps my CPU meter a considerable amount. After a few weeks of dealing with this issue, and being in touch with Spectrasonics tech-support, I wasn't able to narrow down the cause. Well, I think I finally zeroed in on the what's causing it.

It's the new Effects Unit that they added to this extension called Under Echo. Yup this is what was causing the CPU Spikes, the minute I disabled it from this patch, which was using it both on the Common bus, and Aux bus. The CPU went back to normal levels, as I'm usually used to seeing it when using Omnisphere.

Simple remedy, I won't be using this echo effect, which I don't find that great anyways. I can use my other delay effects that are much more CPU friendly, and do a wonderful job.

I'm going to report this to Spectrasonics Tech-Support, so they are aware about it. I hope this is also useful for forum members who have this extension.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

[Guy Rowland]

Well sleuthed, Muziksculp. When I originally tested the Memory Waves patch in standalone I got normal CPU usage. But two days ago I was working on something with several instances of Undercurrent, and I found myself really struggling with the CPU. I didn't fully investigate then, but I did just now following your post. Never mind spikes, removing all the Under Echoes made the CPU drop all round by about 25%.

The remedy of switching it out can work of course, but the downside is all those macro controls that make the Extensions so good won't work correctly. So absolutely pass it on to support, and hopefully they can do a proper fix. It's not the first time an effect has caused havoc - I seem to remember one of the choruses causing huge problems a couple of years ago.

Thanks for digging into it, very helpful!

[GR Baumann]

Just read this thread the first time. Perhaps a relevant information for potential purchasers of Sonic extensions, you can not sell them if you feel you do not need them anymore, impossible.

The only way to sell sonics extensions is to sell Omnisphere together with them. I thought this is an important point to understand before you buy.

Apart from that, I am sorta astonished, my dealings, with Spectrasonics, it wasn't a lot, but also just recently were nothing but pleasant, they were more than helpful.

[Guy Rowland]

I do wish they'd make that a rolling discount for everyone...