[PD] switch~ & cputime climbing

Wed Jun 6 21:18:56 CEST 2007

No problems here on a G4 PowerBook, but this delay is pretty rad, do
you have any more?!

~Kyle

On 6/6/07, Dafydd Hughes <dafydd61 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks
>
> Okay - I think this is more or less the same patch, with a couple of
> minor changes:
>
> http://sideshowmedia.ca/cputest.zip
>
> Oddly, I can't reproduce my original problem, although some
> fascinating new things have shown up.  Perhaps it was a PowerPC issue?
>  (I'm now on a MacBook)
>
> Try switching on & off the main dsp and test_lois.  On my computer
> (extended test 6 - delays not working in later tests) cputime goes up
> slightly when I turn dsp off.
>
> I never figured out exactly why the climb was happening, but I found
> that it happened when I turned off dsp in the abstraction, but left
> the non-dsp elements running, ie continually trying to pass messages
> to line~ and vd~ objects etc.  Switching off the mechanics when
> switching off dsp solved it for me.
>
> I hope this helps!  I'd love to hear if this test patch climbs on a
> PowerPC still.
>
> cheers
> dafydd
>
> On 6/6/07, Phil Stone <pkstone at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
> > Hi Derek,
> >
> > I'm not positive about this, but I think I've traced the CPU-climb to
> > the [moog~] filter.  It has an odd behavior that can be broken into
> > three phases:
> >
> > 1) no audio greater than zero amplitude has passed through it yet (since
> > patch load)
> > 2) audio of some amplitude >0 passes through
> > 3) audio passing through goes back to zero amplitude
> >
> > At 3) (or, more accurately, several seconds after), its CPU usage climbs
> > fairly dramatically, only to drop down again when the amplitude of the
> > audio goes up again.   Something in the filter model doesn't like zero
> > amplitude, but only after it's first processed something greater than zero.
> >
> > I meant to test this more rigorously, but got sidetracked.  At any rate,
> > when I switch~ the [moog~] filter out, CPU usage holds steady.  To be
> > clear, I don't think this relates to [switch~].  I'm on a Macbook Pro,
> > currently running 0.39rc2.
> >
> > Phil
> >
> >
> >
> > Derek Holzer wrote:
> > > Hi Phil,
> > >
> > > just to keep this in people's minds... I have exact same problem
> > > described in these emails with my Particle Chamber granular synthesis
> > > patch. It has 32 "switch~ed" voices. Using one instance seems to be
> > > OK, but two or more leads to exponentially-growing CPU usage that
> > > eventually makes PD unresponsive to the GUI (and eventually would
> > > probably crash PD if I let it go on...) I guess this could relate to
> > > the "isn't the GUI supposed to have lower priority than    process?"
> > > thread, since this particular problem makes PD a bit unusable for the
> > > kind of performances I want to be doing with it. The fact that PD
> > > lacks a usable voice-allocation method (i.e. CPU resources can be
> > > allocated and de-allocated to a voice, something which switch~ has a
> > > bug with, and which Nqpoly~ and so on does not do at all) means that I
> > > must start looking into SuperCollider to work with my polyphonic
> > > granular synthesis stuff. Sad but true...
> > >
> > > d.
> > >
> > > Phil Stone wrote:
> > >> Hi,
> > >>
> > >> I'm getting a slow-but-steady climbing CPU when running some
> > >> synthesis patches.  I (like the poster below) have sub-modules that
> > >> can be switch~ed on and off.  An archive search turned up the
> > >> following un-replied post:
> > >>> Hi all
> > >>>
> > >>> Okay.  I'm stumped.
> > >>>
> > >>> Recently, I've noticed that my cpu meter has been steadily rising.
> > >>> I  think I may have found the culprit.
> > >>>
> > >>> A while back I thought I'd put a power switch (just a switch~
> > >>> object)  on my poor-man's granular delay line, as my performance
> > >>> patches are  getting a bit bulky.
> > >>>
> > >>> Try this (if you have the time):
> > >>>
> > >>> http://www.sideshowmedia.ca/cputest.zip
> > >>>
> > >>> cputest.pd: (needs expr, but I think that's all)
> > >>>
> > >>> 1. turn on audio in pd, but leave the power (p toggle) in "lois"
> > >>> off.  Watch the cpu meter climb (over a period of 5 minutes or so -
> > >>> the toggle prints the cputime every 10 seconds).  On my computer
> > >>> (G4  Powerbook, HCS extended 0.38.4) it starts around 5% and hits
> > >>> 10%  after 5 minutes.
> > >>>
> > >>> 2. Do the same with "lois" on.  For me, cpu hovers around 13-14%.
> > >>> No  increase.
> > >>>
> > >>> 3. Repeat step 1.  After 10-15 minutes, cputime is higher than with
> > >>> "lois" on.  Switch "lois" on, and cpu drops.  Huh?
> > >>>
> > >>> I have no idea what's going on, but am I missing something
> > >>> important?  Thanks in advance.
> > >>>
> > >>> cheers
> > >>> dafydd
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> Does anybody have any insight on this?  I don't remember this
> > >> happening until fairly recently, but don't know if it dates to when I
> > >> started switch~ing modules.  I'm currently running 0.39.2-extended
> > >> RC1 on a MacBook Pro.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Phil Stone
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> PD-list at iem.at mailing list
> > >> UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management ->
> > >> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
> > >>
> > >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > PD-list at iem.at mailing list
> > UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
> >
>
>
> --
> www.sideshowmedia.ca
> skype: chickeninthegrass
>
> _______________________________________________
> PD-list at iem.at mailing list
> UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
>

-- 
-----
------------
    ----     -----
---- -------- - ------
http://perhapsidid.wordpress.com