Question

Plugins seem to take up CPU power regardless if there is any audio passing through. This can mean resources quickly get used up. Pro Tools has a great feature called "Dynamic Plug-in Processing". When audio is being processed by the plug-in, it uses CPU power as it normally would. But when no audio is being processed by the plug-in, it ceases to use CPU power. That CPU power can then be allocated to another plug-in or process as needed. The result is much higher CPU efficiency for the system. Large sessions take up much less juice than when using Studio One. This is the only thing keeping me with Pro Tools. 

Answer 1

Agreed. Also CPU usage is pretty inefficient in Studio One when compared to Logic. It hit the CPU wall waaaay faster is S One than in LPX.... There has got to be a way to make Studio One more CPU efficient.

Answer 2

Is this request for VST2? Since VST3 already (should) do(es) it.

Answer 3

VST3 is capable of this. But Studio One doesn't utilise it.

Answer 4

@ stevekitch answer If the plugin developer implemented it in the VST3 version, I doubt Studio One has any control over it. Try the VST3 version of Saturation Knob by Softube, for instance. It will neatly stop processing when there's no signal. Unfortunately most developers did not implement this feature in their VST3's (yet).

Answer 5

VST3 does support it but S1 doesn't. Reaper does it very well. If no audio is passing through a track then no CPU is being used.

Answer 6

I'm all for reducing DSP use and having S1 be as efficient as possible in using resources, but care needs to be taken with comparing the behavior of AAX plugins to VST and VST3 plugins. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some optimizations that Presonus could do for VST3 plugins, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of CPU use by plugins is a result of the plugin software sending instructions to the DSP/CPU.

From what I've observed Studio One's Performance Monitor is not measuring real CPU utilization (at least on Windows 10) or disc I/O for that matter. I assume that it is some measure of how much of the DAW's DSP has been consumed.

When you load certain plugins (I'm looking at you Waves Abbey Road reverbs) they consume a bunch of S1 "CPU" just idling. As an iZotope user, I know for a fact that S1 "CPU" use dropped significantly when the latest versions of Neutron & Ozone were released.

I'm all for Presonus implementing as much of the VST3 protocol as they can - just as long as it doesn't break anything - and we should continue to demand that they do so. That said, just keep in mind that AVID uses a proprietary protocol for their plugins, AAX, and can enforce how it works, while Presonus has to support VST and VST3 protocols that they don't control.