Unusal High Utilization on the 1:st Thread....

Hello.
 
Thanks for a great forum, with lots of useful tips & tricks.
 
I aways have issues with threading or related stuff...  and now is no exception... :)
 
Have a very high utilization on the 1:st thread, and the other threads seem to be in idle mode.
 
I do have some screen pics but it seems that i cant paste them here, so im trying to eexplain it instead.
 
The problem in short:
 
I got 24 threads that Sonar can use to balance the load on ( 2 x 6 cores + HyperThreading ).
When my project(s) takes shape in front of me, the utilization on the 1:st thread on the CPU meter is groving 3-4 times faster than the
other threads.
 
Especilly when inserting plugins. I must say im not a fan of using "tons" of plugins, so im using the "prochannel" as much as i can.
 
The third party plugins are from Voxengo ( Eq), Lexicon ( reverb ), Brainworx ( Mastering ) and Waves ( Delay/reverb).
And im generally not using any more than 1 instance of these plugins in a project, all other effcts/plugins is the "native" ones, that follows
Sonar X1.
 
The same follows for VST Instruments, except for 2 plugins, Toontrack Superior Drummer ( ver 2.30 ) and Omnisphere.
 
First i noticed that when my Superior Drummer ver.2.30 where loaded, the 1:st thread was taking of, but not as much that it realy caught my attention.
But...when my project was ready and, i was in the "recording" phase, then the 1:st Thread was considerably higher than the other threads.
 
1:st Thread = 80+% utilization
2-24 Thread = 15-20% utilization
 
...The first thing that struck me was that the Superior Drummer Module was the culprit here. So i disabled it. And that did some impact on the
1:st thread utilization. It decreased to around 50-55% ( an estimate ). And Thread 2-24 was also down a little bit, maybee to an average
of 10-15% utilization.
 
I have been testing to disable all VST plugins & all Prochannels, and of course the total utlization drops, but there is a pattern that always
are the same. It doesnt matter which plugins/instruments that im loading/unloading its allways the same.... the 1:st Thread utilization is always about
3-4 times higher ( or more ) than the rest of the thread utlilization.
 
I must tell you that this project is a 60+ channel project, and it is a 96/24 config. And im using x64 plugins except for one plug in.
 
But the "pattern" is the same wheter its a project with fewer tracks/midi channels or it is a "mega" project. But with a smaller project it hasnt
been any actual "problem". But almost every one of my own projects is suffering from the heavy utilization of the 1:st Thread, and thats these
annoying Crackling sounds that appear when you "hit the roof" etc....youll certainly know what im talking about.
 
What i have done and my conclusion:
 
 If you look under "Preferences..." the "BitBridge" configuration is set to "Auto" mode. But if you look a bit further you can see that there is 12 "BitBridge Servers" that you can choose from ( manually configuration ). And i think that you can manually set what "BBServer" that the plugin shall use... i can be wrong here, but that is what i think.
 
What i havefurther noticed is that, in the "VST properties", in my case Superior Drummer plugin, you can tell the plug in to load it self in a certain "BitBridge Server".
And i have only two choices, i can choose/write "1" or "0" ( BBServer nr 1 & 0 ), anything else written here will reverse to either "0" or "1" ( it depends on what it was before changing to the new value, "1" or "0" ) when you hit the "OK" button. For example if i choose to load the plugin in, in BBserver 8, it will reverted to either "1" or "0".
 
My idea was that if im able to change "BitBridgeServer" for some of my plugins i could distribute the Utilization from the 1:st thread to another thread that is more or less "idle"... i thought that there were a connection beetween "BBServer" and the distributing of the load between the "threads",for example.. if i would choose "BBServer" nr 8 then the load should move to thread nr 8... and so on...
But it was only wishful thinking from my side...
 
Ive ben "studied" this forum and searched on the web for more information on this Issue, and  info about configuration of the "AUD.INI" file.
This forum and some useful tips have helped me to fix some other issues that i had ( with htreading Of course ), but this one is killing me.
 
I have 24 Threads, one thread ( under real load ) is "hitting the roof" with a 90+ utilization, and ive got 23 Threads that are more or less "sleeping", with
a average estimated utilization of around only 20-25%...and i CANT DISTRIBUTE THE LOAD... H E L P ! !
 
What to do ? ? ?
 
Please help me...
 
Thanks in advance...
 
//Stefan
 
PS! I dont know if i can paste some pics here ( screen dumps ) but if i can, i will do so, so you can see with your own eyes what im talking about...
 
 
 

Hello my friend.

As a matter of fact i have done that. And it worked out real fine.
And now all my threads are working at the same time, as i can see in Windows task Manager. So i consider that issue
as solved.

I hade a little "dream" that if i could fix the first issue, to make Sonar work on all my cores/threads that i have availble on my computer, this "new" issue should be solved as well...but it did not.

So i didnt mention this "new" issue, that is about Sonars internal load balancing.
 
Maybe you can explain something for me.... In Windows Task Manager i have a equal load bewtween the cores/threads.
But in Sonar it is the 1:st thread that "takes the hit", and the rest i almost sleeping.

All in all, ive got different results, Task manger says one thing, and Sonars "CPU meter" says another...

//Steafn

If i could i would publish a "screen dump" when im running my latest project, which is pretty big and what i consider as a "heavy load" project.
There you can clearly see that the 1:st Thread "is working his ass off", and the rest off ther threads is around 30-35% load on average.
And then when im checking Windows task manager, the load is equal btween the threads.
But i can agree with you on one point...that is that there are slightly more load on the 1:st thread in Windows as well.
But if im comparing the "picture" that i get from analysing Windows task manager, and the "picture" that i get from Sonars CPU meter, the distribution is of the "same pattern".

In windows ( measures on average ):
 
Thread one = 50-60/70%
Thread 2-24 = 35-50%

In Sonar CPU meeter:

Thread One = 90+%
Thread 2-24 = 30%+-5%

I want to distribute the load more equal. Its a pitty that my projects suffering from this.
I can clealy see that i have alot of "sleeping" computer power, that i cant use. And when one thread is "hitting the roof" the famous crakling appears. And that project "will go down in the drain".

 

One of the "touted" features (and Cake even showed it)
for Windows 8 is better core handling...

Win 8 will have a more "even spread" of core usage (so it has been said)

Sorry...i must correct my self... "has at least 4 times more load " it shall be 3 times more load...and nothing else..

sorry for that...

=D