[linux-audio-user] Re: Update on savihost + Vsti's under wine

From: Nigel Henry <cave.dnb@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Nov 10 2005 - 01:29:02 EET

On Wednesday 09 November 2005 02:03, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 11/8/05, Nigel Henry <cave.dnb@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> > Hi Mark. Right. Here goes. This is on FC2, not Gentoo. I'll have a go on
> > Gentoo when I get the time. Wine is version 0.9-1fc2winehq, savihost is
> > version 1.23. I borrowed mfc42.dll from my XP install and put it
> > in .wine/drive_c/windows/system32. Savihost.exe I put in the program
> > files, and also put Lin-Plugs FreeAlpha synth's .dll in there. Renamed
> > savihosts .exe to FreeAlpha, and it worked first go. Now FreeAlpha synth
> > has a separate file for it's patches. it will only use the default patch
> > that is on the synth But it works. I've been trying a lot of freebie
> > synths, and notice that they use a lot of cpu. Ksim is showing, when
> > idle, between 70 & 80% cpu useage, and yet the synth itself only shows
> > less than 5% cpu useage. VirSyn's MicroTERA. a free synth uses 100% cpu.
> > Not enough to freeze the mouse, and even though I did get some sounds out
> > of it, it would not load the sound bank. Native Instruments Reactor
> > Session One 4.0, another freebie fully operational synth. When installed,
> > this has a .exe and a .dll. Running the .exe brings up the GUI, but the
> > only menu item that works is the one for sample rate, so cannot connect
> > usb midi keyboard or audio output. The .dll through savihost works fine,
> > but again at idle, is showing 50% cpu on Ksim, and the synth is showing
> > about 18.8%. The complete patch bank is available on this synth. Single
> > notes play ok, but push the cpu on Ksim to about 95%. Chords push the cpu
> > useage to 100%+ and become quite broken up. All in all, I'm very happy
> > with the way this is going. Hardly anything worked on
> > wine-20041019-1fc2winehq, but 0.9-1fc2winehq has certainly made more
> > things work. One observation. I tried crystal.dll on numerous occasions,
> > and it would not open. At that time only mfc42.dll was in the system32
> > directory. After installing Reactor Session One synth, and perhaps
> > something else, more .dll's turned up in system32. I thought I'd try
> > crystal synth again, and this time it worked. The extra .dll's are listed
> > below.
> > msvcirt.dll
> > MSVCP60.DLL
> > Msvcrt.dll
> >
> > Here are a few of the freebie synths I tried, and which worked ok with
> > savihost.
> > Triangle I & Triangle II from http://www.rgcaudio.com
> > Interruptor Dub Siren from http://www.interruptor.ch
> > JXPlugins JX220 from http://www.jxplugins.co.uk
> > LFObia Mocheese from http://www.electronicscene.com/elektracidz
> > LRsynths Trionimox from http://www.alphastrike.de
> > Psychic Modulation Pandemonium from http://www.psychicmodulation.com
> > Tobybear Screamer from http://www.tobybear.de
> > LinPlug Free Alpha from http://www.linplug.com
> >
> > I'd be really interested in knowing why these synths use so much cpu when
> > just lying idle. Nigel.
> >
> > Machine: Aiii-friend 1.3Ghz, 1GB Ram, Audigy2 soundblaster, Built-in
> > Cyberblade i1 graphics.
>
> Hi Nigel,
> Hey - you've been busy!
>
> I had a couple of minutes so I fired up Savihost using Triangle 1
> and Crystal to see if I could duplicate your results. For those synths
> I see (using top)
>
> Triangle 1 - 6% usr, 6%sys
> Crystal - 20% usr, 80% sys
>
> This is on an AMD64 3000+ machine.
>
> Since Savihost is the main app in both cases (just renamed to the
> dll name) then the difference has to be something in the way the dll
> is written. (duh...) How we find that I'm not so sure. What I need is
> an app that shows CPU usage by thread or process I suppose.
>
> I'll ask about that on the Wine lists and see what I find out.
>
> Assuming that we do find out something then possibly one day the
> Wine developers (or kernel developers) can do something about it.
>
> Note that in both cases above I ended up using the OSS seting in
> winecfg. The Jack interface doesn't work at all and the Alsa interface
> seemed to have an awful lot of noise. The kernel is 2.6.14-rt6, Ingo's
> latest and the machine is Gentoo based.
>
> I have the Alpha demo downloaded but I haven't installed it yet.
>
> I think we need to work on a way to report this info, and maybe a
> place to store it online. I can see a Wiki where we all can enter
> numbers as being of value, assuming it starys clean.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
Hi Mark. A Wiki is the best option for keeping this info. As you say it needs
to be kept clean, and I'd suggest registration to add or make alterations to
pages in it. I wish I could help to set it up, but have no idea how to go
about setting up a Wiki or a webserver. My Apache webserver I've tried out
once with my son, but on dialup it's a bit of a no-go anyway.

The kernel I am using is from planetccrma. 2.6.10-0.4.rdt.rhfc2.ccrma (32bit).
Having finished playing with vst apps a while back, I went to start qjackctl.
It doesn't want to know, throwing back "the capture device "hw0" is already
in use. A bit confused I run ps auxw, and this shows 5 active pid's for wine.
I have, pid 4288 for /usr/bin/wine-preloader /usr/bin/wine-pthread C:\Program
Files\Native. Also, pid 4291 for /usr/bin/wineserver, and the rest are
using /usr/bin/wine-preloader /usr/bin/wine-pthread /home/djmons/.wine/driv.
Kiliing these and running ps auxw again shows the same pid's still there, but
with the comment "defunkt" . Normally you kill a pid, run ps auxw again and
the pid ids gone. Qjackctl still won't start jack. I had to do a windoze
style reboot to clear this stuff. Thank you by the way for "top". I havn't
used this before. Right. I've rebooted, and go to wines program files. Start
up Crystal through savihost with top running. Ksim at idle shows an average
of 26% cpu. With top, wineserver is showing an average of 10.5%, and
wine-preloader an average of 7.6%. Playing Crystal pushes the cpu up to about
50%. I mean. This ain't too bad. Wine-preloader has gone up to about 13.3%
cpu and is staying there after a few minutes. Wineserver has stayed at the
same cpu level. Closed Crystal and now lost wineserver and wine-preloader
from the top output (which is as it should be). Cpu now running at an average
of 3%. Start Triangle I . Wineserver's cpu about the same as Crystal.
Wine-preloader up a bit, 8.6%. Playing Triangle I pushes the cpu to about 53%
max. Closed Triangle I, and lost wine pid's from top. Tried qjackctl and
starting jack, and no problems. Right. Last try, as I don't want to use
synths that you don't have. Start FreeAlpha. No big difference here. cpu
useage about the same as the others. FreeAlpha being polyphonic surprisingly
only max'd at about 41% cpu when played. None of this seems too bad. I still
can't understand why I had 5 pid's still running for wine in ps auxw. the
only other bits I'd run from the wine program files were, a pdf manual, and a
MS word .doc through open office for another synth manual. Now I recorded a
bit on one synth and saved it as .wav. But the next question is. How do I
port the output from a VSTi running under savihost and wine, to an app like
Ardour? Thats a whole new ball game. Nigel.
Received on Thu Nov 10 04:15:04 2005

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Thu Nov 10 2005 - 04:15:05 EET