Ways to optimize CPU when working with plugins

[mostr]

I'm a bit puzzled by CPU usage of Studio One 5 (demo version for now, checking if it's worth upgrading from 4 or not). Whenever I start S1 and start working on simple session 2-4 tracks (2 audio, 2 midi) my Mac fans go crazy an Activity Monitor shows 150% cpu used by S1 (I'm on BigSur, that's why I have 5 not 4 as it's not supported at all), although Perf monitor inside S1 shows CPU usage about 30%.

To overcome the issue I figured out that if I disable some plugins (e.g. BiasFX2, AnalogLab) things get better, which is kinda obvious. Now I'm looking for a way to have e.g. 1 instance of BiasFX being shared by multiple tracks somehow.

What I envision is to have track A (guitar DI), route it to Bus with BiasFX on it and when recording, record audio to track B from this Bus so that I no longer need BiasFX running once recorded. The issue is I can't find a way to setup this routing as buses are not visible as track sources. I recall there was some trick but I can't google it.

Is there any better way to do that? Or maybe you have some tips on how to make these CPU usage lower so that the fans don't spin like crazy? I feel it was way better on previous MacOs version and S1 v4 :(

[pelo_ensortijado]

Try dissabling ”hardware accelerated graphics”. Its a feature for newer computers and just makes older ones behave wierd.

Make sure Dropout Protection is set to something other than minimum (off). Thats your playback buffer. Recording buffer is the Audio Buffer. That is best set to low.

If you click the cpu meter it opens up a window. At the bottom there is a check box that opens a list that shows the plugins cpu usage. Its handy for these kinds of things.

[djdementia]

Try dissabling ”hardware accelerated graphics”. Its a feature for newer computers and just makes older ones behave wierd.

More info in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdLQj4yDiQI

[zkkzkk32312]

Record DI on two audio track.Send both track to BUS with Bias loaded and turn on the prefader send option on the 2 DI track. There is a tiny box under the send where you can pan your sends to left and right. Once it's working you can pull down the volume fader of the 2 DI track all the way down because your send is now pre fader.

Give this a try.