Can My Computer Run Voxless?
Our new audio plug-in Voxless brings AI-powered vocal separations to your digital audio workstation and for the first time in real time.
Since the release of DeMIX version 4 last year, our customers
have been enjoying the ability to run separations locally on their
computers. Now with Voxless we are tackling the next big challenge that
is delivering high quality AI separations in real time.
Fundamentally, audio plug-ins are only given a brief amount of time to process audio samples from the digital audio workstation (DAW). If a plug-in isn't able to output the processed samples in time, then the audio playback will start glitching or stuttering. Most mixing plug-ins only need a fraction of that time to perform their processing, which means that many instances of those plug-ins can be loaded in a single session before hearing any glitches in the output.
However,
Voxless performs a significantly larger amount of calculations, and
therefore may require a slightly different approach and some adjustments
to the settings of the DAW.
Sample Buffer Size
The
most important setting to be aware of is called "sample buffer size".
The higher the buffer size, the more time will be given to each plug-in
for processing. In the case of Voxless, most computers should be able to
perform the vocal separations with a buffer size of 2048, while some
may be able to run it quicker at 1024 or 512. There should be no
drawback to using a larger buffer size for Voxless. Usually a small
buffer size is recommended for recording purposes, while large buffer
sizes are better for mixing/mastering. Voxless falls in the latter
category.
For additional information, there are many
articles explaining "sample buffer size" or "DAW latency" on other
website, for example here.
It is also worth noting that some DAWs are better optimised at handling plug-ins like Voxless and won't be quite so sensitive about buffer sizes. For example Logic Pro or Reaper (when "anticipative FX processing" is enabled) can perform some processing ahead of time, which gives Voxless the time it needs to perform the vocal separation before the output samples are requested. Each DAW has its own specific design and some may require their plug-ins to be quicker at processing than others.
CPU Speed
By design, most
(if not all) DAWs need individual plug-ins to process audio in a single
thread. This means that only the clock frequency of the user's CPU will
affect how fast it will be able to process the audio buffers, other
factors such as the number of CPU cores do not affect it.
The
actual clock frequency that is needed varies with each DAW and audio
setup, however we've found that the following guidelines apply in most
cases:
CPU Speed: < 3GHz - Min. Buffer Size Needed: 2048
CPU Speed: 3-3.5GHz - Min. Buffer Size Needed: 1024
CPU Speed: > 3.5GHz - Min. Buffer Size Needed: 512
CPU Speed: 3-3.5GHz - Min. Buffer Size Needed: 1024
CPU Speed: > 3.5GHz - Min. Buffer Size Needed: 512
What About Recording?
It is possible to use Voxless during a recording session, however it does present some unique challenges.
First,
Voxless will only operate with a high latency (around 140ms). It is
therefore not ideal for loopback recording applications (when the
artist's performance is separated by Voxless but the artist also needs
to listen the separated output while performing). For such cases it
would be better to bypass Voxless during the recording process and only
enable it during mixing.
An other challenge
when recording with Voxless is that it requires using a large audio buffer
size, as mentioned above. If a project contains Voxless and a low buffer
size is needed for recording an artist, there will likely be audio
glitches during recording. To avoid those you should render the track on
which Voxless was applied (most DAWs have a function for this, called
"freeze" or "bounce in place") and bypass or remove the Voxless plug-in
during recording to save CPU power.
Try It Out!
The
best way to know if Voxless will work with your own setup it to
try it out! The plug-in is available as VST3, Audio Unit and AAX on Windows 7+ and Mac OS 10.11+.
You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of Voxless from our
website.
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