Can My Computer Run Voxless?

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

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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Paddy Hallihan2023-02-23 08:27:23


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