MainStage 3.2.3 CPU Problem Not Fixed

Yes, I'm seeing this same thing going from MS 3.1.1 to 3.2.x. There hasn't been a version of 3.2 that works for more than 25 minutes without severe crackling and stuttering with a concert that I use all the time with absolutely no issues for hours a night with 3.1.1.

I've spent days trying to track down the issue. I'm using a lot of 3rd party software, but I haven't been able to isolate one offender. If I use an Apple plug in only project, everything works fine. But, my usual concert uses far more memory and some of the plug ins are much more CPU intensive. I'm beginning to wonder if there's some threshold of memory and CPU use that causes instability in 3.2. Unfortunately, it seems to be almost impossible to load enough EXS instruments to come close to using the memory I routinely use with my native instrument patches, so if my threshold theory is correct, I haven't gotten past it yet. At the moment, I'm so tired of wasting time trying to locate the issue, I'm pretty much reconciled to using 3.1.1. It's very frustrating, though. There's no question that something fundamental has changed, but it doesn't seem to be affecting a lot of people. I'm afraid that those of us having these problems are on our own until we can come up with something concrete to show Apple so they can fix this.

So, I'm curious about what OS you're using and whether you're using 3rd party plug ins. I can see in your video that you aren't using a lot of memory, so that makes me think that I'm wrong about memory being an issue. Anyway, if we can find things that are common to our setups, maybe that will help point to the problem.

Thanks for all the info.

I'm running OS 10.10.5, so it doesn't look like this is an OS problem.

I'm having this problem on the latest 2015 15" MBP with 16GB of ram and 1TB of flash storage. There shouldn't be ANY problem running this concert. But, the same situation applies to my 2011 15" MBP. The concert runs fine with 3.1.1 and starts popping and stuttering after 25 minutes. The behavior is exactly the same on both machines, so the extra horsepower doesn't help at all, which again points to something strange going on in software.

You and I both are using a lot of NI stuff. This could be the problem. But, I did make an NI free concert for testing and still ran into problems. I should go back and check this again.

In your video, do I understand that the CPU use goes up as you use more and more patches? This seems to be the case over here. It's as if everything I use gets added to the CPU use even though that isn't what seems to be happening when I look at the expanded CPU history meter. In other words, the expanded meter shows plug ins dropping out of use when I change patches and those plug ins aren't part of the new patch. At least, most of the time that's what happens. Sometimes certain plug ins seem to get stuck. But, I haven't found anything consistent about this and I've had dropouts when the CPU use isn't particularly high, so I don't know what's gong on. What's weird is, once the dropouts and stuttering start, they won't stop until I quit and restart MS. I see an unstable CPU meter - there are spikes and choppiness - but the CPU is well below 100% even during the spikes. It makes no sense that this sort of CPU use would make the audio so degraded.

I never used MS 2 since I only started using MS seriously around the middle of last year. The example you show of the CPU going to 100% when you make a patch change has been something that happens pretty consistently for me. But, it doesn't seem to cause any trouble - at least with 3.1.1. I make the patch change and start to play and I see a brief jump to 100%, but there aren't any dropouts and the CPU immediately drops back down to where it belongs a moment later. So, I'm not completely surprised to see your CPU staying at 100% when you race through the patches. What happens when you select the patch and start playing? Does everything work normally then?

What audio interface are you using? The problems occur for me even when I'm just using the internal audio, but I'm normally using a MOTU interface live. I'm not sure whether an audio driver can cause interference if the interface isn't hooked up (I doubt it), but I thought it was worth mentioning in case you're using one too.

How did you roll back to 3.1.1? I'm having exactly the same issues.