SOLVED - iPad Air 2 CPU warning with CPU at only 70%

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SOLVED - iPad Air 2 CPU warning with CPU at only 70%

Post by sELF » Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:29 am

Edit: This issue is now solved in iOS 8.3

Quite frustrating to have Auria lock up/crash with the CPU around 70 to 90%. I wish I didn't have to restart the app each time the CPU spiked! What is strange is that, although I am set to 64 bit mixer, one Pro MB with 2 x Oversampling. A couple more plugs, plus Pro L at 4 x Oversampling: The Air2 CPU was initially crashing at spikes around the 90% plus mark. But, after a few more tweaks, the track was crashing Auria with the CPU at around 60-70%. I had to quit and restart the app so many times. Resetting the iPad in between each restart...I also tried to switch to different projects, then back, to remove the issue. I didn't return to earlier snapshots, as there were quite a lot of tweaks in Pro MB that I wanted to keep! This was a 2 track project. Air2 in Airplane mode. No other apps running...I ended up having the same processor limitations as on my old iPad Air. The lock ups were triggered by me touching the screen whilst the track was running. Otherwise the track would play through whilst the CPU was much, much higher! Will there be any updates that squeeze more performance out of the new iPad Air 2's processor?

One separate gripe with Pro MB and Pro L is that when there is clipping, it's extremely tricky to reset the level meter's red warnings. Stop the track and a double tap will clear the level peak warnings. But, whilst the track is running, you can end up tapping for ages, without any success and the red segments locked in place. One tiny slip of the finger and you've hit the help button, that takes you to your browser and on...

I'm such a big Auria fan. I plug the Fabfilter plugs endlessly in the iPad Musician group on Facebook. Just a couple more tweaks and the system will be really reaching its potential. The best DAW I've ever used.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by sELF » Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:31 am

Post deleted.
Last edited by sELF on Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:50 am

When you're talking about crashing, do you mean that Auria closes abruptly and you see the iOS desktop? Crashing in Auria should be quite rare, and certainly isn't caused by the CPU being overloaded. When the CPU meter overloads, Auria should simply present a message saying the CPU was overloaded, then stops your playback (is this what you're talking about when you say crashing?). Memory overloading is different, and can result in iOS actually shutting down the app, which looks like an actual crash.

If you have an example of a project which makes Auria crash, I'd really like to get a copy of it because Auria never crashes for me, so it would be very useful to see in case you've discovered a rare bug I'm not aware of.

The CPU meter is an averaging meter, so it doesn't show you the peak CPU usage. It's the peak usage that causes Auria to show the CPU overload message (because even a short spike over 100% can cause an audio glitch, so Auria prevents that by stopping playback and showing a message). You can put the meter into peak mode by touching the meter until it says "CPU MAX". This way you can see what your true CPU usage is. It's possible that you're simply overloading the CPU with those 2x oversampling modes. But it should never actually crash.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by sELF » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:14 am

Hey Rim...Thanks for the quick reply!
When I say crashing, what I mean is a locked app situation: I get the message about CPU overload, or similar in the centre of the screen. At that point it is not possible to resume playback. Everything is locked up. The only way to regain control is to exit, quit the app. And restart Auria. Unless I'm missing a way to get things going again without departing the app :?:
I am using an Apogee One soundcard with a USB hub, by the way. Not the iPad Apogee One, unfortunately :)
I can give you a Dropbox link to the project later, if you think it might be useful.
8)

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:35 am

When you get that CPU overload message, you just need to click on the OK button under the message and everything should go back to normal. Are you saying that's not possible? Does the message go away when you press OK and then the app freezes, or does it freeze and not even let you press the OK button?

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by sELF » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:56 am

My apologies...Yes, clicking OK works, without my Apogee, and I can resume playback. But not always when my sound card is connected? I have to restart Auria...
The app is locking up at a much lower CPU percentage on my iPad Air 2, (same track), than my iPad Air :!:

Whilst I've got you here, will there be any specific CPU efficiency updates with Auria for the iPad Air 2? If such a thing is possible...Apple advertised a 40% CPU improvement over my Air. But, I think I see something like 30% at the moment. And I'm always in the mood for more Oversampling!
I guess I should write to Fabfilter about the reset meter clipping issue, when a track is playing through Pro L or MB?
Thanks...
Last edited by sELF on Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by mtingle » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:10 am

I can also confirm that the iPad Air 2 locks up (CPU message) when touching the screen while the track is running.

The project is 48 tracks, 60%cpu and 50mb free RAM.

On the edit screen, scrolling around while the track is playing very often triggers the CPU message. If you touch nothing the project will play through fine. Seems there is a screen CPU spike in iOS 8.

I can understand it stopping when very high CPU at around 90%, iOS 7 did this which felt normal as the system was at its limit. But 60%? Feel like some kind of graphics spike bug.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by sELF » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:15 am

Right Mtingle :cry: That was exactly the feeling I was getting. In fact, a track that played fine up to 95% CPU on my iPad Air, is now crashing at the reported 60-70% on my iPad Air 2. That new screen looks costly...

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:57 pm

That's interesting. I'll have to investigate and see what's going on. Looks like iOS8 is causing some strange issues to appear.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Yodasoldier » Mon Nov 03, 2014 2:29 am

finding the same here thought at first it was a problem with my RME UCX and total fx but after testing with Cubasis and other apps It appears not to be the case. It does seem to be a graphics based spike ..seems to happen when you interact with the GUI of Auria . There does seem to be some issues with audio glitches in some apps and when switching with inter audio apps. Auria seems sensitive to the spikes and reports them. Hoping for a fix as nothing really beats the sound of Auria but the overload messages are annoyingly too frequent on the new IPad air 2.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:32 am

I've done a bit of testing here, and it appears this is an issue which affects the iPad Air 2 only. No other iPad model is showing this behavior. I'll post more info as I learn more about what's actually going on.


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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by mtingle » Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:58 pm

done a little bit of testing also.

I can get it to bring up the CPU maxed out dialogue box very easily on the mixer window, just scrolling from left to right while the track is playing trips it. I've not been able to make it happen while in the edit window while playing. I've tried scrolling around, making edits to regions, click on the fx buton for a track, muting regions etc, etc.

cpu about 60%, 300Mb free RAM.
iOS8.1
auria 1.153
40+ tracks

hope this helps.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:04 pm

After spending all day on this, I've discovered that it's a bug in either the iPad Air 2 hardware itself, or in the iOS 8.1 (impossible to tell until Apple fixes it). In the mean time, I've found a clever workaround that makes the issue disappear completely. We'll be testing it over the next couple of days, and I plan on releasing it in the next update.

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by sELF » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:10 pm

Thanks for the quick solution Rim. Did you let Apple know about the issue?
Did you see what Tim 'Discchord' Webb said over on the iPad Musician page on Facebook a while back: That there was a serious iOS music issue that he could not talk about. Due to Apple policies etc. Basically that music in iOS will be in real difficulty till the problem is addressed by Apple :|
And that it might take some time :cry:
Anyhow, we poor humble musicians will struggle on. Always fun in Auria, anyhow :)

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Re: iPad Air 2 crashing. CPU only at 70%

Post by Rim » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:33 pm

I did post a bug report with Apple. Hard to know if it's related to what Tim was talking about. I don't think that was Air 2 specific, so it's probably unrelated.

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