Audio Multithreading

SoundDesk offloads DSP to helper threads to unburden the main audio thread. The feature is enabled by default and can be disabled in General Preferences.

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Multithreading Settings

Multithreading lets you load more and heavier plugins at once, and reduces the risk of overloading the main audio thread.

When on, SoundDesk uses a detection system that decides if the desk setup will benefit from it.

The Assign Threads option forces SoundDesk to organise tasks within threads, when disabled SoundDesk will use the first available policy instead.

Users that need to run SoundDesk on a battery device (unplugged from a power source) may benefit from disabling multithreading to reduce power consumption. Or if SoundDesk is used as a secondary DAW or in conjunction with other multithreaded DAWs, you may also prefer to disable this feature to free cores for other tasks.

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Desk CPU Load

Each desk has a dedicated CPU Usage graph, that can be opened from the desk View menu.

At the very top (blue bar) is the desk audio thread load, followed by the helper threads (orange bars). All represent loads from 0 to 100%.

When multithreading is off or SoundDesk detects that multithreading is not needed, all helper threads will be off and have a 0% load.

This window is the ideal way to analyse a desk load. Keeping the main thread at a 40~50% load will avoid audio degradation. You accomplish this by increasing buffer size or reducing sample rate at the Audio Setup window, or by reducing the number of plugins active or channels in a desk. The Plugin Manager can be used to disable unused AU plugins so they no longer load into desks.

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