User manual WAVES NETSHELL

[. . . ] Waves Netshell Users Guide Waves Netshell Users Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Hardware Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Software Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Working with the Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Netshell Latency vs. Host Hardware Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Audio Drop-Outs LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Using the Netshell Plug-ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Host Computer CPU Consumption Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Netshell Known Issues ­ V5. 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Mac OS-X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Troubleshooting for PC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Troubleshooting for Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Introduction Thank You for purchasing your Waves Netshell product!The Netshell is a combined hardware/software technology that provides independent processing resources for Waves plug-ins running on a host computer. It takes the processing load off of the host computer, allowing you to use heavy-duty plug-ins that might otherwise be too process intensive. [. . . ] The host hardware buffer size is set via the DAW menu or via the sound device's software interface. The value of the Netshell latency needs to be set manually, in accordance with the current host hardware buffer size. For that purpose there is an interface in the Monitor which allows you to select your desired Netshell latency value out of several values through a drop-down menu. The minimum selectable latency is 256 samples and the maximum is 16384 samples. Next to the "Netshell Latency" field, the "Max Host HW Buffer" field displays the maximum allowed host hardware buffer size for the selected Netshell latency. If you choose a certain Netshell latency value, you must make sure to adjust your host HW buffer size (through the DAW or sound device interface) to a value which is equal to or lower than the one displayed in Monitor's "Max Host HW Buffer" field. Likewise, if you change your host HW buffer size, you need to make sure that the Netshell latency is set to a value which is at least twice as high. Any change in the Netshell latency value requires closing an active DAW session and re-opening it in order for the latency change to take effect. It would therefore be more convenient to adjust your desired host hardware buffer size and Netshell latency before opening a session or creating a new one. AUDIO DROP-OUTS LEDS One of the Monitor's roles is to alert you of Netshell induced audio drop-outs which could be caused due to several reasons. The top bar of the Monitor contains an "Audio Drop-Outs" LED, and also each active APA graphical interface on the Monitor has such a LED on its top right side. Should audio drop-outs occur, the top bar LED as well as the LED of the specific APA "responsible" for the drop-outs will illuminate with a glowing red light. After the drop-outs cease, the LED will turn from glowing red to red light and will stay red to indicate that a drop-out has occurred. The most common causes for audio drop-outs are a mismatch between the host hardware buffer size versus the required Netshell latency, or an overload on the APA unit. The first thing to check if audio drop-outs occur is whether the current host hardware buffer size exceeds the value indicated in the Monitor's "Max Host HW Buffer" field. If it does, then the options are to either reduce the host hardware buffer size or to increase the Netshell latency. The Netshell was engineered in a way that should, in most cases, prevent loading more plug-in instances than the APA can handle. However, with some plug-ins (especially the IR-series and SoundShifter) changing some parameters can cause significant changes to their processing (CPU) consumption, thus possibly causing a heavily loaded APA to overload. Such an overload will inevitably cause audio drop-outs on the Netshell plug-ins running on that APA (which will cause the Monitor LED to illuminate). Other causes for drop-outs are a strain on the host computer's CPU or on the network adapter connected to the APA. Naturally, the Netshell enabled plug-ins would consume more of the host computer's CPU if they were loaded directly on it rather than on the APA. So no matter how powerful the CPU of your host computer is it would always be more efficient to run the Netshell enabled plug-ins on the APA. Please be aware that when you run many Netshell plug-ins, your host computer's CPU may eventually become the bottleneck preventing from effectively loading more Netshell plug-ins. [. . . ] Any other buffer size may cause noise when using both HTDM and RTAS net components. WINDOWS · Unplugging the Ethernet cable from the host computer will temporarily reset the Ethernet adapter's Netshell IP address, disabling Netshell functionality. Disable and enable the network connection or restart your computer to restore the Netshell IP address. After the Netshell installation, Windows XP may load a bit slower than usual. Local Area Connection Status indicator may show a "limited or no connectivity" message in Windows XP with SP2. [. . . ]