1000 effects on one track....

[Rabalder]

If I have 1000 effects on one track, with only ONE switched on, and 999 switched off. Will the 999 dead effects have anything to say on stability or cpu or anything else?

[Pitch Black]

Yes, and no.

Inserted 1024 Autofilters on a track. (insert one, duplicate, select all, duplicate again, select all, duplicate... exponential multiplication)

Bypassed all. Played clip. CPU 4500+ % and silence. OK, thats not going to fly. Bypassed all-but-one. Wow, still not going to fly - fancy that!

Inserted 1024 Utility plugs on a track (insert one, duplicate, select all, duplicate again, select all, duplicate... exponential multiplication . . . you know you get there in only 11 steps - bacteria WILL inherit the earth . . . but I digress)

Bypassed all. Played clip. CPU 4500+ % and silence. Still sucking the big one. Bypassed all-but-one. Equal amounts of suck.

BUT THEN...

Changed from plug-in view to Clip view and clip played happily!!! CPU hovering between 40-60%!! Guess calculating all those VU meters in between each plugin in the chain caused quite a hit to the CPU.

Bypassing All, or bypassing All-but-one of the Utility plugins made no difference to the CPU hit.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum, Baby!
(ooh, you speak French!!)

Conclusion: 1023 dead Utility effects will have nothing to say on CPU or stability. IF you are looking at Clip View and not Plugin View. 1024 dead Autofilters will make for a very dead machine, either way. So: yes, and oddly, no.


That was worthwhile, wasn't it?

[Klinikal]

what Pitch Black said...
...+ 1000 effects would also consume your RAM.

[Rabalder]

Yes, and no.

Inserted 1024 Autofilters on a track. (insert one, duplicate, select all, duplicate again, select all, duplicate... exponential multiplication)

Bypassed all. Played clip. CPU 4500+ % and silence. OK, thats not going to fly. Bypassed all-but-one. Wow, still not going to fly - fancy that!

Inserted 1024 Utility plugs on a track (insert one, duplicate, select all, duplicate again, select all, duplicate... exponential multiplication . . . you know you get there in only 11 steps - bacteria WILL inherit the earth . . . but I digress)

Bypassed all. Played clip. CPU 4500+ % and silence. Still sucking the big one. Bypassed all-but-one. Equal amounts of suck.

BUT THEN...

Changed from plug-in view to Clip view and clip played happily!!! CPU hovering between 40-60%!! Guess calculating all those VU meters in between each plugin in the chain caused quite a hit to the CPU.

Bypassing All, or bypassing All-but-one of the Utility plugins made no difference to the CPU hit.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum, Baby!
(ooh, you speak French!!)

Conclusion: 1023 dead Utility effects will have nothing to say on CPU or stability. IF you are looking at Clip View and not Plugin View. 1024 dead Autofilters will make for a very dead machine, either way. So: yes, and oddly, no.


That was worthwhile, wasn't it?

WOW.. You really dugg into this.
Dont need to see any of the plug-ins, so this is gooooood news.

1024 thanks to you!!!

"bacteria WILL inherit the earth" - most definitely!

...+ 1000 effects would also consume your RAM.

Even when they're switched off??

[oblique strategies]

Even when they're switched off??

Yep. Test it for yourself. Start adding effects that are turned off & watch your CPU meter rise.

[davepermen]

even when switched off, the devices have to exist SOMEWHERE. and that somewhere is called RAM

[mikemc]

That was worthwhile, wasn't it?

massively so, well done sirrah.

RAM, yes, if each plug is an instance of at least one object, then there are machine resources being used to store something to do with these.

But if they are off, then none of the audio functions of the object are running on the CPU, and if they are invisible then none of the UI functions are.

[Pitch Black]

But it is dependent on the complexity of the plugins. 1024 bypassed Autofilters bring everything to a grinding halt regardless (why do I feel someone's going to use that sentence against me...) but 1024 bypassed Utilities don't, as long as they're not displaying their UIs and meters.

[Johnisfaster]

okay so heres a twist, in the manual it says that lives devices on different chains that aren't active (the chain isn't active not the device) won't consume cpu until the chain is selected. At least I think thats what it says isn't it? So if thats what it says, is it true?

[Pitch Black]

Chain 'em up and see... (ya bastard!) only takes 11 steps...

[outershpongolia]

okay so heres a twist, in the manual it says that lives devices on different chains that aren't active (the chain isn't active not the device) won't consume cpu until the chain is selected. At least I think thats what it says isn't it? So if thats what it says, is it true?

That was my question over on a different thread

Say I have a bunch of instruments racked up and I select them with clips that automate the chain selector..

I only need one at a time, so should I automate the Device ON/OFF when going to that chain, or are those other instruments not taking up CPU while their chain isn't' selected.

[hoffman2k]

okay so heres a twist, in the manual it says that lives devices on different chains that aren't active (the chain isn't active not the device) won't consume cpu until the chain is selected. At least I think thats what it says isn't it? So if thats what it says, is it true?

2 types of devices:

- Devices that don't consume cycles while they're not processing audio

- Devices that need constant calculations like auto filter, beat repeat, etc..

[Rabalder]

- Devices that don't consume cycles while they're not processing audio

Like reverb, distortion, flanger, etc..??
Not shure I quite follow..

[hoffman2k]

- Devices that don't consume cycles while they're not processing audio

Like reverb, distortion, flanger, etc..??
Not shure I quite follow..

I was paraphrasing Robert Henke from a thread I can't find. But essentially, the fact reverb consumes CPU while idle seems to be a bug. If no audio is being processed by a device and the device doesn't need to calculate/buffer/process/sync/pre-listen, the device shouldn't use any CPU power.
Devices like Beat Repeat listen, buffer and sync. Even if no audio is passed thru them.

[hoffman2k]

Damn i was wasting time, seems like Live does that automatically. If a device is not computing anything, it is automatically excluded from Live calculation.
In fact if i create a track with something like 15 devices, if nothing is playing the cpu usage is the same, no matter if the devices are on or off..
Can somebody confirm this? Thanks a lot.
Pedro

Sure: confirmed.

There is a little internal connection inside Live that manages this. We call it the 'X-port'. Yeah.


Robert

Robert:
If I put 128 reverbs in a rack with no audio going through, it gives me 80% CPU usage.
From what you wrote about the X-port, it seems that it shouldn't.
Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Ben,
just checked. You are right. It seems the reverb is doing more when 'sleeping' then it should. I tried it also with 512 Simple Delays, and there it worked as expected. I'll filed the reverb behavior as bug.

Cheers, Robert

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=136166