Slow Mac tips?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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braj
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Slow Mac tips?

Post by braj » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:12 am

Does anyone have any tips for optimizing Live4 on a 667 Ti w/768 MB RAM, 7200 RPM HD?

I guess I'm looking for things inside Live itself, but if you have system tips that would be helpful as well.

One question is, does it make a difference if you use wav of aiff filetypes?

Thanks!

AdamJay
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Post by AdamJay » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:17 am

aif or wav is no difference.

my best tips for mac are load your smallest audio clips into RAM. (hit the RAM button in the clip editor). and if you have enough RAM, load your larger ones in there too.

try not to use Ableton's reverb or EQ3 (for filtering). Apple's AU Reverb sounds just as good and is more effecient. For filtering, Apple's AU Hipass and Lowpass are much more effecient than using Ableton's EQ3 for filtering.

resample your vsti's if you use any.

turn display settings to thousands of colors.

get rid of OSX shadows with Shadow Killer.
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/shadowkiller

and make sure your power settings are set to "Highest"

tch
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Post by tch » Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:39 pm


jtenney
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Post by jtenney » Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:54 am

Adamjay, I have a quick question. Again, from a newbie, maybe a duhhh item, but...

Regarding Apple's "factory" AUs. How can I load them into the Live browser? In fact, I can't seem to find them on my Mac system at all. I can access them through Peak for rendering sounds, but searching the system doesn't turn them up. ????

Another quickie: I have VSTs from db, but they don't show up in the Live browser. Anything I should be doing different? Everything else seems to be there (mda etc).

Thanks for your time and trouble!

later,
John
www.soundclick.com/johntenney

iMac G5, Reason 3.0, Live 5, Peak 5.01 LE, mp3 Trimmer, Finale 2006, various VSTs, Yamaha PSR 170 keyboard (cheap midi controller), Evolution UC33e (not so cheap midi controller)

udp
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Post by udp » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:28 am

I agree with everything Adam said except changing the monitor setting if you're on osX. osX is meant to run on the millions of colors stting and changing it to thousands will actually tie up processor cycles. 8O
OS X.5 MacBook Core 2Duo 2.2ghz, 2Gig RAM Mackie Onyx 400F m-audio BX8's, Oxygen 8, Zoom H-4, Alesis Masterlink, Bitstream 3x
http://www.udpmusic.com

Machinesworking
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Post by Machinesworking » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:14 am

The biggest CPU hog I've noticed is the Airport card, turn it off.

Run only the VSTi's you want to play live as MIDI, like Adam already said print to audio everything you don't tweak live. Print with FX, I never really complained about Live 3 on macs because I used loops of my stuff imported from Logic, and didn't really need to run but minimal FX in Live.

Since my powerbook is just an 800mhz, only a little bit more than yours, I pretty much keep to that practice in Live 4 as well. I print to audio when the CPU gets hit too hard...

colin_h
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Post by colin_h » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:32 am

jtenney wrote:Adamjay, I have a quick question. Again, from a newbie, maybe a duhhh item, but...

Regarding Apple's "factory" AUs. How can I load them into the Live browser? In fact, I can't seem to find them on my Mac system at all. I can access them through Peak for rendering sounds, but searching the system doesn't turn them up. ????

Another quickie: I have VSTs from db, but they don't show up in the Live browser. Anything I should be doing different? Everything else seems to be there (mda etc).

Thanks for your time and trouble!

later,
John
hey, do you have 'use audio units' turned on in Live preferences?
..-

jtenney
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Post by jtenney » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:54 am

Um, no I didn't, Colin. :oops: And I really appreciate your telling me. Thanks so much!

later,
John
www.soundclick.com/johntenney

iMac G5, Reason 3.0, Live 5, Peak 5.01 LE, mp3 Trimmer, Finale 2006, various VSTs, Yamaha PSR 170 keyboard (cheap midi controller), Evolution UC33e (not so cheap midi controller)

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