cpu meter in the red whenever i increase audio quality

[cfusaro]

im running live 8 suite on a lenovo x201 with an intel core i5 processor running at 2.53ghz with 3 gb of ram. i dont have any external soundcard, so im using the computer's integrated one which up until now was getting the job done. lately, live clips and the cpu meter runs up to 300% + whenever im using live at 48000 hz, so ive been bringing it down progressively and it seems that 22500 hz is the only option that doesnt make live clip. however when i render my audio at a higher quality, the sound is completely different than what i thought i was hearing (at 22500hz). so im wondering, is there something i can do to prevent live from crashing when i try to use it at a reasonable quality? also, if i purchased an external soundcard (motu ultralite mk3 for example) would this allow me to monitor my sets a higher quality without taxing my cpu? or is my only option to upgrade to a better computer with a faster processor...

[ScudMan]

Here's a couple things I'd try:

1. Make sure that live is not the only thing leaning on the cpu (task manager to see if other process are part of this). Shut down any that are having fun.
2. Open a new project and loop a single audio clip. If the cpu is not below 10% (should be 2-4% with the hw you have), then something definitely is up with your configuration. Borrow someone's audio interface if that seems like the culprit. (did this work before and just go south all of the sudden or are you seeing this with a specific live set?)
3. If #2 is OK, then open the live set that's causing the issue (or the worst one). Go to each midi track and "freeze" each one at a time. Watch the CPU as you do this. You may find that one of your vst's is very demanding or you may just find that in aggregate, each of your vst's are putting a collective load on your system.

If that does not work report back with what you find and we'll dig in some more.

[fishmonkey]

unless you are specifically trying to create a lo-fi digital sound, then you don't wanna work at sampling rates lower than 44100 Hz. without getting into the technicalities, if you divide a particular sample rate in half, then that is roughly the highest frequency that can be faithfully represented. since human hearing is roughly in the range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, you can see why using 22050 Hz doesn't work so well...

if you wanna know the details, look up the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem.

[agent314]

What bitrate are you using?

If it's not 16 or 24, try changing it to one of those

Also, try ASIO4ALL if you haven't. That tends to behave better than the native drivers for some built-in hardware (not to mention it may improve latency)

[cfusaro]

thanks guys, i'll try some of those tricks n get back to you. @agent314, my bitrate is at 16 (should it be at 24?). also, im still wondering if an external soundcard would relieve alot of stress from my processor, or if it would require the same ammount of juice?

[tecgen]

I have the same Thinkpad x201 notebook and no problem to run even arangements with 55 stereo tracks in 16bit@44khz. I am using an Terratec Phase x24 Firewire soundcard most of the time. But even when I use the internal one with ASIO4ALL, I have no problems CPU wise when I run the notebook in the Maxiumum Performance settings.

-Marco

[cfusaro]

So i got myself asio4all and it definitely helped somewhat; my sets are running smoother and the meter stays stable between 65-80%. Only thing is that it'll randomly jump to 2000% and start clipping pretty badly once a new midi track is introduced, but only later on in the set. I'm not using any exterior vsts, so i guess the problem is still there. would it help if i got more ram?

[agent314]

What's going on in your sets that CPU is so high?

What % is it at with a completely empty set?

[tecgen]

>would it help if i got more ram?
Ableton Live is a 32Bit application and could use theoretical max. 2^32Bit = 4GB RAM. But I guess the size of RAM is not the reason for your problem, since you got already 3GB.

Whats your ASIO Buffer Size in ASIO4ALL? I suggest to use 256 samples or even more when you have such peaks. In my settings the Latency Compensation in ASIO4ALL for In and Out is set to 0 samples. All other available options are unchecked.

In Live I use a sample rate of 44100 Hz. If you don't need them, I would suggest to disable all input channels.

Do you have your battery in you notebook when running Live? I read that its not possible to run the i5 CPU in Turbo Mode when no battery is connected. And as I wrote before, make sure you set your Power Manager to the profile Maximum Performance. I always disable WLAN, Bluetooth and my anti virus scanner when running Live as well.

-Marco

[cfusaro]

What's going on in your sets that CPU is so high?

What % is it at with a completely empty set?

its at 1-2% in an empty set. also, my laptop does have a battery and it runs in turbo mode as well. I thought the problem was resolved with the asio4all drivers, but when using live recently it began clipping when there was too much automation. My task manager tells me my cpu is only at 60-70%, when live is telling me its at 100-120%, so i'm assuming now its a problem with live and not my laptop.