150% CPU Load

[Encon]

Alrighty, thanks for the tips. That should definitely help me cut down the CPU load...it probably would've been a good idea regardless since my effects chains are a total mess most of the time.

I didn't realize midi used a lot of CPU too. Pretty much everything I do is in midi. Is freezing the track the same as rendering it out as audio? Or would it still be significantly better to bounce my tracks to WAV and load them in that way?

[markos]

Alrighty, thanks for the tips. That should definitely help me cut down the CPU load...it probably would've been a good idea regardless since my effects chains are a total mess most of the time.

I didn't realize midi used a lot of CPU too. Pretty much everything I do is in midi. Is freezing the track the same as rendering it out as audio? Or would it still be significantly better to bounce my tracks to WAV and load them in that way?

If the problem still persists, then there is something else going on behind the scenes. It may be background programs running (security software, spyware software - all of these eat away at cpu - also wireless connections can slow things down as well). If it still continues, could be hardware or compatibility with your system.

Freezing a track is basically telling the computer to end all CPU intensive tasks, and to treat the midi data as recorded audio. With that being said, when freezing a track you will not be able to adjust any effect or instrument parameters until the track is unfrozen again. Freeze if you are unsure of the sound. Export audio if you are happy with the recording.

[Encon]

I did try ending any background processes that I knew about and disabling my network; there was barely anything else using my CPU apart from Live at the time.

And perfect, I'll start freezing tracks that I'm not currently working on to save up some more CPU then. Thanks again.

[markos]

I did try ending any background processes that I knew about and disabling my network; there was barely anything else using my CPU apart from Live at the time.

And perfect, I'll start freezing tracks that I'm not currently working on to save up some more CPU then. Thanks again.

Keep us posted and let us know if you notice a change

[miekwave]

Is your "High Performance" or "Battery Savings" mode enabled?

[Valiumdupeuple]

2 reverbs per session...that could quite possibly be my mistake then since I use reverb a lot. =P Guess it's time to start being a bit more conservative with my effects then. Thanks again for the help.

What makes you think that? Pretty vintage GUI?
Have you ever tried? And notice a difference?

I just naturally assumed a native plugin would use less CPU than third party, since the native plugins are actually built into Live (I think?). I don't know much about programming for DAWs though since I've never done that kind, so maybe I'm wrong.

Ah, ok sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought your were saying that using Live native devices would make a huge difference in term of sound quality compare to 3rd party. But you were talking about ressources, right?
So, yep, you were right, using native devices would be lighter on your cpu. For the majority of them but not all though; for example the new m4l convolution reverb is absurdly cpu hungry compare to some 3rd party ones.
BTW, I still think that your problem is not pointed yet. Your machine should be able to run a lot more with ease.

[Coupe70]

[
If possible, consolidate your MP3 samples into WAV format. It will take less strain from cpu since its not decoding your MP3 files.

Live converts mp3 files to WAV when loading, so using mp3 samples only takes CPU while
loading. When the waveforms are visible in Live decoding is done and there is no
difference to directely using WAVs.

Or in other words: Live consolidates mp3s to WAVs in the moment you load them, no need to do it yourself.

[oddstep]

have you tried using the fast track pro soundcard with asio4all driver? i've found it gets better results than using the m-audio drivers.

[Encon]

Changing the quality setting in Massive seemed to make a difference, as well as freezing tracks I wasn't working with. I'll try out the FTP with the ASIO4All driver and see how that works, too, though I get the feeling it might just be the FTP not being compatible with my laptop.

Thanks for all of the help, everyone. <3

[vitalispopoff]

bump and pin to the subject.

Most of things You write guys is imho missing the point, and I'll try to explain the opinion.

I'm working with native ableton devices only, and mostly generating instead of sampling. As a complete freak in this field I've used to build complex effect chains and automations. I've worked with AL9 Suite (+M4L of course) installed on different machines: Sony Vaio (i5 + 8G Ram, Windows 7), MacBook Pro (mid 2009 + 8G Ram, OSX 10. and these days trying to setup a new machine: Asus Sabertooth, i7 3930k, 64G Ram (currently only , Windows 7.

What I've noticed is that my old MacBook works better with AL9 than the mentioned beast: I'm able to built quite a complex session even with 12 midi tracks (drum rack w/ several Operator instances + at least one Operator in other tracks) + 3 or even 4 return tracks which also have some cpu-hungry fx chains. The sessions eat about 70-80% of CPU but freezing the channels is rarely necessary.
At the same time I've used to surf the web, write texts, sometimes even watch movies without much pain.

On the other hand the Asus/i7 is working much worse. AL8 (standalone) showed 24% CPU usage with demo session playing, when task manager showed only ~3% of CPU.

And here's a surprise: the mentioned above VAIO proceeded without any problem a session containing even 70 tracks with Battery, loads of 3rd party plugins (eqs, compressors etc) long wav files, M4L devices, and of course native AL machines.

I've only started to track the problems reasons, so have no idea what is the cause of this, but definitely will say - I don't get the machine like that to waste time on freezing tracks, and limit the sessions by avoidng any device, that i need to be in there. WTF is the idea after all?

* * *

Some things that I've put on the 2do list is now to check:
- windows 7 firewire drivers (I'm working with an old goodfashioned M-Audio 410, which was used with all mentioned computers)
- check the soundcard drivers as well.

One more thing: if the task manager shows 3% CPU usage when the Internet browser, antivirus software and few other things are running, at the same time with Live, and Live itself shows 75% CPU and dropouts while playing the session created on the 16 times slower machine, turning off all the applications is rather kind of bad joke.

[Coupe70]

What comes to my mind first:
Is multi-core support enabled in your Live installation on the Asus ?

Have you tried to disable core parking ?