CPU Weirdness

[DukeOfPrunes]

dammit. i'm getting pissed off for you.

ok.... let's avoid Racks made by madmen.

what if you use a vanilla 100% native Live configuration? How about some drums out of Session Drums?
let's avoid anything created by anyone other than Ableton for testing purposes.


these types of issues are usually caused by a never ending loop in a reverb (for example) or a send feeding itself into infinity. some setting that used to be turned off is now on and this affected effect A, B, or C etc.

Ok, I will simplify and keep it 100% native avoiding madmen influences.

I will revert. Thanks much for all your help to date!

Jean.

[H20nly]

i definitely want to help, but i don't want you to go without more adept eyes on it while we are testing my theories. make sure you submit a report to support@ableton.com using the built in features in Live for that purpose.

[DukeOfPrunes]

i definitely want to help, but i don't want you to go without more adept eyes on it while we are testing my theories. make sure you submit a report to support@ableton.com using the built in features in Live for that purpose.

Ok, will do. I have to go offline for a bit, but will resume testing asap. Thanks.

[DukeOfPrunes]

I've had a bit more time to troubleshoot. I need to explain my set up first, it's a bit convoluted...

I have three audio interfaces, which I switch around for various applications:

1) Old Tascam FW-1884, which I use primarily for its control surface capabilities and at times, for mic inputs through ADA connected to:
2) Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, which is my main Audio Interface, when I am not using:
3) Axe FX II, using USB for recording direct

So of course, this is a bit of busy set up I think. To add to the issues, The Tascam drivers are no longer supported in Win 8.1, so I use Win 7 legacy drivers and I usually am able to get it to work if I bypass the driver certification at boot time (I know, real pain, but after many years of using Win platforms, it seems you get used to these stupid idiosyncrasies).

Now, to make this all happen, I use ASIO4All, which I just updated yesterday from v 2 to v 2.13 (maybe this is an issue?). When using my normal set up, I simply choose the Focusrite within the hardware config shown by ASIO4ALL and this approach worked well in Live 9.2.3.

In Live 9.5, this set up seems to have issues and by turning off the Tascam, the CPU limit breach disappeared when I was playing the Mad Zach Hollow Point midi file that was giving me grief.

At this point, it seems to be related to my legacy Tascam, which may not be surprising, since it is not using drivers that were written for Win 8.1.

The only mystery for me, is that I did not encounter this problem using Live 9.2.3.

I suspect this is a tricky one to troubleshoot, but any suggestions will be appreciated. I will also spend some time digging into the mad man's rack and look at all the sends and reverbs, to make sure options have not been enabled in 9.5 whereas they weren't in 9.2.3.

Oh, and yes, I did load up a 100% Native Drum rack using Session Drums and as I suspected, there were no issues. It seems the sounds designed by Mad Zach are very taxing on CPU in Live 9.5, but not as much in Live 9.2.3.

Thanks,
Jean.

[granted]

Oh, and yes, I did load up a 100% Native Drum rack using Session Drums and as I suspected, there were no issues. It seems the sounds designed by Mad Zach are very taxing on CPU in Live 9.5, but not as much in Live 9.2.3.

Thanks,
Jean.

Simpler has changed. If Mad Zach's rack is full of Simplers then that is what has changed from 9.2.3 to 9.5. Have you tried contacting Mad Zach? Perhaps there is an update for his rack?

[DukeOfPrunes]

Oh, and yes, I did load up a 100% Native Drum rack using Session Drums and as I suspected, there were no issues. It seems the sounds designed by Mad Zach are very taxing on CPU in Live 9.5, but not as much in Live 9.2.3.

Thanks,
Jean.

Simpler has changed. If Mad Zach's rack is full of Simplers then that is what has changed from 9.2.3 to 9.5. Have you tried contacting Mad Zach? Perhaps there is an update for his rack?

Good point! Thanks. I re-downloaded his pack in just in case there's an updated pack, but there was no change in behavior.

I will shoot him a message to confirm with him.

Thanks,
Jean.

[cfr]

I would check and see if the new simpler has warp enabled by default. I ran into this problem yesterday. warping complex pro on a whole drum kit made all sorts of cpu spikes in weird places

[DukeOfPrunes]

I would check and see if the new simpler has warp enabled by default. I ran into this problem yesterday. warping complex pro on a whole drum kit made all sorts of cpu spikes in weird places

Thanks. The warp is not enabled when I load his sound pack with the new simpler.

[H20nly]

Now, to make this all happen, I use ASIO4All, which I just updated yesterday from v 2 to v 2.13 (maybe this is an issue?). When using my normal set up, I simply choose the Focusrite within the hardware config shown by ASIO4ALL and this approach worked well in Live 9.2.3.

i think it's important to draw a line in the sand.

what happens when you just use your Focusrite interface/drivers and Live?

[DukeOfPrunes]

Now, to make this all happen, I use ASIO4All, which I just updated yesterday from v 2 to v 2.13 (maybe this is an issue?). When using my normal set up, I simply choose the Focusrite within the hardware config shown by ASIO4ALL and this approach worked well in Live 9.2.3.

i think it's important to draw a line in the sand.

what happens when you just use your Focusrite interface/drivers and Live?

Works fine with Focusrite, but only if the Tascam is turned off. I guess I could leave the Tascam off while working on these CPU taxing sounds and then freeze the track and re-start the Tascam, but it's just a waste of time. The Tascam is FireWire with uncertified drivers, so I'm probably looking for problems. Just surprised I am only encountering them now with the new 9.5.

[lovelight]

im wondering, why its necessary to do alot of changes to your computer, ive done everything, even bought a system cleaner with a heavy price tag, and then i stopped my self. Why? when everything works fine with live 9.2, how can it be your system / computer / drivers / vst, thats wrong, when it all works perfect before the upgrade ?

[DukeOfPrunes]

Agreed, it's extremely frustrating, but I seem to be used to somehow having to find work-arounds dealing with digital audio on Win platforms. Maybe my machine is getting too old...I'm also hitting CPU limits with Diva and Serum, due to them being CPU hogs on certain multi voice presets; but I see this as an unrelated set of problems versus the one I am encountering with Mad Zach's sound pack, which is quite rich and very versatile.

[DukeOfPrunes]

dammit. i'm getting pissed off for you.

ok.... let's avoid Racks made by madmen.

what if you use a vanilla 100% native Live configuration? How about some drums out of Session Drums?
let's avoid anything created by anyone other than Ableton for testing purposes.


these types of issues, if not 3rd party VST related, are usually caused by a never ending loop in a reverb (for example) or a send feeding itself into infinity. some setting that used to be turned off is now on and this affected effect A, B, or C etc. Simpler (which Drum Racks rely on heavily) just got overhauled... maybe the issue lies there.

Hey H2Only, I did more digging into my issue and started disabling individual sends on the culprit samples and this has resolved the issue. Actually, I deleted the whole send c - side chain bus, which was not even being used and that did the trick.

Thanks a lot for all your help, I've learnt something new.

Best,
Jean.

[H20nly]

nice. glad you found the source.

and thanks for posting up. maybe it will help someone else...