Optimizing Ableton? Performance Issues on New PC

[hwangman]

I just installed Live 9 Standard last night and did a test run of the software. I love it but I had two concerns after about 2 hours of testing:

1. CPU meter - it was constantly at 20-35% with only 1 or 2 Ableton instruments loaded.

2. Disk overload - nearly every time I loaded a new instrument into a channel, the icon flashed and the audio either clicked or popped.

I upgraded my PC specifically to do music production (and am coming from a 2009 dual-core iMac that ran Ableton 8 almost flawlessly):

CPU: i5 @3.2 GHz
RAM: 24GB

Ableton is installed on my main OS drive (a 500GB SSD that is still over 50% free). I will be keeping all of my VSTs on an external drive, but this testing was done with nothing but stock Ableton instruments and effects.

On the Mac, I could have 12-20 tracks (all VSTs) going at once without exceeding 30% CPU usage and never pinging the disk overload alert. What am I doing wrong?

[inkjt510]

I just installed Live 9 Standard last night and did a test run of the software. I love it but I had two concerns after about 2 hours of testing:

1. CPU meter - it was constantly at 20-35% with only 1 or 2 Ableton instruments loaded.

2. Disk overload - nearly every time I loaded a new instrument into a channel, the icon flashed and the audio either clicked or popped.

I upgraded my PC specifically to do music production (and am coming from a 2009 dual-core iMac that ran Ableton 8 almost flawlessly):

CPU: i5 @3.2 GHz
RAM: 24GB

Ableton is installed on my main OS drive (a 500GB SSD that is still over 50% free). I will be keeping all of my VSTs on an external drive, but this testing was done with nothing but stock Ableton instruments and effects.

On the Mac, I could have 12-20 tracks (all VSTs) going at once without exceeding 30% CPU usage and never pinging the disk overload alert. What am I doing wrong?

Not sure if this is the problem but maybe Ableton index is still running. Next time you load up the program check your activity monitor and see if there is a process called index. It slowed my computer down significantly until it finished

[hwangman]

I just installed Live 9 Standard last night and did a test run of the software. I love it but I had two concerns after about 2 hours of testing:

1. CPU meter - it was constantly at 20-35% with only 1 or 2 Ableton instruments loaded.

2. Disk overload - nearly every time I loaded a new instrument into a channel, the icon flashed and the audio either clicked or popped.

I upgraded my PC specifically to do music production (and am coming from a 2009 dual-core iMac that ran Ableton 8 almost flawlessly):

CPU: i5 @3.2 GHz
RAM: 24GB

Ableton is installed on my main OS drive (a 500GB SSD that is still over 50% free). I will be keeping all of my VSTs on an external drive, but this testing was done with nothing but stock Ableton instruments and effects.

On the Mac, I could have 12-20 tracks (all VSTs) going at once without exceeding 30% CPU usage and never pinging the disk overload alert. What am I doing wrong?

Not sure if this is the problem but maybe Ableton index is still running. Next time you load up the program check your activity monitor and see if there is a process called index. It slowed my computer down significantly until it finished

I no longer use the Mac so is Activity Monitor the same as Task Manager on a PC?

[Tarekith]

Yes.

[granted]

Are you using the audio that is built into the laptop or are you using a separate audio interface?

[hwangman]

Are you using the audio that is built into the laptop or are you using a separate audio interface?

It's a desktop (I should have specified). I've tried with both the built-in audio driver and my interface (Steinberg UR22). The usage is the same (only the latency changed when switching drivers).

[Gregwaah]

I always run this script, before starting anything audio related, that closes all unnecessary windows services. I find everything runs smoother after I have executed it. Give that a try maybe.

https://themixtrain.wordpress.com/resou ... optimizer/

[hwangman]

Yes.

Sorry for the delay. I just fired up Ableton again and I do have 2 services related to it in my Task Manager: Ableton Live 9 Standard.exe and Ableton Index.exe. So that Index service never needs to run?

[hwangman]

I always run this script, before starting anything audio related, that closes all unnecessary windows services. I find everything runs smoother after I have executed it. Give that a try maybe.

https://themixtrain.wordpress.com/resou ... optimizer/

It looks like it disabled antivirus and Windows Firewall. Doesn't that compromise the security of your computer?

[yur2die4]

Live goes through all the directories that you have on your Live Browser and kinda takes note of each audio/Live-related file so you'll easily be able to do searches in the Love browser, and so you can quickly browse for things.

If you have any directories in the Live browser that are massive, it'll take some time for Live to index them.

Live will usually perform not quite as sleek when it is in the process of indexing at the same time, because it is keeping your CPU, but also especially your hard drive, busy.

Once it is done, it doesn't really impede on things. Just have to let it finish doing its thing.

[hwangman]

Live goes through all the directories that you have on your Live Browser and kinda takes note of each audio/Live-related file so you'll easily be able to do searches in the Love browser, and so you can quickly browse for things.

If you have any directories in the Live browser that are massive, it'll take some time for Live to index them.

Live will usually perform not quite as sleek when it is in the process of indexing at the same time, because it is keeping your CPU, but also especially your hard drive, busy.

Once it is done, it doesn't really impede on things. Just have to let it finish doing its thing.

Hmm...I'm not sure what's going on, then. My main drive only has Ableton, the built-in instruments, and the libraries that came on the 2nd install disk. I opened Live this morning and left it alone for over an hour. When I came back and checked on it, the Index was still running. That seems quite excessive for a basic install. I haven't pointed it at any VST or .dll files for other instruments yet.

[fishmonkey]

it may not be the indexer causing the problem though. there are lots of things that could cause the issues that you are experiencing.

is this a vanilla install of Windows? did the new machine come with Windows pre-installed or did you install it yourself? there are lots of guides on the net about how to optimise a Windows machine for music production, would be a good idea to check some out.

an important thing to know is that the Live 'CPU meter' is not really a CPU meter in the way that the Activity Monitor or the Task Manager are. Live's meter is telling you how much of the audio processing time window is being used. to avoid audio glitches, the audio needs to be processed and shuffled through the audio buffers quickly and consistently. if your Task Manager shows that overall CPU usage is low, then the culprit is more likely to be something else that is causing the glitches. it might be a badly coded hardware driver, another piece of software, or some system settings that need tweaking...

[Gregwaah]

I always run this script, before starting anything audio related, that closes all unnecessary windows services. I find everything runs smoother after I have executed it. Give that a try maybe.

https://themixtrain.wordpress.com/resou ... optimizer/

It looks like it disabled antivirus and Windows Firewall. Doesn't that compromise the security of your computer?

I always turn off my connection to the internet when working with audio, so security-wise I'm happy to have the firewall and antivirus disabled. You might even find a performance boost by just turning off wifi as this can take up a lot of computer resources.

[hwangman]

it may not be the indexer causing the problem though. there are lots of things that could cause the issues that you are experiencing.

is this a vanilla install of Windows? did the new machine come with Windows pre-installed or did you install it yourself? there are lots of guides on the net about how to optimise a Windows machine for music production, would be a good idea to check some out.

an important thing to know is that the Live 'CPU meter' is not really a CPU meter in the way that the Activity Monitor or the Task Manager are. Live's meter is telling you how much of the audio processing time window is being used. to avoid audio glitches, the audio needs to be processed and shuffled through the audio buffers quickly and consistently. if your Task Manager shows that overall CPU usage is low, then the culprit is more likely to be something else that is causing the glitches. it might be a badly coded hardware driver, another piece of software, or some system settings that need tweaking...

It's a fresh install of Windows 7, done by me about two weeks ago. I've only installed a few pieces of software so far (anti-virus, browser, Steam, Ableton). I have looked at a few of the optimization guides but the fact that the index process was running for so long seemed to indicate that the issue was with Ableton, not any other options I have enabled.

[kitekrazy]

I always run this script, before starting anything audio related, that closes all unnecessary windows services. I find everything runs smoother after I have executed it. Give that a try maybe.

https://themixtrain.wordpress.com/resou ... optimizer/

It looks like it disabled antivirus and Windows Firewall. Doesn't that compromise the security of your computer?

I always turn off my connection to the internet when working with audio, so security-wise I'm happy to have the firewall and antivirus disabled. You might even find a performance boost by just turning off wifi as this can take up a lot of computer resources.

This is not really necessary using a desktop. Something else is going on. Windows Firewall and AV are not resource hogs. You can also direct MSE to ignore parts of the OS.