Is Live very CPU demanding?

[SvenH]

I am in the middle of my Live trial period and I just noticed that I can barely run one instance of Diva or Serum without geting audio crackles.

I have a new computer with Intel Core i7 6700K with 32GB RAM and it can handle several instances of these synths in Studio One without problem, so I wonder if Live is very CPU demanding?

[braduro]

Not particularly, no. You may find that bitwig is even more efficient, and as you are looking at software with a fresh set of eyes, you might as well see which suits your needs. But in your case, you have more processing headroom and speed than I could only hope to have, and I don't have any problems.
Check your buffer settings, and check your other background processes. All DAWs and interfaces will introduce a modicum of monitoring and recording latency. Live will always prioritize playback, but with some iVSTs, you'll still see big spikes in load.

[SvenH]

Not particularly, no. You may find that bitwig is even more efficient, and as you are looking at software with a fresh set of eyes, you might as well see which suits your needs. But in your case, you have more processing headroom and speed than I could only hope to have, and I don't have any problems.
Check your buffer settings, and check your other background processes. All DAWs and interfaces will introduce a modicum of monitoring and recording latency. Live will always prioritize playback, but with some iVSTs, you'll still see big spikes in load.

Strange, I have the same audio driver settings in Live as I use in Studio One, and I have multicore support enabled...

[login]

Relative to other DAW Live is one of the hungriest if not the hungriest of all. I believe this is because how Live is configured for real time performance, this may involve certain operations so that it is always ready for clip launching, time stretching, etc.

The best DAW when it comes to CPU use is Reaper, and quite far ahead vs the rest. it is really surprising how good it is.

That being said Diva and Serum are very demanding synths, I use Diva all the time with an i7 4790k at 64 samples buffer without pops or clicks, 4 instances (bass, leads, short chords) at around "great" quality. But I am going to say what makes the biggest difference is the audio drivers, I am using an RME Fireface UC.

I also was having more pops and crackles with win7 well under 100% CPU load, now in win10 they are gone for good.

All that being said running Live with only its own instruments I can make quite big projects without glitches at all.

[SvenH]

Relative to other DAW Live is one of the hungriest if not the hungriest of all. I believe this is because how Live is configured for real time performance, this may involve certain operations so that it is always ready for clip launching, time stretching, etc.

If there is no way to improve Live's behavior for me without upgrading my computer, I guess my trial period will end sooner than I thought...

[Stromkraft]

I have a new computer with Intel Core i7 6700K with 32GB RAM and it can handle several instances of these synths in Studio One without problem, so I wonder if Live is very CPU demanding?

No dedicated audio interface?

[ian_halsall]

Live itself is lightweight - multiple vsts kill it.

An i5 will handle Live with ease when properly configured.

[SvenH]

I have a new computer with Intel Core i7 6700K with 32GB RAM and it can handle several instances of these synths in Studio One without problem, so I wonder if Live is very CPU demanding?

No dedicated audio interface?

Sorry, forgot to mention, Focusrite 6i6.

[SvenH]

Live itself is lightweight - multiple vsts kill it.

An i5 will handle Live with ease when properly configured.

So the big question is, what is properly configured? What did I miss?...

[crystalmsc]

Focusrite 6i6

Supposed to be a great soundcard. Have you tried to reduce the buffer to 256? Try to decrease it with a 64 distance after that, may be it's a little bit different from the Studio One setting. Also make sure to use the ASIO driver for the soundcard.

Live itself is lightweight - multiple vsts kill it.

Hardly wish that Live 10 will come with a solid optimization, something like the DP9 Pre-gen engine and a reduced host buffer latency.

[Tarekith]

I wouldn't say Live is CPU demanding per se, but compared to some other DAWs like Studio One or Logic it can use more CPU power for sure. Then again, a lot of what Live does is intended to be done err... live, so there's a lot going on under the hood that other DAWs don't have to worry about to keep things as responsive and stable as possible in those scenarios.

[login]

Focusrite drivers are not good, specially in windows they are very mediocre.

RME and Steinberg are the best ones for windows.

[SvenH]

Thanks to all of you for your comments. Yes, I tried to change the size of my audio buffer, and yes, I use an ASIO driver. You could argue that Focusrites drivers are not optimal, but facts remain:

With the same sound card, same settings, same drivers, I have run Studio One, Cubase, Reaper and Reason without these kinds of problems.

I just did a test recently to confirm: If I load one complex pad preset (PD Celestial Light) in Serum I can not run ONE single instance in Ableton without crackles. In Studio One, I can run EIGHT instances without crackles. It is not until i fire up the NINTH instance that I get problems in Studio One!

[crystalmsc]

I've had many problems when using the AVG Free anti virus on both sound card (audio crackle) and midi controller (not detected). Also with the installation of several plugins within Live. But everything run perfectly since removing that and using Win Defender.

[cskracer]

Something must be amiss Sven.

I have an i7-4790K (an older CPU) and 32gb of ram running on Windows 10 with a Focusrite 2i4 and I can run multiple instances of Diva, Bazille and Zebra at once in conjunction with numerous other VSTs and don't experience any audio problems. I'm not sure what the issue is, but I doubt it's a CPU one.

I'll have a crack at loading up the pad you've mentioned tonight when I get home from work and see how many I can run before I hit issues.