High end Mac with poor CPU usage

[gophers123]

Hello,

I have a iMac Pro (2017) with a 3.2 GHZ Intel Xeon W processor, 32GB ram running macOS Mojave. I have Ableton Live 10 Suite (10.1.3). My CPU usage with hardly any tracks is upwards of 50%, and Live is extremely choppy and sluggish (like literally 1 track with an audio sample and 1 track with a kick drum). All updates for both macOS and Live have been completed. Can anyone explain to me what is going on? I bought this high end computer for music production alone, and this is really concerning. I would be grateful for any advice, thank you.

[fishmonkey]

audio interface?

[Machinesworking]

I would look into all the usual suspects.
Audio interface like fishmonky mentions,
MIDI controllers, third party drivers etc.

Also, bad RAM, it's weird that you would have CPU issues with such tiny CPU using devices.

[jonljacobi]

Anything else running? I believe there are some issues with Nvidia GPUs as well.

[gophers123]

Thank you all. My audio interface is a new UAD Apollo Twin. The video card is a Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics with 8GB of HBM2 Memory. The computer itself is brand new and has an 8 core 3.2Ghz processor. The only midi controller is an Ableton Push 2. External hardware routed into the Apollo Twin include a Rode K2 Tube mic, a Great River preamp, and Warm audio WA2A AND WA76 compressors. I'm running ableton at 512 buffer size and 41000 sample rate (cutting the buffer size at all or increasing the sample rate makes the sound tremendously distorted and laggy). Strangely I started a second project that runs smoothly that has at least 20 different instruments, but the current project is consistently laggy with just two tracks. The difference between the two projects is that the laggy one has only one heavily processed sample (reversed, repitched, warped with heavy compression, saturation, and other effects.) . I wonder if Ableton is maxing out one core and not accessing the other cores on my computer?

[fishmonkey]

a single track is processed by a single core, so yes, one heavily loaded track can be bring any machine to its knees.

you might also find that lowering the GUI refresh rate might help you, since i guess you have a 5K display?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=230967

[TLW]

I wonder if Ableton is maxing out one core and not accessing the other cores on my computer?

Not sure if it works on Xeons, but assuming it does Intel’s Power Gadget can be useful to get a better idea of what the cores are doing. A buffer setting of 64 samples sends one of my virtual cores straight into Turbo mode and if that core then maxes out then things get very glitchy.

Lowering the frame rate using an options.txt file as described in the post fishmonkey links to might also be useful. For whatever reason Live 10 seems to hammer the Mac Windowserver very hard at the standard Live frame rate. My i7 2.2 GHz RetinaMBP had Live’s audio system meter at 30% or more with an empty Live set - nothing loaded at all, no instruments plugins, nothing. I dropped the frame rate to 30 and Live’s meter dropped to 3-5%. With no noticeable reduction in Live’s performance at all.

[Machinesworking]

Strangely I started a second project that runs smoothly that has at least 20 different instruments, but the current project is consistently laggy with just two tracks. The difference between the two projects is that the laggy one has only one heavily processed sample (reversed, repitched, warped with heavy compression, saturation, and other effects.) . I wonder if Ableton is maxing out one core and not accessing the other cores on my computer?

Like everyone is mentioning you can overload a single track in the biggest baddest computer ever made. Try bussing, Live is pretty good about bussing.

Look, when you submit a request for help with CPU issues or any issue, try to be precise. This is your first mention of a heavily loaded track, you painted it out like you were running just an audio clip and a simple sampler...

(like literally 1 track with an audio sample and 1 track with a kick drum).

It isn't helpful to then admit later that this track has at least four FX on it.. if you're using a mastering grade compressor it can happen quick.

[[jur]]

“Look” machinesworking, when you’re helping someone out no need to be rude because the person needed a 2nd post to add details.
Or at least use a positive smiley to conclude your slightly aggressive post
Thanks

[gophers123]

Thank you all again for your replies, I had no idea that one track could overload the CPU so easily. I'm grateful for your help.

[gophers123]

Unforunately I tried adding the Options.txt to my Ableton hidden preferences folder and used -MaxFpsMac=15 to reduce WindowsServer issues, however this did not fix the problem. I am still seeing close to 80% CPU usage with this one track playing. The only solution I have is to freeze the track, but it just seems ridiculous that one track with some sample processing can bring an 8 core computer to its knees. Does anyone have any other tricks I could use? Again, I really appreciate your guidance here.

[fishmonkey]

please be more specific. exactly what processing is on the track?

plugins, devices, settings...

[TLW]

It doesn’t matter how many cores you have, all it needs to foul things up is one overloaded core. Most software just suspends everything until the most heavily loaded core has caught up, but DAWs don’t/can’t work like that. It’s possible to overload any computer. Maybe nowadays we’re used to running what 25 years ago would have been considered almost super-computers so don’t expect to have this kind of problem or don’t see it very often, but it can and sometimes does happen.

I agree with fishmonkey that some more information about what processing is on the track might be useful.

Other than that all I can think of at the moment is freezing the track or, if happy with it re-sampling it into audio only. Or as a halfway measure apply just some of the processing - e.g. the repitching, warping and reversing, then resample it to audio at that stage and apply further processing to the resampled audio.

[gophers123]

The audio sample is reversed, repitched 5 semitones down, and warped/stretched out. I have applied an auto filter, glue compressor, and an antares auto key. I removed the auto key and that. combined with the WindowsServer .txt, really helped. Thank you again for all the suggestions!