Live 10 Performance Test

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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Tone Deft
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Live 10 Performance Test

Post by Tone Deft » Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:05 pm

This test was created to let users compare the performance of Ableton Live version 10 on different computer set ups.

Preparation
1. Set your audio buffer to 512 samples in the Audio Preferences window in Live. The easiest way to do this is to select this field with your mouse and press the Delete Key. (The default is 512 samples).
2. Set Audio Input Device to "No Device"
3. Sample Rate to "44100",
4. Driver Error Compensation to "0.00ms" in Live's Audio Preferences window.
5. Make sure that only one pair of Outputs is active if your soundcard has multiple outs.

Instructions for the test
1. Open Live's Help View (Help Menu - Help View)
2. Select What's New In Live 10.
3. Open the Live Set for the Lesson.
4. Play the Lesson's 16 track demo Live Set and note the highest CPU load reported by the CPU meter.
5. Extra Credit - Copy all 16 tracks to make 32 tracks and repeat until Live's audio is disrupted. Note the maximum number of tracks played.

Please use the following format
Fill in as much information as you can to make the test as worthwhile as possible for others:
1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the the Live Set for the Lesson. (#4 above)
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? (#5 above)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model?
4. Operating System?
5. Ableton Live version?
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed?
7. Amount of Ram?
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)?
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)?



Previous Performance Test Threads:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=191549

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... rmance+7+6
Last edited by Tone Deft on Sat Jun 06, 2020 6:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?
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Tarekith
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by Tarekith » Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:09 pm

Thank god I’m no longer in charge of this. Freedom!

😀

Well done, this will be useful to people.
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[jur]
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by [jur] » Mon Jun 01, 2020 9:07 pm

Tarekith wrote:
Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:09 pm
Thank god I’m no longer in charge of this. Freedom!

😀

Well done, this will be useful to people.
Did you had this in mind too? We were just discussing this with Tone in the old thread :-)
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Tarekith
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by Tarekith » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:26 am

People have been bugging me for years to change the Live 9 (and 8 and 7 before that) CPU test as it wasn't always indicative of real world performance. Personally I never thought that deeply into it, it started as a fun little experiment for people to compare our computers with and evolved into something I never intended. So I never really wanted to revisit it.

Just glad someone else did so I can stop getting PMs about it 8)
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siliconarc
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by siliconarc » Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:08 am

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson – 23%
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? – 323 (grouped the 16 tracks, then duplicated until audio started to breakup)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? – Hackintosh
4. Operating System? – macOS 10.13.6
5. Ableton Live version? – 10.1.14 Suite
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? – Intel i7 8700
7. Amount of Ram? – 16gb
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? – Audient iD14 (4.0.4)
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)? – Crucial MX500 SSD (SATA)

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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by Tarekith » Thu Jun 04, 2020 12:51 am

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 20% max.
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? 272
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? 2019 16" MacBook Pro 16,1
4. Operating System? 10.15.5
5. Ableton Live version? 10.1.14
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel 2.3gHz i9
7. Amount of Ram? 16GB
8. Soundcard? Built in soundcard
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD)? 1 TB SSD
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armas
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by armas » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:46 pm

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 21% max.
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? 272 (17 groups of 16 tracks)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? 2018 Mac Mini
4. Operating System? 10.15.5
5. Ableton Live version? 10.1.14 Suite
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
7. Amount of Ram? 32GB
8. Soundcard? Built-in (w/ headphones)
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD)? 1 TB SSD

Additional notes: Sound is distorted quite quickly due stacking multiple groups but plays fine until starting to break up the first time after I have layered 288 tracks. I have external GPU AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 within Razer Core X to replace the crappy internal graphics card.
Last edited by armas on Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

cskracer
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by cskracer » Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:16 pm

]1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson – 19%
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? – somewhere between 494 and 511 - I used the same technique as garyboozy - couldn't be arsed finessing it in between those two numbers.
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? – Desktop Home Brew
4. Operating System? – Windows 10 Pro
5. Ableton Live version? – 10.1.14 Suite
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? – AMD 3900X - 12 Core
7. Amount of Ram? – 64GB - G.Skill Trident Neo 3600Mhz CL16 (4 x 16GB)
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? – Focusrite 2i4 - Driver Version 4.63.24.564
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)? – ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M2 NVMe 1TB SSD

Image

I wonder if some of you guys with 16GB are running into issues with Live swapping from memory to disk because my system is reporting 28GB of RAM usage with the number of tracks it hits before the audio issues start.

Word of warning to any Motu Ultralite users though - my AMD machine hates my Ultralite Mk3. All sorts of audio problems with it. I've given up using it.

God knows what a 3970X would do.

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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by illinformed » Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:54 pm

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 24% max.
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? 240 (Didn't group, I just kept copying the 16 tracks)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? 2018 Mac Mini (bought in April 2020)
4. Operating System? 10.15.5
5. Ableton Live version? 10.1.14 Suite
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
7. Amount of Ram? 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
8. Soundcard? RME Fireface UC (Connected to 1st USB-C/Thundernbolt 3 port via an Apple USB-C to USB adapter)
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD)? 1 TB SSD (APPLE SSD AP1024M)

[jur]
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by [jur] » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:14 am

armas wrote:
Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:46 pm
1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 107% max.
Where is your typo here?
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armas
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by armas » Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:29 am

[jur] wrote:
Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:14 am
armas wrote:
Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:46 pm
1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 107% max.
Where is your typo here?
No typo, that is what I get in the top right cpu performance when playing the tracks. Something wrong with my mini?

[jur]
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by [jur] » Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:14 pm

Actually this point relates to the CPU meter when running only the demo set, i.e before duplicating the tracks to push your machine.
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armas
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by armas » Sat Jun 06, 2020 6:55 am

[jur] wrote:
Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:14 pm
Actually this point relates to the CPU meter when running only the demo set, i.e before duplicating the tracks to push your machine.
Ah true, sorry I misunderstood it. Will run it again and update accordingly when I get back to the studio. Thanks for correcting me. :)

yur2die4
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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by yur2die4 » Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:49 pm

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson. 34%
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? 112
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? HP Envy 17” notebook
4. Operating System? Win10 (not sure how to check version)
5. Ableton Live version? 10.1 Build 2019 05 14
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? i7 4800MQ 2.70 GHz
7. Amount of Ram? 16 gb
8. Soundcard? Focusrite Safire 4i4 (3rd gen)
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD)? A little of each

My experiences with Live are usually more experimental than with actual song creation. For this reason, I’m almost always keeping my buffer size as low as I can get away with. This test has been a real eye opener for me. I had no clue my old laptop computer could perform like this when it came down to arrangement. This could be fun 8)

Additionally, it was fun seeing how the master channel handled all the action. Was starting to get to a point where I almost wasn’t sure if it was my CPU or the drastic compression. But I caught some dropping etc.

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Re: Live 10 Performance Test

Post by poshook » Sun Jun 07, 2020 11:16 am

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the Live Set for the Lesson – 20%
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? – 409 stable (grouped the 16 tracks, then duplicated until audio started to breakup)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? – Hackintosh
4. Operating System? – macOS 10.14.6
5. Ableton Live version? – 10.1.13 Standard
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? – Intel i7 7820x@4GHz
7. Amount of Ram? – 32GB DDR4 2666MHz
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? – Behringer UMC204HD
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)? – 1TB M2 NVMe PCIe

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