5 midi tracks and cpu's maxing out?

[DjViral]

The best way I know how to debug CPU load issues is to disable elements of a track (i.e. turn off some of the FX) and see how the load changes.

-- When you wrote Monopoly, do you mean the Korg Legacy plugin? That one burns a lot of CPU compared to some other softsynths.

-- The heavy processing on the drum track would also be a place to look carefully.

-- What reverb plug are you using? Reverbs can be real CPU hogs.

-- Look at your "cabinet effect", the amp modelers I've tried all use a lot of CPU.

your right they do use a lot of cpu, all above mentioned, but is there a way to get around this? other than exporting everytime i want to hear the full track in proper?... example more ram? or processor.

[LeifonMars]

The best way I know how to debug CPU load issues is to disable elements of a track (i.e. turn off some of the FX) and see how the load changes.

-- When you wrote Monopoly, do you mean the Korg Legacy plugin? That one burns a lot of CPU compared to some other softsynths.

-- The heavy processing on the drum track would also be a place to look carefully.

-- What reverb plug are you using? Reverbs can be real CPU hogs.

-- Look at your "cabinet effect", the amp modelers I've tried all use a lot of CPU.

your right they do use a lot of cpu, all above mentioned, but is there a way to get around this? other than exporting everytime i want to hear the full track in proper?... example more ram? or processor.

Title of this thread is somewhat misleading: "5 cpu hungry synth and reverb plugins and my outdated MacBook is choking" would be more appropriate. Anyhow, have you considered placing some of your reverb plugins to return tracks instead of using one for each track? I like working with limited resources, creating smarter and more economic set ups seems to have positive effect on my creativity. To answer to your question: freeze and flatten tracks saves cpu, therefore not necessary to export. But of course, more power means more plugins. Also watch out your HD, full HD causes problems.

[DangerousDave]

Yea, I have noticed that some of Ableton's ambient and pad synths especially are particularly cpu hoggish. Some can run my dual core 5G ram machine at 50% alone. Also try grouping tracks or sending fx to buses if you are using the same fx over and over again on seperate instruments.

[ark]

Yea, I have noticed that some of Ableton's ambient and pad synths especially are particularly cpu hoggish.

Take a look at those synths' device chains sometime and see which engines they're using. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the are big differences between the various synths. Operator and Sampler are very fast, Analog is slower, Tension is slower still, and Collision is extremely slow (but can make sounds I've never heard anywhere else).

[silveriofunk]

be careul with drum racks full of samples

i made a massive drum kit with all the sounds from the ableton drum machines. maybe 25 samples or so... and yeah, if i had a few midi tracks and that one open surely my cpu meter would be begging for a break

it took me a while to figure that out but once i did... all was good

i never use more than three or four midi tracks at the same time anyway....

[DjViral]

k so i just tried a cakewalk sps25 audio interface and also a audio 4 dj native instruments interface with ableton in arrangment view,
7 frozen tracks with stuff on them, and 2 unfrozen midi and audio tracks and a sidechain compressor, some fx on the master, i idle!!! at 60% cpu, and when playing through the arrangemtn view all i hear is drop outs and cracks the worst shit ever, i cant even work anymore, just t hear something i have to export. this is bullshit. can coreaudio drivers go bad? can i do something to it? this is unreal

[leedsquietman]

DO some diagnostics on your system.

If you have a RAM or power issue, your computer is effectively crippled. I know because on my old computer, the AC adapter failed twice, the first time under warranty and the second time they replaced it for me for free as a gesture of goodwill as I bought 5 other computers over the last 10 years and recommended others to them (Dell).

Testing Live 6 is where I noticed it - I could only run 3 audio tracks before terrible glitching, on my Echo Indigo IO (very good low latency card) and the internal card with asio4all.

The power adapter was only running at around 60%, turning a P4 3.2 into a P3 933 type performance. I've seen people have RAM fail and on a RAM hungry o/s like Vista or win 7, if you lose 2 gigs from a 4gb setup, you can expect your system to choke at a much lesser load, especially if the graphics are onboard and ram stealing too...

Of course, saying 'I only have 4 or 5 midi tracks' is also not especially helpful, if you try running 4 tracks of Arturia's JP8V (on 5 rated patches) or 4 Omnispheres etc, that is a huge load even for the best performing super computers.