Ableton 5 and z3ta help

Riven · Post by **Riven** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:13 pm

Hi

I have just had laptop pc purposley built for running ableton and plugins (these were my requests as i need for perfect live use)

It's got pentium m processor 2 gigs of ram etc,

z3ta is one of my favourite sounding plugs ins but when i play two handed
cords on this ableton can be at 70% usage or more and has even crashed before

this obviously doesn't leave much use for layering other audio and plugins over the top

is this normal? Or should i be having a word with the shop who built my laptop?

be great if anyone can help

cheers!

supster · Post by **supster** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 1:43 pm

z3ta has a lot of oscillators and voices. try turning some of them off.

also, watch those effects in the plugin. they sound great but they also suck down CPU hard. for sure shut down the internal reverb for playing live, and try replacing any delays with more efficent ableton plugins or others

overall reconsider using your MIDI VSTs live unless they are super efficient and stable. try and do almost everything in audio if possible and everything will run way smoother and less risk
.

Metrocide · Post by **Metrocide** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:39 pm

Render non-essential MIDI tracks to audio for your live shows (saving as a new filename of course). And only the ones you will be manipulating hands-on, keep as MIDI.

I have the same problem that some people have about cpu usage with Ableton, although I don't know why.

Here are some tips to cut down on the cpu usage:
- Go to the task manager and end un-essential programs from the services tab. Such as anti-virus, firewall, adobe photoshop palette (if you have), adobe acrobat, quicktime, etc... A lot of these such programs load a init. on startup.
- Increase your memory!Increase your storage! The more memory you have the better/faster your pc performs. Also the bigger your drive and faster the rpm's (7200 is a good speed), the faster it can access data!
- Defrag your hard drive on a regular basis (weekly!) So it doesn't have to search the hdd looking for your samples.

Even though my usage has gone to almost 70% at one point...most likely because I had over 12 MIDI tracks using VST's all at the same time, I haven't experienced any performance issues - except for the arranger slowdown issue (dragging a track along the grid) which is the most common issue out there.

My setup:
- Pentium IV 3.2Ghz w/ HT
- 1024 MB DDRAM
- 60GB HDD, 120GB eHDD
- SoundMAX Digital Audio card
- Griffin iMIC
- M-Audio O2 midi-controller
- M-Audio (Midiman) 2x2 midibox
- Ableton Live 5.1 rewired w/ Reason 3.03
- Korg MS2000, Korg Electribe EA-1, Theremin C

Daysleeper78 · Post by **Daysleeper78** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:17 am

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

From what I can see its Your laptop thats the Problem!
Pentium M's are Shit.
Ive got a Sony Vaio.....Its never let me down.
Ive got 27 z3ta's open at one time!!!!.....AND its only at 14%!

I agree with Previous Comments made previously about previous issuses surrounding previous problems from previous Abletons.

Open Task Manager, and Close the Programs That use alot of CPU.
I close Norton AntiVirus
Photoshop
Quicktime
Windows XP
and Ableton.

P.S

What IS ableton?

Metrocide · Post by **Metrocide** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:36 am

Daysleeper78 wrote:
What IS ableton?

"Live was originally sketched in Max/MSP. Upon deciding to take the software in a commercial direction, Ableton was founded in 1999 by Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke of Monolake and Bernd Roggendorf. Live was rewritten in C++ as a commercial piece of software, and the first version was released in 2001. As of July 2005, 5.0.1 is the current version. Ableton has also spawned a second product, Operator, which is used as an audio synthesis instrument inside of Live. Behles remains the chief executive of Ableton, while Henke remains in a role of technical leadership and focuses on Live's included effects and instruments. Ableton's office is located in central Berlin."

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:49 pm

Pentium M chips are not shit. In fact, they are part of what make the famed Centrino technology, when coupled with intel's wireless.....

You may be thinking of the celeron processors which were pretty bad in the day. However, even these got a bit of a revamp and are not terrible for non-CPU intensive users.

Riven · Post by **Riven** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:03 pm

Thanks for the help guys

I know audio is safer but it's far more impressive and creative playing keyboards and
improvising live, buildings songs from scratch in front of crowd which surely is what abelton is for?

Daysleeper you are a comedy genius, how comes you aint got a bird?

(clue: you're ugly)

seriously though funniest thing i've seen all year mate