OSX + Live Audio Performance

[ansolas]

Hi,

your machine is basically a beast ! check that one core is not 100%.

also check your machine with DPC latency checker : http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

when you lower your latency, you basically imply the need for a tighter timing.
if you see some jumps try disabling the device you dont need (or unplugging them) one after the other until you identified the problematic driver.

ableton should have a page about that really...

cheers,

henri

How to determine if one core is overloaded?
By device what do you mean by 'disabling the device you dont need' ?
I have just Push a MIDI Keyboard and the RME connected to my Computer

[Stromkraft]

No friend with an original Mac?

it doesn't matter if your OS X is legit and you have the latest RME drivers, as no-one have tested their respective software on your type of hardware. You might get RME to help you out though. Have you contacted them?

If you want, you can PM me and I could test your project on my machine. I have the babyface, so maybe close enough.

Otherwise, CPU analysis is vital. Activity Monitor - > Processor tab and click on the processor graph at the bottom. A processor graph will start to plot. Start your project and check for CPU load connected to crackling.

Do you have Serum and Zebra and Line 6 Podfarm Platinum 2 ?

No, but I could install the demos. I understand the podfarm is limited in demo, so maybe set the project up with some basic stuff there and check if it still crackles, before you send off the project.

[Stromkraft]

also check your machine with DPC latency checker : http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Great tip, but is there some OS X alternative as this tool is for windows?

I suppose also installing windows and run Live 9 from there is an alternative way to make sure the issues aren't with the audio interface in this case.

[ansolas]

also check your machine with DPC latency checker : http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Great tip, but is there some OS X alternative as this tool is for windows?

I suppose also installing windows and run Live 9 from there is an alternative way to make sure the issues aren't with the audio interface in this case.

I think if there would be an issue I would also get dropouts in other DAWs ?!

[Stromkraft]

also check your machine with DPC latency checker : http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Great tip, but is there some OS X alternative as this tool is for windows?

I suppose also installing windows and run Live 9 from there is an alternative way to make sure the issues aren't with the audio interface in this case.

I think if there would be an issue I would also get dropouts in other DAWs ?!

Not necessarily. This is multiple software (OS, drivers, DAW and plug-ins) and hardware interaction. At any rate you're using Live so if Live in Windows does not exhibit these "dropouts" that would be interesting, don't you think?

[ansolas]

Yeah it would be interesting for sure but for that I would have to setup anything in windows which is less fun

[Stromkraft]

Yeah it would be interesting for sure but for that I would have to setup anything in windows which is less fun

Windows also comes with its own idiosyncrasies and issues, so might not be that straightforward. But it's still an alternative if you have Windows.

Another direction would be to deep dive into compatibility testing your hardware with Yosemite or downgrade to Mavericks.

You have stacked potential issues on top each other:

• You have a non-standard unsupported machine
• You are using a .0 OS release
• I assume you have verified that all plug-ins that you use are compatible with Yosemite? If not that's another level of potential contributing factors to your problem.

Just removing one of them would probably be helpful in analyzing this issue. Downgrading to Mavericks would leave only your machine as a potential factor at one fell swoop.

[ansolas]

I try to narrow down the issue.

Is there a way to detect if one core is ovreloaded? how?

I just created a new project with multiple instances of Serum with 4x oversampling enabled to reach 45 % CPU load, no clicks so it must be specific to the plugins I have loaded in my current working project.

I am on it ...

[ansolas]

Just found the singlecore monitor, thats how teh CPU Load of the individual cores look when I get clicks @256samples:

[Stromkraft]

I try to narrow down the issue.

Is there a way to detect if one core is ovreloaded? how?
I am on it ...

That's great, Ansolas. Keep at it.

I suppose if you use or only keep the same number of tracks as you have real cores with full plug-ins and freeze or remove any others and then keep adding heavy work to each of those tracks up until you hear or see (use a fast spectrum analyzer on the master) dropouts, then you can know each of these are running on its own core as that is what Ableton tell us about multicore support: one track per core.

If you can run some plug-ins on this track set to the same CPU percentage, both in Live and in Activity Monitor without dropouts and you get them with others, you're probably closing in. But remember to compare the OS CPU load as well as Live's.

[Stromkraft]

Just found the singlecore monitor, thats how teh CPU Load of the individual cores look when I get clicks @256samples:

And what does Live say about its usage at the same time?

[ansolas]

I just frooze all tracks, now its 15% CPU shown.

When switching Scenes with Push I get each time a click as far I press the Scene Launch button either with mouse or on push. strange

[Stromkraft]

I just frooze all tracks, now its 15% CPU shown.

When switching Scenes with Push I get each time a click as far I press the Scene Launch button either with mouse or on push. strange

You mean like a shortened hit on a bass drum? Glitch? Or what do you mean click?
This is different from before?

Can you please record the audio you get in both cases? Just use a phone or whatever and put it online somewhere. Do note CPU usage in both Live and on Activity Monitor.

[ansolas]

This sound sample might be more useful than words
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/756 ... amples.mp3

I quickly recorded audio while switching scenes (no artistic meaning here:),
the click will always audible when immediately when I click a 'scene play button' or start a new scene with Push.

[M-bition]

How many tracks are we talking about ?
I remember having clicks while using many tracks. It helped removing the stop buttons of tracks with no clips in it.