best specs to run live 10?

[attack or decay]

Hi, recently i was running Live Suite 9.2 on El Capitan 2012
and I was able to run plug ins over plug ins over plug ins with no problem at all!

but I decided to finally update to Ableton 10.
when I did this I also updated to Sierra.
when I did this i realized I fucked up...
Now my ableton is lagging even when i have a small plug in running and
the cpu usage in ableton goes beyond 90% with only a minimum amount of stuff running.
can someone tell me what I can do to improve this?
it would make my life alot easier.

[jestermgee]

To answer your thread title, best specs are certainly not an 8 year old system.

Maybe...
- upgrade your system to something more modern?
- downgrade back to L9?
- downgrade os?
- switch from mac to pc?

[jlgrimes]

Hi, recently i was running Live Suite 9.2 on El Capitan 2012
and I was able to run plug ins over plug ins over plug ins with no problem at all!

but I decided to finally update to Ableton 10.
when I did this I also updated to Sierra.
when I did this i realized I fucked up...
Now my ableton is lagging even when i have a small plug in running and
the cpu usage in ableton goes beyond 90% with only a minimum amount of stuff running.
can someone tell me what I can do to improve this?
it would make my life alot easier.

I just went from OSX to Windows which fixed the long periods of lagging when loading projects.

I honestly think it had more to do with a Mac OSX upgrade though, as my CPU usage on Macs has always been pretty good maybe even a hair better than Windows even though my Windows machine is a much better processor. The CPU usage isn't much of an issue though as the 8 cores while it has a higher initial CPU use usually tends to rise a little slower as you start adding tracks.


I'm not sure if its worth changing Operating Systems though as going Windows might have its own set of issues you might not want to deal with, but generally the Ableton performance has been smoother in regards to faster loading of projects.



I would focus on the following:

1. A good processor with high single core performance. (4 cores is still adequate here and wouldn't go lower than that but I would also be careful of going more than 8 cores or so unless it is known to perform good with Ableton).

2. 16 gigs of Ram at least (Not sure if more than that helps)

3. SSD drives for fast loading of tracks, samples

4. Audio interface with good low latency performance/drivers. RME is a good brand to look at for this. They are expensive though.

[Tone Deft]

hey nerds-
what's a good generic answer for people seeking a new computer (PC or Mac). let's say the $750 price point, the $1,000 and $1000+. ENTRY level considering what the CURRENT offerings are at your local big box store. a nice simple answer we can refer people to. I picked $750 because anything below that you run into tablets, I think.

edit-
reading my own question I see jlgrimes pretty much laid it out. I guess I'm being lazy and poaching more advice. I just bought a new laptop but I'd like to be able to answer these questions easier. I also don't want to just way "get what I got". Dell Inspiron 15 i7 @1.8Hz 16Gb RAM but it's a flip top touchscreen so that adds to the price.

looking at the Live required specs it seems that ANY computer you get at a big box store and a focus right sound card of your choice is the stock answer.

[attack or decay]

I'm not sure if its worth changing Operating Systems though as going Windows might have its own set of issues you might not want to deal with, but generally the Ableton performance has been smoother in regards to faster loading of projects.



I would focus on the following:

1. A good processor with high single core performance. (4 cores is still adequate here and wouldn't go lower than that but I would also be careful of going more than 8 cores or so unless it is known to perform good with Ableton).

2. 16 gigs of Ram at least (Not sure if more than that helps)

3. SSD drives for fast loading of tracks, samples

4. Audio interface with good low latency performance/drivers. RME is a good brand to look at for this. They are expensive though.

thank you so much for the advice!
I will definitely be looking into something with at least 3 cores.
I am running 2 smh
Scarlett 8i6 Audio interface
so yeah I think an upgrade in ram is definitely needed.

I blew it once I decided to upgrade.
I should've just stayed as El Capitan running live 9.

[TLW]

I suspect the problems may have more to do with Live 10 than with Sierra or the MacOS in general.

I run Live 10 on a not exactly new MacBook Pro with Mojave and after I’d tweaked Live a little it works really well. The problem often seems to be that Live 10 by default puts a lot of strain on the MacOS Windowserver function. Using an options.txt file to reduce the frame rate might solve the OP’s problems. Searching the “tips and tricks” section of the forum for “WindowServer” should find a thread about this.