New MacBook Pro with Live 11 - You've got to be kidding!!

[wildcon]

I have just got a new MacBook Pro (M1 Max) - It has 32 Gig of Ram and a 4 Terabyte hard drive. Basically pretty much maxed out.

I have previously had a lot of issues with Live 11 CPU/Crashing etc and having used live from V2 and consistently had similar issues, I decided to call it a day! I used Logic anyway and decided to move from Live to Bitwig (which I absolutely love - but that's another post )

Anyway, with my new souped up Mac, I decided to see how Live would perform. I have done a complete new instal on the Mac, so no crap hanging around.

So... I recorded a quick sample and sliced to midi and added a U-He Colour for a bit of synched delay. I then added a midi drum clip from the Chop and Swing pack. so including the original recorded audio, that's 3 tracks.

and.. the CPU meter 22-25% - 3 tracks!!!!!!

Frankly I'm astounded!

[Pitch Black]

Are you on Live 11.1? (M1 native) Are all your interface drivers/console apps etc M1 native?

[wildcon]

Hi There,

Yep, I'm on Live 11.1

Yes, I've only installed M1 compatible VST's (as far as I'm aware).

I've just removed the U-He plug in in case that was the issue and the original recording. So now only 2 tracks that are native to Live. I am not using any interface, just straight through the Mac speakers. I'm also on sample rate 44100 and 512 buffer, so again nothing out of the ordinary.

Still 25%!!!

I don't know how to add an image, but happy to do so I someone can show mw how (clicking the image link doesn't seem to direct me to a file).

This is bonkers!

Any help appreciated.

[scheffkoch]

…that doesn‘t sound correct…try lowering the buffer to 128 samples and see what happens…

[Tarekith]

You need to use AUs not VST to get the full benefit of the newer Apple chips I believe.

[scheffkoch]

…do you think so?…my performance gain was exorbitant after switching to a m1 pro and i‘m only using vsts…

[Tarekith]

I need to look into the details again, I could be wrong. Regardless lowering the buffer to 128 and trying AUs would be the things I would check first. Also leave Live open and running on it's own for a good bit so it can get all the indexing done that happens with a new install.

[yur2die4]

First. Give it a bit after Live has been installed before you check performance. If you check it when you first open Live for the very first time, you’ll catch it while it’s ‘busy’ doing some operations in the background.

Second. The cpu indicator isn’t the whole story when it comes to overall performance. Try ignoring that meter and just start creating and see how the system handles things. It might take a bit of work before you are hitting 80%.

[wildcon]

Hi,

Yep, changing the buffer from 512 to 128 did make a difference (about 10%). I actually thought it would have used would used more CPU!

Previously I found that AU's seemed to use more CPU than VST's, which is why I didn't instal them this time around. However, I'm only using Native Live plugins on this project so shouldn't be relevant.

Yes, now you mention it I had heard about the 'background' stuff going on for a while.

It's still at around 14%, which still seems a bit crazy, but I'll run it for a while and see what happens.... Watch this space

Thanks for all the comments

[Greenapples2019]

In Live 10 on my old MBP I definitely found AUs used more CPU than VSTs, but running Live 11 natively on my M1 MBP it seems there's no difference between native AUs and native VSTs. And it's worth testing the CPU usage simulator in Preferences - I've found native Live 11 can go a fair bit higher before glitches than it could in Live 10 or Live 11 with Rosetta.

One final thing: it's worth checking in Activity Monitor that you're not inadvertently running Live 11 via Rosetta.

[wildcon]

Hi,

Yep, definitely not running in Rosetta.

CPU usage simulator in Preferences

- Is this in Live preferences ?

Thanks

[Greenapples2019]

Yes, on the audio tab. Set the sample rate and buffer size, turn the Test Tone on and then you can adjust the CPU Usage Simulator until you get glitches/crackles.

[Machinesworking]

It's still at around 14%, which still seems a bit crazy, but I'll run it for a while and see what happens.... Watch this space

You can look at Live funny and it hits 14%. I'm not kidding, Lives CPU meter has always been a bit quick to jump to at least 14% and has more headroom around 70% than you would think. I've said this a million times on this forum, the only reliable stress test for a computer running a DAW is one "to failure" using a trusted heavy CPU sucking plug in like Diva. basically play the same MIDI track looped using multiple instances of Diva, when audio is compromised back off. That's a rough estimate of your computers potential.

[wildcon]

Hi There,

the only reliable stress test for a computer running a DAW is one "to failure" using a trusted heavy CPU sucking plug in like Diva.

Okay, so gave this a go...

I loaded 75 instances of U-He Diva

The CPU just hit the 80% mark

So yep, pretty freaking awesome actually - I take it all back

[Pitch Black]

Great to hear you’re all Proud Dad again!

There’s some interesting folk-knowledge emerging that 128 sample buffer seems to be a sweet-spot on Apple silicon. There’s speculation that M1 cruises along on the efficiency cores at higher buffer settings but switches to the performance cores on lower buffer settings. This has not been officially confirmed AFAIK, so take this with a large serving of