OK- in all fairness, I optimized my hard drive after installing X.3, but I am VERY pleased so far with performance results-
one BUG: one Set all track volumes seem to be reset? too low- even thought the faders are the same- I can barely hear the tracks-I'll check the bug forum for that one-nonetheless:
Session with 44 tracks-(22 stereo tracks)- 8 effects on sends only- NO audio dropouts with core audio- CPU peaking around 70%.
Before I would get significant dropouts - this is not loading loops into RAM-
only things changed are Panther and a new disk defrag (which of course can make a huge difference too).
Mastering project:
24 tracks with at least one Waves instantiated (audiotrack) on each plus master with L1+ LImiter- this is the one with the volume problem- I think it is a Waves issue because the plugs were reset and I will have to reset the plugs- (see previous Ableton posts). Again- No dropouts or significant CPU spikes- before I had at least two points in the songs where I had dropouts from CPU spikes (never when rendering of course.)
So- this suggests
1) so far transition to Panther pretty painless
2) with X.3 and disk defrag- significantly improved performance- definately as projects before I could barely work on due to maxed out CPU now entirely workable.
I'm pleased.
Good Luck everyone- please check the bugs forum for any significant posts before upgrading!
Machine:
TiBook 800 MHz/512RAM/internal hard drive (I am assuming 5400 rpm) and Core Audio
This weekend I'll try my 828 and report back using the new MOTU drivers (my 828 performance under OS X has ALWAYS been poor compared to core audio Mac built in).