Think my computers too slow?

Rick sims · Post by **Rick sims** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:36 pm

I get dropouts and clicking sounds and tried just about all the tips
to get rid of it. If anyone has a tip I'll take it though.

Rick sims · Post by **Rick sims** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:37 pm

By the way it's a sempron processor and 512 of RAM.
Help

tylenol · Post by **tylenol** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:42 pm

I've been wondering about this lately too, as I upgraded my machine and was surprised to find that the clicks didn't go away. I still get dropouts with a core duo 2ghz (macbook), same amount of memory as you. This replaces an ibook g3, and while the macbook has much more processor capacity, I haven't noticed significantly fewer dropouts. As near as I can tell by watching my activity viewer, the dropouts don't have anything to do with CPU usage per se, but rather disk IO -- they correlate with heavy spikes in disk access that I'm guessing involve sudden demands on the VM, e.g. at scene schanges (and also perhaps uncached samples, sometimes both at once). So if this is right getting more memory should alleviate the problem (2gig coming in a few days for me!) This also explains why my g3 didn't do any worse, as I actually had slightly more memory in it.

Unfortunately all the threads I could find on this issue on these forums were rather shrill and pointless, so I haven't come across much in the way of real suggestions for dealing with this problem. One claim (that seems to be right, at least on my system) is that audio dropouts are more likely the longer live has been open -- this seems plausible in that it would make it more likely for the VM to swap out some memory to disk. System uptime might also play a role.

Rick sims · Post by **Rick sims** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:06 pm

Are you adding more RAM and think that will do the trick.
Where do you fiddle with the I/O in ableton.

carpie · Post by **carpie** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:32 am

yeah... i'm having the same problem...macbook with 512 RAM.... would be really interested to know if simply adding more RAM solved the problem. I've been a bit worried that it might be an intel mac teething problem.

tylenol · Post by **tylenol** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:27 am

My ram should arrive this week (though they're being very slow for some reason) -- I will try to remember to report back whether it helps.

Rick sims · Post by **Rick sims** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:42 am

Ya think I'm gonna get some more RAM too.

myztmuzic · Post by **myztmuzic** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:55 am

Well, after what i'm told by professional DAW-builders and supportheads, it's almost always the HDD-speed that's causing problems like this. The best advice i can give is to buy 2 or 4 new drives and raid them. Then the bottleneck is opened.

Works for us using it, no drops/clips anymore -got 2Gb 400mhz ram, but that's not that important as the drive-speed. Anyway, anybody should have at least 1Gb of ram to run Live. The system will improve a bit when the bloody filepaging is turned off as well, and for PCs, you have to get at least 756 (close to 800, at least) Mb of ram to turn it off.

This is fixed for PC-users with raid, and i guess it's the same thing to do with Macs.

Good luck -and arrest me if i'm wrong..

tylenol · Post by **tylenol** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:30 pm

I will try to remember to report back whether it helps.

Well, live on my macbook (and everything else) runs significantly better with 2gigs of ram; I haven't seen the same kinds of CPU spikes and audio dropouts since. I also haven't seen a single pageout since, supporting the idea that the VM was at least partly at issue (or live's interaction with the VM). I still get occasional random clicks, which apparently have a different cause (I have no idea what; but maybe my internal sound card). So RAM may not fix everything, but will certainly help.

Sadly, raiding drives is not an option for me (especially given that I've got a laptop.) But I might upgrade to a 7200rpm drive at some point in the distant future.

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:41 am

Hi. I have been getting lots of noticeable cpu hits lately also.I have a g5 imac 1 gig ram and am thinking that Live5 just isn;t optimized as well as Logic Pro7 is for running a bunch of softsynths.In Logic I can open and run twice as many soft synths and don't bog. Live5 on the other hand is signiifigantly weak in that area.An example is in Logic I'm running the ex sampler loaded with drums. an instance of idrum ,FM7,Atmosphere,Sculpture,Imposcar.With no glitches. I can;t come close to that in LIVE. Hopefully Live6 will be able to do the trick. I enjoy LIve but lately I am needing to not go to it first if I want to use even two of the items mentioned without problems. I LOVE Live but it seems not to be as well optimized as Logic. Perhaps it has to do with Logic coming from the atari days when every little bit you could squeeze out of 64mb was needed. Also I'm thinking also that Live was never really programmed from the start for much more than audio manipulation in the DJ sense. Hopefully the Ableton team has been hard at work to make Live6 much more efficient in regards to using softsynths as opposed to just the DJ stuff.JON