Cpu usage 90% !!

simonfrison · Post by **simonfrison** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:51 pm

Hey guys..

My frustration is about ableton working frustratingly slow, when i play 10 sounds generated by 10 operators.(Some of them have effects, some don't).

I want it to work fast...righ?! So i really want to figure out what changes my coputer has to suport.

I have a PC/Windows/512 ram/Incorporated soundcard/ Cpu : AMD Barton 2800+

fencs a lot...i'm emotionaly attached to this problem.

justin · Post by **justin** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:15 pm

more RAM for a start (1/2gb)
that will help to handle more instruments (such as, operators)

mercyplease · Post by **mercyplease** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:31 pm

Fuck ram. this is a pc thing im certain of it. Its the same with live 4 and 5 and its system specific. When Im working on a session things are fine up to a point then the cpu starts choking even if I havent added any new tracks. It seems to rear its head sometimes when Im drawing automation. its like live holds memory or something not releasing it but I havent a clue really. I have to turn the machine on and off and then its fine.
Im not letting ableton off the hook but I dont think this is a bug its just something that wont show up in all machines.

tylenol · Post by **tylenol** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:34 pm

Depending on the operator patches, and on the effects you're using (do you have lots of reverb on high quality settings?), it doesn't seem implausible that 10 operators +effects could saturate your CPU. Have you considered freezing tracks more aggressively? Live 6 makes this easy to do and still work with the tracks (i.e. fader automation still works etc.)

As an experiment I put 10 identical tracks with a fairly straightforward operator patch into a set, with a grain delay+reverb on a return. This uses about 23% with multi-core on, 40% with it off, so it seems about right that this would result in skipping on an older computer (this wouldn't even be doable with freezing on my ibook g3, I bet!).

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:57 am

10 synths... 90%...

sounds about right to me.

freeze some of those b*&*%^$'s

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:15 am

mercyplease wrote:Fuck ram. this is a pc thing im certain of it. Its the same with live 4 and 5 and its system specific. When Im working on a session things are fine up to a point then the cpu starts choking even if I havent added any new tracks. It seems to rear its head sometimes when Im drawing automation. its like live holds memory or something not releasing it but I havent a clue really. I have to turn the machine on and off and then its fine.
Im not letting ableton off the hook but I dont think this is a bug its just something that wont show up in all machines.

RAM IS part of your problem here. The typical XP install will use around 250-300 MB of RAM for system tasks alone. Add to that any samples loaded, etc; and you're into your paging file really quick. When you start to run out of room there, things slow to a crawl...

If you don't use a fixed size page file, do so. Set it to 1 1/2 times your physical RAM; 768 MB in your case. And, if you have another drive or partition, move it off your OS drive or partition.

I used to think 512 MB of RAM was OK for running audio apps on XP, but it's just not true anymore. 1 GB is good, and 2 GB is even better...

ew

simonfrison · Post by **simonfrison** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 2:04 pm

fencs for the tips...

you're the best !!

justin · Post by **justin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:49 pm

ewistrand wrote:
mercyplease wrote:Fuck ram. this is a pc thing im certain of it. Its the same with live 4 and 5 and its system specific. When Im working on a session things are fine up to a point then the cpu starts choking even if I havent added any new tracks. It seems to rear its head sometimes when Im drawing automation. its like live holds memory or something not releasing it but I havent a clue really. I have to turn the machine on and off and then its fine.
Im not letting ableton off the hook but I dont think this is a bug its just something that wont show up in all machines.
RAM IS part of your problem here. The typical XP install will use around 250-300 MB of RAM for system tasks alone. Add to that any samples loaded, etc; and you're into your paging file really quick. When you start to run out of room there, things slow to a crawl...

If you don't use a fixed size page file, do so. Set it to 1 1/2 times your physical RAM; 768 MB in your case. And, if you have another drive or partition, move it off your OS drive or partition.

I used to think 512 MB of RAM was OK for running audio apps on XP, but it's just not true anymore. 1 GB is good, and 2 GB is even better...

ew

thank you, i would also say the same applies for mac osx.

and if you have to use belligerent language to get your point across, at least make sure it's backed up by some form of reasoning... rather than clueless ranting.
it makes for a nicer forum, especially when you need the help!