Is my Powerbook G4 too slow for Live?

northserch · Post by **northserch** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:43 pm

Hello,

New to the boards and am anxious for some advice. I have a Mac Powerbook G4 and have had Live for about a year. Unfortunately, I haven't dabbled with it enough to do much with it, and much of the time I've spent with it has been trying to figure out how to record into it (MIDI or audio) without slowdowns, clicks, pops, etc.

My main goal with Live was to make songs and have some freedom with the arrangment aspect. I have lots of G-Force keyboard plug-ins (Minimonsta, Timewarp 2600, M-Tron, Oddity) and would like to use them along with Izotope's iDrum to record tracks. Unfortunately, if I get any more than two tracks running, the load taxes Live too much and it can't play back reliably.

I've experienced similar recording troubles recording into Live with my Fender Rhodes keyboard. I think to myself, there are lots of people using Live, but they don't seem to have this problem. If the specs help, here they are:

Mac Powerbook G4
1.67GhZ
512MB RAM
Western Digital 500GB USB Hard Drive (7200RPM)--this is the drive live is installed on.

Is it possible for me to use my Minimonsta, Oddity, and other keyboard plug-ins on this Mac to make my songs in Live, or is my Powerbook too slow to handle it? Any help would be much appreciated. If you need more info, let me know. This is my first post so I might have missed something important.

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:48 pm

I have a new macbook pro which I use for work, but I still use my 12" powerbook for all things music.

There are a few times where I get bugged by its comparitive lack of CPU power, but Live still runs fine on it and usually I have no problems with it at all. The only thing I'd say to you is to get some more RAM, which should be cheap these days. It will nicely compensate for the lack of CPU power.

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:28 pm

Powerbook will do you pretty well if you add at least a gig of ram...
Only thing is, if you try to use a lot of reverbs and synths or plugins/tracks at the same time you will start to run out of power. Its not too bad, and with the freeze function its totally usable. I was happily using my powerbook untill i got my hands on a macbook. I couldnt go back to a powerbook now, because although its ok, its like comparing a volkwagen golf GTI 1992 vintage, to a subaru impeza 2007. Both good, but one is obviously waaaaay more powerfull than the other.

chrisedmo · Post by **chrisedmo** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:28 pm

I had a Powerbook G4 12" 1.25GHz and i used Live on it.. it could hold its own for a while. Lots of plugs, but after a few tracks it would slow down some what, and feel a bit sluggish. Wehre it was painful was using real instruments!! There was a massive latency, so i found it hard to track / record guitars and play along.

However, I have recently won a macbook 1.83ghz C2D, and it smokes.. so fast i can play my guitar through Live and its effects with out much bother.. infact i need to rethink my pedalboard now

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:47 pm

northserch wrote:Mac Powerbook G4
1.67GhZ
512MB RAM
.

you're running exactly what I have minus the westerndigital harddrive. you'll be able to use the plugins you want to use on it but you won't be able to use a ton of plugins all at once, if I get around 10 plugins I start to see the effects, of course it depends on which plugins, sometimes as many as 20 will work. this is partially why I started buying hardware synths and samplers recently instead of opting to upgrade my computer which will always eventually become out of date I decided to get some hardware that won't lag my computer at all and will continue working for me forever (appart from the possibility of breaking). the thought of buying a new computer seemed appealing but I just dredded the fact that I would eventually run into the same problems years from now.

posssu · Post by **posssu** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:50 pm

Hi!

I'm a happy user of Live with the same specs as you are. I can tell you Live can definitely do more than two tracks. I'm also using the internal hard drive 7200rpm.

I'd say the first thing to do is buy more memory. My friend had a newer Macbook with 512 ram and it was unusable. Literally. Programs crashed and everything was very slow all the time.

You should be able to do more with it than at the moment. Are you using an external sound card to do your recording? Also your soundcard may suck. You've been through trying buffer sizes etc.

But honestly, your amount of memory sucks. I have 2 gigs and my whole computer experience is much more fluent. Maybe you will be surprised about your laptop in other areas too after adding memory? It does make a big difference.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:44 pm

northserch wrote:Hello,

New to the boards and am anxious for some advice. I have a Mac Powerbook G4 and have had Live for about a year. Unfortunately, I haven't dabbled with it enough to do much with it, and much of the time I've spent with it has been trying to figure out how to record into it (MIDI or audio) without slowdowns, clicks, pops, etc.

My main goal with Live was to make songs and have some freedom with the arrangment aspect. I have lots of G-Force keyboard plug-ins (Minimonsta, Timewarp 2600, M-Tron, Oddity) and would like to use them along with Izotope's iDrum to record tracks. Unfortunately, if I get any more than two tracks running, the load taxes Live too much and it can't play back reliably.

I've experienced similar recording troubles recording into Live with my Fender Rhodes keyboard. I think to myself, there are lots of people using Live, but they don't seem to have this problem. If the specs help, here they are:

Mac Powerbook G4
1.67GhZ
512MB RAM
Western Digital 500GB USB Hard Drive (7200RPM)--this is the drive live is installed on.

Is it possible for me to use my Minimonsta, Oddity, and other keyboard plug-ins on this Mac to make my songs in Live, or is my Powerbook too slow to handle it? Any help would be much appreciated. If you need more info, let me know. This is my first post so I might have missed something important.

Have you set the CPU to the Highest?
You can find this under preferences- Energy saver-

swishniak · Post by **swishniak** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:57 am

yes - get at least a gig of ram in addition to what you have.. . all your programs will be showing alot more pep (mail, photoshop, whatev)

its worth the 50 bucks or whatever.

corygilbert · Post by **corygilbert** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:09 pm

same system here, but yep, get more ram, it will really help.
and to be fair a lot of the need for more ram is osx needing some as well, live is pretty optimized IMO, but using it under osx does strain 512 pretty hard.
Set processor to highest, set the screen to always on, never sleep, and try not to have anything else running while in live, this includes the airport.
You shouldn't have any problems.

suie_paparude · Post by **suie_paparude** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:29 pm

i have a powerbook 15 inch 1.67 1 gig ram and it runs live like a dream.set your processor to highest in energy saver,upgrade your ram and you'll be fine.
I had a macbook white core 2 duo but it didn't feel right for me.Althoug very powerful the macbook felt a bit unstable with live,a lot of crashes,so i went back to my good old trusty powerbook.less power-i can live with this- and more stability.

evernaut · Post by **evernaut** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:39 pm

Hey - I'm running ( or walking is more correct ) Live on an old G4 450 tower - but with 1g RAM - and I sorta get by

You have to get used to printing effects, always turning your midi into audio, doing lots of submixing...and, yeah, freezing a lot. But it can be done - and interestingly, many of the drawbacks you can try & view as creative challenges rather than obstacles.

swishniak · Post by **swishniak** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:48 pm

right - and turn off all those damn widgets.. i realized they were munching away on my chips.

and checking out the Activity Monitor in utilities can be an eye opening experience.

Conradaroma · Post by **Conradaroma** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:17 pm

I've got the exact model of Powerbook that the OP has, with the exception that I've got a gig of ram.

It works fine for me, although I can definitely see myself hitting the limit if I get too carried away with things. Of course, I also turn on complex warping for my tracks, which I could do without once I hit the ceiling...

dm · Post by dm » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:19 am

i'm on a powerbook g4 too, running live no problemski. just to echo everyone else: get plenty of ram and using live is totally do-able.

tjwett · Post by **tjwett** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:44 am

Is my Powerbook G4 too slow for Live?

yes.

i can't do much with mine in Live 4, 5 or 6. Live 3 runs awesome on it though. don't laugh, Live 3 is still the shit and fuck MIDI. it ruined Live like Henry Rollins ruined Black Flag. but seriously, if you run the processor at full power and max out the RAM you should be able to get a basic mix going with a few tracks, just take it easy on the verbs and operators.

Is my Powerbook G4 too slow for Live?

Is my Powerbook G4 too slow for Live?

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