powerbook?

gw · Post by gw » Sat Feb 16, 2002 8:03 pm

i played out w/ live for the first time last night and was surprised at how much it taxed the processor of my g4 400mhz powerbook. if i tried to put live's eq's on 8 channels + a couple delays on the sends, it got to be too much and the program wouldn't play! the overload meter would flash for a fraction of a second.. then nothing! the cpu meter would read 0 and pressing play did nothing. dropping the delays and a couple eq's solved the problem.

on my pc (1.7 ghz) i can stack up tons of effects without any problem. general operation is also much smoother on my pc.

has anybody else experienced powerbook problems? am i doing something wrong?

thanks!

burgessa23 · Post by **burgessa23** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:56 am

are you using osx?
memory management is better in X

gw · Post by gw » Mon Feb 18, 2002 8:50 am

i\'m running 9.2 at the moment. i have 512mb of ram (300mb assigned to live). it doesn\'t seem like a memory issue. there could be something quirky going on with the compatability of live w/ the 828.

the_cementpond · Post by **the_cementpond** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 5:33 am

hmm, that's about how much i run on an ibook 500. i've been winging it using sound manager w the headphone output and it's never given me problems. maybe the 828. or maybe your continuous sound files are really long? i know that can be an issue w some software.

gw · Post by gw » Wed Feb 20, 2002 1:24 am

i should've mentioned that this is before loading sound files (well.. one tiny loop).

robot909 · Post by **robot909** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 7:48 pm

I think its the 828. That thing is a nightmare when it does not work.
I'm having similar issues. I just use the soundmanager drivers, sort of makes me mad when I spend so much cash on hardware that does not work.

-909

gw · Post by gw » Fri Feb 22, 2002 2:49 am

i hear you. the only problem is that you can't do headphone monitoring with the soundmanager driver. i really need that! i'm also thinking of using a traditional dj mixer by routing 4 tracks to one channel and 4 to the other. i miss not having a crossfader. anyway.. the additional outputs are essential.

any word from the developers on this issue? any chance of ableton contacting the people at motu?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:54 am

I am running live on a 550mhz G4 with 512mb and a motu 828. The 828 does tax the processor a bit more than the sound manager driver but so does my vx pocket card and probably most other ASIO cards. The amount of memory you give to live shouldn't make a difference because the loops are being streamed from the hard drive not from RAM (like a normal sampler) but keeping loops short will make a big difference. If you got a 5400rpm drive for your laptop (IBM travelstar) you would probably notice an improvement over your standard 4200rpm laptop drive. Different plug-ins take very different amounts of processor power so I try to use low powered ones (the free vst plugin "karlette" is a great multi-delay with very little cpu drain) and keep the processor at around 60% to avoid freezes. I have also been using a tc electronic m-one as a send (you can use the direct monitoring feature of the 828 to mix the output of the effects processor with the master out) since it sounds better than most software reverbs and doesn't use any cpu power. I have been playing gigs with this setup and it's been working well for me so maybe this info will help.

bobby speed · Post by **bobby speed** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 11:18 am

I'm using live with a PB (old Version) G3 500, 512 Mb Ram, 1Go Caching memory, a roland edirol usb audio interface , an mpu 64 usb midi interface & a doepher midi controller.

I've not yet experience any problem using live. But I do not recommand using the new ibook to work sounds because they have less caching memory than the powerbook series (new or old). ther is the same difference between an ibook & a powerbook than between a pentium & a celeron.

Hope it could help.

Bobby

redfish · Post by **redfish** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 8:52 pm

gw wrote: i\'m running 9.2 at the moment. i have 512mb of ram (300mb assigned to live). it doesn\'t seem like a memory issue. there could be something quirky going on with the compatability of live w/ the 828.

I get the same problem when using ASIO drivers with an Emagic 2/6. If the CPU load goes above a certain point, then playback starts going to hell.

Given that Reason works OK with ASIO, and that Sound Manager works OK in both, this points to Live's usage of ASIO drivers IMHO.

I have a truckload of CPU and RAM and should be able to keep up with my collaborator's 1.1ghz P3 easily, but it's a disaster by comparison.

PB G4
667mhz
1gb RAM

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 12:41 pm

I believe that when you stretch CPU load beyond about 75 per cent, then you're gonna have difficulties with smooth operation... used ableton on an ibook 600 Mhz at an electronics store recently, and was able to get about 20 tracks (all playing) with around 15 of the internal plugins before things started falling apart.... and this with virtual memory turned ON! (Couldn't change the settings at the store)
This is what I call good performance, esp. for the internal sound system, caused no probs at all.

FORMAT

powerbook?

powerbook?

power book

power book problems - me too, 2/6 + ASIO