Can Live 7 take advantage of 8-core

AbleUser · Post by **AbleUser** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:59 pm

I am buying a new Mac - solely to make music with Ableton Life.

Question is if I buy the Mac Pro 8 core, will my program work better than say a duo-core iMac?

Or is memory the main factor for processing capability? Thinking of 4Gb.

At what point would I be over-spec'ing and just waste money?

Second question: for music making, does it make a difference whether I use an internal drive or external (firewire) drive?

Mazzo · Post by **Mazzo** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:50 pm

yes it will use all 8 cores.

I have a 4 core processor and I haven't been able to max it out in live.

my highest CPU has been about 40%

I've tested it will lots of instances of effects up to 95% CPU and everything runs smoothly

grimleyj · Post by **grimleyj** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:09 pm

Mazzo wrote:I've tested it will lots of instances of effects up to 95% CPU and everything runs smoothly

Really??? On my dual core MBPro everything starts going to hell when the Live CPU meter hits 45% or so. I wish the meter showed each core so I could see what is going on here.

AbleUser · Post by **AbleUser** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:23 pm

Thanks Mazzo!

Do you think you'll ever need more than 4 core?
How much memory do you have?

Mazzo · Post by **Mazzo** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:55 pm

oh sorry, this is my desktop PC, not mac - didn't make that clear

it's the same intel processor that macs use

intel q6600 4*2.4

with 2 gigs ram

Parametex · Post by **Parametex** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:14 pm

I have the same machine than Mezzo and I'm always maxed out in the middle of my every single project ... damn it frustrates me to start bouncing and freezing as Ableton has made it so fucking stupid that you can't freeze tracks that have side-chain fnctions in them ... argh...

Mazzo · Post by **Mazzo** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:18 pm

Parametex wrote:I have the same machine than Mezzo and I'm always maxed out in the middle of my every single project ... damn it frustrates me to start bouncing and freezing as Ableton has made it so fucking stupid that you can't freeze tracks that have side-chain fnctions in them ... argh...

you have a PC?

I didn't make it clear in my first post.

My desktop is a Q6600 quad core intel. 4 x 2.4 gHz with 2 meg of ram.

It runs upto 95% without a glitch. Although I never go above 40%, no matter how hard I'm pumping.

bensuthers · Post by **bensuthers** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:23 pm

> I wish the meter showed each core so I could see what is going on here.

it does. two green bars. or 4. or 8. one for each core.

andrew_ · Post by **andrew_** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:46 am

Hey Mazzo, how many tracks / Ableton devices / external plug-ins are you running when your CPU is peaking?

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:17 am

Yes, Live utilizes 8 cores. But as others have posted, Live will glitch out and have audio drop outs when it hits around 40-50% on it's own CPU meter on my 8 core Mac Pro.

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:02 am

sparklepuff wrote:Yes, Live utilizes 8 cores. But as others have posted, Live will glitch out and have audio drop outs when it hits around 40-50% on it's own CPU meter on my 8 core Mac Pro.

Mr. Le Puff..
What kind of session are you running when that happens?
Are you in the arrange or the session view?

As an aside..
I have always been under the assumption that Lives CPU meter was showing how much of what is available it is using, so if, for example, the system is using 25% of the CPU, then the 50% that Live is showing is actually 50% of the 75% thats left over.
Do i have this right??

966sf · Post by **966sf** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:23 am

grimleyj wrote:
Mazzo wrote:I've tested it will lots of instances of effects up to 95% CPU and everything runs smoothly
Really??? On my dual core MBPro everything starts going to hell when the Live CPU meter hits 45% or so. I wish the meter showed each core so I could see what is going on here.

On my 1st Gen MBP with 2.16 ghz and 2 GB RAM I can go to about 75%-80% without getting dropouts. I think I could go higher if I was using a different interface than the Digi 003 Rack because when I look at the Activity Monitor, the Digi Core Audio Manager is taking 8-10% with Ableton Live on the rest.

However, if I turn on Airport, "everything goes to hell" at 50%. So do you have airport on?

I would expect that if Live took advantage of 8 cores and with 4GB ram, you could have more processing power than you actually need! You would be set for quite awhile begging for software to be even more cpu-suckers than they actually are. If only I had money...

Mazzo · Post by **Mazzo** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:25 am

andrew_ wrote:Hey Mazzo, how many tracks / Ableton devices / external plug-ins are you running when your CPU is peaking?

Way more than I'd ever use in a track!

I just tested it with 4 audio tracks each with 18 ableton reverbs (72 in total set to high quality mode) - 92% CPU --- Everything runs smoothly, no different to using only 9% CPU

Parametex · Post by **Parametex** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:32 am

@ Mazzo

Yeah I have a same quad PC as you.

I use native plugs _alot_ in big projects and absolutely max it out.

I keep big buffers so I can run the meters up to over 90%

andrew_ · Post by **andrew_** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:51 pm

What bit depth and sample rate are you guys working with?

My PC can handle most of the stuff I want to do on a track if I keep it 24/44.1, but ideally I'd like to go to 32 bits and a sample rate of 48 or even 88.2 for all the extra headroom you get with high harmonics. I do hear a difference. Of course the problem is it pretty much quadruples my CPU load.