Ableton Forum

Piplodocus wrote:Interesting post!

I've got an i7 MBP but it's finally running everything nice since I got an SSD and I don't run out of HDD access, so I'm overly cautious to try ANYTHING with it atm.

wjbuchanan wrote: http://superuser.com/questions/42817/is ... n-mac-os-x

I guess you can set up something to start Live using "nice" rather than "renice"ing it after too. Did you try -20? That article seems to suggest -10 is the max, and recommends not going too crazy to begin with! I wouldn't want the entire system to grind to a halt at the expense of Live. There's plenty of things I use at the same time for doing music!

chilleddreams wrote:Some times ago I used CoolBook (http://coolbook.se/). Obviously it fixed some SpeedStep issues on OSX. I had a lot better CPU performance in Live and NI Traktor.

Later I removed CoolBook because I suspected issues with early NI Maschine drivers. Meanwhile I think the SpeedStep issues in OSX are fixed (or at least it all performs better than before).

Another explanation for better CPU performance may be NI Maschine. It uses lot of CPU, so SpeedStep down clocking will never occur.

wjbuchanan wrote:OK one last tip folks...sorry to post so many of these but I am on a mission to squeeze as much performance out of this old MBP as possible, and iron out a few OSX issues along the way.

I obtained 4Gb RAM from a friends old notebook today and promptly upgraded it.

I started to notice that OSX was still paging though, and wanted to stop this behavior.

These commands will do so by unloading the "dynamic_pager" process. This has the effect of only loading programs (i.e Live) into RAM as opposed to virtual memory

Code: Select all

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*

If you want to reenable, no restart needed

Code: Select all

sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Now...this one is probably only for those really serious about getting some extra performance.

My 2007 MBP is now "blazinly" fast, and I haven't experienced any crashes...if you used more than 4Gb then there would likely be a crash.

Remember to use the 64-bit kernel

Your mileage may vary though. I don't use many samples apart from drums, and tend to Live only loaded...perhaps with Firefox if I'm following a tutorial.

moonpie wrote:

wjbuchanan wrote:OK one last tip folks...sorry to post so many of these but I am on a mission to squeeze as much performance out of this old MBP as possible, and iron out a few OSX issues along the way.

I obtained 4Gb RAM from a friends old notebook today and promptly upgraded it.

I started to notice that OSX was still paging though, and wanted to stop this behavior.

These commands will do so by unloading the "dynamic_pager" process. This has the effect of only loading programs (i.e Live) into RAM as opposed to virtual memory

Code: Select all

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*

If you want to reenable, no restart needed

Code: Select all

sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Now...this one is probably only for those really serious about getting some extra performance.

My 2007 MBP is now "blazinly" fast, and I haven't experienced any crashes...if you used more than 4Gb then there would likely be a crash.

Remember to use the 64-bit kernel

Your mileage may vary though. I don't use many samples apart from drums, and tend to Live only loaded...perhaps with Firefox if I'm following a tutorial.

How much of these tweaks reset upon restart? The "nice" setting for example. Which things reset on restart or closing ableton etc?

wjbuchanan wrote: Try it..! Can any confirm if this works with the new i5/i7 processors and/or Lion?
Cheers

wjbuchanan wrote:Hi All,
I've recently moved to OSX and was slightly disappointed to see that I can't turn off SpeedStep for my C2D...it really seemed to make OSX perform worse in comparison to Windows.

This software was designed to fix the "whine" issue seen on MBP's
http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/107/mac ... ise-update
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21714/quietmbp

However, it also has the effect of blocking SpeedStep - which is a good thing for audio use.

I'm running Live 8.2.5 on a Macbook Pro 2.4GHz 10.6 with samples set to the lowest setting for the internal audio card - 14.
4 x instances of imPOScar2 and 1 x of Simpler = 43% CPU usage in Live + lots of clicks/pops.

With QuietMBP running (MS setting @ 0) the CPU usage is reduced to 23% instantly!

Try it..! Can any confirm if this works with the new i5/i7 processors and/or Lion?

Cheers

wjbuchanan wrote:These commands will do so by unloading the "dynamic_pager" process. This has the effect of only loading programs (i.e Live) into RAM as opposed to virtual memory

littlejim84 wrote:

wjbuchanan wrote:Hi All,
I've recently moved to OSX and was slightly disappointed to see that I can't turn off SpeedStep for my C2D...it really seemed to make OSX perform worse in comparison to Windows.

This software was designed to fix the "whine" issue seen on MBP's
http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/107/mac ... ise-update
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21714/quietmbp

However, it also has the effect of blocking SpeedStep - which is a good thing for audio use.

I'm running Live 8.2.5 on a Macbook Pro 2.4GHz 10.6 with samples set to the lowest setting for the internal audio card - 14.
4 x instances of imPOScar2 and 1 x of Simpler = 43% CPU usage in Live + lots of clicks/pops.

With QuietMBP running (MS setting @ 0) the CPU usage is reduced to 23% instantly!

Try it..! Can any confirm if this works with the new i5/i7 processors and/or Lion?

Cheers

Ok, so my specs are pretty much exactly the same as yours, but I'm now on Lion.

I opened QuietMBP, set it 0, and opened Ableton Live with a set that I know is CPU heavy. And QuietMBP just made my CPU go up by about 15% or so.

I looked at the Activity Monitor, the Ableton Live CPU reading doesn't change when running QuietMBP, but QuietMBP itself has a reading of around 15% or so.

So it just doesn't seem to do anything... Gutted... Was hoping for this to work! Ableton can be a total bitch on my machine.

Khazul wrote:

wjbuchanan wrote:These commands will do so by unloading the "dynamic_pager" process. This has the effect of only loading programs (i.e Live) into RAM as opposed to virtual memory

I wouldnt have thought Live would use locked memory (ie it take space in virtual memory, but isnt paged to disc while locked) for most of its memory use anyway for all its allocation of audio buffers and workspaces for anything related to real time audio processing live does (and plugin do), so I cant see something like this making any difference for actual audio. It may improve performance of some non-real time aspects - browsing plugins, stuff in library etc.

littlejim84 wrote:

Captain Johnson wrote:Using 2.2GHz C2D 2G Ram 10.6.4 OSX, Using 8 channels, 4 audio, 2 drum machines, 2 sample tracks. Usually hitting 35%-40% max when everything is going off. Using Quiet MBP keeps me at 28%-32% no change. AWESOME!!!! Will be better when I finally install 4G RAM!!

.............................Cheers for this boss find

What are you doing? Just installing QuietMBP, setting it to 0 and running along with your normal Ableton Live rig?

modecai wrote:i find this thread very confusing... I have a new macbook pro 13" and if I have had no problems running ableton, would you suggest that I still look into using these applications?

Thanks!