Ableton Forum

what is the cpu load like using Amplitube in Live? I've been using GR on occasion but I've found that it totally bogs my system down if you use it on more than 1 track (MBP 2.4 Dual 2gigs RAM)...I am waiting on a POD X3 hoping that will alleviate some of my issues.

Regardless of who is slightly favored over who, we're talking $179 here. Nobody says Amplitube sucks. Most people have probably dropped more money in the search for the perfect sidechain compressor.

I want to go to a place where an 80%+ discount is just an ok deal. Must be nice.

^ i can sucessfully pull off 2 amplitubes and massives @ lowest settings, but it cannot be the huge massive presets... they have to be on even and odd tracks.

in protools, i have a problem running one mbp 2.16, 2g ram. not really, but it does suck up a lot of juice.

what do you mean even and odd tracks?

The way I set up Amp sims in Live is that I basically have one track with the Amp Sim inserted. I then set up another track, with the input as the track with the Amp Sim. Then I basically record a bunch of loops into clips, and often I change settings and just record.

This method works well to keep the CPU usage to just one instance of the Amp Sim. So long as the tone is recorded, but not any effects, I can add effects later. It's not a bad compromise between flexibility and CPU usage. You can be totally flexible and never record the Amp Sim, but then you run out of CPU fast, or, you'll have to freeze a lot. On the flip side, you can record tones, effects, the whole thing, but then you're committed, perhaps over-committed.

nepotist wrote:what do you mean even and odd tracks?

live splits tracks between processors, so track 1 goes to processor 1 and track 2 goes to processor 2, so on and so forth...

That's good to know, i didn't know that about the alternating CPU's. But the way you describe your recording of the Amp sim, that's what I do, or sometimes I just record straight up guitar and run it through the amp later, or do all of it and record audio to another track and delete the sim. Either way its a pain, to be honest I expected more with the dual processors, but what can you do.

nepotist wrote:That's good to know, i didn't know that about the alternating CPU's. But the way you describe your recording of the Amp sim, that's what I do, or sometimes I just record straight up guitar and run it through the amp later, or do all of it and record audio to another track and delete the sim. Either way its a pain, to be honest I expected more with the dual processors, but what can you do.

yeah, when i use an instrument going in, i record the inst. clean, while monitoring through the software, that way, if the sound doesn't match the tune, it's easily changed...

the thing is though when I take a look at my CPU meter via the Mac it seems fine, while in Live its dropping out all over the place, even at 50 percent. anyway I'm buying the amplitude for the hell of it, seems like a good deal. I figure you can't have too many plug ins.

a couple of responses to the above:

1. You CAN have too many plugs...the more plugs you have, the more options you have, which I've found is entirely inversely correlated to productivity. Strike a balance between a good number of plugs that you know really well, and you'll make a lot more music and be a lot less of a preset whore.

2. Sad about Live's CPU usage being per-track. Check out Reaper's CPU usage, which is multi-threaded at every stage, right down to the plugin...allows you to distribute the load very efficiently across your cores.

you've got the santa rosa chipset, a lot of people recommend using coolbook with the newer mac lappies, something about the processor sidestepping, i dunno, maybe someone will elaborate/ point you to the right place...

and you should enjoy amplitube. i have a lot of fun with it, and i don't "play" guitar...


neb, you are starting to sound like TITBAG... but +1 on the first response... i figure i'm good for a while, save maybe that effectrix jobbie...

nebulae wrote:a couple of responses to the above:

1. You CAN have too many plugs...the more plugs you have, the more options you have, which I've found is entirely inversely correlated to productivity. Strike a balance between a good number of plugs that you know really well, and you'll make a lot more music and be a lot less of a preset whore.
.

I appreciate the advice, but my productivity is fine, thanks. All due respect, but In my experience plugins are simply tools to help you along, sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't. If they take more than a few hours to really figure out, then i don't use them anymore, but just because you have a lot of tools at your disposal certainly doesn't make you a preset whore. A carpenter has more than a wrench and a drill in the toolbox, you know?

^^ To each his own

nebulae wrote:^^ To each his own

pussy, he's wrong and you know it. just 'cause you let your wife push you around doesn't mean you have to kowtow to this guy. grow a pair, tell him off!! be a man, not a lawyer!

Tone Deft wrote:

nebulae wrote:^^ To each his own

pussy, he's wrong and you know it. just 'cause you let your wife push you around doesn't mean you have to kowtow to this guy. grow a pair, tell him off!! be a man, not a lawyer!

Good point...

Nepotist, go take your gazillion plugins and have a fucking orgy with yourself!

(how was that?)