Ableton Forum

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 33-34%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? MacBook Pro
3) Operating System? 10.6.4
4) Ableton Live version? 8.1.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
6) Amount of Ram? 8GB
7) Soundcard? MOTU UltraLite, firmware v1.15
8) Hard Disk Drive Speed? solid state - APPLE SSD TS256B
9) Number of playback tracks? 8

Made the upgrade to 8.1.5 from 8.0.8, and after some headaches I've managed to get to a stable enough place to publish my new numbers. For those interested, I've included my 8.0.8 results in brackets after the 8.1.5 results:

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter: 17% [19%]
2) Computer type/model: custom PC
3) Operating System: Windows 7 (x64)
4) Ableton Live version: 8.1.5 [8.0.8]
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed: Core i7-860
6) Amount of Ram: 4GB 1067mHz
7) Soundcard: RME HDSP 9652 (latest driver)
8) Hard Disk Drive Speed: 7200
9) Number of playback tracks: 8
Number of playback tracks: 16 = 29%
Number of playback tracks: 32 = 53%

Since I work in film much of the time, I mostly use 48k rather than 44.1, and at the higher resolution I got 19%. I also ran the 48k test at lower sample times than 512 just for kicks [results for 8.0.8 at 44.1 in brackets]:
@ 256: 20% [21%]
@ 128: 21% [26%]
@ 64: 25% [36%]
@ 32: 31% [32%]

So for my machine, Live 8.1.5 is more efficient at 48k than 8.0.8 was at 44.1, even down to the least number of samples that my card can offer...

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 21-22%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? 27" iMac
3) Operating System? 10.6.4
4) Ableton Live version? 8.1.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
6) Amount of Ram? 16GB
7) Soundcard? buit-in
8) Hard Disk Drive Speed? 7200RPM 2TB Hitachi
9) Number of playback tracks? 8

WHAT THE FUCK!!!


1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 124%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? MACBOOK 2 Ghz Intel Core Duo
3) Operating System? Mac os 10.6.4
4) Ableton Live version? 8.1.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 2 Ghz Intel Core Duo
6) Amount of Ram? 4 Gb
7) Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? Tc electronic konnekt 24D FW driver 3.4.2.6300
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? 7200
9) Number of playback tracks? 8 (cant play them, even the 2 tracks at 70 %)

Any suggestions??

How much space is free on your HD? Checked your HD with Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities)? Audio drivers compatible?

While Live running (also just Finder running), open Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities) - show "Active Processes" - sort by CPU. Anythong suspicious? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

Oh maaaaaaan! found the problem.
the multicore wasnt activated in the preferences.
now i am at 84 %. not really good, but there is some light on the horizon.

sorry for that.

anyway. thinking about to buy a macbook pro tomorrow. same processor, but i think its running better. maybe!

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter : 62%
2. Laptop : Macbook 13"
3. Operating System : Mac OS X 10.5.8
4. Ableton Live version : 8.1.5
5. CPU Make, Model, and Speed : Intel [email protected]
6. Amount of Ram : 2 GB
7. Soundcard : Built-in CoreAudio
8. Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know) : 5400 RPM
9. Number of playback tracks : 8

@ 0fps: wow. near same cpu, less ram, built in audio card, slower HD and 20% better than mine. i have to destroy my book.

@jkob, and with the internal soundcard ???do you get the same result ?

My wife's macbook is an even older one (core duo 1,83 ghz) and it run the test @ 66% something like that..

So there's definitely something wrong with your setup (bad drivers for your TC soundcard ??)

My brother just bought the new 21,5" Core I3 Imac (the cheaper one) so ijust did the test on it

1. Ableton Live CPU Meter : 32%
2. Laptop : Imac 21,5" Core I3
3. Operating System : Mac OS X 10.6.4
4. Ableton Live version : 8.1.5
5. CPU Make, Model, and Speed : Intel Core I3@ 3,06ghz
6. Amount of Ram : 4 GB
7. Soundcard : Built-in CoreAudio
8. Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know) : 7200 RPM
9. Number of playback tracks : 8

@commuter: well, done it with the intern soundcard: 59 % (instead of 84% with the tc konnekt)
The TC konnekt 24d Device is firewire and i run the latest firmware.
The firewire chip (400) in my macbook is a T1 which were in the forum on Tcelectronic often discussed in case of CPU heating and CPU usage. They said its a well known Apple issue.
this is the problem. really annoying.

Would like some clarification around the Abelton CPU meter. When I run task manager in Windows, the CPU load is about a third of what the meter is showing in Ableton? I have a quad core processor, so is Ableton only looking at the load on one of the 4 cores?

@ davros303: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?p=870696#p870696

Friedemann wrote:Hi,

the CPU meter in Live works differently than the usual CPU meters in the operating system.

In Live you see the ratio of the time that was actually needed to compute the audio signal and the time that
is available to compute it. The latter is just determined by the sample rate of the audio interface, i.e. at 48kHz
sample rate you need to compute 48000 samples in one second, if it takes longer, there will be drop-outs.

Therefore, values below 100% mean that the samples were faster calculated
than needed by the audio interface while values above 100% mean that calculating the samples took too long
for being delivered to the audio interface on time. In the multi-processor-case the slowest path, i.e. the processor that has to calculate most, determines that number.

On the OS level you usually see how much time a certain processor (or all together) devotes to a certain process.

Although both meters show '%' values, they are not really comparable.

Best, Friedemann

Since i' having some pretty bad performance issues, I thought i'd run the test as a check and as something to send the abes so they can hel me fix that... for info:

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 53% - 117% (after having the whole file play back a few times - as you can imagine, i can't really finish any projects at the moment.. -)
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? 13" Macbook
3) Operating System? 10.5.8
4) Ableton Live version? 8.1.6.b3 (the exact same problem happens with any version from 8.1.3 upwards)
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
6) Amount of Ram? 4GB
7) Soundcard? MOTU Ultralite Mk3
Hard Disk Drive Speed? 7200RPM 500Gb Hitachi
9) Number of playback tracks? 8

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % 64%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Macbook
3) Operating System? OSX 10.6.5
4) Ableton Live version? 8.1.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel 2GHz C2D
6) Amount of Ram? 2GB
7) Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? Saffire LE-v1.4
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? 7200 external
9) Number of playback tracks? 8


I just got regular Live and kinda freaked when simply playing one of those instrument rack synths made the cpu go up to over 40%
Then I tried playing back some demo tunes that came with one of those instrument partner packs I got and my machine just choked.
I re-tried some again after freezing a bunch of them midi tracks and that worked.

So, I found this test and apparently, judging from the rest that have similar specs, my machines normal.
I mean, on Logic I can run a million tracks (well not really but you get the idea)

I guess Live is more of an audio clip playback thing...in that if your gonna record any of your own midi tracks using softsynths, its more to jot down little 2,4,8 bar motifs then convert them to audio to use as clips. *shrug*