Ableton Forum

I'm seeing some pretty insane spikes on the CPU meter in Live these days: when the master loop is activated, I see a huge
CPU increase every time the loop restarts. It is more noticeable when the set is already using a bit of CPU; my current
project, for instance, averages at 50% when playing, but if I activate the loop switch, the CPU spikes every time the loop
starts over again. I've meticulously removed all VST's, and I've stripped my set down, track by track, until I've got only
one track left, and I can still see the CPU spike (but now it's a lot less noticeable, of course). I've also launched Live
without any MIDI controllers connected, exited Automap - basically the only relevant thing that's running, is my audio
interface (NI AK1).

Let's say I have three looping clips running in Session: if I just leave the timeline running, I get no spikes, but if I
activate the loop and start playback at the loop in point, the spikes start immediately, and repeat as described above.

I've only noticed this in the last couple of days (though I haven't been doing a lot of music lately).

Other tech stuff: HP Pavillion dv6000; Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2 GHz); 2 GB RAM.

EDIT: still happening in 8.1.4b1...

Same here on 8.0.9 basically rendering the loop facility useless

Not only in loops for me though, see this: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=142513

Ah, thanks for chiming in - I'm obviously not alone. This is a real issue when you're already taxing the CPU a bit, cause the
output will start crackling and popping when the spikes occur.

Deffo, it can get unbearable plus how on earth are you going to edit a 2 or 4 bar loop if half of it is creaking like an old banger. Seen the same issue over the weekend at a friends PC (quad core & 6GB ram) with a lean install of Windows 7 64 and 8.0.9 as well.

A little update: I can confirm that this isn't just happening when the loop restarts - it also happens if playback is running
and I jump to a marker in the Arrangement time line and when I restart playback after having stopped it.

What I don't understand is why I didn't notice this until just now. I've been working on and off with 8.1.3 since its release,
and I really can't recall having had this problem before...

Absolutely no improvement in 8.1.4...

And just when I thought I was the only one expereincing these loop (cycle) spikes which have already broken a very expensive tweeter twice.
I am running a ex58-ud3r with windows7 64 and i7 920 with a RME digiface and 2*uad quads.
Upgrading to 8.1.4 helped a bit but not completely and I checked RME for new drivers and lo and behold I found 3.084 drivers
My setup is rock solid now. I have a real life torture test session with 100 tracks and a huge number of plug ins including many UAD powered ones and Full screen H264
running at 64 samples and haven't heard a single tiny glitch in over 3 hours.

I'm locking this system as I've been waiting for years to have something this tight.
No more upgrades for me thanks I'm done.
Kudos to Ableton for sorting this out

May I also chime in on this thread too.

Project at say 35% CPU jumps to double for no reason without playing. More and more it doesn't seem like a particular plug-in issue...

I am also getting this when looping in Ableton 8.2.1