Ableton Forum

Man, an 8-part RMX plugin instance with some RMX effects will swallow your computer whole. Well, not entirely, but I think Spectrasonics has raised the bar. Bass Statio, FM7, Pro-53 typically add around 2%-5% CPU, Atmosphere and Trilogy around 8%, and RMX 15-20%.

Thank God for Live's simple audio routing so I can BTD.

MarkH wrote:...and RMX 15-20%...

Is that percentage on your Powerbook or your G5?

Greetz, Maarten

maarthel wrote:

MarkH wrote:...and RMX 15-20%...

Is that percentage on your Powerbook or your G5?

Greetz, Maarten

G5! That's what blows me away, is that RMX is very hugry for CPU when loading the included kits. None of my other plugins are close to that.

Well, here we go....
For a moment we had the most powerful computer, but now the software is getting us back :-)

How does it run on your powerbook? (it seems we have identaical hardware setups)

Greetz, Maarten

I haven't loladed RMX on the Powerbook. Ever since I purchased the G5 I only use the Powerbook for DJ sets. If I travel I may load RMX on the Powerbook it and take it with me.

I still find the G5 really powerful and I would keep it anyday over a PC. At first I was mad about not having true dual CPU support, as it sucks to waste a 2nd G5 processor. I did a test with a single CPU machine and found that audio can cut out around 75% and the GUI is sluggish. With my dual G5 I don't get audio dropouts until 92-95% and the GUI never lags, so maybe that extra 18% CPU power is coming from the 2nd CPU. Well, that's my theory anyway!

I've worked intense sessions with Logic and Digital Performer, and while both have certain aspects I like, nothing offers the simplicity that Live has which translates to getting things done faster. With surface control support and PDC coming, Live can only keep getting better.

maarthel wrote:How does it run on your powerbook?

On my 1GHz Ti PB it takes 31% of the CPU with all 8 channels active, so it's essential to bounce to disk. It's soooo good though that I don't mind that tradeoff.

maarthel wrote:

MarkH wrote:...and RMX 15-20%...

Is that percentage on your Powerbook or your G5?

Greetz, Maarten

Happy Holidays!

This isn't to start a flame war, nor a PC vs. Mac argument, just to pass on my experience with Mac as a music platform.

After spending almost a decade as a faithful Mac-as-music-box user, including the less then fun Freemidi/OMS world, OS X audio growing pains, then watching my "high end" G4 choke on DP4 and any sort of plug-ins, I switched to an Intel P4/865 PERL system I put together myself for about $800 beginning of 2004 and haven't looked back once.

In part, I saw the latest wave of soft synths and music software as becoming more demanding in terms of CPU/RAM/DISK i/o requirements, and wasn't sure that I was seeing the Mac OS X world of hardware and software keeping up. Believe me, I still love the Mac platform for some things, like image and video processing. Still, when I priced out a G5 as opposed to building my own PC, I came out dollars ahead even after adding in a new sequencer (Sonar). The learning curve was not bad, and I have to say that using Live and Sonar together has been a truly excellence experience.

I use Stylus RMX on the PC based system, and no problems whatsoever. Alone with either Live or Sonar, or when they are rewired together, no CPU issues at all.

I'm glad to see software producers pushing the envelope, so to speak. It's just like the video game world...want to play Doom 3 or Half-life 2? Have a zippy system, or get a new one.

Thanks to places like newegg.com and tigerdirect.com, the upgrade costs for hardware...on the PC platform...are at least palatable. Apple, despite being a great hardware producer, IMHO, is not making the bottom line return on investment for the hardware very sensible these days.

Anyway, to all that have Stylus RMX, enjoy! It's a fantastic product. I just got the Liquid Grooves Xpander a few weeks ago...outstanding!!

Peace for the holidays!

Tom

yes tom, i agree with you whole heartedly... i was a dedicated mac user for years, with pro-tools and then logic and reason... i still own and love my ibook g3 for live performance and daily messing about... but for real crunching of plug-ins i needed to get a PC to fit my budget (under $2500). i built an amd athlon 64 3500+, with the help of adamjay from this forum, and i have been very happy with the performace. i hope to return to os x one day if it establishes itself as what it promises to be, the clear favorite for audio work. i look forward to a possible home run with apple and emagic, but the jury is still out. during these years of transition its best for me and my wallet to be using a PC and getting work done in the manner i like best (with lots of plug-ins and little problems). honeslty i would buy whatever was the best for the buck and my working-style, whether mac, pc, linux box, sun machine, toaster, etc... its just about doing work. but im rooting for apple to raise the bar so everyone else must raise the bar as well. either way, we all have great machines... think of 5 or 10 years ago and laugh.

pentajigga wrote:yes tom, i agree with you whole heartedly... i was a dedicated mac user for years, with pro-tools and then logic and reason... i still own and love my ibook g3 for live performance and daily messing about... but for real crunching of plug-ins i needed to get a PC to fit my budget (under $2500). i built an amd athlon 64 3500+, with the help of adamjay from this forum, and i have been very happy with the performace. i hope to return to os x one day if it establishes itself as what it promises to be, the clear favorite for audio work. i look forward to a possible home run with apple and emagic, but the jury is still out. during these years of transition its best for me and my wallet to be using a PC and getting work done in the manner i like best (with lots of plug-ins and little problems). honeslty i would buy whatever was the best for the buck and my working-style, whether mac, pc, linux box, sun machine, toaster, etc... its just about doing work. but im rooting for apple to raise the bar so everyone else must raise the bar as well. either way, we all have great machines... think of 5 or 10 years ago and laugh.

I see you have a Shuttle...they are nice boxes, are they not? And the AMD 64 chip will serve you well.

It'll be interesting to see where Apple steers their audio future towards. I used Logic for a few years, never really got into it. Digital Performer was nice, until the world of OS X. Not to be an advert for Cakewalk, but I enjoy that program so much that that I choose it first, platform second. Thank goodness that Live is multi-platform.

BTW, have you seen this site for XP-based music PC tweaking?: http://www.musicxp.net/

Happy Holidays!

Tom