Audio drop outs when simultaneously recording 15+ tracks

[Megageoff]

I'm surprised at the performance of my setup when recording audio:

I'm about to embark on a project recording some live electronica using hardware synths, as opposed to my usual soft synths/samplers in Live approach. I thought I'd test the reliability of my setup for hard disk recording, since I don't usually record multiple tracks simultaneously. I'm recording direct to the internal hard disk of the mbp, which has a 7200 rpm drive (I realise recording to an external firewire drive will affect track count, and may dig out an old f400 one). I need to record at 128 buffer in order to keep latency to a minimum, so all my tests have been at that setting. The audio resolution is 24/44.1 My mac is reasonably optimised, with airport off, spotlight disabled, universal access off, hard drive partitioned with an audio section, no screen savers etc.

In a completely empty (of FX) set, my test was to record one (stereo) unwarped clip to multiple audio tracks. Around about 15 tracks I start to get dropouts in the audio. The cpu meter is very low, averaging below 10%.

I then fired up Reaper (I just downloaded the trial version) and performed the same test- 15 tracks were fine, and I kept adding tracks until I got to 24- still no problems. I then gave up (although I'd be interested to see where Reaper starts manifesting problems.

Am I right in thinking that Live is just not up to this job? Has anyone else experienced issues like these? I've certainly heard Reaper's praises being sung regarding its efficency and low system footprint, but is the difference really so great? I'd still love to use Live for the sessions to get the most out of my apc40, namely the scrolling, encoder led's etc (although I can still use it for basic mixer functions in Reaper.)