Ableton Forum

Good day there folks,

lately I observed a strange behaviour with my L9 copy, concerning my notebook's CPU usage.

Even when my track (15 tracks, some audio, some Midi) is not playing, Process explorer (Win7) shows a usage of Live 9 at 30%. Normally I wouldn't care, but my notebook always fires up the fan when having this high usage permanently (which is quite loud).

Bug or feature?

Any hints appreciated.

I've always found that Live reduces CPU when not playing. It's very efficient that way. But some things do make it use CPU when supposedly not doing anything.

Firstly, are there open plugin user interfaces open? I find if a plugin GUI is visible then CPU may be being used even if the plugin is doing nothing.

Secondly, having audio inputs activated. If you have an audio channel that is either in record or set to ON, Live has to process the very faint audio signal it's still getting from the input.

Thirdly, some audio feedback paths will cause odd things to happen, eg. tracks that send to themselves.

Finally, some plugins just take up CPU even when folded away and apparently doing nothing. 30% is a lot though.

Thanks for the hints.

Synthbuilder wrote:I've always found that Live reduces CPU when not playing. It's very efficient that way. But some things do make it use CPU when supposedly not doing anything.

Firstly, are there open plugin user interfaces open? I find if a plugin GUI is visible then CPU may be being used even if the plugin is doing nothing.

Secondly, having audio inputs activated. If you have an audio channel that is either in record or set to ON, Live has to process the very faint audio signal it's still getting from the input.

Thirdly, some audio feedback paths will cause odd things to happen, eg. tracks that send to themselves.

Finally, some plugins just take up CPU even when folded away and apparently doing nothing. 30% is a lot though.

Well, no open windows, no actiavated audio inputs and no feedback paths here - must be something different. The CPU usage of course does not appear when I open the track, but after playing.

hi

i had my sample rate set 192 and live would average 50%


devobtch

I encountered similar issues with Live 9, the engine seems not 100% stable as Live8 was for me. With the IK Vintage Compressor there are some audible crackles just in Live 9. The whole application needs more power, the abes stated that Live 9 will be more CPU friendly, this seems not true at all. Live 9 64bit working very unstable for me so i reinstalled the 32bit version.

wehkah wrote:I encountered similar issues with Live 9, the engine seems not 100% stable as Live8 was for me. With the IK Vintage Compressor there are some audible crackles just in Live 9. The whole application needs more power, the abes stated that Live 9 will be more CPU friendly, this seems not true at all. Live 9 64bit working very unstable for me so i reinstalled the 32bit version.

do you have less glitches with the 32 bit version of live 9?

Some effects use up CPU even when turned off.

Try this: make a copy of your set & start deleting effects, devices, & plugins to see if the CPU goes down.

You may find ways to reduce the CPU load by using less devices, alternative effects, etc.

I've had an empty set use just enough CPU to speed up the fans and remain there, so it's not just because of dormant effects not really being dormant. This has happened on either OS. My old MacBook had Live running overnight with 29% CPU constantly, and no actual set loaded.

One big CPU consumer can be some Max4Live effects like LFO.

Evengy wrote:

wehkah wrote:I encountered similar issues with Live 9, the engine seems not 100% stable as Live8 was for me. With the IK Vintage Compressor there are some audible crackles just in Live 9. The whole application needs more power, the abes stated that Live 9 will be more CPU friendly, this seems not true at all. Live 9 64bit working very unstable for me so i reinstalled the 32bit version.

do you have less glitches with the 32 bit version of live 9?

no vst issus still exist. i've tested all combinations of buffer settings too.