Ableton Forum

Hi Guys,

I'm currently running Live 9 + Push 2 + Arturia Audiofuse + Moog Subsequent 37 on an early 2015 Macbook Pro / 2,9ghz i5 / 16gb RAM DDR3 and it is giving me a lot of grief.
As soon as I have 4-5 tracks running I get huge CPU spikes to 100% - 200% with audio crackles which then freezes my computer.
Every time I get those spikes I need to press pause, wait for the CPU to catchup and this has become quite unmanageable.
I'm also familiar with the Freeze Track process but this is not a comfortable solution when I even struggle to run 4 or 5 basic tracks with no third party plugin.

As a result I'm looking to buy a new laptop/desktop machine to run Live to ensure I can focus on making music and not battling with tech.
On top of the above setup, I run the following third party plugins: Arturia Collection V, Kontakt, Waves & Izotope Neutron.

Do you have any recommendation on machines that would enable be me to run my current setup without breaking a sweat and the bank! $3,000 -$4,000 AUD would be the absolute top end.

thanks a lot

For that amount of money? You wanna buy a Mac again? Spent it all on a top notch i7 machine with plenty of ram and a superfast ssd I guess......

You need to be mobile? then a Macbook pro.

WinPC whise you get a lot of options here for that amount of money though, let me know if you want a WinPC - we talk further then!

most importantly, do not buy another dual-core laptop. you want at least quad-core...

If you are willing to go the Win10 way, you might have a look on newer laptops with mobile AMD RYZEN CPU, like Acer Swift.
You probably find an ACER SWIFT with Ryzen 2700u, IPS-panel, 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD for 900 Euro incl. 3-4 USB ports. But they are pretty new so maybe there is a lack of user experience with RYZEN mobile CPUs.

Good luck!

I have a fully loaded MacBook Pro 15" 2017 and it is not comfortable at all even for 256 buffer. It is super easy to hit limitations with polyphony. I mostly use Ableton's and u-he virtual instruments.

Of course it is fairly comfortable and you can most certainly do just about everything if you reduce quality or increase latency, but it you want a powerhouse then you need a desktop computer.

hyperscientist wrote:I have a fully loaded MacBook Pro 15" 2017 and it is not comfortable at all even for 256 buffer. It is super easy to hit limitations with polyphony. I mostly use Ableton's and u-he virtual instruments.

Of course it is fairly comfortable and you can most certainly do just about everything if you reduce quality or increase latency, but it you want a powerhouse then you need a desktop computer.

True, that's why I have an 19 inch cased computer running Win10Pro. It's loaded with an i7-7700, 16Gb RAM, 256GB SSD/m2 and a 2 Tb HDD. It's fairly powerfull, and for some money more you can have an even more powerfull computer. I payd €1500,= for mine - so with the budget mentioned you can have all you want...... in WinPC land.

You’re laptop should be more than powerful enough to do what you’re doing. My guess is maybe bad audio card drivers? Does this happen if you use the stock MBP audio output in Live?

good point. sudden spikes suggest a problem that is not necessarily a basic CPU overload issue...

Yes.. your performance doesn't sound normal to me either.. 2015 macbook pro should be able to run a few plugins

Tarekith suggested audio drivers, maybe also background processes, or malware?

Do you have other apps running or utility helper tools running?

Does the issue occur on a new user account?

Try reinstalling macOS.

Try running malwarebytes, a free tool to check for malware.

Do you have performance issues with other apps?

The symptoms you describe are also consistent with overheating. I've had a lot of problems with macbook pros overheating. Have you cleaned the inside of your computer recently? Open it up and blow it with compressed air. Or try straight up pointing a fan at the computer while in use. is your workspace well ventilated?

best of luck

Yes, good call on the cleaning thing, I had to do that with my 2014 MBP once and it was amazing how much quieter the fans got

It sucks having to do it, but I really do think that doing a fresh reinstall of your OS every few years pays dividends in keeping things running smoothly. Just something to consider.

it could be malware... your Mac might be mining for crypto currency. that would definitely cause a CPU spike.

Use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support

Also a good old reboot often works wonders…

Thanks heaps for your help guys.

I did a clean install of Mac OS last night and my laptop feels brand new. It's is now usable again even though I can tell I don't have a quad core I7 inside
Currently running a test project set in Live 10 to see how much it can handle.

So far I can run 6 tracks with drum racks + EQ & Comp & 3 additional tracks with Arturia V Collection plugins (DX7, CS80, PIano V) + fx on each track. (only running ableton fx for this test)
Those poly synth plugins from Arturia are known to be super CPU intensive so I'm pretty chuffed so far. Ableton CPU is sitting between 40-60%

sweet!

Glad that worked out for you...