Ableton Forum

My CPU is still around 35-50% even though I only have 1-3 different tracks working at the same time.

In my project that I use for my function band, I got around 50-60 songs set up, all controlled via chain selector, and of course, disabled all tracks/plug-ins that are not triggered/in use. I got all instruments and plug-ins for each song in an instrument rack which is automated to be disabled as soon as I trigger a different track, so only about 1-3 tracks are enabled at the same time (using split keys on my Komplete MK2 for different sounds).

My I/O sample rate is 44100 and buffer size 256.

I'm wondering if that CPU usage is justified considering my setup or if there's something I'm missing? It's annoying because in rehearsals my Ableton sometimes crashes and my Macbook Air M1 BigSur is running pretty hot (especially in closed rehearsal spaces without aircon).

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

You have 50-60 instruments in an instrument rack? 35-50% CPU sounds reasonable to me for such a large number of instruments. Also, everything on a single track will be used by a single core. Spreading your instruments on different channels could help.

Not on one track no, basically I created one scene per song and automated the chain selector and device on/off via dummy clips. I created instrument racks for all my sounds on 1-3 different channels (depending on how many sounds I need per song i.e piano only, strings + synth, organ + synth + bells etc.) Throughout the set I enable each scene which means that only one scene is turned on at the time. Here's a screenshot of my project to give you an idea:



This is why I was confused that my CPU is still that high since only 1-3 instrument racks with maybe 1-4 plugins each are enabled... let me know if this is normal or if I'm missing something.

Hope that makes sense?!