Ableton Forum

From previous reading/understanding I was under the impression that if I have multiple chains in one instrument rack on the devices on the chain which is currently selected (Chain Selector) are a drain on the CPU usage.

I have just test run an example of this with chain 1 being selected and then progressively added more and more and more chains to chain 2. I noticed my CPU creeping up as the number of chains increased.

Just to clarify the chains in chain 2 were not selected on the chain selector and I could see from the MIDI input monitor that no MIDI signal was traveling to this chain.

Any idea what is going on here - am I missing something or is that just how it is?

Having them present in the set is one factor. Live needs to be ready to go if you switch the plug on.

But if it’s switched ’off’, then it won’t be processing the audio or midi going to it. If it’s ‘on’ but not selected in a chain, that doesn’t necessarily mean you couldn’t still have audio or midi going to or between plugins still, so they’re processing the audio, or the lack of audio, still.

Thanks for your response.

When you say 'off' do you mean - not selected by the chain selector?

If this is the case then in this instance they are certainly off (I can see no MIDI on the MIDI input montior).

"Having them present in the set is one factor. Live needs to be ready to go if you switch the plug on."
- Im not exactly sure what this means, it sounds to me like you are suggesting they are a CPU drain just by the fact that they exisit?

By off I mean, pressing the ‘device on off’ button for that device, which can also be set with a macro.

There are a variety of methods one could use to send audio or midi into a device that is not on the active chain.

Chains choose which devices are allowing incoming signal from whatever is on that channel strip before it. But a chain can still ‘generate’ audio from within and that audio go out; or a tail of a delay or reverb can still be carrying out as you switch chains.

This could be different now. But this is what I think I remember.

But yeah. Since everything when it is ‘on’ via the device on/off button is still processing anything that goes into it… even if that is nothing, it’s definitely using at least some cpu. People do some pretty crazy things with live usage and automation. Having these devices not active would cause absolute chaos if they kept existing and disappearing from the set.