is it me or is 'impulse' pretty cpu hungry

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:15 am

i find impulse pretty cpu hungry for its complexity. its a powerful little tool but if i load up a couple in one session there seems to be quite a hike in cpu, compared with the likes of battery. am i alone in this.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 12:10 pm

just to clarify, im trying to limit the cpu useage in the set im working on as im getting some serious trouble at the moment.

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:28 pm

I actually think it's only you...

Sorry!

Regards,
Mikael

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:46 pm

thats cool. i can cross it of the list and investigate elsewhere.

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:45 am

i find my self running 6 with no problem, when eveything else chokes my system.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:57 am

its okay. im looking at why im get such high cpu useage in a modest set. im getting crackles and drop outs between clips in the arrange page [doent happen in the session view]. minimal use of complex warp. all clips set to loop. only one reverb on a bus. using delays and comps. 11 stereo tracks and 1 mono. 70% cpu. audio drop outs. freezing 9 of these tracks only saves about 8 - 9% of cpu??? [p4 3.6ht 1gb ram 260gb 7200rpm]

the search continues.

suburbanbather · Post by **suburbanbather** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:06 am

Well, how are you using it? Are you using the filters, distortion, stretch, random, separate routing, etc.. on every slot? Are you loading loops as well as one shots in the slots? It may be a small instrument, but it does have a lot of features. The more features you turn on the cpu it will thirst.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:11 am

i dont think its the source of my problems. im using filters, stretch and shift. only using hits. i do notice a irregular hike when a load a couple of instances in. the audio drop outs are no different with the impulse tracks frozen.

Phokus · Post by **Phokus** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:25 am

It sounds a lot like the dreaded pentium 4 denormalization problem. I have been having the same sort of problems on my computer and did some research to reveal that denormalization is a big cause of a lot of those problems. Try googling it.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:43 am

denorma-whatnow??? ill look it up. whats that do?

glu · Post by **glu** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:21 am

disable HT? see your freeze thread for details

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:29 am

glu wrote:disable HT? see your freeze thread for details

You don't have to disable HT - Live 5 + and up all assign CPU affinity too procesor 0 anyway so the HT isn't the issue.
Something is definately weird however as I have a 3.2ghz HT P4 notebook (hyperthreading enabled) and never have such difficulties.

The ONE THING you have not mentioned is the SAMPLE RATE of the Audio card.
I mean if you're working in 24/96 at low buffers expect ALOT of CPU juice to be consumed for example.

Complex warp should IMHO only be used when needed.

Also P4 denormals are far more obvious to spot than that IMHO and cause massive system crushing 100+ percentile CPU spikes.

What effects and or VSTi's are you using also.
I am very careful as to what I use with LIVE to get optimal CPU performance.
Still I can easily run 2 simplers say 3 impulse and at least 4-6 instances of Dimension Pro + effects no problem this end plus vst effects and a evrb and delay on send busses for example.

Infact I find the 3.2ghz CPU more than enough for pretty much anything I need to be brutally honest.

So I doubt it very much that your issues are hyperthreading and/or denormal related.

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:18 am

heres a breakdown

system - P4 3.6 HT 1gb ram 260gb 7200rpm

soundcard - presonus firepod [set at 44.1]

9 stereo tracks [6 drum & 3 synth] - compress, ping pong delay, simple delay, phaser, auto filter.

1 mono track [bass] - compressor.

1 impulse track - transposed hit. no fx.

1 reverb on bus A - switching this on or off makes little or no impact.

all drum clips / tracks are warped, faded and set to beats mode.

3 synth cilps / tracks are warped, faded and set to complex mode.

thats pretty much it. so nothing to heavy.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:31 am

try turning off hyperthreading in your BIOS... seriously..

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:06 am

ive tried it. makes no difference im afraid. i think thats quite a modest set im working on, so im a bit down over this as a bought the pc to be able to crunch the numbers. unless someone can correct me on this and tell me that about as much i should expect.