Ableton Forum

Hey everyone, I am having a problem with high CPU loads on simple arrangements.

I have made a test project for you to download and see what i mean. It contains:

Track 1 - Impulse> EQ8> Compressor II
Track 2 - Simpler> EQ8> Erosion> Pingpong> Utility

I am getting a cpu % of 30-40

Here is my specs.

Live 6.0.1

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % 30-40
2) Laptop/Desktop? - Powerbook G4
3) Operating System - OSX 10.4.7
4) CPU Make Model and Speed - 1.67 powerpc G4
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram - 1 gig apple stock
6) Soundcard - PreSonus Firebox
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed - 5400 rpm

Here is the file from yousendit.

http://download.yousendit.com/7CB6C54850A9F101

Now, this seems WAY to high, the arrangement is nothing special. What the hell is going on here? I mean Logic 7 gets better performance than this i think.

Help...

Idle - 1%
Playing - 14 - 17%

G5 iMac 1.8
1 gb ram
L 6.0.1
OSX 10.4.8

Hovers around 30% on my G4 iBook 1.33, which seems a bit higher than I'd expect given the track count, but I notice you've got a reverb running. Live's reverb is far from efficient (it's good, though), and when I turn it off the meter goes down to 10%... which is what I'd expect, really.

Apple bundles something called AUMatrixReverb with OS X. It's a nice sounding Audio Unit and uses a lot less CPU than Live's reverb. Try it.

Is that your Simpler patch, BTW?

I have the exact same PB replacing a stolen 1GB titanium & it is disgustingly slow. It has been back to Apple twice, had a new logic board & numerous clean OS installs, all to no avail. Can't wait to get rid of it!

An Apple IT friend ran some arcane tests in the Terminal and was suspicious of the number of communications to the video processor (way over my head). I took a printout of his results to the Apple store "Genius" Bar and got a lot of blank stares!

I couldn't run your session as I'm still at 5 but your numbers look similar to my experiences. If you repost as a 5 compat. I'll be happy to oblige.

PB[/i]

macbook 13" 1,83mhz/ 1,25gb ram

idle. 2%
playing.13%

philipbarrett wrote:I have the exact same PB replacing a stolen 1GB titanium & it is disgustingly slow. It has been back to Apple twice, had a new logic board & numerous clean OS installs, all to no avail. Can't wait to get rid of it!

An Apple IT friend ran some arcane tests in the Terminal and was suspicious of the number of communications to the video processor (way over my head). I took a printout of his results to the Apple store "Genius" Bar and got a lot of blank stares!

I couldn't run your session as I'm still at 5 but your numbers look similar to my experiences. If you repost as a 5 compat. I'll be happy to oblige.

PB[/i]

be quite and get back to your bed/

Thanks everyone. I just can't get over that it takes up that much CPU. Oh well. I will check out different reverbs and see if I can get it down that way.

I need to get a new Macbook Pro when the Core 2 Duo come out or a PC laptop.

noisetonepause:
that simpler patch is the Rezzo Bass. It should have come with live or in one ov the Live Packs on the Ableton site. The rest i added myself to give it a more analog sound. Kinda works i guess.

Poltergeist wrote:Hey everyone, I am having a problem with high CPU loads on simple arrangements.

I have made a test project for you to download and see what i mean. It contains:

Track 1 - Impulse> EQ8> Compressor II
Track 2 - Simpler> EQ8> Erosion> Pingpong> Utility

I am getting a cpu % of 30-40

Here is my specs.

Live 6.0.1

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % 30-40
2) Laptop/Desktop? - Powerbook G4
3) Operating System - OSX 10.4.7
4) CPU Make Model and Speed - 1.67 powerpc G4
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram - 1 gig apple stock
6) Soundcard - PreSonus Firebox
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed - 5400 rpm

Here is the file from yousendit.

http://download.yousendit.com/7CB6C54850A9F101

Now, this seems WAY to high, the arrangement is nothing special. What the hell is going on here? I mean Logic 7 gets better performance than this i think.

Help...

Interesting, I have the same powerbook as you, but with os 10.4.8, same version of Live too, only difference is no external soundcard.

Do I just hit play and watch the CPU? if so.. then it's idling at 1-2% and when its playing the samples, it gets to no more than 30% (average 21-26%)

and in my preferences...

Latency

Buffer Size 512 Samples
Drive Error Compensation 0.00ms

and under CPU
Plug-In Buffer Size: As Audio Buffer



Can I ask if you have any other stuff running as well? as for me, all I have running is Safari, Mail, and Adium, and the salling clicker daemon (in menu bar)

I admit that I had a bit of a whinge about the korg legacy vst's (in particular the legacy cell), which I stopped using since I got Operator (and it was a demo too *groan* 1000 dollar purchase for vst's? not yet thanks), but still, I had major issues for a while, thank god for deep freeze


I still consider yours (and my) machine to still be an ample beast for Live. Granted I will consider getting a macbook pro next year (or year after), I would suggest two things. get an additional shtick of ram, as you WILL notice a performance/overall feel to osx being better (at 2gb total) annnd upgrade to 10.4.8 if you can.

philipbarrett wrote:I have the exact same PB replacing a stolen 1GB titanium & it is disgustingly slow. It has been back to Apple twice, had a new logic board & numerous clean OS installs, all to no avail. Can't wait to get rid of it!

An Apple IT friend ran some arcane tests in the Terminal and was suspicious of the number of communications to the video processor (way over my head). I took a printout of his results to the Apple store "Genius" Bar and got a lot of blank stares!

I couldn't run your session as I'm still at 5 but your numbers look similar to my experiences. If you repost as a 5 compat. I'll be happy to oblige.

PB[/i]

Holy shit, Powerbooks act up sometimes?!?!?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!