Ableton Forum

Hi everyone:
hoping to get some feedback from the few brave that have proceeded with X.3 Panther upgrades using G4 or G5 processors regarding performance issues-
taking into account nothing else has changed on your CPU (same RAM / hard drive etc.).

I guess this poll was a little too early-
I am in between projects that pushed my system on 10.2.8 on my TiBook 15" 800 MHz off internal or external HD- so I will upgrade to Panther in the next 48hours- then load some pretty heavy projects with multiple Waves plugs etc and report back-

Wish me luck!

Cheers
Scott

OK- in all fairness, I optimized my hard drive after installing X.3, but I am VERY pleased so far with performance results-
one BUG: one Set all track volumes seem to be reset? too low- even thought the faders are the same- I can barely hear the tracks-I'll check the bug forum for that one-nonetheless:

Session with 44 tracks-(22 stereo tracks)- 8 effects on sends only- NO audio dropouts with core audio- CPU peaking around 70%.
Before I would get significant dropouts - this is not loading loops into RAM-
only things changed are Panther and a new disk defrag (which of course can make a huge difference too).

Mastering project:
24 tracks with at least one Waves instantiated (audiotrack) on each plus master with L1+ LImiter- this is the one with the volume problem- I think it is a Waves issue because the plugs were reset and I will have to reset the plugs- (see previous Ableton posts). Again- No dropouts or significant CPU spikes- before I had at least two points in the songs where I had dropouts from CPU spikes (never when rendering of course.)

So- this suggests
1) so far transition to Panther pretty painless
2) with X.3 and disk defrag- significantly improved performance- definately as projects before I could barely work on due to maxed out CPU now entirely workable.
I'm pleased.

Good Luck everyone- please check the bugs forum for any significant posts before upgrading!

Machine:
TiBook 800 MHz/512RAM/internal hard drive (I am assuming 5400 rpm) and Core Audio

This weekend I'll try my 828 and report back using the new MOTU drivers (my 828 performance under OS X has ALWAYS been poor compared to core audio Mac built in).

bump

would love to hear other user reports

That's great but your comparing stuff that we can't reproduce. We have a baseline on this forum using the original demo arrangement from version 1.0. Please load it and tell us what your CPU says at bar 49. I think people might find that more informative. Thanks for being the lab-rat, I am waiting to see how others do before I take the plunge myself.

I would love to compare- but gosh- I really would have to search for the orginal disc-
If someone could email the arrangement and samples as an attachment to
[email protected]
I would be happy to try it out.

Cheers
Scott

OK- I found th eoriginal 1.5 disc as someone suggested comparing the original demo song-
I have all the samples and song- but there is no arrangement-
can someone send an email with the arrangement?
this is the original demo with the applause/crowd-
anyway- on my TiBook 800 MHz driving 2 monitors running core audio off the internal HD and sound card-
triggering the master column multi-track trigggers- and driving 2 monitors (Ti book at thousands and Formac 2 megapixel at millions) I never peak above 34 on the CPU meter- and only for the initial moment of change- usually running 24-28.

Hope this helps- if someone sends me the arrangement attached to an email, I now have the samples (I think) - and I will rerun the test with driving the single monitor only-
OK- back to work-
I really am loving the combination of Panther and Norton Utilities optimized hard drive- it really has made a difference in the overall workflow experience.
please read macnn.com regarding 800 Firewire issues as well as the other timely posts on the forum about potential problems though until Apple works out those issues.

cheers
Scott

sgerst wrote: This weekend I'll try my 828 and report back using the new MOTU drivers (my 828 performance under OS X has ALWAYS been poor compared to core audio Mac built in).

Great! I would love to hear how that works as I use the same audio hardware...
Haven't taken the panther plunge yet..... do MOtu have new drivers specifically written for X.3?

cheers!

no change in track count, etc. but screen redraw is way better when running live and reason together. used to have tons of problems with gui slowdown and keystrokes being very delayed, but its all great now.

Thanx!