Ableton Forum

Hi:
I have a Live session that puts the CPU meter at 43% just sitting there...i.e., with no audio running and everything turned off. As I understand it, the CPU meter is supposed to be measuring only audio processing. In the case I'm describing, there is no audio processing going on. Once I start running the set, the meter will eventually settle down (after a minute or more) to the correct range--idling in the 6-9% range when nothing's going on.
Any ideas on what the issue might be?
Thanks,
g

I have heard of delays taking a long time to stop processing, especially if you have them doing lots of complex shit. Look into turning off any of those fancy delays that you might have running, and that might provide you with an answer. This happens to me quite a bit with some VST plugs that are not all that optimized for the kinds of uses I employ them in, and I get the cpu meter drifting at 70 for a little while until it settles.

hope this helps,

- Nick

hey Nick:
Thanks much...you hit the nail on the head. It's simply the Ableton reverb using the "long tail" patch. It's interesting: I open the session and, before I touch anything, the CPU's at 43%. Then I delete that reverb, it goes down to 6%. Then I immediately undo that delete, bringing the reverb back, and CPU spikes for just a sec up to about 17%, then it settles back to 7%. Problem solved, but still a bit of an enigma.
Thanks again,
mg

This may be obvious, but I make no assumptions about how much knowledge you have about this stuff. My two suggestions to you would be to either a) use a lower quality reverb setting (lower than first class) or b) render the clip(s) that you are effecting as a loop with the effects applied, so you can delete the realtime processing that is maxing your cpu.

- Nick

Thanks, Nick. I think the rendering solution is probably the way to go. I appreciate the help.

mg

No problem! Good luck in all of your musical endeavours.

- Nick