MacBook Pro CPU Usage

[Myrrdin]

Hey, I've come across multiple people with the same problem as myself. Why does Ableton have such incredible trouble running on a MacBook Pro? Even the crappy little demo song takes up 80% of my CPU at times. That just doesn't seem right. I have 2 GB of memory and 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo. Why does my machine struggle so?

[Tarekith]

Working fine here, what version of Live are you using?

[m.Lo]

Hey man, I just bought a Book Pro and I´m totally frustrated by the latency I have playing guitar with 16 bit audio. (18ms allover) while I have an old G4 that works properly with 4,2ms. So, Ableton, what´s wrong? I tried to find out this in long e-mail Traffic but they just tell me that myriads of artist use it without problems.

[bleepsnbreaks]

Another macbook pro user here with the same problems you guys are having. This is driving me insane, I am starting to wish I had never paid so much for this laptop now and had just bought an iMac, Im really really dissapointed with the performance Im getting. Everyone I know who has ableton is getting great performance, people with iMacs, Mac Pros, even WAY lower specced PC laptops and desktops than mine...
Also my old cr@ppy Macbook that I replaced with this used to run ableton totally fine with no stutters, CPU max out, crackles and all the rubbish Im getting, and yes, Im using a good quality external firewire soundcard, and I have tried it with 2 other firewire sound cards so its not a problem with the sound card.

Wont someone PLEASE help all us poor stranded Macbook Pro users?!?!?

[[nis]]

Just to avoid a further mixup of various problems in this thread:

1. the original poster seems to use a non-Intel Mac compatible version (anything prior Live 5.2). Please check if you get the same performance problems with Live 5.2.2 or Live 6. You can get the latest Live 5 version or a Live 6 demo from our downloads section.

2. m.Lo found out that the new Intel soundchip, which is part of the Intel chipset on the new Apple logic boards, delivers worse latency values than ones on the good old PowerPCs. This has absolutely nothing to do with Live. The latency you get is entirely dependent on the A-D / D-A converters and the driver integration of your audio interface / soundcard. m.Lo, we have already sent you a couple of emails forth and back regarding this.

3. bleepsnbreaks must have a different problem. Please send us a detailed report to [email protected] and we'll look into this asap.

Please be careful with mixing up various problems in one thread as this may mislead other users who are searching for help over here - especially in the bugs and problems forum. I wish we had some more time to monitor the forum regularly, but our support inbox is keeping us quite busy.

Good night,
Nico

[pribeh_tom]

why is it then that I can use a 64 sample buffer in Logic 8 with several plugins, AUs, audio samples off my macbook pro with next to zero glitch but in Live I experience all sorts of irregularities, drop-outs, midi jitter, pops using 188 buffer-size? Live also doesn't accurately determine how much latency is being produced - it reads 14ms when I count 8ms at 188 samples after recording.

I'd bring my other interfaces if my colleagues weren't busy using them and it didn't seem so logical to just use the internal one while doing live gigs. Mind you, I can also achieve much better results in Logic with two other interfaces. [Whether using Logic or Live 'ALL' audio data is being accessed and/or recorded from/to an external firewire 800 G-Drive.] Regardless, I still use this program in a Live setting at countless shows, have used it to record three albums - with this slight annoyance. I just hope you guys can improve the performance with Live 7 (which I will gladly pay for if it had said improvement) because I'm pretty sure there are some things you guys can optimize. I will invest in a different interface - maybe one of those new apogee ones.

[[nis]]

why is it then that I can use a 64 sample buffer in Logic 8

With your RME interface or with the onboard soundcard?

in Logic 8 with several plugins, AUs, audio samples off my macbook pro with next to zero glitch

Don't forget that Logic uses a linear arrangement. I can theoretically "look into the future", so that OSX can allocate enough RAM to Logic in advance. Live needs to request that RAM in realtime when you fire a scene or clip. This can lead to various problems. These problems can be avoided if you know what's going on in your computer.

Live also doesn't accurately determine how much latency is being produced - it reads 14ms when I count 8ms at 188 samples after recording.

How exactly are you recording, i.e. which devices are you using and what is the signal flow of your MIDI and audio data?

Note that the latency values you can see in Live's audio preferences panel are reported by the interface driver. Live has no influence on them. Most interface drivers do however report wrong latency values. That's why you should do the driver error compensation lesson to determine the correct values.

Once again, Live cannot change anything on the latency you get from your interface, period.

One a side note, I can see 4 different problems in this thread now. Just waiting for a Windows user popping in who mixes things up even more in here.

Regards,
Nico

[pribeh_tom]

With your RME interface or with the onboard soundcard?

internal

Don't forget that Logic uses a linear arrangement. I can theoretically "look into the future", so that OSX can allocate enough RAM to Logic in advance. Live needs to request that RAM in realtime when you fire a scene or clip. This can lead to various problems.

Thank you. That's the first time anyone from Ableton has bothered explaining the difference in performance that I'm experiencing with Logic. It makes sense too. For now I use Logic for audio processing and instruments while Live performs via rewire. This way I can avoid the horrible jitter of Live's midi so I can still sync with my mpc, and utilize the low latency of Logic. This works great too, Live really does keep up in this way.

This can lead to various problems. These problems can be avoided if you know what's going on in your computer.

is there anything I can do?

How exactly are you recording

While recording a single input let's say from my rme or internal or x-station I get a different display value in my Live settings than I measure after I've recorded a track. For some reason, as well, the latency compensation doesn't accurately work as a result I presume - that's fine, I can fix it by using different values, this might be because of OS X.

Once again, Live cannot change anything on the latency you get from your interface, period.

That's fine and dandy, but I'm sure there's some sort of optimization you guys can do. I've used other real-time samplers that run better at lower latency, IE, kontakt or guru. I understand that Live handles a lot more complex features in real-time, but I'd like to be able to shut off a lot of those features (warp included) to run a simpler session view that could work in an optimized way. That's why I've often used my mpc for the backtracking.

Anyways, don't get me wrong. You guys have done an excellent job with this program working with and against operating systems/computers that are usually not even built for Live Electronic Music Performance! I just like reminding you guys that I want this program to be as optimized as you guys can make it. I've been using this program from version 5 and will buy 7 on various computer platforms, both pc and mac.