Ableton Forum

HEY EVERYONE FED UP WITH SANTA ROSA!

A little bird told me that at the next Macworld Apple is releasing the next Leopard update (10.5.2) which they promise will fix performance issues with the entire Intel line. This may solve the stepping issue that many of us are obviously experiencing, affecting performance in Live.

Don't ask.

NOW. For all those experiencing issues with their Intel Macbooks or MBPs:

As a result of some testing that quite a few of us here on the forum have done (using Tarekith's excellent test) we've reached some definite solutions that improve performance using Live under OS X. OS X apparently does not handle processor stepping very well. In order to save on battery and/or help cool the laptop OS X changes the frequency/speed of the processor. Apparently, OS X doesn't do accomplish this very well in comparison to XP/Vista.

But here's a solution for the time-being:

1. Use CoolBook to throttle the CPU at full or next to full speed. Tests show again, a 10-15% drop in the test.

Another definite performance improver is to

2. Use a firewire audio interface. Scores evidently show a 10-15% drop in Tarekith's test. I'm not sure if this simply stabilizes the CPU stepping or whatever. No one has confirmed this as of yet and I don't have a firewire interface handy to test this myself. If someone could test a system with a firewire interface while throttling the CPU (via CoolBook) and share the results that would help.

Now I can't confirm this either, but I also recommend the use of an external firewire hard disk for your audio and project files. I haven't confirmed this yet but I'm going to do some more testing with this tonight.

Hopefully Ableton can do something to imrpove the spell check on this forum.

sparklepuff wrote:Hopefully Ableton can do something to imrpove the spell check on this forum.

Never going to happen. Despite my mac spell-checking for me I'm at work and can't take the time to notice every time I mistype, sparklepuff.

Thomas

I'm just jerking your chain, tom-tom. Keeps things fun. I'm at work, too. What do you think I'm doing on here, something productive?

I can take much more than petty wisecracks at my word skills - I'm a philosopher.

But I told you already: I'm not gay.

Here's a picture of my best friend and I just to prove it:

mac is shit.isn't it?
sorry i just watch the specs.
apple is OUT!

To each their own. I love Linux, too bad live ain't on it. Loved BSD, too bad it's dead. I use XP on my Macbook. It's all the same stuff. Just letting people know what's happening with the platform many of us use. Cheers.

pribeh_tom wrote:To each their own. I love Linux, too bad live ain't on it. Loved BSD, too bad it's dead. I use XP on my Macbook. It's all the same stuff. Just letting people know what's happening with the platform many of us use. Cheers.

psst.... OS X is bsd.

Dominik wrote:mac is shit.isn't it?
sorry i just watch the specs.
apple is OUT!

Here he goes again

psst.... OS X is bsd.

Not exactly. Almost. There were a lot of things that BSD was doing that OS X doesn't. And no, OS X is not BSD, nor is it Linux, though they are all UNIX. Darwin is only partly derived from BSD.

I do love the layering of OS X. Quartz composer (for Leopard), combined with all this core stuff (image, video), is really cool. I'm just getting into it now. Don't get me wrong, I love OS X. Once Apple fixes some minor performance issues, no other OS compares for multi-media use and development. But there was some quality to BSD that I miss.

so will these performance changes effect the older pre-santa rosa macbooks? i still don't have leopard so i'm kind of wondering BEFORE i even get it. i'm guessing it doesn't matter for tiger.

i've also tried hooking up my firewire device and noticed that my percentages are still around 70%.

ALL INTEL.

EXCELLENT