problem with live running in os x

[evs]

hi,
i´am using ableton in os9 and x (10.2.6), and in os 9 it was a little bit more faster.
But since i have 640 mb ram ableton running in os 10 is more slower than before! (before then i got 128mb!!)
strange: ableton running in os9 is A LOT more faster since i have 640mb ram...
now, maybe it isn´t the ram which makes ableton slow down, but WHAT can slow down ableton so much in mac os x??

(just for example, the same plugins, the same soundfiles: in mac os 9 it reaches 16% and in mac os X 42%!!! that cannot be normal!)

cheers
evs

[evs]

oh no... i´m an idiot... it was my fault... forget the posting from above.. its all working fast in 10 again...

[Credo]

A lot of people have reported better performance on OS 9 than on OS X. Have not tried it on OS 9 myself though.

What change did you do do make it run faster?

C

[utm]

I've heard it's faster in 9 too but I don't use 9 much anymore so I haven't tried. But I have noticed that very often when I am working on projects with, say 6 or more stereo tracks and several plug-ins, although the CPU meter never gets much higher than 50%, I get periods where all sound drops entirely for 4 or 5 seconds then resumes again. Only Live does this and I assume it's some kind of CPU spike or CoreAudio overload. But it doesn't crash or anything - just kind of annoying.

[Porpy]

Hi UTM

are you still getting this problem?

I just did a gig with live, on OSX10.6 and this happened about 4 times throughout the gig.

very annoying when you are the only one producing sound. Live would just cut out for what seemed maybe 5 or so seconds, and then the audio just kicks back in without a glitch.

have you had any luck in working out what is causing this problem?

regards

P

Tibook 800
OSX 10.6
RME Multiface w/ cardbus
512 meg RAM
all samples running off external firewire HD

[utm]

I never solved the problem - but I think it has to do with CPU or CoreAudio overload... I don't have any reason to say that except that the problem seems to be worst when working with songs that have several tracks and lots of EFX (especially 3rd party VST plug-ins). I just deal with it for now. Maybe the next version will run smoother.

[Guest]

I have the same problem..running audio on internal soundcard on powerbook.

I think it is related to running Live for a long period..ie, quittting and restarting live seems to avoid the problem..i think..very tricky
10.2.4

cherio
songcarver

[utm]

Sometimes I get the dropouts right away. I only have a single processor G4/500 with 768 MB RAM...

[Porpy]

I tested this some more after my post. I was able to get the dropouts occuring even after a few minutes of opening 2.1b2 running about 5 loops through the internal soundcard without any VSTs or Live plugins at all. My Latency was set to around 128 so i wonder whether that has anything to do with it.

So it does seem to be a core audio issues because it happens with both my internal card and the RME multiface.

At this point though i am only really aware of the problem happening with Live. It could be occuring with other programs (like Logic) but because of the stop/start nature of working with those programs (as opposed to continuous looping in Live) maybe the problem is less apparent - ie when the dropouts are occuring the program isn't playing anything anyway.

regards

P

For the record... i have had this behaviour occur in 2.03, and both 2.1 betas

[plehner]

I got the same problem, after working for some time, audio stops playing for about 5 seconds, but the powerbook does not crash. just like someone pushes the mute buttons for a few seconds.

But it never happens, when I use it on stage (without Network and no Firewire drive). Maybe it has something to do with it?

Powerbook 867, 768MB RAM
RME Multiface
80GB Maxtor 3000DV firewire drive
Live 2.1b+OS X 10.2.6

best regards,
patrick

[utm]

Thanks for the Firewire/Network tip patrick - haven't tried unplugging anything...