Concerns about CPU load - What do you think?

markone · Post by **markone** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:03 am

Hi, I would really appreciate any input please.

In the song I am working on at the moment I have a combination of tracks, probably 30 in total.

- Some tracks contain VST synths with midi data. These have various VST effects (some stock, some not) applied. These tracks are then frozen

- Some tracks contain audio (44.1kHz 24bit) and have various VST effects (again some stock, some not) applied. These tracks are also frozen

I believed that as all tracks are frozen it is the equivalent of ableton just playing 30 wav files at the same time, with no resources used for the actual VSTs

I don't have a really powerful computer but it is PC with Pentium 4 - 3GHz processor, 1024 Ram and 250GB hard drive.

The load on the processor is about 60% and it frequently stutters. Is this normal with what I am putting through it?

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:24 am

I think the problem here is that when tracks are frozen they are stored in a very high-res format, 32-bit. This taxes the hard drive a great deal, and this can *also* cause problems with playback.

Since the beginning I've wondered why on earth the users can't set the Freeze file format in preferences, but apparently ableton is against user decisions

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:26 am

It all seems "about right".....of course except for the stutter.

Stupid question......buffer size?

and......soundcard?

One thing that I'd explore......"freezing" aparently doesn't always kill the original tracks resources. I can only assume you are on live 6'ish.....

If that is the case, try making those frozen tracks "audio" tracks (might be a pain, but live 6 does allow moving frozen clips to simply be audio)

The only other thing I'm assuming is that you are using the one HD? On any daw (and I think, If I remember correctly, live being a bit worse than the norm) using allot of audio tracks can cause certain sync issues......

hope that helps in the right direction anyways......

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:28 am

Machinate wrote:I think the problem here is that when tracks are frozen they are stored in a very high-res format, 32-bit. This taxes the hard drive a great deal, and this can *also* cause problems with playback.

Since the beginning I've wondered why on earth the users can't set the Freeze file format in preferences, but apparently ableton is against user decisions

See, my long typing wasn't quick enough.........yes, I believe this kinda goes with what I was saying about the "freeze tracks" and such...

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:43 am

personally I think frozen tracks should be as low as quality can get before it gets annoying, so you can have as many as you want with as little cpu hit as possible.

user determined quality is a plus.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:17 am

Johnisfaster wrote:personally I think frozen tracks should be as low as quality can get before it gets annoying, so you can have as many as you want with as little cpu hit as possible.

user determined quality is a plus.

I'm with you on that one. I'm willing to swallow 44.1khz 16 bit for my projects anyway.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:47 am

Oh, I just CANT do without my 24 bit files........(and that will stir up yet another discussion.........

markone · Post by **markone** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:05 pm

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes I am using Live 6 and an M-Audio Audiophile sound card. I have played around with the buffer size, but it doesn't seem to make too much difference to be honest (what would you recommend?)

Also, when I load the song up for the first time and play everything together, it stutters, drops audio, but then starts to get better. Its as if its getting used to the amount of resources needed to play the song and gets in to the swing of things.

Also, in the task manager, under processes, what priority should I set ableton to? Its on normal at the moment. Any other suggestions to make it more efficient?

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:37 pm

markone wrote:Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes I am using Live 6 and an M-Audio Audiophile sound card. I have played around with the buffer size, but it doesn't seem to make too much difference to be honest (what would you recommend?)

Also, when I load the song up for the first time and play everything together, it stutters, drops audio, but then starts to get better. Its as if its getting used to the amount of resources needed to play the song and gets in to the swing of things.

Also, in the task manager, under processes, what priority should I set ableton to? Its on normal at the moment. Any other suggestions to make it more efficient?

I don't know about in task manager, but if you haven't done so yet, you need to go into Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services. Setting performance to optimized for background services is better for audio.

Best,
AB

markone · Post by **markone** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:54 pm

Have done that already.

(I presume you mean setting Processor Scheduling to background services instead of programs?)

Also any tips on virtual memory settings for custom and max size? I have heard people say different things about this.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:40 am

At this time, I'm stumped! Here is an odd suggestion.....do you have access to ANY other soundcard? (not internal, maybe another fw card?)

Here is the deal..............from what knowledge (it's fairly vast) I have...

a. On PC's in particular, FW is a bitch in some cases. There are too many funky "conflicts" for me to raise here, but one for sure is that maudio doesn't like certain FW inputs. The solution I've heard that helps is getting a pci card (which we are talking only desktop ) that is NOT the un-favorable type.

b. And this is a bummer, but MAUDIO fw cards have a nasty history of problems. (yep, right here......I could NEVER get my fw410 to work) Which is why I mentioned a temporary "alternative" soundcard.

Here's what I can guarantee you. Live, on it's own, is fine with a simular setup to yours at as low as 128 buffer, working at 24bit, with a 48k samping rate. (my PC setup, I keep the macintel at 256 buffer..which is fine on that machine.)

Keep posting..........