Multicore on low latencies

[adf]

I saw this thread and it has me a little worried:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/for ... ?t=1821093

I am thinking of getting one of these tanks for our live rig (plus some extra ram):

http://www.panasonic.ca/English/Office/ ... k/cf74.asp

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor so we would be using dual core processing. The thing is we run a bunch of signals through the laptop and process in realtime so we keep the buffer size small (I think 128 usually), which could be a problem according to the first thread. Does this mean we could potentially end up with only one processor taking the hit and therefore getting half the processing power of, say, my current 2Ghz Pentium M processor? I'm using Live 6 as I've found it to be the most stable setup and don't really want to have to upgrade to 7 just to get better multicore support. Although let me know if there is a significant difference.

Thanks for your help.

[nowtime]

Can you be more specific on what you plan on running through Live?

I run at 128 on my Macbook Pro and I get alot of mileage.

[adf]

currently we run like this:

Mic > RME Multiface > Ableton FX chain (one or more of: beatrepeat/autopan/reverb/compressor/distortion/delay) > out RME
Guitar > RME > Ableton FX chain (1 or more of: freeamp/delay/reverb) > out RME

Those are the audio signals processed live.


We also trigger instances of impulse with a control pad, 3 instances of simpler with a keyboard, some of these go through Ableton fx.

There is one track outputting clips to a talkbox on its own RME out.

There is also a stereo pair out from the master in ableton from the RME.

More clips are being triggered and sent though another Ableton FX chain using a BCR2000.

18 audio tracks are setup in the session as well as some midi ones which send commands to turn on fx etc.

[nowtime]

Can you clarify what you mean by "18 audio tracks setup in Session". What are they running? Dummy clips?

[adf]

Sorry, that was misleading...

the complete list of tracks is:

1 Talkbox - Clips the length of each song containing talkbox audio for that song.
2 (midi)Drumpads - contains impulse/delay/reverb
3 P-Kick - Kick routed from drumpads to keep it dry.
4 p-Crash - Crash routed from drumpads to keep it dry.
5 (midi)Brutal Synth - Simpler instance
6 (midi) Paper Synth - Simpler instance
7 (midi) Tokyo Synth - Impulse/delay/beatrepeat/EQ
8 (midi) C64 Synth - 3rd party sampler and phaser
9 Main mix - Main stereo backing track, one clip for each song.
10 Intro music - intro loop used at beginning of set.
11 Vox - channel for processing vocals in realtime.
12 Guitar - channel for processing guitar in realtime.
13 (midi) Scene Control - long clips containing midi notes to forward to next scene at end of song.
14 (midi) Amp Switch - midi clips to automate changing fx on guitar for each song.
15 loops1
16 loops2
17 loops3
18 loops4
19 loops5 - Shorter clips containing drum loops and parts to be run though fx chains on their own channel. Played and triggered to segway between songs.

[nowtime]

That's a decent sized set. I would say that running all that at 128 would be borderline but it could very well work like a charm. That's really what you're asking, right? Maybe someone else could chime in more specifically regarding your multicore questions. My understanding is that Live uses even numbered tracks for one core and odd tracks for the other. Perhaps ordering your tracks keeping this in mind may help. ( I should look at my own sets and see if I can spread the work efficiently!)

[adf]

yeah we are quite reliant on software and it always stresses me out that something could go, but its been reliable on my old machine. Would be good if there was a way of manually assigning things to processors as a starting point for the on-stage live sets to be sure.

No-one seems to be complaining about it maxing out one-half of their processing power except that one dude though...