Mac Performance / AltiVec

geargasm · Post by **geargasm** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 5:22 pm

The major problem I have with Live is stablity. On two seperate machines with multiple sound cards (I've tried 6 configurations total) on a win2k platform, I still have frequent crashes mid set.

I've emailed tech support and never gotten a response, however I get the basic drift that an Windows Ableton user switching to a Mac will sacrifice processing power for stability.

Given my setup now is Live as a Rewire host to Reason, my 1.3Ghz often gets up to 60%-70% CPU usage. I would gladly dish out the $3000 or so if I knew it would be more stable than my PC, but not if I knew I'd be turning the processor into sludge occasionally.

SO... my question is Ableton: Is there AltiVec support in v2.0?

yon · Post by **yon** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 5:58 pm

geargasm wrote: I've emailed tech support and never gotten a response, however I get the basic drift that an Windows Ableton user switching to a Mac will sacrifice processing power for stability.

If you email support@ableton.com with the specifics of your problem, we
will certainly get back to you.

yon / ableton

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 2:31 pm

Still, the question remains whether there will be Altivec in the new 2.0 Live version -- I bet not, as Ableton have said something to that effect in a post here.

Regards,
fromage

macaddled · Post by **macaddled** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 4:05 pm

I think the abletons have already stated that there will be no "processor-specific" optimizations in 2.0. Too bad but hopefully their comment that overall engine improvements will help, turns out to be true.

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 5:53 pm

I bet any gains in general optimization will be eaten by the new features.
Net Zero for Macintosh.

macaddled · Post by **macaddled** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 6:07 pm

Well, I suppose we'll see. It will certainly be difficult to achieve quality multitrack recording with the current level of Mac performance.

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 2:56 am

We'll have to wait until Live v2 to see the final result, but the lack of direction from Ableton's developers for Altivec support is very disappointing...

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 11:22 am

I shouldn't think the new v2 would eat too much into the performance of our computers.... somehow I expect the programming to take care of a lot of the issues addressed in this forum even if there's no Altivec support.

... and it will come sometime in the future

cheers,
format

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 7:18 pm

Something I read in an interview last year makes me pessimistic about Altivec. Ableton said (I'm pretty sure it was Gerhard) that the code is written "on top of " the operating system and includes its own operating system for audio. This allows LIVE to be so easily cross platform and made it ready for OSX so early. I have a hunch that Altivec optimization would mean a complete rewrite of the software. It might cost them more than they would get back.
I'll bet their plan is to just wait for the Macintosh platform to get faster. Why commit resources to a problem that will naturally go away with time?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 12:46 pm

Geraldo wrote:Something I read in an interview last year makes me pessimistic about Altivec. Ableton said (I'm pretty sure it was Gerhard) that the code is written "on top of " the operating system and includes its own operating system for audio. This allows LIVE to be so easily cross platform and made it ready for OSX so early. I have a hunch that Altivec optimization would mean a complete rewrite of the software. It might cost them more than they would get back. I'll bet their plan is to just wait for the Macintosh platform to get faster. Why commit resources to a problem that will naturally go away with time?

I don't want to be drawn into another conversation about this, because I am too busy working on Live 2, but the conclusions you posted here are misinformed.

Anyway, I believe that if you search the archive for mentions of this topic you can find some info from our programming guru bernd about the plans.

yon / ableton

Post by **Bernd** » Mon Nov 11, 2002 12:56 am

You can find the statement here:

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1506, second page

And some further comments:

1) I have to clarify that the platform independent improvements that I have mentioned in the above referred posting will *not* take place in version 2 but in an upcoming version.

2) I believe that at least for the next 5-10 years, there will be just not "enough" processor power that satisfies the increasing expectations of you all. So we have to optimize the software and we will. But of course all this takes time and we have to negotiate between:
- Stability
- Other Bugfixes
- Performance
- Logical and easy User Interface
- Completing Features
- New Features

3) Of course Live doesn't need to be totally rewritten for altivec. All dsp code in all softwares is normally platform independent - expect for the one that is already optimised for a specific processor/processor part like Altivec. The trouble with supporting a new operating system comes mainly from the gui and this is nicely capsulated in Live. I guess about 95% of the code in Live is platform independent. That was the fact Gerhard has mentioned. And this will result in releases for all supported operation systems at the same time.

Regards, Bernd.

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Mon Nov 11, 2002 8:30 pm

Thanks for the clarification. I eagerly await v2.0.

Mac Performance / AltiVec

Mac Performance / AltiVec

Re: Mac Performance / AltiVec