RAM, Ableton and VST's
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muscleandhate
- Posts: 693
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RAM, Ableton and VST's
Does upgrading the RAM increase performance in Audio intensive apps like ableton/ AU / VST dramatically? What does RAM actually do?
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FrancodeLeon88
- Posts: 110
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- Location: Chicago
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Yes
Think of your harddrive(s) as a garage that has all your tools.
Your RAM is a toolbox.
Your project is a car that is in the driveway.
When you want to work on your car, you go into the garage, get the tools you need, fill up your toolbox, and walk back out to the car.
You work on the car.
Sometimes, you can't fit all the tools you need to work on your car into your toolbox, so you have to go back to the garage, take out some tools you haven't used in awhile, and put some new tools into the tool box...this takes time...much more time than just reaching into your toolbox while you're on the ground, working on your car.
So, more RAM in your computer means a bigger toolbox, which means less trips to the garage. Its more efficient and faster to get things done.
Now, Ableton is a little different in that it reads direct from the Hard Drive (like, as if you had a special assistant who kept on running back and forth from the garage as you worked on your ride)...however, in my recent personal experience, I've noticed that upgrading my RAM did indeed make a difference, even though Ableton seems to stream Data right from the disk.
This is probably because all the other things that are on so Ableton can run are RAM intensive.
Think of your harddrive(s) as a garage that has all your tools.
Your RAM is a toolbox.
Your project is a car that is in the driveway.
When you want to work on your car, you go into the garage, get the tools you need, fill up your toolbox, and walk back out to the car.
You work on the car.
Sometimes, you can't fit all the tools you need to work on your car into your toolbox, so you have to go back to the garage, take out some tools you haven't used in awhile, and put some new tools into the tool box...this takes time...much more time than just reaching into your toolbox while you're on the ground, working on your car.
So, more RAM in your computer means a bigger toolbox, which means less trips to the garage. Its more efficient and faster to get things done.
Now, Ableton is a little different in that it reads direct from the Hard Drive (like, as if you had a special assistant who kept on running back and forth from the garage as you worked on your ride)...however, in my recent personal experience, I've noticed that upgrading my RAM did indeed make a difference, even though Ableton seems to stream Data right from the disk.
This is probably because all the other things that are on so Ableton can run are RAM intensive.
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brightonalex
- Posts: 1381
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FrancodeLeon88
- Posts: 110
- Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:29 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Do it.
hmmm...its hard to say what will and won't fail you during a performance...regardless of what platform you're on...
the best way to insure your computer not failing on you is to 1)only use it for making and performing music 2)don't add any additional software that you don't need (even if its audio software) 3)don't bang the thing around... 4)and for window machines, regulara maintenance and optimization never hurt me (i rarely repair permissions on my mac, and that's basically the extent of my maintenance)
and even then, you may not know if something will crash 2 hours into a set...
the best way to find out is to do it...but you don't have to do it at a club, where it can be excruciatingly shameful when your computer dies...do it at home...yeah, practice for two hours, and see if it dies on you...
and you can do what I do - tape it!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsbI3qOPHME
oooooooooh...that was a shameful plug...
g'luck
the best way to insure your computer not failing on you is to 1)only use it for making and performing music 2)don't add any additional software that you don't need (even if its audio software) 3)don't bang the thing around... 4)and for window machines, regulara maintenance and optimization never hurt me (i rarely repair permissions on my mac, and that's basically the extent of my maintenance)
and even then, you may not know if something will crash 2 hours into a set...
the best way to find out is to do it...but you don't have to do it at a club, where it can be excruciatingly shameful when your computer dies...do it at home...yeah, practice for two hours, and see if it dies on you...
and you can do what I do - tape it!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsbI3qOPHME
oooooooooh...that was a shameful plug...
g'luck
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epiphanius
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2002 10:32 pm
Franco - I liked your video a lot. I had wondered whether using a single turntable would be worth trying, and you have demonstrated that it is!
I'm wondering - when you go back to your "ableton set", do you change tempo on the fly very much? Any other info on how the set is structured (e.g. how many independent 'songs' are linked together) would be helpful to know.
Great video, and the titling was funny and well done.
e.
I'm wondering - when you go back to your "ableton set", do you change tempo on the fly very much? Any other info on how the set is structured (e.g. how many independent 'songs' are linked together) would be helpful to know.
Great video, and the titling was funny and well done.
e.
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Michael-SW
- Posts: 2054
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:05 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
That sounds like a very good setup. You HD is a bit small, but if you have like 20-30% free that won't be a problem. Enough memory, enough CPU.djmyke wrote:can i consult u guys on my setup?=)
im running a toshiba satellite A60 laptop
p4 3.0ghz hyper threding
1.2gb RAM
40 gb HD
ableton live 5
maudio firewire 410
fcb 1010 pedal
is my laptop reliable enuf? wont it fail me during a live performance?=)
The hardware won't limit you.
that's reliable enough if you're running no more than 5 audio tracks and 2 vst plugs, i'd say.. but that's just a gander... there's no way to know for sure until you actually try it.. all systems are different, and it also depends on what performance modifications you do to your operating system... i know i'm able to run that configuration on 3ghz with 768 ram..djmyke wrote:can i consult u guys on my setup?=)
im running a toshiba satellite A60 laptop
p4 3.0ghz hyper threding
1.2gb RAM
40 gb HD
ableton live 5
maudio firewire 410
fcb 1010 pedal
is my laptop reliable enuf? wont it fail me during a live performance?=)
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FrancodeLeon88
- Posts: 110
- Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:29 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Thanks for checkin' it out man...during my live set, I do change tempo, but always as a global tempo change (because the crowd needs it...steady tempo isn't as effective as slight variations - it something that I remember records doing for me when I use to DJ more conventionally)...however, I'm talkin' about 1 bpm changes...I found that to be enough...
As for going back to ableton...in the video, I never leave...I've found that leaving ableton completely is difficult because I have a hard time resyncing ableton to a record...I have other tricks I've developed, but they're not smooth enough, and in the overall scheme of things, staying in ableton sounds better....
the one thing I've lost is beat scratching tracks in...but I'm workin' on that conundrum now...
as for the set structure...i have certain songs i've already produced, ready to put in wherever I need them...i link them together with songs, samples, cuts, drumming, etc...all freestyled...
hope this helps...
Franco
As for going back to ableton...in the video, I never leave...I've found that leaving ableton completely is difficult because I have a hard time resyncing ableton to a record...I have other tricks I've developed, but they're not smooth enough, and in the overall scheme of things, staying in ableton sounds better....
the one thing I've lost is beat scratching tracks in...but I'm workin' on that conundrum now...
as for the set structure...i have certain songs i've already produced, ready to put in wherever I need them...i link them together with songs, samples, cuts, drumming, etc...all freestyled...
hope this helps...
Franco
From what I've heard Toshibas have good cooling, but I should check to make sure that that p4 does not overheat. I had to upgrade my p4 laptop because after about 2 minutes running live it would slow down and start glitching, due to the p4 processor overheating.djmyke wrote:can i consult u guys on my setup?=)
im running a toshiba satellite A60 laptop
p4 3.0ghz hyper threding
1.2gb RAM
40 gb HD
ableton live 5
maudio firewire 410
fcb 1010 pedal
is my laptop reliable enuf? wont it fail me during a live performance?=)
A good way to test is to downlowd the free version of the sisoft sandra benchmark suite. run the processor arithmetic benchmark, theen as soon as it completes run it again, and again, and again, etc. If the performance decreases with each run then you have a problem.
"That very perceptive of you Mr Stapleton, and rather unexpected... in a G Major"
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epiphanius
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2002 10:32 pm
nolus wrote:From what I've heard Toshibas have good cooling, but I should check to make sure that that p4 does not overheat. I had to upgrade my p4 laptop because after about 2 minutes running live it would slow down and start glitching, due to the p4 processor overheating.djmyke wrote:can i consult u guys on my setup?=)
im running a toshiba satellite A60 laptop
p4 3.0ghz hyper threding
1.2gb RAM
40 gb HD
ableton live 5
maudio firewire 410
fcb 1010 pedal
is my laptop reliable enuf? wont it fail me during a live performance?=)
A good way to test is to downlowd the free version of the sisoft sandra benchmark suite. run the processor arithmetic benchmark, theen as soon as it completes run it again, and again, and again, etc. If the performance decreases with each run then you have a problem.
this is so true.. overheating P4
thats why im with a macbook pro right now hehe
_________________________________________________
imac 24' aluminum 2.8ghz 4gbRAM, 320gb HD,
live 7. reason 4
maudio fwire 410 axiom 49. fcb1010
taylor 614ce
banshee talkbox
imac 24' aluminum 2.8ghz 4gbRAM, 320gb HD,
live 7. reason 4
maudio fwire 410 axiom 49. fcb1010
taylor 614ce
banshee talkbox
Great analogy!FrancodeLeon88 wrote:Think of your harddrive(s) as a garage that has all your tools.
Your RAM is a toolbox.
Your project is a car that is in the driveway.
...
I just experienced a massive increase in performance from a RAM upgrade. Whether the RAM upgrade will help you depends on whats slowing your system down, I think. In my case I was getting lots of slowdown and glitches, even when my CPU use was not high and the disk overload light wasn't on. FrancodeLeon88's analgoy fits my problem perfectly.....by upgrading the RAM, my cpu use went down by up to 50%, and my disk use was much more efficient.