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Home Software DAW Sequencers / Samplers (Software) Reload this Page squeal of death + high cpu usage on Ableton Live... any help appreciated =)

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futurassic futurassic is offline
3 posts, Registered User
  
 
Hey Guys!

Ok, so my shiny new dell m1330 notebook arrived the other day and I decided to install all my music producing software on it and get everything set-up.

old computer:
XP Pro
2.0ghz intel core 2 duo
2gb ram
built in soundcard

new notebook:
XP pro
2.5ghz intel core 2 duo
4gb ram

I currently have Ableton Live 7.0.3 with various softsynths and vst effects installed. After opening a previous project from my old pc, and playing I heard the squeal of death (SOD). The cpu was peaking through the roof which I found odd as my new dell has somewhat better specs than my old pc.

I thought it was my soundcard so tried out my tascam US-122L soundcard and also ASIO4ALL. This didn't help at all, therefore figured it wasn't a soundcard/buffer/latency related problem.

I then read something on a forum about intel's "speedStep" possibly causing the problem, therefore disabled it in my BIOS settings. This stopped the SOD, but after playing 10-15sec of my track the cpu meter would still peak like crazy (over 200%) and the sound would cut out.

It seems like Ableton is using an excessive amount of CPU, and that possibly there are some settings that need tweaking on my notebook.

If anyone has dealt with same (or similar) issue, or has any advice, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Daniel
07-01-2008
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breal's Avatar
breal breal is offline
4,763 posts, Registered User
  
 
When you playing midi lower the buffer.
After you play the notes (Notes in pianoroll)or bounce it to audio raise the buffer.
Freezing plugins will save cpu

Also make sure you set up the asio in Live right


PC Musician: XP Tweaks For Music

The Audio Tweaks That Work - And The Ones That Don't!
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep0...ician_0906.htm

Optimising Windows XP For Music
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar0...sician0302.asp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mteezy
Alrighty then. You use the Attack on your mixer channel to determine how hard the kick hits. The Release on the mixer channel determine how long or short the kick sounds. The Decay determines how abruptly the tail on the kick sample stays or cut out. The Cutoff on your mixer is important as well. Use this function to cut off or raise the frequencies of the sample. Time for me to party. 1

Last edited by breal; 07-01-2008 at 02:07 AM..
07-01-2008
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futurassic futurassic is offline
3 posts, Registered User
  
 
Hi breal, cheers for that!

I've looked at the links you've given me and enabled most of the tweaks.
I've also changed my virtual memory to 10gigs (both upper and lower limits) as I read somewhere your VM should be around 2.5x as much as your ram.. I hope that's correct

will reboot and try things out...
07-01-2008
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L. A. Stone L. A. Stone is offline
2,541 posts, Registered User
  
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by futurassic

I thought it was my soundcard so tried out my tascam US-122L soundcard and also ASIO4ALL. This didn't help at all, therefore figured it wasn't a soundcard/buffer/latency related problem.
If your Tascam US-122L came with it's own ASIO driver, then you should really be using it instead of ASIO4ALL. If the Tascam is not an ASIO audio card, you should take it back where you got it and get a real audio card. There's no way you should be using ASIO4All. I don't know if that's causing ALL of your problems but it can definitely account for some of that.
07-01-2008
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futurassic futurassic is offline
3 posts, Registered User
  
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by L. A. Stone
If your Tascam US-122L came with it's own ASIO driver, then you should really be using it instead of ASIO4ALL. If the Tascam is not an ASIO audio card, you should take it back where you got it and get a real audio card. There's no way you should be using ASIO4All. I don't know if that's causing ALL of your problems but it can definitely account for some of that.
Hi L A Stone, the Tascam US-122L came with its own drivers which I'm using at the moment (and have used on my old computer).

So I rebooted, and things seem to look a bit better. The CPU meter isn't jumping around erratically anymore and seems to be a bit lower in general.
I tried opening a song which was almost peaking 100% (while playing) on my old computer and the CPU read 140% (without even pressing play).

So I'm a bit confused, there's either a bit more tweaking that needs to be done, or the desktop PC is faster than the notebook (although all specs deny that fact).

Could any of these have an effect on the performance:
- the built in soundcard is a SigmaTel (I have heard bad things...)
- 10gb of the 300gb HDD is dual-booting vista
(that's all the major differences I can think of at this stage)
07-01-2008
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bluchippa5 bluchippa5 is offline
2,255 posts, Registered User
  
 
i would post this on the ableton forum...someone from the actual company usually chimes in and answers your question if no one else can, or email customer service..


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07-01-2008
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