I have a decent system by specs, I've ran plenty of 150+ track projects using Zebra and DIVA, no problem. My interface is MOTU M4 with 64 ms buffer. I've never had an issue until this pad running in Ableton. It's crazy, one pad is bringing my cpu to 80-90%, and it's only three osc running dual\quad\dual, and a filter and a shaper, with a four-note chord. How is this possible?? It's crackling like someone throwing away wrapping paper. Can someone try out the chord and tell me if it doing the same for them? I can send the patch and the Ableton track, let me know.

EDIT: Let me be more specific, in Live 11, the meter is saying AVG about 13%, with ONLY the pad loaded and playing its chords, but the CURRENT meter is flickering around like crazy from 70-90%. I wouldn't be so worried except in the actual track context (everything playing), my audio is crunching like crazy, and the culprit is this patch. I don't understand, I've made and played plenty of pads like this one, and they do nothing, this one is harrssshhhhhh.
Also, I raised the buffer to 128 and that helped a lot, but the issue is still the same, meaning I've never raised my buffer before, again, playing plenty of Zebra pads more intense than this.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 3, 2021

What is the name of this "preset"? You can reduce the number of Voices in the zebra.

 

Last edited: Oct 3, 2021

and of course increase the latency
in mixdown 1000 samples is fine (depending on your project)
so you have still a lot of room to wiggle

 

Whay not? This would be the proper way to test.

I find the Live 11 meter totally useless. I don't know what it is measuring, but it is off vs HWMonitor, system perf meter and other diagnostic tools..

 

Thanks for the replies, but I figured out my issue. It was my buffer at such a low setting (64 ms) I usually have my buffer at about 256 (even during mixdown), and I had refreshed my computer last month, set my buffer low, and didn't think anything of it. But I was amazed at one patch killing me like that, @ a low buffer, but still!

 

I agree somewhat, but since there were actual audio faults happening along with the spiking, I'm pretty sure it was related.

 

you are right i should have written "Even"
BUT there are times, like if external DSP is involved, 1024 can be a stabilizer of your system
at least works for me ;)