Hello everyone,

First of all here is my current pc specs.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
8GB RAM
64 Bit operating system.

I'm currently using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 as my soundcard.

My problem is that when I open my current project it's using 7.5GB RAM and around 70-80% on the CPU meter in live and 40-50% on task maanger CPU usage. Which is making my project glitch. I'm currently thinking on upgrading my ram to 16GB will that help the CPU out a bit?

 

I'm using Ableton Live Suite 9

 

its your soundcard and the driver of focusrite
i hate the company focusrite for their drivers

but you can put the buffer sizes of your card longer to 560 or so , may this can help

 

I'm on mac... but i think try different version of your driver not necessary the last one perhaps for you another version is more stable for your system but i think your cpu peak is certainly the fact you have not enough memory... Today for music production 8g is not enough anymore.... 16 giga is low level to work ..... 32 giga is perfect

 

Ableton Live per se is not very demanding on the ram and 8 gb are enough for Live. There are applications within Live, such as Kontakt, that blow up the ram usage pretty quickly. If you do run out of ram, you'll get an "out of memory" error message. The cpu usage is not affected.
Instead of blaming the DAW, could it be that your project runs your rig to the limit? Could you give us some specifics of your project?
If you're using a lot of vstis, then there is always the option to freeze and flatten, this should give you some instant remedy...

 

Ironically is the CPU performance of Live which is coded for Live usage very bad. It gets even worse when you use Max For Live stuff.
Even the smallest Max Plugin was causing glitches here.

 

Increase your buffer size?

 

Not a PC guy but would help to mention what you have loaded in the tracks. Instruments, samples etc...

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2016

Mostly its the plugins u use making CPU suffer. Which plugins do u use?

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2016

Options > Preferences
CPU
Multicore/Multiprocessor Support - ON
maybe..?

More RAM always helps.

 

Live's cpu meter isn't really a cpu meter. It is something like the percentage of the time Live takes to calculate the audio buffer relative to how long it takes to play it.
Eg 25% on cpu meter means Live is processing the audio buffer 4 times faster than playback

This is why Lives meter and the Windows task manager or Mac activity monitor never say the same cpu amount

Solution as already mentioned is to increase the buffer size!

In theory you shouldn't get glitches until 100% but that's not always the case.

It's also worth bearing in mind that because of the way Live displays this Cpu reading, adding vsts/devices doesn't increase the "cpu load" in a linear fashion.
Eg on A quad core system the first instance of a synth may bump the meter up 10%. 3 more instances may not have much of an impact after that as the other cpu cores will deal with them and it will take Live no more time to process all 4 than just 1

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2016

In addition 8gb ram is usually the "minimum" requirement by many plugs.

 

Soundtoys 5 CPU load

Have a look maybe it can help you.

 

It happens because of all the rendering behind the scenes, to process your audio from digital to analog. The amount of channels and plugins (maybe heavy ones?) has a direct impact.
To fix the glitching you can increase the buffersize but this will introduce latency at some point. In this case try to record on a low buffer, then increase the buffersize if necessary during the mix stage of your project.
And get a better audiointerface, max out your ram, have enough disk space, use external disks for samples and libraries.

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2016

Unless you have hot swappable drive bays