Hi All, Ive been getting more and more frustrated with my setup Iv'e got 16gb of ram in my MBP and a 2.6 i7 cpu. I'm using some heavy CPU VST's Diva Serum Omnisphere2, Reaktor, and a couple of UAD Plugins/Sound Toys/ Fab Filter In Live 9.5 with Push 2. It seems like I can only have about 6-8 tracks going before my system starts glitching out when tracking. I read the optimisation guide here but it didn't make much difference. Yes I can freeze tracks and use draft modes in the VST's and use UAD plugs sparingly also switching latency up to 512,1024,2048 doesn't seem to make much difference. Am i just asking too much of my computer? should I consider Vienna ensemble pro as I have access to a quad core mac mini. Has anyone got a similar setup / advice
Thanks for looking

 

what version of live are you running? I'm having problems as well with 9.5 on an i5 desktop with 8 gigs of ram, audio running through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It all worked well for me before Live 9.5, now I get random audio dropouts every 10-15 seconds. Latency is ridiculously bad, with Asio4all as well as the Focusrite Asio driver. Pain in the ass, really.

 

If your system starts glitching when your VSTs are using more than 80% of CPU, that's perfectly normal. With optimisations you can usually gain just a few more percents, and generally when your CPU usage is over 90% you will be unable to make music normally.

What I do occasionally if I run out of CPU is overclock it. That's the most effective method when you know your CPU well, but you should never do it without testing it thoroughly first. I also use a laptop over LAN with Reaper's ReaMote as additional DSP for VSTs. You should maybe think about using an additional computer like that if one computer is not enough for you.

 

Last edited: Nov 22, 2015

Using 9.5 and push 2. it's doing my head in freezing unfreezing track constantly having to switch latency setting. I've just been testing my mac mini with the same project and it out performs my MacBook Pro despite that on paper it's a less powerful machine. Think I may fit an ssd in it and use it instead. Will check out Reaper's ReaMote.

 

- For testing, try to install another daw and see if You can rule out the daw

but, it seems to me that YOu are at the limit with all the loaded plugs and instruments
"Diva Serum Omnisphere2, Reaktor, and a couple of UAD Plugins/Sound Toys/ Fab Filter In Live 9.5 with Push 2" ...that is a lot IMO

 

A few instances of Diva alone, depending on the CPU power, can make your computer crawl and produce clicks and glitches. That is perfectly normal even with the fastest CPUs. I use Diva for estimating CPU power/DAW and OS testing because it is so demanding. If Diva works without any problems, everything should work without any problems.

 

I guess UAD plugins can be ruled out. They run on the SHARC processors of your Apollo. Actually, my setup is even meager than yours and I run 40 tracks without a glitch. However, I don't use heavy synths or Ableton. So maybe I'm not a good reference for you. Anyway, my system is a 2.5 Ghz Mac Mini with 16Gb RAM and an Apollo Twin Duo.