ACE - MultiCore Button - What Does it Do in Ableton Live?

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What does the multicore button do in Ableton Live? I see that for some patches, the CPU usage goes way down when the Multicore button is enabled. However, it seems that polyphony also seems to change with the button enabled. Hard to determine or predict. Also, since Live is coded to run each track on a single CPU core, how is enabling the multicore button getting past this?

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Hi Nebulae,

it does the same thing as in other DAWs, it spreads the CPU load of polyphonically played patches across several CPU cores. Also running each track on a single core is what most DAWs do, afaik, so ACE is assigned to whatever core is reponsible for the current track, and then if you play more than one note, these additional notes are processed on other cores.
Can you describe what you mean by changing polyphony when enabling Multicore?

Viktor
u-he team

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Ok thanks. I didn’t realize you could spread notes across other cores when the DAW restricts you to one core per track.

What I meant by different polyphony is that when I turn on multicore on ACE, sometimes I can hear note stealing. It seems like the polyphony is reduced. Not sure I can replicate it.

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What value do you have the 'General Settings -> Voices' setting at - There's a max polyphony depending on which you use:

Few - 4 voices
Medium - 8 voices
Many - 16 voices

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It’s set to max polyphony.

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nebulae wrote:Ok thanks. I didn’t realize you could spread notes across other cores when the DAW restricts you to one core per track.

What I meant by different polyphony is that when I turn on multicore on ACE, sometimes I can hear note stealing. It seems like the polyphony is reduced. Not sure I can replicate it.
I think most DAWs work this way. Single instruments and channels generally will run across a single core. It seems the multicore button in U-he syths seems to allow their synths to bypass that. It's great for when you want to run large voice pads with long releases, which can max out a single core, but once you're actually in a project with other effects and instruments, it can actually degrade realtime performance and you may be better off leaving Multicore off and letting the DAW manage the CPU.

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Good point. I may leave muticore on abs then render the audio. Then switch off.

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