KVR Audio

djmino02 · Post by **djmino02** » Fri May 05, 2017 3:55 am

I've been battling with CPU overload issues in Ableton. I've tried a lot of different things that were suggested on various websites to maximize my PC's performance and the issues are still prevalent and extremely annoying.

The funny thing is my CPU is actually only showing like 20% in the task manager for Ableton, but in the CPU meter in Ableton will show like 2000% and all these other ridiculous numbers randomly.

I'm beginning to think it's a problem with Ableton? From what I've read online Ableton isn't the most CPU friendly DAW around.

Are there any other DAW's that are better at handling VST's?

Thanks

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Fri May 05, 2017 4:44 am

Which are your system specs? Are you using an audio interface? What plug ins are you using?

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 05, 2017 5:07 am

Yep, need to know specs.

I used live effectively for a long time with a ton of vsts.

The one thing I will say is that some people (and I did a long time ago) can experience bottlenecks at the 60-70% range. Really not sure why.

xbitz · Post by **xbitz** » Fri May 05, 2017 5:55 am

AL utilizes one CPU core per track, can it be the problem ?

djmino02 · Post by **djmino02** » Fri May 05, 2017 12:19 pm

Like I said, my task manager only shows Ableton as using 20% at most.

xbitz wrote:AL utilizes one CPU core per track, can it be the problem ?

I think this may be the issue.

Do any other DAW's handle CPU more efficiently?

Mister Natural · Post by **Mister Natural** » Fri May 05, 2017 5:38 pm

check your latency settings . . . you prolly need a bigger buffer number

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Fri May 05, 2017 6:19 pm

djmino02 wrote:Like I said, my task manager only shows Ableton as using 20% at most.
xbitz wrote:AL utilizes one CPU core per track, can it be the problem ?
I think this may be the issue.

It does, but it's not an issue. I have 8-core Ryzen and CPU load is very balanced.

I also think that you don't have ASIO drivers or buffer size is too small. Or you use some poor plugin which runs into subnormals.

djmino02 · Post by **djmino02** » Fri May 05, 2017 8:36 pm

no i use asio. i also increased buffer size up to 1024 and i still get cpu spikes up to 2000%.

it even cuts out if i run just an amp sim and try to record guitar.

i downloaded reaper and im gonna see how i like it. i've had so many annoying issues with ableton it's ridiculous.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 05, 2017 8:59 pm

There has to be a reason. Is it ASIO 4 all? I've never been able to use that (I use wasapi on my lappy, I don't care about the latency)

Are "power settings" set to "high performance?"

Mister Natural · Post by **Mister Natural** » Fri May 05, 2017 9:28 pm

I'd be astonished if your massive latency was caused by the live daw software. Gotta be inside your machine. I remember difficulty I had once b/c ableton was incorrectly installed...

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Fri May 05, 2017 11:39 pm

Check the power saving settings, select the high performance profile.

zeep · Post by **zeep** » Sat May 06, 2017 12:31 am

All these people trying to help and OP barely gives enough information when asked.
Dude what audio interface are you using? Just plain mobo-ing it with asio4all?

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Sat May 06, 2017 4:13 am

Plus people keep not reading others posts

djmino02 · Post by **djmino02** » Sat May 06, 2017 11:34 pm

Well, I downloaded Reaper and can already tell a huge difference. No dropouts in audio with 128 samples.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Sat May 06, 2017 11:41 pm

That's not surprising (reaper is the best with cpu optimization), but you haven't told us what you have, or if you tried anything suggested.

Ableton CPU Meter Overloading Issues