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Hey guys, i have an issue. After adding too much stuff on my current project, ableton starts stuttering badly making it imposibe to work on.It shows cpu load of like 110%.The thing is, I am running an i5 @ 4.8GH and got 6gb of ram,so while this happens on ableton, task manager shows only like 65-70% cpu usage and about 3.5 gb of ram.

First thing that occured to me was that my ram spreed could be slow. Im on 1600mhz now,but do you think an upgrade there would really solve the problem?
Keep on mind that i want to avoid bouncing especially on this project.

Thanks a lot for your help guys.

First things first - make sure youre not running out of battery. I don't know about the ram and that shit, but try resampling m8. Also turn off other apps you're not using. Ya know, the standard CPU reduction methods.

I'm 99% sure memory speed has nothing to do with it. Are you using an external audio interface? If so try increasing your buffer size. If not, are you using asio4all? You should be. You could also try bouncing down synth lines to audio like dubunked said to lower the load on your cpu.

Unless you you have a quite a few large audio files, RAM has nothing to do with it. Look into proper buffer settings for your audio interface. It's either that or your project is over taxing your CPU.

What all are you running in the project? Run down of potential CPU hogs?

Try checking your sample rate. Its in lives preferences. I changed mine to the lowest sample rate the other day at like 128 and i loaded a finished track and was glitching and stuttering like crazy. Ended up deleting some eqs and volume faders at the right db. I saved it and opened it again... Gone. A mixed tracked gone. That day i went to preferences and cranked that bitch up and now it works fine with my whole project.

Try that or open activity monitor and closing apications. The sample thing is probably your best beat since i have a 2008 macbook 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo THREE gigs of ram and surprisingly i get to 80% on a big track but it normally at 40% which is still pretty bad for a daw.


***** ops ment buffer size but other guys beat me to it.

I used to have this problem in logic and I could almost always alleviate it by increasing the buffer size to the max amount. That will introduce latency so things might sound a little off but it should definitely be able to run more tracks without being overloaded.

edit - haha maybe I should read the thread before responding since everyone basically said the same thing

mpharm wrote:Hey guys, i have an issue. After adding too much stuff on my current project, ableton starts stuttering badly making it imposibe to work on.It shows cpu load of like 110%.The thing is, I am running an i5 @ 4.8GH and got 6gb of ram,so while this happens on ableton, task manager shows only like 65-70% cpu usage and about 3.5 gb of ram.

First thing that occured to me was that my ram spreed could be slow. Im on 1600mhz now,but do you think an upgrade there would really solve the problem?
Keep on mind that i want to avoid bouncing especially on this project.

Thanks a lot for your help guys.

You have too many Massives open mate.

Time to resample. Or if you're newer to producing, try making more use of a single synth (ie. automations etc) to create different/interesting sounds without having to open a whole new Massive/synth.

What's great about this is that it saves CPU but also keeps your song sounding uniform because several sounds are branched off the same synth. So you don't have a bunch of random sounds going on

Dustwyrm wrote:

mpharm wrote:Hey guys, i have an issue. After adding too much stuff on my current project, ableton starts stuttering badly making it imposibe to work on.It shows cpu load of like 110%.The thing is, I am running an i5 @ 4.8GH and got 6gb of ram,so while this happens on ableton, task manager shows only like 65-70% cpu usage and about 3.5 gb of ram.

First thing that occured to me was that my ram spreed could be slow. Im on 1600mhz now,but do you think an upgrade there would really solve the problem?
Keep on mind that i want to avoid bouncing especially on this project.

Thanks a lot for your help guys.

You have too many Massives open mate.

Time to resample. Or if you're newer to producing, try making more use of a single synth (ie. automations etc) to create different/interesting sounds without having to open a whole new Massive/synth.

What's great about this is that it saves CPU but also keeps your song sounding uniform because several sounds are branched off the same synth. So you don't have a bunch of random sounds going on

Hey mate,thanks for your reply but as i said i want to avoid bouncing on this one yet.and neither beginner nor using massive at all, Im mostly on cyclop vanguard sytrus harmor sylenth and strobe. I took a couple of ozones and alloys out and it seems to work better but still is pretty long because i am not taking advantage of my pc specs having to use shortcuts like these..
Anyways thank you all guys

So...how many Ozones do you have loaded, lol? There is your CPU hog, man. Don't care what your PC specs are, get 3 or 4 of those open it's going to eat CPU like a fiend to the pipe...

fragments wrote:So...how many Ozones do you have loaded, lol? There is your CPU hog, man. Don't care what your PC specs are, get 3 or 4 of those open it's going to eat CPU like a fiend to the pipe...

Hey mate, multiband comp and imagers on busses.And looking through more specific stuff like cpu z , cpu maxes at 68% and so its def not a cpu issue.

You check the buffer settings as suggested? Are you using a dedicated audio interface? Also you assume that shit isn't so taxed that the CPU meter can't keep up ;p (<I dunno if that's even a legit possibility...)

Hell...you on Windows? If so, have you run security essentials lately or done updates? Using the most current drivers for our interface? Using ASIO4ALL? Just spit balling here..

Yeah mate, thanks for the replies, i have a focusrite saffire 6 on asio and sample rates and bufer are where they should be.
I just used a cpu maxing software with cpu z open and the core speeds are nowhere near to those when ableton is on, making my stuttering ableton with its plugins a toy compared to the speeds and temps when on 100%.mindfuck i know..And yeah,everything fully updated :/

Well shit. That about exhausts my knowledge then. Sorry man, hopefully someone else will jump in here. My only thought is that would Ableton use more CPU during playback than when sitting idle? Or am I missing something?

I had a few projects in ableton blow up/implode on me, i found out it was due to some corrupt samples i kept trying to load into a drum rack.

Project would be fine, i drag in 10 kicks from a certain sample pack and i start beach balling and cpu hang and almost unresponsive until i either delete the sample or close the project.

I ended up just deleting the questionable sample pack and life has been pretty good since.

Have you tried moving usb ports? or unplugging unneeded USB devices?

Its perfectly normal for cpu usage to be between 70-80% when asio load is on full, really good cards will get you somewhere nearer 80% cpu usage.... if you dont have any other background processes running that cause spikes in whats called the dpc times. Download LatencyMon to see if you've got anything causing spikes.

Although you do have one of the the worst performing soundcards ever, you really need to upgrade the saffire to be able to get better performance at lower latencies. The saffire 6 is USB1, not USB2 and is completely outdated now. Try a Native Instuments KA6, The latest drivers score about 6.7 out of 10 on the ranking chart (but the chart hasnt been updated to it yet)

Here's the interface performance ranking charts

If you've got your buffersize above 512 samples and have no dpc spikes, then you are simply maxing out your cpu. Switching to the equivilent i7 chip (you dont say what i5 you are running, but the fact its at 4.8ghz makes me think its probably the sandy bridge 2500K?) will get you about an extra 25% power from your existing chip.

Hey mate,thanks for your reply.I know that about the focusrite and im going to upgrade asap.
Regarding the cpu, yes, it is a sandybridge @3.30 which i have overclocked @4.8.
Stock sandybridge i7s come mostly at 3.5 so there is not really a point of spending money on a processor atm,especially as i said before, when i 100% my cpu, speeds and temps are nowhere close to ableton.Plus i havent checked but there is high chance i will need to buy a new motherboard with the i7.
I hear you on the interface,i have been thinking of the KA6 myself as well amongst others, and thanks for the chart!

mpharm wrote:Hey mate,thanks for your reply.I know that about the focusrite and im going to upgrade asap.
Regarding the cpu, yes, it is a sandybridge @3.30 which i have overclocked @4.8.
Stock sandybridge i7s come mostly at 3.5 so there is not really a point of spending money on a processor atm,especially as i said before, when i 100% my cpu, speeds and temps are nowhere close to ableton.Plus i havent checked but there is high chance i will need to buy a new motherboard with the i7.
I hear you on the interface,i have been thinking of the KA6 myself as well amongst others, and thanks for the chart!

You should actually be able to just drop in replace the i5 with an 2600k or 2700k chip, voltages will be very similar for the overclock, though i do think 4.6 GHZ is a better speed with a slightly lower v-core voltage , unless you are using a watercooler, as will be loads quieter and rocksolid for years to come.

Your motherboard should be fine, you might need to update the bios if you go for a ivy bridge CPU (3770k etc), but you'll need a completely new set of overclock voltages for that.