CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.40ghz stock Motherboard: Asus m4a785-m
**Graphics:**XFX HD 5770 1GB RAM: Corsair XMS2 4gb DDR2 Hard Drive: Seagate 750gb OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Ok so i downloaded this “Scary monsters and nice sprites” remake from youtube:
then i opened up the project file and i played it, from the start the sound started to skip a little bit then after 10 or 20 seconds, THE CPU USAGE HIT 102% AND THATS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, then i stopped the sound and restarted it and it worked fine, but then after a minute or so, it happened again, it is pretty random after i start and stop it several times it will stop or start again
So please help me, My computer should be able to handle this and I dont know why it would be lagging so hard…
Your latency is too low for the amount of stuff going on or your HD is too slow (if it’s the second case and you have the RAM for it, try preloading more stuff there). It was “fixed” when you stopped because was given the time it needed to load the audio files (or pre render the vsts) and it all went to hell when that cached part ended. Think of it as when you are trying to watch a video over a slow connection and you keep getting the “buffering” message and choppy playback.
It’s hard to say where exactly things are going wrong, but there are some tricks producers use to keep CPU down:
Everyone said adjust your latency settings. That’s always my first go-to, you can find them in preferences and just adjust the sample time.
Freeze/Flatten. Honestly, I think you’re using this file because you want to learn HOW it was made.. so I’m not sure if this will help or not.. but a common way to reduce CPU is to right click on a track and “Freeze” it, then right click again and “Flatten”. Freeze might be what you want to start with, as that will basically lock you from editing changes, but will convert that track to a pure audio file, making it easier for your CPU to process.
Turning off effects. Again, if you’re using this to learn it might not help too much, but you’re getting that message because the creator obviously has more CPU buffer than your system, so he can afford to throw around CPU intensive VSTs and effects. Turning a few off will definitely help.
Upgrades. Honestly, if these all fail I’d suggest doing something like upgrading your RAM. Generally it’s pretty cheap and sites like crucial.com will analyze your system to tell you how much it can handle. Chances are if you’re running into this problem now, when you go to produce your own stuff you’ll run into this again, so rather than dealing with the hassle of freezing/flatening/limiting your setup, you may consider just upgrading your system. Sometimes it can be as low as $50 - well worth it imo.
PS. All of this is in addition to making sure you are ONLY running ableton, and ending unnecessary programs that may be running in the background. (Like anti-spyware which is notorious for just eating up CPU/RAM.. but you can’t blame me if you get a virus if you forget to turn it back on before you surf the web!
