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It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

When it starts to get laggy, what does ableton say your cpu usage is in the top right?

it hits above 100, suggesting that my laptop isnt good enough to run that many channels; it's weird though, surely these kinda specs should be enough

Try making your audio buffer higher, it can help sometimes. Also you could use the asio4all driver, it should speed things up a bit if you're using onboard audio.

An i7 is a pretty powerful chip, i don't think Ableton is the best at using all of the cores. You could try freezing tracks if you're using a lot of synths/effects.

Yeah there's something up with that. My laptop is a single core amd and I can still get to 80-90 tracks before it becomes a serious pain in the ass. Are you using an interface?

nah I don't have an interface, I'm using onboard audio at the moment...

freeze the tracks you think cause lag (big fx chain or high cpu synth's for example)

My laptop does that too, I have the same specs but 8gb ram, got an audio interface and everything is fine when I run it in asio :3

so is using the onboard audio card the main problen then?

Have you even tried any of my suggestions? Or are you just going to continue asking for help while providing no feedback?

VirtualMark wrote:Try making your audio buffer higher, it can help sometimes. Also you could use the asio4all driver, it should speed things up a bit if you're using onboard audio.

An i7 is a pretty powerful chip, i don't think Ableton is the best at using all of the cores. You could try freezing tracks if you're using a lot of synths/effects.

haha yeah man I did do that, I already do use ASIO and I do freeze tracks when things get desperate but more than anything I wanted an alternative where I wouldn't need to freeze cos surely these specs are good enough?

I tried increasing the buffer size yesterday (to 894 samples), not much of a change; it is better but the problem hasn't fully gone

Well you're definitely running out of cpu if its showing that high. Are you running at 44.1khz sample rate? Anything higher will drain your cpu more. You could also disable any startup programs, antivirus, wifi etc while you're producing. It probably won't make much difference on an i7 but maybe worth a shot.

What synths and plugins are you using? You can sometimes change the quality setting on them. Synths like Diva for example, has a multi threaded mode now to spread across cores better.

It could be down to just 1 or 2 cpu intensive plugins causing the problem. I can't run more than 3-4 instances of Diva on my 4.5ghz i7. 2c Aether reverb will kill ANY current pc on its highest settings. Anyhow, it depends what you're using, maybe try turning some plugins off and see what's eating your cpu, then just freeze those tracks.

I use onboard audio on my laptop when i travel, i can't get anywhere near as low latency as when i use an external soundcard. So it'll probably help a bit if you get an external one.

yeah I'm beginning to think that it is down to some of the plugins, for instance when I turn down the quality of my reverb plugin Ambience it reduces the lag by a lot. I am running at 44.1 though

what's a good external soundcard for a cheap price?

Also virtualmark, what movie is your avatar from? Lol

Hard to kill - back when Seagal used to make good movies lol.

I was recommended NI Audio 2 DJ by someone on this forum, it sounds great and is pretty cheap. Although NI's tech support are one of the worst i've ever used.

Yeah things like oversampling, unison and other quality settings can make a big difference on some plugins.

cheers man, I'll take a look at the NI thing and take your advice on trying to save CPU

JizzMan wrote:It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

jiz dem wtf u mekin bro???

lucozade wrote:

JizzMan wrote:It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

jiz dem wtf u mekin bro???

mekin sum sickk beets wit my unkle Mala

JizzMan wrote:

lucozade wrote:

JizzMan wrote:It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

jiz dem wtf u mekin bro???

mekin sum sickk beets wit my unkle Mala

nuff trak thutty count wtf??

lucozade wrote:

JizzMan wrote:

lucozade wrote:

JizzMan wrote:It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

jiz dem wtf u mekin bro???

mekin sum sickk beets wit my unkle Mala

nuff trak thutty count wtf??

spungebob squearpants bro, spungebob squearpants

JizzMan wrote:It's an Intel Core i7, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 6gb RAM Acer Laptop and I still get serious lag issues when I start having about 30+ channels on an Ableton project

Is it just because it's a laptop and not a PC? Or am I just overlooking something, maybe if I buy a proper external soundcard will that help significantly? Any other suggestions welcome

I think your forgetting that Ableton is a 32 bit program. It can only utilize so much of your CPU and RAM before it hits the 32 bit ceiling. Which is why they will have 64 bit support on the upcoming beta release. I have been using FL Studio 10 Extended Memory. It allows me to use more of my machine than Ableton does. FL Studio also has a "smart disable" feature which essentially turns your plug ins off when they aren't making any sound. Frees up a lot of CPU