efficient use of MachFive 3 in Ableton Live?

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menright
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efficient use of MachFive 3 in Ableton Live?

Post by menright »

I'm using a lot of MF3 inside of Ableton Live and it works great. It really expands the quality and quantity of my sounds.

When I use MF3 in DP I never use more than about five parts before I create another instance. I do this because I find it easier to manage grouping of the sounds, and also because I've read on this forum that MF3 more evenly distributes the processing load when multiple instances are employed (multithreading was mentioned).

My question is, should I do the same thing in Ableton? Lately I've been creating a separate instance of MF3 each time I make a new part. There's a lot less signal routing when I do this; I can use one track to handle volume, plugins, etc., without having to route anything to an additional aux track. Is this an efficient use of MF3? Or should I manage it like I do in DP, with multiple parts in a single instance and aux tracks to handle any part that needs to be broken out of MF? What is better from a processing and memory usage standpoint?

I guess it comes down to this: does each instantiation of MF take more memory and processing power than more parts within fewer instantiations?

thanks!
Mike E
MacBook Pro 17' 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB, DP9.1, MachFive3, Ethno2, Synthmaster, Waves, UVI, Ableton Live
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menright
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Re: efficient use of MachFive 3 in Ableton Live?

Post by menright »

I guess no one has an opinion about this. Maybe I'll do another search through MOTU's tech documents.
MacBook Pro 17' 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB, DP9.1, MachFive3, Ethno2, Synthmaster, Waves, UVI, Ableton Live
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Michael Canavan
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Re: efficient use of MachFive 3 in Ableton Live?

Post by Michael Canavan »

Yes, do the same thing in Ableton. It's debatable but Live might not be as good as other DAWs with true multiple core computers, but loading 4 or five tracks at least of M53 or Kontakt etc. does seem to help CPU wise in Live.

Regardless, most DAWs handle CPU cores on a per track basis, so an 8 core machine will be helped by loading tracks evenly between 8 cores or more.
M2 Studio Ultra, RME Babyface FS, Slate Raven Mti2, NI SL88 MKII, Linnstrument, MPC Live II, Launchpad MK3. Hundreds of plug ins.
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