Operation Manual
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Chapter 23
Computer Audio Resources and
Strategies
Real-time audio processing is a demanding task for general-purpose computers, which are
usually designed to run spreadsheets and surf the Internet. An application like Live requires
a powerful CPU and a fast hard disk. This section will provide some insight on these issues,
and should help you avoid and solve problems with running audio on a computer.
23.1 Managing the CPU Load
To output a continuous stream of sound through the audio hardware, Live has to perform
a huge number of calculations every second. If the processor can't keep up with what
needs to be calculated, the audio will have gaps or clicks. Factors that affect computational
speed include processor clock rates (e.g., speed in MHz or GHz), architecture, memory
cache performance (how efciently a processor can grab data from memory) and system
bus bandwidth the computer's pipeline through which all data must pass. For this
reason, many people involved with pro audio use computers that are optimized for musical
applications.