Cracks and pops on Mac

netchaiev · Post by **netchaiev** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:46 pm

Well, I gotta experiment to w/ settings... the thing is, it's just so random those cracks that it kind of driving me nuts. Same projects, same settings of the computer(energy saving etc..) CPU goes always around 45% but sometimes is just fine and sometimes it's crazy. so I'm upgrading my internal HD ASAP, I bought a 7k100(7200rpm, 100Gb) and see if that makes adifference in the readings etc...

jkob · Post by **jkob** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:59 pm

many weeks passed, and theres no solution?
i called the support of ableton. they are nice guys really..
but they cant give me an answer about this problem.
they told me, they had the same problem with the audiointerfaces and macs.
Well, is ableton really "good" compatible to mac os x (and m-audio)??????????
tell me...

i solved the problem a little bit, as i changed the energysaveing at the preferences to maximum. but at 40-50 %...= kkrz.. krrrrrzzzr... p......p........krp....z.......
PB g4 1,33Mhz 768 ram by 512/1024 buffer and 44.100 hz 24 bit recordiing my voice.
i drives me nuts and im angry.. i bought it same as you for much money.
and it does not work for me..

PLEASE!!!!!!! FIND A SOLUTION!!!!

what should i else do with this program?

datalyst studio · Post by **datalyst studio** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:10 pm

hey...look around folks...many posts in the last few weeks, if you read them, are containing similar problems...i know, i also have pops, clicks and random audio drop outs in Live 5.0.2 so i have been really busy at the forum this past week.

my problems started when i opened up a als i had previously used in 4.1.

(HP laptop, Intel 4 3.2, 2 GIG RAM, WinXP, MOTU828mkII)

when i first upgraded to 5 i had just began to work on new material, which produced fine results because i was still using very minimal audio tracks and plug-in's ...but recently i went to tweak an old mix of an elaborate song ...many audio tracks, many reason tracks via rewire, many plug-ins and warping and had ALL kinds of popping and drop outs. I tried renderering and that was as equally dismal. the song worked pretty darn well in 4.1 ...based on things i've read this is occuring as result of L5 not being...oh...how should i put it...solid...definitely not as bullet proof as 4.1.

things really started looking down when i was no longer able to launch L5 at ALL! (which seems to be exclusive to me)...tech support has replied but the instructions have not been helpful...day 5..still no go...!

as far as warping...i have been good about turning warp off when i don't need it...i have 'rendered' warp tracks only to drag those rendered warped tracks into the song so i wouldn't need warp at all...yes, warping uses cpu, but the performance between 4.1 and 5.0.2 is astonishing and disappointing.

posts i've read from others with these problems are speculating that the guru's at Ableton are very, VERY busy trying to make an update to fix this...lets hope so.

I've also read that there is a signifcant conflict with Waves plug-ins...i can't determine if this is supposedly exclusive to 5 or not but i have a waves bundle and had used waves plug-ins in both 4.1 and 5 so i don't know what to think...???...some things are just plain odd...

as frustraing as this is, i have faith that Ableton can rectify these issues soon...this software is fundumentally exciting and ambitious...for the next couple days at least i'll hold off jumbing ship to try & learn a new software....besides, i've paid $550.00 ...400 for Live 4, and 150 for the update...that's a lot of money!...what's more is i've invested a lot of time learning this unique program...more than any other program i have used.

tgessner · Post by **tgessner** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:10 pm

Hi,

same story here - I am getting very frustrated about various issues with Live 5 - pops and crackles, plus no audible sound from monitored/rec enabled tracks randomly. At least it is good to read I am not alone.

The bad thing for me is that I really dig live as my primary composition tool. The way it allows me to work - in theory at least - is way closer to my creative process than any other sequencer.

At first, I thought it was my loaner audio interface (M-Audio 410) but after I had switched to a MOTO traveler - same situation. Things did not improve at all after upgrading to 5.0.2. It apprears to me that problems really increased to the point where I am unable to use Live at all. Plus, Live 5 seems to be quite a processor hog. Regulary at or around 70% CPU with 4 freezed audio tracks and 1 live track running at 24/44.1 and ~200 samples buffer on a 1.25GHz PB G4.

I can only hope our friends in Berlin are taking the issue seriously and throw in some night shifts to fix our (still) favourite piece of 'ware.

Regards,

Thomas

ManxRed · Post by **ManxRed** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:28 pm

Not sure if its the same problem but I get pops and clicks after about 40 minutes use, regardless of number of tracks, CPU usage etc.

Save the file I'm working on, close Live, re-open Live, and hey presto! It's gone. 40 minutes later they come back again.

Luckily I'm just doing Home Studio stuff but if I was using this Live (as it were) I'd be B*gg*red!

Anyone else getting this?

I'm using Live 5 (think its the first version they released - I haven't upgraded the software at all) and before that I was using the Live 2 Delta that came with the M Audio card. It never happened with that software ever. Only since I started using Live 5.

krikor · Post by **krikor** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:54 pm

i started getting pops and digital clicks on some of my sessions, it's very bad cause i'm in the mixing part now and, if try to rewire it i will loose all the effects!!!
It would be really nice if ableton couls solve this, i've one friend who gets that on mac and one also on pc...

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:19 am

ok I'm going to offend a few people here but what the fu** is with ableton never saying a word about this stuff?

I want some answers. and I'm not going to get them.

Cryptic UK · Post by **Cryptic UK** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:31 am

yep got this one

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:02 pm

This has been happening since 4.1 to be honest... i've got an old machine so i blamed that.. but sometimes i can be playing two audio files and i get glitches and pops and drop outs... its the major major problem with this "live' application...

dom · Post by **dom** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:03 pm

Hi Folks,

a few thoughts on this one:

Nobody seems to be able to reproduce this with internal audio interfaces or the onboard sound.

It seems that with every OS X update (10.2 - 10.3 - 10.4) firewire audio interfaces need more cpu ressources.

I can connect several different firewire audiointerface that use the apple drivers that comes with the OS to a G4/800 and get cpu spike up to 100% every few seconds. Looks horrible! Only pluigging it in shows this, you don't even have to use the driver. The M-Audios don't seem to peak rightaway, they show the huge processor usage only while using the driver.

M-Audio states on their website that they don't suggest upgrading higher then panther if you use a slow g3/g4 mac because of performance problems.

In the RME Forum and while talking to another soundcard company i found this (so, 2 sources): They asked Apple about this and recieved this answer: We know those peaks but they don't affect performance.
Still very puzzled about this statement, as you can imagine.

It would be very helpfuls if everyone participating in this thread checks the kernel_task and the system performance in general with the process monitor with a.) onboard audio (it is important to really pull the firewireplug) and b.) with your firewire interface. Please post your results and your system specs, we can't do much with "same here" mails, as you may can imagine.

So, in general it seems to be a performance issue with firewire audio in general combined with Live using a bit more ressources, too, in version 5 (because of the new stuff like pdc etc.)

Thank you all,

Dom
ableton

P.S.: did anyone try to connect a 01x to a G4/800 powerbook, activated 8 ins and was still able to do something usefull with the machine? Just curious.

unusable · Post by **unusable** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 2:18 am

i just pulled this g4 powerbook 10.4.3 out of the box last week with 1 gig.
downloaded the demo last week of 5.0.2.
brand new focusrite saffire firewire converters

primarily wanted to use this setup for live sampling/performing.... looks like that is a negatory.

clicks on the demo, pops on the demo, i can easily bring the audio into a catostrophic state by using an ableton vst while looping 3 audio tracks, continually playing at 512sample buffer. tried at 1024 and can still freak the system out, although better. essentially i can change the buffers all day within an acceptable range 128 - 1024 and i'll still bring down the audio no problem

as for your process monitoring

18% with firewire drive connected and running the audio
3-4% with onboard audio but i still hear crackles, randomly for what appears to be no reason.

when crashing(clicking and popping into hell) live 5.0.2 demo takes(I have no idea how) 180% of the CPU power up to 1200%, lol.

so, wtf?

this is the demo!!, is this only a mac problem?

i'd love to use the application but this is crazy!
anyone wanna sell me live 4.

shawn

jasonjbundy · Post by **jasonjbundy** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:19 am

My first post to the Ableton forum and it happens to be a real b*tch!

I have been experiencing audio dropouts since upgrading to version 5 on my Dell laptop. I have been tearing my hair out thinking that my Live setup was done incorrectly (which it is NOT) or maybe Live could not handle the audio performance while my CPU meter barely cracked 20% (which it obviously can't on my PC and evidently on the Macs as I have been reading).

Well I have been working on new sketches that do not even crack the 10% CPU mark and I get clicks, pops, and dropouts (one instance of Simpler with Filter delay and a four note chord).

WTF???

Let's get a fix for Mac and PC users already!

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:20 am

I get this with on board audio...

krikor · Post by **krikor** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:41 am

dom wrote:Hi Folks,

a few thoughts on this one:

Nobody seems to be able to reproduce this with internal audio interfaces or the onboard sound.

.

i get it too on the internal audio interface
on a g5 2x2 gigahertz, and the cpu is far from being in the red
it just happen randomly on some of the session
i alreday emailed ableton one "infected" track and one that doesn't get this problem, and the one that is clear is the heaviest on the cpu

forgie · Post by **forgie** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:49 am

I haven't had any problems really.... on my 1.33Ghz iBook running 10.4.3. My songs don't really run more then 40-50% CPU, but even at that CPU usage I've never had audio dropouts. This is using the onboard soundcard. The only time I've experience droupouts is when load a new softsynth on a track that's already playing (sometimes the other tracks glitch when I do this).

That being said, I don't have any really CPU intensive tracks. (yet...)

Cracks and pops on Mac

ITS NOT YOUR SOUNDCARD!

Crackles, Pops, then: No sound at all in 5.0.2

man oh man, clickin and poping the demo

Not Just The Mac, But PC too!