Weird problem with audio dropping out all the time.

nathannn · Post by **nathannn** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 6:00 am

i also have the same problem with an amd 3200+

Tarasmil · Post by **Tarasmil** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:34 pm

Have you guys received any mail response from the technical support, concerning this serious problem? i've tried and tried

(perhaps it is time to contact press, make youtubes, enter in forums spreading the problem,etc,etc)

Is there anyone out there who has a Intel Mac OSX working perfectly well with Live 6?
I mean without the problems referred here.

This is a very strange question, product of my desperation:

Is possible to get Live 5.2.2 with the license of ableton 6? (I'm 99% sure it is not possible)

It would be nice from ableton to allow version 6 purchasers to get 5.2.2 until the problem is solved (perhaps I'm dreaming awake)

pribeh_tom · Post by **pribeh_tom** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:08 am

I've almost given up. I use my mpc for now. Maybe the next logic will be the live killer I've been waiting for. If you're looking for mixing with no glitches or latency try Logic.

mauriziodami · Post by **mauriziodami** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:16 pm

Uhmm.. I was thinking it was a problem of Windows Vista, but now I can see it's a problem of Ableton...
I use Live for DJing with a Toshiba Satellite core 2 due (2 gigas RAM)
Usually my CPU usage stays on 3%
But sometimes I experience a couple of short interruptions in audio (from 1 second to 4 seconds) during my gig.
Really annoying!
I use Live 6.07
maurizio
(Alexander Robotnick)

keithcamilleri · Post by **keithcamilleri** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:18 am

same prob here i thought it was a hdd issue, and coverted all wavs to mp3 so the workload on the hdd is to a minimum but still sometimes the audio drops out and come back in out of time

testube · Post by **testube** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:12 am

Just started having this problem today. I was working on a remix yesterday and it was running great. Then today, the project froze and I had no choice but to to hold down the power button to reboot my laptop (CTRL ALT DEL didn't work). Ever since then, I've been having the stuttering problem. I've been playing with latency, page file and ASIO settings all night with no success. Ableton shows my CPU usage at around 20-40%, but Windows task manager stays at 100% the entire time. It also shows Ableton using about 400Mb of RAM with absolutely nothing loaded in it (i.e. a blank live set). This really sucks.

I should also mention that when the software originally froze and I rebooted, it forced me to re-unlock my copy of Ableton Live and the EIC. Weird.

I'm running P4 2.4Ghz XP Home with 1Gb RAM / Live version 6.0.7, so this is definitely not a MAC-specific issue.

supamonsta · Post by **supamonsta** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:49 am

Same bug here since 2 weeks : I just added a midi controller (faderfox LV2 : no usb link, just midi with my interface that was already in my set).

My live set contains less than 70mb of samples, few plugins (live devices and 2-3 livecut-suppatrigga), almost at 10-15% CPU usage max…

I use macbook2 1gb ram, live 6.0.5.

PLEAAAAASE ABLETON, ANY CONCERN ???????

kleine · Post by **kleine** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:06 am

Hello,

For all who experience such dropouts, here are some general tips:

MAC users:

- Make sure to use the latest Live installer.

- It´s a known issue that the first time you load a set and press play or tweak e.g.
a reverb etc. a small dropout can occur. This happens because of the dynamic memory allocation in OS X (The application tells the System that it needs more RAM and the System distributes it to the application). There is not much we can do about this but we investigate. As i said, this only happens once or twice the very first time you start to play your set/to tweak a effect parameter. You can avoid it, if you turn down the master volume and start Live, kind of a "dry run" - this is recommended for anyone who´s performing with Live on stage.

- If you still experience dropout´s, check if it happens with the internal audio as well and check if changing the latency helps. Try to narrow down the problem:
does it happen without VST´s?
does it happen with the internal audio?
does it happen with -let´s say- only 2 tracks?
Also, RAM is a crucial factor: the bigger the set, the more files you have loaded, the more RAM Live needs. Make sure that no other unused programs are open in the background. If the problem persists, send us the information which is requested on:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/support_contact

PC users:

- Make sure that you use Live 6.07

- Make sure to have enough RAM

- Make sure to use the latest ASIO drivers for your audio interface.
(especially cheap interfaces/drivers lead to all kinds of problems)

- See the common pages for finetuning your system, e.g. http://musicxp.net/

- If you still experience dropout´s, check if changing the latency helps. Try to narrow down the problem:
does it happen without VST´s?
does it happen with -let´s say- only 2 tracks?
Also, RAM is a crucial factor: the bigger the set, the more files you have loaded, the more RAM Live needs. Make sure that no other unused programs are open in the background. If the problem persists, send us the information which is requested on:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/support_contact

Best,
Christian Kleine
support@ableton.com

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:32 am

kleine wrote:Hello,

For all who experience such dropouts, here are some general tips:

MAC users:

- Make sure to use the latest Live installer.

- It´s a known issue that the first time you load a set and press play or tweak e.g.
a reverb etc. a small dropout can occur. This happens because of the dynamic memory allocation in OS X (The application tells the System that it needs more RAM and the System distributes it to the application). There is not much we can do about this but we investigate. As i said, this only happens once or twice the very first time you start to play your set/to tweak a effect parameter. You can avoid it, if you turn down the master volume and start Live, kind of a "dry run" - this is recommended for anyone who´s performing with Live on stage.

- If you still experience dropout´s, check if it happens with the internal audio as well and check if changing the latency helps. Try to narrow down the problem:
does it happen without VST´s?
does it happen with the internal audio?
does it happen with -let´s say- only 2 tracks?
Also, RAM is a crucial factor: the bigger the set, the more files you have loaded, the more RAM Live needs. Make sure that no other unused programs are open in the background. If the problem persists, send us the information which is requested on:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/support_contact

PC users:

- Make sure that you use Live 6.07

- Make sure to have enough RAM

- Make sure to use the latest ASIO drivers for your audio interface.
(especially cheap interfaces/drivers lead to all kinds of problems)

- See the common pages for finetuning your system, e.g. http://musicxp.net/

- If you still experience dropout´s, check if changing the latency helps. Try to narrow down the problem:
does it happen without VST´s?
does it happen with -let´s say- only 2 tracks?
Also, RAM is a crucial factor: the bigger the set, the more files you have loaded, the more RAM Live needs. Make sure that no other unused programs are open in the background. If the problem persists, send us the information which is requested on:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/support_contact

Best,
Christian Kleine
support@ableton.com

Hey Christian,

Please take note of the following request. You're a Live performer, so you'll probably be able to judge if this "theory" or request would help this issue.

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67577

hoffman2k wrote:Figuring this is a live performance tool and the fact that the need for a "warm-up" of your set is an acknowledged issue by Ableton if you use osx, we need a "Dry run" start button to prevent dropouts in large sets.

What would this "Dry Run Start button" do?

Its an automated process that will run for a few seconds.
The audio gets muted during the process.
Each device in Live gets either a note or a short audio signal to "warm the device up".

When that process is done the volume gets unmuted you're good to go (hopefully).

Cheers

- Bjorn

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:45 pm

note: it's not only an acknowledged issue by Ableton if you use osx, it's also an issue by ableton if you use windows xp.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:05 pm

So its a solid feature request

It always made sense to have this though. Even if this issue is something Ableton cant fix, some plugins still benefit from a warm-up (regardless which host they're in).
And its not a farfetched concept. Doesn't some analog gear function better when they're literally warmed up?

The opposite of a "Panic" button...
"Don't Panic"

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:21 pm

keithcamilleri wrote:coverted all wavs to mp3 so the workload on the hdd is to a minimum

Doesn't make any sense at all.

testube · Post by **testube** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:05 pm

Christian,

Thanks for the response. I am working on a PC and this is a new problem for me. I have a track that played fine a couple of days ago. Then Ableton froze on me, I had to reboot & re-unlock, and now if I try playing the same exact track it can't do it. It stutters all over the place or it locks up. I'm running version 6.0.7 and I don't think this has to do with RAM since the same track played with no problems a few days ago. I hadn't changed anything from the time of the "big freeze" until now. If the RAM wasn't handling the load, wouldn't it have been a problem before?

I'm using a Novation X-Station as my midi controller / audio interface. I did notice that if the software freezes and I turn off the X-Station, it will release. So at first I thought it had something to do with the Novation ASIO drivers. But I tried switching to the onboard audio card and it exhibited the same erratic behavior.

Is it normal for windows task manager to be displaying 100% CPU usage while running Ableton? Even on a P4 with 2.4Ghz while nothing is being played in Ableton?

Here's something else that is strange. When I first launch Ableton with a new live set, windows task manager shows that it is using about 70Mb of RAM. This is with an empty live set, with no tracks, settings, or effects - just the app running. When I load my song into it, that RAM usage jumps to around 475Mb. Now here's where it gets strange. If I close my live set, but leave Ableton up with another new live set, it is still using about 412Mb of RAM - for an empty live set. If I shut down Ableton completely, and restart with a new live set, the RAM usage is back down to 70Mb again.

I tried opening another track that wasn't as complex, and Ableton displayed the same type of behavior after I closed the track. The RAM usage never went back down to 70Mb. In this case, the track I was using was using around 250Mb of RAM, and after I shut it down and opened a blank live set, the RAM usage was still at around 150Mb, not the 70Mb that it was initially using when I first launched the app with a new live set. I don't know if this is related to the dropouts, but it seems like Ableton is having trouble releasing RAM when it is done with it.

I have tried everyone's suggestions, changing latency, page files, buffers, and nothing is getting Ableton to perform like it was performing a few days ago. I'm going to email support again, because I'm running out of ideas.

testube · Post by **testube** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:07 pm

For all of you Windows XP users, install this if you haven't already:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822603

That's the downside of keeping your music PC off of the internet. You miss these types of updates. This one is for USB problems...

I don't want to jump the gun, but this seems to have lowered my 100% CPU usage down to about 80%, only occasionally going up to 100%. Things are playing a little better, but I'm still getting the weird dropouts / stutters now and then. It's definitely a little better, though.

Here's something weird, though. Since applying this fix, my mouse doesn't freeze up when the track is freezing up. Before, the mouse seemed to drag and get stuck whenever the audio did. However, now when it drops out, the sounds just go away, while the song keeps playing. Before, it would stop / freeze.

Live is still hanging on to RAM after I close a live set and open a blank one, unless windows task manager is reporting it wrong.

Progress? Two steps forward, one step back....

testube · Post by **testube** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:29 pm

Another thing...

When the problems do occur, the VST and Simpler tracks stutter, and it is the frozen or flattened audio tracks that just drop out.

Weird problem with audio dropping out all the time.

same problems with Vista

i hoped there was a solution

Re: i hoped there was a solution