Are you successfully running Ableton Live on Windows Vista?

brightonalex · Post by **brightonalex** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:31 pm

Timur wrote:Brightonalex, Aero is the shiney new Windows GUI that features transparent glass on window-borders and 3D task-flipping (ALT-TAB). The very basic versions of Vista don't offer it.

If you don't have transparent glass borders on windows then please try the following:

1. Start Live and set audio buffers to 64 samples.
2. Loop a single short audio-clip on track 1 slot 1.
3. Put 4 instances of EQ8 on the clip, activating all 8 EQ points.
4. Copy the track about 9 times to reach a total of 10 tracks (or maybe some less or more depending on how powerful your system is).
5. Watch the level meters. Do they get jumpy instead of the usual fluent movement?
6. Watch Live's CPU meter and Task-Manager's CPU load of the Live process. Do they jump up and down?
7. Send Live's window to the background (minimize) while keeping Task-Manager open. Does the load drop slightly or considerably?
8. Go to Windows System Settings -> Display and change the desktop resolution while Live stays minimized. Watch Live's CPU-load on Task-Manager, does it drop considerably?
9. Restore the Live window and watch the CPU-load on Task-Manager, does it raise considerably (again)?

Thanks for your help!

No worries _ I can't look at it for a few days cos I am back at work now, but I'll let you know how I get on.

creature · Post by **creature** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:45 pm

I did most of my last album on vista, and it worked fine with my hardware combination. I am using an Acer Travelmate 8104 laptop, single core at the moment with 2 gig ram.

Audio interface is an old Edirol UA-20. I also use a novation remote 25SL.

The current track I am workign on uses 28 simultanious audio tracts and runs at about 50% cpu.

I never run lots of synths in parallel though. I normaly bounce stuff down to audio straight away. No particular reason other than this is how I have always done it. stuck in my ways i guess.

Synth wise i use live 7 suite, fm8, zebra2, Z3ta, predator.

I think I am lucky in that the drivers for the kit I use are pretty solid.

Timur · Post by **Timur** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:34 pm

Creature, can you use small buffer-sizes (below 512-256 samples)?

I just tested the combination of Live, Vista and Fireface on a third and again very different system and the very same problems occur. No such problems with Reaper!

Combinations I tried so far:

AMD A64 X2, NVidia Nforce4, NVidia GPU
Intel C2D, Intel P35, ATI GPU
Intel C2D, Intel X38, Nvidia GPU

All systems behave the same, it takes me about 10 seconds to setup a clearly reproduceable situation on all systems.

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:47 pm

I'm used to working with 256 samples...
tried Vista 2 times ..no go... crackles galore
(RME multifaceII btw)

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Fri May 30, 2008 2:55 pm

Just now starting to mess with Live (7.07) on Vista 64 Ultimate w/Aero enabled. I have an M-Audio Delta66 PCI audio card and Omni Studio breakout box. I loaded ASIO4all last night and selected M-Audio ASIO after installing their beta driver for Vista 64. Without ASIO it sounded horrible and Live performed lousy with regards to stopping clips playing from the left side/file manager section to sample the clips. With ASIO they sounded a lot better (like normal) but still lousy response from Live, i.e. wouldn't stop playing right away when clicking on folder/different file or transport stop button. I posted that in another thread though.

My system is a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R mobo w/E6850 3.0Ghz Core 2 Duo OC'd to 3.6Ghz w/RAID 0 config on 2x500Gb SATA II's. 4Gb Corsair Dominator PC8500 DDR2, XFX 8800GTS 640Mb video PCI-e card, 3rd 500Gb SATA II for data files/samples/games/etc... in a Thermaltake Armor case and 700W PSU. I think there's enough power here.

I'll be spending more time in it over the weekend and beyond due to beta testing the drivers but Live's performance itself seems sluggish compared to the SAME hardware just booting into XP Pro SP3 (just installed a week or two ago and is main boot OS).

Timur · Post by **Timur** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:33 am

Well, 17 people polled that they can use Vista and Live without performance problems. I do wonder though if any of those uses low buffer size settings?

I tested this combination on three completely different systems now (Nforce4, P35, X38) and all showed the very same problems: without enabling Aero Live's GUI performance is incredible bad regardless of which audio-interface is used. And in combination with an RME Fireface Live is plain unuseable with low buffer sizes regardless of wether Aero is used or not.

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:12 pm

Well I am runnin Aero after prevously reading here somewhere that it was highly recommended to do so to improve performance. Live seems to be running *ok* except for not being able to stop the auditioning of clips for some reason. But I am just starting to muck around with it due to testing vista 64 drivers for m-audio.

Timur · Post by **Timur** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:40 am

darkenedsoul wrote:Well I am runnin Aero after prevously reading here somewhere that it was highly recommended to do so to improve performance. Live seems to be running *ok* except for not being able to stop the auditioning of clips for some reason. But I am just starting to muck around with it due to testing vista 64 drivers for m-audio.

Yes, I was the one who found out that turning on Aero is the only way to make Live at least useable on Vista. But it's still just a workaround and a problem of Live, not of Vista. Reaper runs flawless without Aero and Live with Aero still runs less performing on Vista than on XP.

brightonalex · Post by **brightonalex** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:14 am

Upgrading RAM - I'm sorry I still haven't had a chance to do those tests, but I just upgraded my RAM from 1.5 to 4 gigs, and the difference is amazing. Its 60 pounds well spent i think.

carriero · Post by **carriero** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:25 pm

I finally got my #2 computer back together so I could test vista 64 with Live. The configuration is as follows:
Vista64 Ultimate v-lite config to strip out aero & other ms crap
Itox mini itx motherboard G5c100n
Intel 945gme chipset w/on board video
1 pci slot (no pci express slots) containing RME multiface pci card
4gb ram
intel t5600 core 2 duo cpu 1.86ghz
1 ide drive and 1 sata
4gb flashdrive for readyboost
Latest RME driver
Ableton 7.0.5

On this computer, Live runs with no clicks on the test tone at 80% cpu simulation as follows:

128 samples with multiprocessor support on
32 samples with multiprocessor support off

Yes, that's no typo, it runs better with mp support off than on.

On my other computer with the following config:

ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard with NVidia NForce6 chipset
3GB RAM
1.86 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
NVidia 7600GS PCIe Video Card
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit SP1
RME9652 PCI Card Rev?
Nuendo 96K ADC connected to 9652 via ADAT
Ableton 7.0.5
Latest BIOS
Latest RME Driver
Latest NVidia Drivers

the results are as follows:
1024 samples with multiprocessor on
512 samples with multiprocessor off
again no typo

Live multiprocessor support seems to have some problems on Vista 64

cheameup · Post by **cheameup** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:40 am

I think I'm running on vista (32 bit)without problems .
Live 7.07 dual core 1.66 notebook 2gb ram .
Edirol firewire interface- FA66
My buffer settings are all stock . havent really needed to change anything . Running multiple instances of midi drums and operator with recorded audio tracks and effects with no problem.
At the moment my projects are all contained in Live though. No external VST's or plug ins.

I do get occasional pops and clicks but nothing worse than previous versions on xp .