Ableton 8.2 problems

[junqueira]

Since downloading Ableton 8.2 , I've had some upsetting results. I'm running ableton on a homebuilt computer (i7 920, 12 GB RAM, windows 7 64 bit). When My RAM is at 25% usage (in task manager), I'm experiencing some horrible cracks and pops. Also, I get an "Out of Memory" crash when my usage reaches 36-37%. Is this normal? I was reading some posts and I saw people saying that 'ableton can't handle large projects'. Is this true?

[davepermen]

could be a defect or not-well plugged in ram-module? you have 4 modules? would explain the 25%-point.

[junqueira]

I have 6 X 2 GB sticks. If the RAM wasn't plugged in right, wouldn't the computer not recognize it? MY computer recognizes that I have 12 GB of RAM.

[Ableton_David]

How large are the Live Sets that you are having issues with?

Also, if you've had any crashes, please send the reports to us as attachments at support@ableton.com, and include information about your computer, your OS, the version of Live you were using when it crashed, and any other information about the set that you can provide.

[Markemark]

I have 6 X 2 GB sticks. If the RAM wasn't plugged in right, wouldn't the computer not recognize it? MY computer recognizes that I have 12 GB of RAM.

Not sure how big your set is but remember Live is a 32bit app, 25% of 12 GB Ram and I think your close to the 4 GB limitation of 32bit. If this was the same set running on this machine and worked fine with an earlier version of live, then logic would say Live 8.2 was the culprit. If this is the case could be either 8.2 using more memory(would not be surprised because this is the case with ever new version as the app grows in size) or there is a memory leak, which would be bad since 8.2's list of fixes is memory problems!

[junqueira]

I have 6 X 2 GB sticks. If the RAM wasn't plugged in right, wouldn't the computer not recognize it? MY computer recognizes that I have 12 GB of RAM.

Not sure how big your set is but remember Live is a 32bit app, 25% of 12 GB Ram and I think your close to the 4 GB limitation of 32bit. If this was the same set running on this machine and worked fine with an earlier version of live, then logic would say Live 8.2 was the culprit. If this is the case could be either 8.2 using more memory(would not be surprised because this is the case with ever new version as the app grows in size) or there is a memory leak, which would be bad since 8.2's list of fixes is memory problems!

So Ableton has a 4 GB limit ?

[Markemark]

I have 6 X 2 GB sticks. If the RAM wasn't plugged in right, wouldn't the computer not recognize it? MY computer recognizes that I have 12 GB of RAM.

Not sure how big your set is but remember Live is a 32bit app, 25% of 12 GB Ram and I think your close to the 4 GB limitation of 32bit. If this was the same set running on this machine and worked fine with an earlier version of live, then logic would say Live 8.2 was the culprit. If this is the case could be either 8.2 using more memory(would not be surprised because this is the case with ever new version as the app grows in size) or there is a memory leak, which would be bad since 8.2's list of fixes is memory problems!

So Ableton has a 4 GB limit ?

It depends if Ableton set a limit, for example microsoft set windows vista 32bit at 3120Mb. Figure around 3.5 Gb or less. Good news some have reported that vst plug-ins such as samplers that use alot of memory can go outside the 32bit app there running in and access the memory directly from the host os, so in your case 12 Gb.

ps. maybe David Abravanel can give you an exact number

[junqueira]

I would love to know the answer to this... And also would this include fx plugins also?
Ableton 8.2 still runs with minimal crashes when I'm using around 4.2 gb of memory, but not very far past that (4.2 gb is about 34% for me). Ableton becomes unusable for me at 36-37% and I'll get an 'out of memory' crash.

[davepermen]

it's a 32bit app. read up on the ableton live 64bit thread on what that means. simply said: it can adress only 2^32 different adresses, that is 4294967296 bytes, or exactly 4gigabytes.

so yes, if it needs more than that, it will crash (most likely it crashes before as it's a c++ app, and there the heap will die before being completely filled).

and some plugins create an own process with own memory, most don't.

so yeah, most likely, physical memory boundaries hit.

[dancerchris]

It is very difficult to tell you exactly how much memory you can access. But....

With a 32 bit application (Live) and Windows7 64 bit, you should be able to get 4gb assigned to Live itself. VSTs may take memory from a different allocation (depends).

I would be very interested in what is taking out your set. The only thing that I've run into that seems to suck up a lot of memory is large sample sets. I use Superior 2 which can load 2+ gb of samples for a given drum kit. But typically with something on order of 16-32 tracks you shouldn't have issues with 4gb.

MIDI files are very compact so don't worry about them.

Audio tracks are a bit more consumming ~5mb of data (without any compression) per minute of audio mono 44.1khz 16 bit. So lets say your doing a really big piece 10 minutes in with 32 stereo stems. That's about 320 mb for the audio tracks. If you are running 96khz 32bit then that jumps to 1.4gb. Still not enough to clobber your 4 gb. But do remember Live needs it's own resources to run as well (being conservative that's about 3gb left over for you stuff). So what are you running?????!!!

My $0.02

[davepermen]

if you load all the audio into ram. which is unneeded at least on an ssd, and should not be that needed on a hdd, too. at least the big ones.

i'm currently trying to crash my live by using too much ram, just with live-devices (fresh 64bit installed os here, nothing but live on it. and office, and chrome, and visual studio)

[junqueira]

I'm running a lot of things and not trying to be conservative at all with it. I built an i7 computer this purpose (spent a little over $1000). I think what's doing it is the multiple battery 3 instances and MANY effects plugins on almost every track and lots of automation. Also, its nothing for me to reach at least 80 tracks (audio/vst). So I know why I am using the memory, but I thought the ableton would be able to handle it.

There is a way that I can load my battery samples directly into the RAM correct? I thought I remember seeing it in the options and reading it in the manual...I just never paid attention to it b/c I didn't know what it meant.