Ableton Forum

This is so frustrating. i can understand having high CPU and getting pops. Its a logical solution of clearing up and reducing CPU strain where possible

But if my Ableton CPU count is between 20 and 50% (and my main CPU count is between 10 and 20%) then I should not be getting any pops at all.

None of the audio clips are in complex mode.

I didn't have this issue in Ableton 8. Infact I cant help but think its related to another problem thats started ever since upgrading to Ableton 9 and that is that occasionally... and apparently randomly... everything that I play comes back as almost complete distortion. (this could happen on a totally new project as well as finished) and the work around is to click the CPU reader, to disable audio, and then click it again to enable audio. But bare in mind, the CPU will of course be VERY low.

Any people suffering the same issues here?

Its not my PC, its a mammoth spec wise. And i'm on Windows 7 using external USB soundcard (prosonus)

Cheers

what audio driver you use (directX ? asio ? asio4all )
which sound card you use ?

wild guess : try to increase buffer size ! (buffer setting are not transfered across versions i suppose)

Asio will do this for me if I leave it open for to long.

mots wrote:what audio driver you use (directX ? asio ? asio4all )
which sound card you use ?

wild guess : try to increase buffer size ! (buffer setting are not transfered across versions i suppose)

I use the prosonus USB Audiobox. I get the exact same problem whether i use ASIO4ALL ... or prosonus' own ASIO driver. And also I have tried changing the buffer size and it makes no difference. Still get the same amount of pops and crackles in roughly the same places

footsy wrote:Asio will do this for me if I leave it open for to long.

Yea, partly true for me too. However I have just restarted my computer and exactly same thing happens as soon as I open ableton. So its not only that for me

If you minimize the application does it still create the same pops and clicks as often?

If it seems to reduce it could be video drivers that need updating as strange as that sounds.

My Focusrite Scarlett crackles and pops were remedied by placing it as the only device on a powered usb 2.0 hub. Don't ask me why it worked, but it did.

Hi There,

Yep, I've had this

Using Apogee One with reasonable buffer size. Shouldn't happen, but to be honest I just shrug at Live's random spikes, farts and glitches and crashes!

If I was using it professionally I would be very pissed!

Schmidi wrote:My Focusrite Scarlett crackles and pops were remedied by placing it as the only device on a powered usb 2.0 hub. Don't ask me why it worked, but it did.

Thanks for your help... but the reason I know it isn't this is because I get the same issue whether using my USB soundcard, or using my onboard soundcard.

wildcon wrote:Hi There,

Yep, I've had this

Using Apogee One with reasonable buffer size. Shouldn't happen, but to be honest I just shrug at Live's random spikes, farts and glitches and crashes!

If I was using it professionally I would be very pissed!

Awesome... it always feels nice not to be alone. I wish you knew of a fix though.

Unfortunately I am using this professionally, so using this program all day everyday, trying to be creative and getting all these crackles n clicks really does get under my skin and defuse any creative spells Im having

jestermgee wrote:If you minimize the application does it still create the same pops and clicks as often?

If it seems to reduce it could be video drivers that need updating as strange as that sounds.

Im not ignoring your response... I always knew graphics could cause such things so it doesnt sound stupid at all. I never knew of a way to figure out if this was causing it though. So as soon as you mentioned shrinking the software to see if it still continues I jumped at the chance to test it...

However today, it hasn't been doing any glitches at all! Im working on the same project as yesterday... So hopefully i get some glitches soon and I can test your method and get back to you

Not fussed if you ignore the advice or not.

I have that suggestion as that was an issue for me on another DAW in another decade.

If it's an intermittent issue, especially if the machine you use your DAW on is also your every day system too (games, net, emails and all other manner of softwares) it could be a mirriad of possibilities.

A good one to keep an eye out for is a virus scan or something. In cases where you "think" the CPU is only at 20%, double check in task manager to see what else is draining CPU or check your HDD activity light. There could be anything else in the background.

How many processes do you have running in task manager and how much of the system resources do they take up?

What about things like mail clients, skype, MSN, dropbux etc etc... All these can cause issues when they do things in the background from time to time. Get rid of ALL of them when you use a power hungry application. Either that or scale back on your production to fit in with your system.

jestermgee wrote:Not fussed if you ignore the advice or not.

I have that suggestion as that was an issue for me on another DAW in another decade.

If it's an intermittent issue, especially if the machine you use your DAW on is also your every day system too (games, net, emails and all other manner of softwares) it could be a mirriad of possibilities.

A good one to keep an eye out for is a virus scan or something. In cases where you "think" the CPU is only at 20%, double check in task manager to see what else is draining CPU or check your HDD activity light. There could be anything else in the background.

How many processes do you have running in task manager and how much of the system resources do they take up?

What about things like mail clients, skype, MSN, dropbux etc etc... All these can cause issues when they do things in the background from time to time. Get rid of ALL of them when you use a power hungry application. Either that or scale back on your production to fit in with your system.

It is my everyday PC but there is plenty of excess power left. While my ableton is glitching, if i open up my task manager then the CPU there is barely on 15%.. and my Ram is barely on 20%. Literally not touching the sides which is why it frustrates me

I haven't tried disabling my anti virus tbh... i will try that as well. Also, i don't know where i can see my hard drive activity but that will be something i try out too

I usually have about 60 process' running. I try keep as much closed as poss. Certainly dont have any draining apps open (outlook and all) - but I do have background apps open like dropbox. So I will try a clean that lot up... however Im not convinced it will be that as like ive said... iver got more then 80% of my CPU / ram left

Interruptions to the audio signal will not always be because the CPU is maxxed out. Sometimes some processes can simply affect it when they kick in and out. Virus scans use to do it to me occasionally. I would get issues and do the same thing (check task manager and nothing was happening there) but then I would see my HDD light on flat out and notice a scan happening.

I have virus scans disabled completely and just run them manually on my system maintenance days since I don't workload programs and junk to that machine.

Windows updates can do it too. If an update is in the BG being installed and configured without you knowing.

You want to try and disable as much of that stuff as possible. If it is an issue that comes and goes, it will be something like that.