Mac / Live 10 very specific scenario causing audio dropouts

[graeme_ncl]

Ableton support are currently helping me troubleshoot a problem I'm having with Live 10 (10.0.5) and I thought I'd share it to see if anyone else was seeing the same thing.

Scenario: Irregular but frequent dropouts in audio playback where a USB soundcard is connected (in my case same with both mk1 and mk2 of Yamaha UR22, latest driver (1.10.2)), AND automatic graphics switching is turned on in Energy Saver settings (OS X High Sierra, 10.13.6), on latest 2018 model of MB Pro (in my case 15", i7 6-core, 32Gb RAB, 512Gb SSD).

The only resolution we have found so far is to switch automatic graphics switching off. I've tested instead selecting each of the integrated and discrete GPUs respectively via the gfxCardStatus application, but in both cases the issue persists. Switching auto graphics switching off (which, I thought, would effectively do the same thing as forcing the discrete GPU into permanent usage), seems to be - so far - the only remedy. (But the Mac gets v v hot!)

The issue appears not to happen (in testing thus far, at least), where just the in-built soundcard is used to the in-built speakers.

Be interested to know if others are seeing the same thing in these or similar circumstances. Incidentally I'm testing with a super-basic arrangement, four simple tracks playing in a 4 bar loop. CPU usage is negligible..

Thanks.

[jonovitze]

Hi!

Did you find a resolution here?

I am experiencing similar problem, small dropouts that comes irregularly, but always as a result of me doing something. Like arming a track or some other normal action inside ableton.

I have powerful new mac pro with extra rams, and this is happening even on small projects.

[TLW]

I assume you mean iMac Pro?

This suggestion - it slows Live’s screen refresh rate so reduces the load on the window server - worked for me (I have Intel graphics only) viewtopic.php?f=4&t=230967

My i7MBP went from Live’s performance meter showing 30% at idle and drop-outs when it reached 35% to 5% at idle and no dropouts until the meter gets around 75% and the cpu is quite a lot cooler. Slowing the refresh rate makes no visible difference to the display at all.

I’ve seen suggestions on other forums that automatic graphics switching might sometimes be an issue using USB audio interfaces - also that there was an OS issue, perhaps to do with the T2 chip, that seems to have been fixed by the latest Mojave updates.

[jonovitze]

Thanks for the reply, I have the MBP 2018 i5 with extra ram.

I tried putting the Options.txt, but I can not see any real difference in the CPU-meter in ableton - maybe a decrease of 5-10%. I am not that technical - most out of necessity when it comes to these kind of problems. So I am just thinking if I may have put it in there wrong. I ended up creating the text edit document on my desktop and I wrote the code in it. When I had done this it changed the file type, but I changed it back. Then I put it in the hidden library folder under preferences - ableton - the latest version. When I mark the document - Options.txt - in finder I can see the preview of it on the right showing a lot of text, but when I open it, it only has the code -MaxFpsMac=30 in it.

Does this sound right? Maybe I just need to try it with -MaxFpsMac=15 and then I should really see the difference?

[TLW]

Textedit is a bit strange in how it handles file/text formats.

To get it to output "pure" text open a document (or start a new one) then go to the format menu and pick "make plain text". Shift-command-T is the keyboard shortcut for the function. Personally I prefer to open a terminal and use vim for editing anything I want to be certain is going to be ASCII text and nothing else, but learning vim isn't a trivial thing to do.

Other than the options.txt idea all I can suggest at the moment is to make sure you'e using the latest Mojave version. The original version had problems with USB audio on recent Macs that the last two updates were intended in part to address. My MBP is older than yours and the options.txt thing made a huge difference to Live's cpu and resources use.

[[jur]]

A trick that seems to work for many people:
"fix this problem you have to go in Setting => Display => Color => choose "sRGB IEC61966-2.1"
found here on Reddit.
Also discussed on KVR.