pops and crackles in ableton live 8.2.1 with snow leopard

[jlb0170]

I'm about to go crazy trying to work with ableton live on my mac these days. if i leave my audio interface (i've tried two different interfaces, one usb and one firewire) online in a track with monitoring enabled, even with no other tracks in the project, i get periodic bursts of crackling static - about once every 20-60 seconds. the static lasts for a couple seconds. if i turn off monitoring and wait a couple seconds, the static goes away for a while.

needless to say, this makes recording frustrating, since about 1 in 3 10-30 second clips gets immediately compromised by the static, and i have to scrub every recorded clip in solo mode listening closely for any static that i didn't notice.

i asked this of the ableton support email with a copy of my details as requested, and then haven't heard anything back from them in 13 days, which doesn't quite seem like the "you'll hear back from us shortly" the auto-response indicated i could expect.

[jlb0170]

i'm running ableton live on my macbook pro with 4G of memory and a 2.66 ghz intel core 2 duo. I don't have an external hard drive.

[chapelier fou]

did you try changing your buffer size in the prefs ?

[jlb0170]

my sample rate is 44100.

my buffer size is set to 77 samples (giving me input latency of 9.34ms, output latency of 3.54ms)
my driver error compensation is -13ms, giving an overall latency of -0.12ms.

does that sound right?

[reeloy]

....well, that is pretty close and pretty fast...

You can't expect a realtimestretcher as ableton to be that fast in latency as a protools system....

Push the buffersize a bit and take it from there...as long there is no drum recordings you'll be fine with that...

And if comes to recordings all in all in you defenitly need an external harddrive with 7200rpm anyway....

[jlb0170]

push the buffer size a bit? make it larger? what should i push it to? 100? 200?

should i set the driver error compensation to as close to zero as possible again, or leave it alone?

[chapelier fou]

Do the test procedure and you'll be fine.
Small buffer size : low latency but high CPU
Larger buffer size : bigger latency but lighter on CPU.
Normal use is somewhere in between.

[jlb0170]

test procedure? how do i trigger that?

[chapelier fou]

sorry to say that, but read the manual. It'll be faster.

[cycophilipp]

you normally set the buffer size in steps of 2*2*2*x*x* - e.g. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 samples and so on.

there is a simple but brilliant feature in the tab where you make your audio setting - the test tone.

Turn it on, set the CPU load on max. (which is 80%) and when you got crackles there, it will make crackles while you work with Ableton.

To stop this, raise the buffer size in the steps I wrote above higher until it stops.

If this isn't the answer to your problem, you should probably re-install your computer

[chapelier fou]

what he said.

[abneypark]

I tried everything on this list so far without success.

Also, i just updated to 8.2.6, and still have no luck.

I also tried freezing all the tracks..no luck.

I tried exporting a two track of all the backing tracks, importing it, then disabling all the backing tracks but the 2-track export...and that didn't work.

....ironically, i just announced our albums release date, only to have Live stop recording well. Awesome!

[Zulucompany]

I've also experienced this, running a Mac Pro 5,1 with 8gb ram, using Live suite 8 and allen and heath mixer (or duet 2) as main soundcard. The audio starts crackling whether i'm even working on a set or not. Sometimes I watch movies with the audio running through ableton (my movie player, VLC doesn't seem to connect to my mixer so i send audio to soundflower, then in ableton route it to the mixer) and I get that crackling.

I thought for a while it was a ground loop, replaced all my cables, had the wiring in my house checked...all good. Also, I have used the same mixer, same cables plugged into the same outlet, and same monitors, using my laptop (traktor) and NO NOISE APPEARS. I'm truly starting to think it's an ableton issue.

[Muzik 4 Machines]

you normally set the buffer size in steps of 2*2*2*x*x* - e.g. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 samples and so on.

^ this, 77 is a very odd number