Why is Ableton falling apart on me???

[Isturite-]

Im randomly getting no output from ableton... it happens all the time! Most recent example is a midi clip, playing a bass line in Massive that is supposed to start at the beginning of the note, and the track volume even shows output, but I don't hear anything until a random spot in the midi clip (changes EVERY time i play it), and even on the exported track it's still an issue.

I know this isn't a problem with NI because it happens with audio clips all the time also...

this problem usually moves to different sounds, if i close it down and come back the next day, that part will work fine but then another part has the audio cut out or makes clicks

I've posted about this problem multiple times on this forum and others, but nobody has had any ideas on what is causing it, or any similar problems... I really like producing with Ableton, but if it is this unstable and I can't even export a SINGLE song without some sort of clicks or shortened audio then I don't think it's worth using, I can't even make music without the program falling apart and am getting really close to switching daw's

any ideas would be wonderful, i got one reply before where somebody asked about cpu, and it's at 45% roughly, is that too much???

[timothyallan]

anything on your master bus? I get this sometimes if I send a spike of audio to certain plugins, then they don't output anything anymore until I restart live. Namely my Sonnox inflator or Ozone.

[Isturite-]

Restarting it usually fixes it, but not always... and there is always another problem...

i'll try removing some of the stuff on my master to see if it works, but everything i have on there for now are ableton devices

but this one on my bass line won't go away, it's at a certain spot in the arrangement view, if i click on that spot and press my keyboard the bass track shows signs of audio, but the master doesn't, but if i click on another spot on the arrangement view, it makes sound... this happens in multiple spots throughout the track... i checked my automation through and through, it's clear...

[Isturite-]

seriously, is this unfixable??? nobody has any ideas on how to fix this?? my cpu seems to be reasonable

I am at the point of labeling Ableton as a wonderful program that is not worth wasting your time using, so many bugs I can't even finish a song correctly... surely a program that cost this much money can't be THIS terrible? Do I just need to start using Logic instead, and use cdj's or vinyls instead of using Live for sets? What do I do about everything I've created in Ableton if I can't record my loops to audio without them clicking or cutting out half way through... just start all new music in a different daw??

[hoffman2k]

What did customer support say? Or did you expect them to check every single thread on this forum?

[dum]

nobody has any ideas on how to fix this??

try using an older version of Live, like 7.0.18

[slirak]

any ideas would be wonderful, i got one reply before where somebody asked about cpu, and it's at 45% roughly, is that too much???

I get clicking and various audio disruptions at about 40 - 50 % CPU if I have my latency set too low.
That seems to be pretty normal. If I up the latency buffer, I can go higher.

Haven't had exactly your experience, but I suppose the symptoms may vary with different audio interfaces.

A small latency buffer will tax the CPU harder with every DAW and Live is significantly more CPU hungry than other DAW's.
But even with less hungry DAW's, it's common to use short latency and few effects when you record, then raise the latency when you start adding effects and mix, just to avoid CPU related glitches.

So try raising your latency buffer. Also try buffer sizes divisible by eight. 128 may actually be better than 141.

Check the plug-in buffer size too. It should be set to a number equal to, or an even fraction of, your latency buffer. Like with the latency buffer, a smaller size will use up more CPU cycles.

Also, the severeness of the disruptions may vary with different plug-ins. I get much worse problems at, say 40 % CPU if I have Amplitube turned on, than I get at 40 % with other plug-ins. Ableton's native plugs seem to be the least glitchy. Try creating a project with only Ableton plugs that goes to 45 % and see if you have the same issues. If not, you're gonna have to do some detective work, sorting out which plug-in's the culprit.

Problems with your computer may make things (a lot) worse.
Do a full virus scan and adware scan. Then turn off any background tasks, like antivirus programs, various helper apps etc.
Make sure your hard disk's not too full (ideally, always leave 20 - 25% empty). Scan your disk for errors. If you're on a PC, do a full surface scan (chkdsk /r). Defrag it (PC).
If you have an older PC, check the device manager for any shared IRQ's. Is your audio interface (or its USB or FW or PC Card port) sharing? Can be bad.
Make sure your BIOS settings are correct. (PC)
Make sure you use the latest BIOS. (PC)
Make sure you've installed all SMC updates. (Mac)
Update all your plug-ins, drivers and your OS.
Turn off the network interface. Turn off Air port (Mac).
Is your audio interface USB? With few exceptions, they perform worse than FW, PCI, PC Card etc. Avoid using a USB hub with the interface.
Is your audio interface FW (FireWire)? None TI-chipsets have issues with many interfaces. And using both a FW audio interface and additional FW devices can be a big problem.
Especially laptops may have issues with Intel's speed stepping. It may be hard to turn off and not every tip on the interwebz will work with every CPU. I used to have a C2D 2.0 GHz Win XP laptop that was unusable with any DAW at any power saving setting, using any tip - until I found a utility called SpeedswitchXP. Made a huge difference. Pretty old now though. There's stuff like Coolbook for Macs.

I think this was most of the usual suspects. Sorry if a lot of it was obvious!

[Isturite-]

try using an older version of Live, like 7.0.18

That's funny, I never got crashes or anything in 7, only in 8... i read that on another thread, ppl were saying it was much more solid

@silrak i think the buffer settings were messing it up a little bit, seemed to fix most of the problem... you are the shit, thank you!

I get clicking and various audio disruptions at about 40 - 50 % CPU if I have my latency set too low.
That seems to be pretty normal. If I up the latency buffer, I can go higher.

This seems to be the cause of the clicks and short cutout audio, and midi notes not playing... i still get occasional audio clips that don't play so I have to restart Live and they'll work, but I guess I can deal with that for now... I think a couple of my songs might have been a little too full because my cpu was up at about 48%, didn't think that was very high... Well now that there isn't clicks : ) I can bounce my tracks to audio now to save some cpu....

well thanks a lot, I just wanted to be able to export songs correctly