Drop-outs - Live's fault or just underpowered laptop?

[8O]

Hi,

Am running 8.1.5 on OS X 10.6.4 (on a 2.2GHz MBP w/2 GB RAM), with MOTU Ultralite with 512 sample buffer, Delay Compensation off. TC Electronic M30 Reverb on one return track, Live Ping Pong delay on the other return track.

I have a project which has about 8 instances of KontaktPlayer2 (using Garritan Personal Orchestra samples) and pretty much every time I start a new clip I get a very audible drop out of the whole audio. But the daft thing is, it's not consistent - I just tested it again while writing this post and now it's fine.

CPU sits at 25% when no clips are playing, rising to 30% when all 9 tracks are playing (8 GPO, 1 external synth).

Live 8.1.3 seems to be the same; can't test Live 7 or 6 due to file format change.

So, is it a Live bug? Or is my laptop just underpowered?

[Rave]

Could be a ram issue, kontakt is a sampler yeah?

[8O]

Thanks Rave, you're on the money - just checked the RAM usage via iStat and Live was using 1 GB RAM. Deleting 1 instance of KonkaktPlayer2 frees up 80MB RAM!

Any settings I can tweak to reduce the drop-outs due to this?

I guess I should also buy more RAM - 4GB? Any limits to how much Live/OS X can use?

[Lamont]

MacBook Pro, 2009 models support up to 8GB of RAM.
There are 16 GB chip sets available but Apple officially announced that the new MBP's don't support them.

[8O]

Ta, it's a two and a half year old, early 2008 15" MBP, current RAM is 667MHz. According to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pr ... ifications - I can upgrade it to 6GB - anything I should watch out for? Will Live/Kontakt be able to use the full 6GB?

[Rave]

I would get 6gb for sure. Ram is cheap. Dunno if kontakt will use it all but I think the latest version might.

[steko]

+1 6GB

[8O]

Just checked RAM prices: 2GB module about €35, but a 4GB module about €120 Are there places that take your old RAM as part-exchange, or did I dream that?

[JuanSOLO]

2 things,

1. I was experiencing Audio Drop outs a lot. I switched from using my Alesis I/O 26 to using my Audio 8 DJ, for a sound card, no more drop outs.
2. I'm not 100% about this but I thought that any programs that were not 64bit (Ableton = 32bit) could not use more than 4 gig's of RAM.

[palSLAPS]

Why are you using eight instances? I am positive Kontakt Player is a multi-out plugin.

1 Kontakt Player + Ableton External Instrument plugin = saving resources.

[8O]

2 things,

1. I was experiencing Audio Drop outs a lot. I switched from using my Alesis I/O 26 to using my Audio 8 DJ, for a sound card, no more drop outs.
2. I'm not 100% about this but I thought that any programs that were not 64bit (Ableton = 32bit) could not use more than 4 gig's of RAM.

Ta. What latency are you running on the Audio 8 DJ?

Yes, I've heard that 4 GB limit before.If that's true that would save me about €80. Can we get a definitive answer?

[8O]

Why are you using eight instances? I am positive Kontakt Player is a multi-out plugin.

1 Kontakt Player + Ableton External Instrument plugin = saving resources.

Ah, tell me more... I was always confused by the Kontakt Player 2 interface and never bothered to rtfm. And I can use the External Instrument to route to a software instrument? But if the KP2 is still loading all those sampled instruments anyway, won't the laptop need the same RAM, it'll just be spread out over Live and KP2 instead of all in Live?

[8O]

2 things,

1. I was experiencing Audio Drop outs a lot. I switched from using my Alesis I/O 26 to using my Audio 8 DJ, for a sound card, no more drop outs.
2. I'm not 100% about this but I thought that any programs that were not 64bit (Ableton = 32bit) could not use more than 4 gig's of RAM.

Ta. What latency are you running on the Audio 8 DJ?

Yes, I've heard that 4 GB limit before.If that's true that would save me about €80. Can we get a definitive answer?

Ok, just found the answer in Ableton's FAQ:

2.
Is Live 8 a 64-bit application and how much memory can it address running on Mac OS X 10.6?
Live is a 32-bit application. As of Mac OS X 10.4, the Mac version of Live can make use of up to 4 GB of RAM. This still holds true for 10.6.

As I don't use any other programmes that need so much RAM, 4GB it is. Thanks, JuanSOLO, you've just saved me €80

[palSLAPS]

Why are you using eight instances? I am positive Kontakt Player is a multi-out plugin.

1 Kontakt Player + Ableton External Instrument plugin = saving resources. :)

Ah, tell me more... I was always confused by the Kontakt Player 2 interface and never bothered to rtfm. And I can use the External Instrument to route to a software instrument? But if the KP2 is still loading all those sampled instruments anyway, won't the laptop need the same RAM, it'll just be spread out over Live and KP2 instead of all in Live?

Yeah, the External Instrument plugin sends MIDI to something (Rewire client, VST, hardware), and receives the audio from it. Once you insert it into a track you'll understand, it's self-explanatory.

I'm not sure tbh, but I used to use duplicates of a plugin instead of multi-outs, and I ran into a lot of "low on memory" problems. Since I switched, I haven't seen much of that. It looks way more tidy, too. Give it a shot! :)

[Rave]

2 things,

1. I was experiencing Audio Drop outs a lot. I switched from using my Alesis I/O 26 to using my Audio 8 DJ, for a sound card, no more drop outs.
2. I'm not 100% about this but I thought that any programs that were not 64bit (Ableton = 32bit) could not use more than 4 gig's of RAM.

Ta. What latency are you running on the Audio 8 DJ?

Yes, I've heard that 4 GB limit before.If that's true that would save me about €80. Can we get a definitive answer?

Ok, just found the answer in Ableton's FAQ:

2.
Is Live 8 a 64-bit application and how much memory can it address running on Mac OS X 10.6?
Live is a 32-bit application. As of Mac OS X 10.4, the Mac version of Live can make use of up to 4 GB of RAM. This still holds true for 10.6.

As I don't use any other programmes that need so much RAM, 4GB it is. Thanks, JuanSOLO, you've just saved me €80

You will need it one day so I would get it now.