Are you using a 64bit OS? If so...

[zee verkawound]

Hi
It has recently come to my attention that some users here are claiming normal reliable operations within Ableton Live while utalizing more than 2gigs of memory. Are you one of those people? I have read no less than 100 accounts on this forum of those, like myself, who claim that Live gets extremely unpredictable at 1.6-1.8 gigs capacity. Crash, crash, crash.

I would love to hear from those using windows 64bit systems that make the statement that Live can use in excess of 2 gigs of RAM and do so dependably without recurrent fatal casualties. It's one thing to state, "our program can use such and such on certain OS. OK, why is that NOT the popular consensus among it's users? I have NEVER talked with anyone in person, nor have I ever read reliable sources stating that there is a REAL benefit to using Ableton Live (a 32bit program) with a 64bit OS. If there is a true functional difference where in fact Live does not crash like in normally does on a 32bit system 1.6 -1.8 gigs of ram, I want to KNOW. I don't want to to be shown screen shots either. I want to hear from people like myself that PUSH this program and are switching out sample libraries on the fly. Just because you are recording 25 tracks simultaneously, or 50 for that matter, doesn't mean a thing. I am talking PRE LOADED samples well in excess of 2 gigs of RAM where you are functionally using several gigs of storage in a hopping set. Not a set that is barely being tweaked.

[JuanSOLO]

I think you mean excess of 4 gigs

[Khazul]

The last time you heard from people on this issue you gave them a load of shit.

I think you mean excess of 4 gigs

No he means 2 - see this thread.

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 0#p1244300

[JuanSOLO]

Got it

[Pasha]

If it may help no Windows here but 4GB on iMac 2008 and SL in 32 bit. No issues so far,
1 crash only but I know why (testing how can far I could push CPU)...

- Best
- Pasha

[zee verkawound]

I have 4GB ram (3.74 usable)and am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and I have absolutely no problems. Live has crashed on me three times in the year I've had this computer, two of the times was a faulty audio interface (Line6! grr) and the third was kind of mysterious (and probably Live's fault). Other than that, no issues whatsoever.

Thanks for the response. What 3rd party software are you using? When you look at the window's task manager, are you seeing reliable performance in Live (please describe what you are doing) in excess of 2 gigs of ram?

What percentile of RAM is the OS itself using while Live is running?

[zee verkawound]

The last time you heard from people on this issue you gave them a load of shit.

I think you mean excess of 4 gigs

No he means 2 - see this thread.

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 0#p1244300

Incorrect. NOTHING I have stated is incorrect. Please quote me where I have lied. I have listened to your Bullshit and put up with the fanboy defense of something you know NOTHING about. You're not even using a 32bit system so basically NOTHING you have stated prior to this thread is even relevant. STFU.

[Khazul]

The last time you heard from people on this issue you gave them a load of shit.

I think you mean excess of 4 gigs

No he means 2 - see this thread.

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 0#p1244300

Incorrect. NOTHING I have stated is incorrect. Please quote me where I have lied. I have listened to your Bullshit and put up with the fanboy defense of something you know NOTHING about. You're not even using a 32bit system so basically NOTHING you have stated prior to this thread is even relevant. STFU.

'Nuff said, but actually there are several things.
I linked to the thread (kind of like quoting it all) so people can read for themselves if they want to.

As it happens, I do have a 32 bit system (Win XP) as well, however as that wont boot with the 3GB switch I havnt actually tried Live with over 2G memory on a 32 bit system (I know it dies when it tries to allocate past 2GB), however your are asking about 64 bit systems.

Im guessing your rant started because you have a 2G 32 bit machine, and unsuprisingly, 400MB of which is obviously in use by other stuff when it dies at 1.6GB. I certainly think that live could do a far beter job of handling plugin errors, but then one can reasonably argue that if a plugin dies (for some unknown reason from Live's perpective), then there is no knowing what state it might have left memory in, and so not dying may quietly leave the whole application in a very unstable state (which would be really bad if you saved tha corrupted state over a good state) - perhpas better to just die and let the crash recovery mechanism sort it out.

It doesnt matter which way you look at it - the quickest fix for your immediate troubles is more memory and a 64 bit OS and possibly a different application (ie a native 64 bit if 3GB or so isnt enough). Even ona 64 bit OS Live will eventually die when something cant allocate virtual address space, or cant lock physical memory into that allocated virtual address space. If you want to understand this rather than rant, then if using Windows there is loads of information about it on MSDN, else I guess you need to look at Apple documentation. As you claim to know so much about this, then Im sure you would have no problem reading the developer documentation and understanding it completely!

[zee verkawound]

'Nuff said, but actually there are several things.
I linked to the thread (kind of like quoting it all) so people can read for themselves if they want to.

As it happens, I do have a 32 bit system (Win XP) as well, however as that wont boot with the 3GB switch I havnt actually tried Live with over 2G memory on a 32 bit system (I know it dies when it tries to allocate past 2GB), however your are asking about 64 bit systems.

Im guessing your rant started because you have a 2G 32 bit machine, and unsuprisingly, 400MB of which is obviously in use by other stuff when it dies at 1.6GB. I certainly think that live could do a far beter job of handling plugin errors, but then one can reasonably argue that if a plugin dies (for some unknown reason from Live's perpective), then there is no knowing what state it might have left memory in, and so not dying may quietly leave the whole application in a very unstable state (which would be really bad if you saved tha corrupted state over a good state) - perhpas better to just die and let the crash recovery mechanism sort it out.

It doesnt matter which way you look at it - the quickest fix for your immediate troubles is more memory and a 64 bit OS and possibly a different application (ie a native 64 bit if 3GB or so isnt enough). Even ona 64 bit OS Live will eventually die when something cant allocate virtual address space, or cant lock physical memory into that allocated virtual address space. If you want to understand this rather than rant, then if using Windows there is loads of information about it on MSDN, else I guess you need to look at Apple documentation. As you claim to know so much about this, then Im sure you would have no problem reading the developer documentation and understanding it completely!

My rant started because Live crashes for the vast majority of it's users including myself at around 1.6 gigs of ram. This is simply a fact and I don't have to be Michio Kaku to know as much. If you have not read as much right here on this forum to know, you haven't been here much because it's ultra common. I have heard enough Ableton congregational amens to KNOW what the truth is concerning this much and that is all I was stating to begin with. It's an ABSOLUTE sin that Live is not 64bit by this point in it's developmental time line. It's utterly Neanderthal and I HONESTLY believe that if Live is not 64bit within the next year, Ableton is going to lose a good share of it's customer base.

The fact that Live is not presently designed to be a 64bit application is TRULY cause to bitch with respect for considering it a true DAW. Can anyone REALLY deny this? Yes, I am using several 32bit machines. The last one was built strictly for Live and the third party VST apps it uses. It's logical to use a 32bit machine for a 32bit application, however Ableton's product development has proved over the last two years to be illogical.

I would honestly like to know what users here are using LARGE sample libraries like East/West, Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, etc., that are seeing killer Ableton Live performance with a Window's 7 64bit OS past 2gigs of ram.

[cotdagoo]

personally just moved to win7 64bit after having constant crashing on a track i was trying to finish when the ram usage in XP was up around 1.7-1.9gb used by live.

haven't had a crash since (but haven't been putting in many hours since switching as i'm still setting up my win7 install/programs/etc), but will report back here if i do have any similar issues. though i suspect the 64bit os and 8gb ram vs 32bit os and 4gb ram (3.25 usable with /3GB boot switch) should be enough of a difference to not flake out as often.

certainly no fable that live get's unstable in a 32bit os with close to 2gb ram used though. i've read about it plenty of times on the forums here as well.

[Piplodocus]

I've got a Mac so MacOS 10.6.6 is 64bit (although I don't know whether it definitely defaults to running in 64-bit mode, although I think it does). I can address as much memory as I like with it (up to 8GB in a MBP), but I have 4GB so it couldn't use more than that.

I tried to check my HDD I/O a few weeks ago, by viewing the Mac "Activity Monitor", so stuffed a set by dragging loads of projects from the browser window into a single project. It would make a horrible cacophonous row, but would use lots of disk I/O. That crashed evry time I tried to play it, and I'm pretty convinced it was to do with RAM. So I'd also suggest Live can't address all my memory, and doesn't fail elegantly when it hits the limit. An old laptop I had with noticably less memory would run ableton like a complete pig without

Never did get to test the disk I/O!

If Live goes 64bit (maybe with L9), or even if it can use all 32-bit 4GB properly I'll probably upgrade to 8GB of RAM, and stick a lot more of my samples in it.

[zee verkawound]

personally just moved to win7 64bit after having constant crashing on a track i was trying to finish when the ram usage in XP was up around 1.7-1.9gb used by live.

haven't had a crash since (but haven't been putting in many hours since switching as i'm still setting up my win7 install/programs/etc), but will report back here if i do have any similar issues. though i suspect the 64bit os and 8gb ram vs 32bit os and 4gb ram (3.25 usable with /3GB boot switch) should be enough of a difference to not flake out as often.

certainly no fable that live get's unstable in a 32bit os with close to 2gb ram used though. i've read about it plenty of times on the forums here as well.

cotdagoo,
Man, that would be great to get some feedback on your situation. This is just the type I am looking for.

Thanks!