Ableton slow under OSX 10.7.2 (external display problem)

[tinselworm]

Hi,

Apologies is this has been posted elsewhere but I did a quick search but couldn't find anything specific.

Ableton seems to be running quite slowly since upgrading to OSX 10.7.2 the other day. It's noticeable usually when a few plug-ins are on the chain. Hitting the space bar to pause playback can sometimes take 1-2 seconds all the way up to 15-20 seconds to take effect. Response time is usually delayed if I've been playing back an arrangement for a longer period of time, e.g., hitting pause after 30 seconds of playback would typically cause a very slow reaction time, whereas reaction time when hitting play and then pausing almost immediately is ok.

I've been using a 2.8ghz core 2 duo MacBook Pro which was just upgraded to 8gb of ram to try and fix the problem but I was surprised to find when we hooked everything up this morning that it hasn't made any noticeable difference.

Has anyone had similar experiences or recommendations?

[tinselworm]

Anyone? Now upgraded to the latest version of Ableton, 8.2.7 and it is still god awful slow. This is happening with a huge range of plug-ins, not any specific plug-in.

[Tarekith]

Not seeing anything like that here, sorry.

[JuanSOLO]

...which was just upgraded to 8gb of ram to try and fix the problem...

Live is not capable of accessing more than 4 gigs of ram, it's a 32bit program. I'm no computer scientist, so I dont really know exactly what that means except that 8gig's of ram is pretty useless to Live in it's current state.

Does this "slow" response happen without the plug-in your using? Are you using a legal version of Live? Legal version of plug-ins?

[tinselworm]

...which was just upgraded to 8gb of ram to try and fix the problem...

Live is not capable of accessing more than 4 gigs of ram, it's a 32bit program. I'm no computer scientist, so I dont really know exactly what that means except that 8gig's of ram is pretty useless to Live in it's current state.

Ahh, interesting... I didn't know this. Although it's not a major problem anyway. We're jumping back and forth between Logic, Ableton and Reason and I'm pretty sure Logic is 64bit so I'm sure we'll feel the benefit at some point.

Does this "slow" response happen without the plug-in your using? Are you using a legal version of Live? Legal version of plug-ins?

I've tried with various plug-ins. Swapping them in and out. It is happening with them all, but not consistently. Sometimes everything works ok, but then it slows down, at which point I quit and restart Live and it's ok again.
I've tried to narrow it down to one or two problematic plug-ins but they all seem to be having the same effect.
And yes, this is a legal version of Live and legal versions of the plugins. We're working in a commercial studio in London.

I'm wondering if a faulty hard drive could cause this problem? It's made a few bad noises recently, I have an uneasy feeling it may be on its way out.

[JuanSOLO]

Hopfully Live will be 64bit soon as well, so I'm not saying it's a wasted effort.

I would go with my gut, and get the hard drive checked out. OR back it all up, and do a clean install. Generally if I do a clean install, I dont just use the back up as it is, I re install everything individually, and drag and drop sample and instrument libraries back in their proper place. Time consuming yes, but I dont wanna bring back a back up that may have some bogus things going on. HOWEVER this is total last resort stuff. I would contact Ableton support, or see if anyone else posts some solutions.

Have you tried the latest beta version of Live? I quit using them a while back because they responded slow, but since the "Ableton Improvement Program" I decided to try it out, and it seems to be running very nice.

[tinselworm]

Hi again,

So I've been looking into this problem. The hard drive was in need of repair but is all sorted now. The computer is running fine, EXCEPT when it comes to Abelton.

I think I've identified what is causing Ableton to run slowly though. I'm using an Apple 24 inch LED display hooked up to my MacBook Pro. It seems that when Ableton is split across the two screens it runs very slowly. But if I make sure Ableton is only running on one of these screens it plays back much more smoothly.

This is incredibly annoying! I've had a look through the forums and I can see other people have had similar problems but I can't find a solution.
Does anyone know if a solution exists?

Thanks

[tinselworm]

Have you tried the latest beta version of Live? I quit using them a while back because they responded slow, but since the "Ableton Improvement Program" I decided to try it out, and it seems to be running very nice.

No I haven't. The problem is we're working in a commercial studio with time constraints so can't really afford to be using software that might bug out at any moment. As I'm sure you know, buggy software really, really kills the creative flow.
It's incredibly annoying though. I love using Ableton as a host because of it's simplicity and time warping capabilities but right now we're back using Logic.

[tinselworm]

Uhhh, ok more info on the problem. It appears that it is actually more to do with the SIZE of Ableton's arrangement window that is causing the problem. If I blow up the size of the window so it fills the 24 inch LED display screen then Ableton starts running slowly.
If I run Ableton with the window at the same size it would be if I were using it on the MacBook screen then the speed is ok.

What a nightmare!

Any input would be greatly appreciated!