First gig: basic technical help needed!

[mgpg]

Also, I'm going to test my set-up in a few days at the club.
If it turns out everything's sounding fine when testing, will it be safe to assume I won't be needing a ground loop isolator on the actual night?
(Mind you: the set-up won't be changing)

[mgpg]

Alright guys, BIG PROBLEM.

Just did a test-run with the Audio 2 DJ and had this problem:
Nearly every time I dragged in a new track from the browser into session view, the audio hiccuped for a bit.
Not very long, but still, very noticeable.

Any way to solve this?

[oddstep]

its a non answer really but - preload them all.
change audio buffer settings on the soundcard?

[mgpg]

its a non answer really but - preload them all.
change audio buffer settings on the soundcard?

Can't preload em all, there's too many.
And I noticed that even when I'm playing around, I get the occasional hiccup.
It just occurs far more frequently when loading tracks.

Already tried changing the audio buffer settings in Ableton Live (even all the way up to maximum), but the problem persists.

[oddstep]

1) try the same set without the soundcard - if its better without it send it back
2) contact NI support and ask them for advice on setting up the device
3) have you got a massive liveset? when was the last time it played alright. try to get back to that set. you might have to get rid of stuff in order for the set to play well. check out large track counts and anything that binds together tracks (like side chaining, returns, midi routing) - all these things add to the amount Live has to do in real time.
4) render stuff to audio
5)cut down on reverbs and beat repeats

[crumhorn]

Be sure to disable wireless networking - it can cause a lot of audio dropouts on some systems.

[mgpg]

1) try the same set without the soundcard - if its better without it send it back
2) contact NI support and ask them for advice on setting up the device
3) have you got a massive liveset? when was the last time it played alright. try to get back to that set. you might have to get rid of stuff in order for the set to play well. check out large track counts and anything that binds together tracks (like side chaining, returns, midi routing) - all these things add to the amount Live has to do in real time.
4) render stuff to audio
5)cut down on reverbs and beat repeats

1) I don't experience these problems without the soundcard.
2) I followed the instructions manual that came with the card.
3) No, I haven't. It's just 8 audio channels with 2 filters & an EQ on each one.
4) Don't have any MIDI in my set, everything is audio.
5) Haven't got any reverbs or beat repeats in there.

And my Wi-Fi was off.

[mgpg]

Over at AbletonLiveDJ.com people are suggesting the cause of the issue is me using MP3 files instead of WAV.
I did a test-run with WAV's and they were right, no more audio dropouts.

However, I can't believe no one has ever tried to use Ableton + this interface + MP3s ... there must be something else going on as well, right?
I don't want to convert & re-warp my entire library if I don't have to.

[102455]

Well Live converts MP3 to WAV anyway once you import it, so the WAVs of anything you play in Live will be on your drive regardless.

I guess the glitch comes from the decoding (extra CPU?) although I would imagine that once you've imported a track to the set, Live wouldn't need to decode it the next time you used it.

If it doesn't do it, or it's not audible using the Mac sound output, maybe it's partly the Audio 2 too (sorry!).

Is the Audio 2 running straight from a USB port (no hub)? Might be worth trying it on another USB port - you never know.

Also worth a shot trying it via a powered hub, to "give it a bit more juice".

Are you dragging every track in to your set, or starting with some preloaded?

[mgpg]

Just went back to the music store to test some other interfaces before making the switch from MP3 to WAV.
I also tested another Audio2DJ unit just to be safe... which worked fine !

Turns out I just had a faulty unit...

Thanks for all the help though guys!

[crumhorn]

If it's a very large set then it might be that you aren't allowing enough disk space for the mp3 decoding cache. Causing Live to delete converted files to reclaim space. Or if you're using an external drive for your music files there is a chance that Live is configured to put the decoding cache on the system drive.