Stuttering with large sessions?

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 5:35 am

Hey folks,

I sent this to tech support, but maybe someone here can help as well:

I perform as a one-man band using LIVE. Here is the setup I was using until last week:

Pentium III
500 mhz
256 ram
12 gb hard drive
Windows 98SE
M Audio Quattro
Live 1.5.2

I have been making HUGE sessions to fill my songs for an entire show. This means 20-30 clips, and about 12 songs. So, somewhere around 300 clips in the Session. I assign midi notes to scenes, use some effects (but not too much for the Pentium III) and go from one "song" to the next, all within one session so I can play continously.

However, I am experiencing substantial stuttering. I have the latest drivers of everything. Everything will be fine, but then I jump to a new section of a song, especially one with 7 or 8 clips, and the CPU meter spikes (sometimes saying things like 150 or 200%) and the whole sound just stutters. Now imagine it blasted over a sound system, and you can see my problem.

I assumed it was the measly Pentium 3 that was the culprit. So I just went out and spent 1500 bucks on:

Pentium 4
2.4 ghz
256 ram
40 gb hard drive
Windows XP Home Edition
M Audio Quattro
Live 2.0.3

And guess what? Same problem. In fact...it's worse! It pretty much locks live up...it will even stop playing. However, when I open up a smaller song session, it doesn't do it. However, I've experienced stuttering on small sessions with the old laptop, so there's no guarantee this won't happen with the new one as well.

I'm quite frustrated since I've spent so much money on a new laptop that may not have been what I need. Does Ableton Live have a clip limit? If so, how can this be corrected? LIVE is the greatest software ever...but I'm not about to shorten my sessions and play transitional music while I open up a brand new session. Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I have a show coming up soon and I have to get this figured out, without fail.

Thanks for your time,
Carl Tietze
aka SOLOVOX

[email protected]

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:17 am

Well, I just opened up a 305 clip session on my desktop and everything worked great. Of course there are two differences: a PCI audio card (Delta 1010) and a 7200 rpm internal drive.

Question:
Could this problem (on the laptop) be solved with an external 7200 rpm USB 2.0 drive? Is anybody out there using these? Is it simply a problem with 4500 rpm laptop drives?

Solovox

Mbazzy · Post by **Mbazzy** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:33 am

When the stuttering starts , do you see the 'D' flickering in the upper right corner ? If so the diskdrive is the culprit ....

There has been an interesting thread on xternal firewire recently on the forum here : http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3150

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Fri Apr 25, 2003 10:36 pm

Well, I figured it out. It wasn't a red D drive problem either. I figured out how to make Live work with sessions of over 300 clips:

MONEY. Lots of it.

I bought the new super laptop. Still stuttering.

I bought an external, 7200 rpm, 8 mb cache firewire drive. Still stuttering.

I bought a Layla Laptop PCM card audio breakout box. Still stuttering.

I put another stick of 256 ram into it, bumping it up to 512....

No more stuttering.

You see people?! That's all LIVE wants! You can have huge sessions, giving you the ability to have several songs standing by in case you want to play them. All it takes is thousands of dollars.

Case closed,
Solovox

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 7:31 am

ya've really hit upon something there........!!!!!!

dss · Post by **dss** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 9:00 pm

this is really interesting...

i am also busy preparing a pretty massive file for live use, and what i've noticed [on my G4 tower, i haven't even gottan to my laptop yet] is that certain sounds will stutter and other will not when making part transitions.

they loop just fine and play correctly the second and third pass around, but it's the crucial change that is the problem.

how much memory are you using total?

i have 640 meg on my tower (OS 9.2.2)
and 512k on my powerbook G4 (OS X.2.5)

i am getting worried and thinking i may have chosed the wrong software.

:/

dss

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 3:19 am

Just a thought - has anyone tried using a RAM Disk with Live?
I'm going to have a play around tonight to see if there's any advantage or difference in performance/"disk" load.

If anyone has experimented with this....spill the beans!

cheers
paddy

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 3:19 am

Just a thought - has anyone tried using a RAM Disk with Live?
I'm going to have a play around tonight to see if there's any advantage or difference in performance/"disk" load.

If anyone has experimented with this....spill the beans!

cheers
paddy

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 3:19 am

Just a thought - has anyone tried using a RAM Disk with Live?
I'm going to have a play around tonight to see if there's any advantage or difference in performance/"disk" load.

If anyone has experimented with this....spill the beans!

cheers
paddy

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 7:47 am

Hmm...RAM disk? I don't know what that is.

My new system is:
Pentium 4 2.4 ghz
512 MB DDR ram
40 gb internal drive
40 external firewire drive
Layla Laptop PCM card and breakout box

This is super-stable, super clear and pretty much everything I would want. Don't get discouraged, DSS! I think it's a simple equation, but I could be wrong:

MB's of audio clips must be LESS than available RAM.

Therefore, if you're getting stuttering with a huge session, and it's not your audio interface (throw out your USB box) then it's your RAM. Or maybe your drive speed! Have I mentioned you should pull out your wallet?

Solovox
http://www.ampcast.com/solovox

dss · Post by **dss** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 9:31 pm

thanks for making that clear.

i will bust out more ram and see what happens.

here's to not being discouraged!

dss

emch · Post by **emch** » Wed May 28, 2003 10:23 pm

I use a layla via laptop and have 386 MB of RAM and even with small sets of ten clips I get weird pops and blurps on loop with notes in them. It's driving me mad. It only happens when I use the Layla which has WDM-ASIO drivers. If I run my laptops internal consumer-quality soundcard with its WDM sound drivers, I don't get any snap, crackle, pop.

I also have no problems with the Echo Layla at the lowest latency settings using Reason, Cubase SX, Acid, etc.

Have you experienced this at all?

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Thu May 29, 2003 2:31 am

Not at all. That's weird.

What are your exact specs for your laptop?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 29, 2003 1:01 pm

I'm recording 16 tracks simulataneously into live for our bands studio recording, and my live set is about 45 songs long at 16 tracks each, with the sounds folder topping 27 GIGS of harddrive space on my external 7,200 RPM 8 MB cahce 8.9 ms seek time 120 gig firewire harddrive. Using toshiba satelite P4 2.4, 1 gig RAm, XP Pro, RME multiface. Everything works great, even with tons of effects. Did notice once when forgot to turn on my firewire drive that the internal drive was not able to record 16 tracks at once. So an external drive definitely helps your simultaneous track capabilities, but clearly RAM is also an important factor. Live rules

Ryan

emch · Post by **emch** » Thu May 29, 2003 1:47 pm

I just installed the new Layla driver 6.08 after talking to Echo and the problem seems to be gone. It was weird b/c I was having the problem on Live 2+ but I wasn't having it in 1.5.

I am having problems with audio cutting out through rewire if I open a new song in Reason while another song is playing. I can't get the new Reason song to make any sound even after turning off the and closing the first song that had been playing. Is this specific to my soundcard or is this a Live-Reason issue?

Stuttering with large sessions?

Stuttering with large sessions?

LIVE wants $$$$$$$

Hey Solovox - Layla problem

New Layla Drivers