Looping in arrange causes "click"

astaplatz · Post by **astaplatz** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:06 am

Hello, this is a sanity check. I have a powerbook Mac OSX 10.3.9 1.5ghz 1.25Gbram computer with Ableton 5.01.

When I loop in the arrange view I always get a "click" when the playhead goes back to the "1". Looping in session view is fine.

I get this using any soundcard [incl. MOTU, Edirol FA66, Indigo DJ and onboard sound card] and using minimal processor loads.

Are there powerbooks out there that DON'T get this issue? If so, I'd like to know what my computer isn't doing right... I know it loops seamlessly on the PC.

Thanks for giving your shout.

wk, seb.

Post by **Alex** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:16 pm

Hi astaplatz,

you should check if the click comes from any track within Live or comes from the audio interface (for which reason ever).
So do you get this click to o when you mute all tracks?

regards,
Alex

astaplatz · Post by **astaplatz** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:41 pm

Hi Alex!

I get the issue when a track is playing, and not with all tracks. If I mute all tracks, there is no "click".

My impression is that Ableton doesn't cross-fade the loop section to zero well enough in some cases [I have the 'fade' button active on all clips] or that it runs out of time to think before it has to loop so it "clicks".

It is odd casue in the session it will loop fine, but then in the arrange it stutters. It also feels load related as it is more likely to occure the higher the processor load, and its especially noticable once a track has any kind of effect on it or I am in record mode - much less so when the track is dry and/or I am not recording.

If this is "normal" behaviour, then I will accept that; but it is annoying; especially when using ableton to do loop recording [and your singer keeps loosing their 'flow' everytime the loop repeats - which makes me feel very unprofessional] -

if it isn't expected behaviour, I'd just like to know it shouldn't be an issue, so i can spend time trying to investigate it further.

thanks again!
with kind,

seb.

Post by **Alex** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:50 pm

Hi astaplatz,

it would be nice if you can try to built a Live set containing only one track with one clip in the arranger with the corresponding global loop settings to get this click on loop back jump.
If it depends on the CPU usage you could add some CPU intensive Ableton effects (like the Reverb) to a Return track and open the send knob of the playing track.

Could you reproduce the click doing this way?
If yes, please provide me with this Live set as self contained.

You should also check if you get this behavior with the current 5.0.2b3 beta too:
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25938

regards,
Alex

astaplatz · Post by **astaplatz** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 7:08 pm

Alex wrote: Could you reproduce the click doing this way?
If yes, please provide me with this Live set as self contained.

hi Alex, I have done this test, doing them made me realize, that it is definetly load related.

I get clicks using one track of audio when the processor load is at 73% or when it is at 52% when recording [note to self: It seems I need to be below 50% processor load if I want to record...]. Please note that the "click" in the loop when recording is NOT recorded, its just the playback.monitoring that is clicking [so its not as bad as it could have been]

What this test doesn't show me is if there are clicks just based on the number of simultaneous tracks playing [since this test is just using one track with effects loaded].

I will send you an email with the zip file containing these sets now.
Thanks for your time!

psilosly · Post by **psilosly** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:51 am

I'm getting a similar error currently.

If I run in session mode and have the transport set to loop 4 bars, one of my audio clips that is 8 bars has a noise blast every 4 bars.

Post by **Alex** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:41 am

Hi psilosly,

If I run in session mode and have the transport set to loop 4 bars, one of my audio clips that is 8 bars has a noise blast every 4 bars.

Could you provide me with a self-contained Live set which demonstrates this issue?

regards,
Alex

borg · Post by **borg** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:00 pm

could it be related to this thread? .als included!
has mathias recoverd from his cold yet?

psilosly · Post by **psilosly** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:21 pm

Alex wrote:Hi psilosly,

If I run in session mode and have the transport set to loop 4 bars, one of my audio clips that is 8 bars has a noise blast every 4 bars.
Could you provide me with a self-contained Live set which demonstrates this issue?

regards,
Alex

I'll try and reproduce it in a nice compact set sometime next week. I'm really busy prepping for a show on Saturday at the moment.

psilosly · Post by **psilosly** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:24 pm

borg wrote:could it be related to this thread? .als included!
has mathias recoverd from his cold yet?

its definitely possible.

astaplatz · Post by **astaplatz** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:34 pm

If it's related, it would have to be on an architectural level. Cause I get the click purely based on the load on my processor/ram and if I am recording or not. - nothing to do with where it is in the sequencer.

and good luck with your show! I'll be playing live in sat. with ableton of course! But other side of the planet I am afaid.

wk, seb

ingo · Post by **ingo** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:19 pm

hi,

this is a known deficiency. song loop jumps and firing a scene
need lots of cpu and may thus lead to clicks when live
is already at a high processor load.

we are currently determining how we can improve on this,
but there is certainly no quick fix possible so you have
to cope with this behaviour for now.

kind regards, ingo

psilosly · Post by **psilosly** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:30 pm

astaplatz wrote:and good luck with your show! I'll be playing live in sat. with ableton of course! But other side of the planet I am afaid.

wk, seb

Thanks for the luck. My show went really well, not hitches.