Sound keeps playing after stop

[aklisiewicz]

I have this problem since Live 5 and never was able to resolve it. Reported to Ableton but no help.
When I play some instruments (MIDI) oftwn I stop playing and the sound coming from that instrument does not stop. It does not play the notes but rather some continuous sound. Not sure if it is the last note played but sounds like it. Initially it happened only with my 3rd party VST plugins, but when I moved to Live 7 it started happening to Ableton plugins and instruments. In the meantime I changed PC and upgraded to new OS which is Win10. This happened in WinXP, Win7 and Win10 so seems to be not related to OS (or maybe it is). Yesterday for example when I was in session mode and played and went into next sequence the piano (which was Live instrument) kept playing. I had to click STOP button on the top to stop the sound. In many cases even if I click STOP the sound continues. I discovered there are few way to turn it off although those methods don't always work.
- click STOP button (sometimes it's enough to lick once and sometimes I have to do it several times) but it does work only 30% of the time
- press my foot sustain pedal several times
- disable instrument (turn it off), this works only sometimes and often when I turn it back on the sound continues
- change preset and come back to the same preset (this always works)
- close and reload project (this always works)

Once again - this happens to Ableton plugins and external VST plugins. It makes very hard to use the program and it happens randomly. I haven't noticed any pattern, but the more stuff I have pumped into project the more often it happens. I also noticed it is more likely to happen when I have project open and work on it for longer time. Of coures this happens only to the MIDI instruments no issues with regular audio tracks. With Live 5,6 I used completely different MIDI interface (and of course different drivers) so I do not know if this might be related to drivers. At this moment I use M-AUDIO connected to USB-3 (directly to PC port). Computer is super fast with plenty of HS space and 16Gig RAM so there is no way it's a performance issue although some cache or something might affect it).

I appreciate any help cause I struggle with this for few years and now with even more issues after upgrading to Live9 this is simply a nightmare to do any work with LIVE.

Thanks - ARTHUR

[Richie Witch]

Aren't you just talking about the tail of the sound? At the end of the MIDI note, the "note off" command is sent to the instrument, but that triggers the release phase of the envelope. In most cases, it wouldn't be a gate where the note is just cutoff at the end of the MIDI note unless the release is set to zero.

Reverb and delay would make this even more pronounced. If you bounce your MIDI track to audio, you should see the additional audio waveform that lasts beyond the MIDI clip.

At least this is what it sounds like you're describing....

[Ubik]

It happened to me too several times, but only with vst's. If your vst has a panic or a flush/note off button, it should solves this i guess. It's usually a stuck note.

[aklisiewicz]

Thanks Ubik - it looks like a stuck note but the problem is I do not know how to fix this. Yes some VSTs I used in the past have had a PANIC button and it usually cut the sound off, but with Live9+ most of them I cannot use because they are not compatible. This note problem happens also to the Ableton instruments so I really do not know how to fix it. I would possibly test it with another midi interface but the one other I have has no sound (only in/out ports) so not sure if this could help in any way. I'm using M-AUDIO Fast-Track which I purchased on eBay, perhaps that was a reason somebody sold it.

Arthur

[Tarekith]

Yeah, sounds like the midi interface is not sending note off messages like it should. Haven't seen any other reports of this happening solely within Live, so that's my guess as to the culprit.

[Ubik]

It won't solve the cause of the problem but you could also send a note off, these 2 m4l devices do this :
http://www.maxforlive.com/library/devic ... es-off-m8r
http://sonicbloom.net/en/free-max-for-l ... h-notes-2/

Btw, why not try with the internal soundcard of your computer and a usb midi controller

[albieg]

A quick Google search revealed this:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/FAQ/en417151

Fast Track Pro

Issue: Stuck MIDI Notes when using Fast Track Pro’s MIDI Output. MIDI Note Off messages are dropped resulting in stuck MIDI notes.

Workaround: None, or use a different MIDI interface.

So it should be definitely a problem with FastTrack Pro (possibly aggravated by a MIDI loopback, are you using both MIDI In and Out? If so, is there a reason to do so or can the only MIDI In be used if you don't have to update MIDI parameters such as CCs mapped to continuous encoders), which is riddled by problems (ugly interaction between System Sound and ASIO driver fighting for the hardware - you'd better disable the system sound outputs and inputs in control panel/audio if possible and use only ASIO), unsupported and extremely unstable with USB 3.0 connectors, and - personal opinion based on a long experience with that soundcard - generally unstable drivers).

On my Surface Pro, that interface is impossible to use due to the presence of a single USB 3 connector. A USB 2 Hub doesn't make it compatible. The incompatibility is documented here.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_U ... ro-Drivers

Also: PLEASE NOTE that you're using an unsupported OS/Soundcard combo, as clearly written in the page I've linked. Ableton support can't do anything about unsupported hardware combos, especially with a soundcards that old which was, in my opinion, lacking stability also when it was fully supported.

[aklisiewicz]

Thank you for the last two posts. That is of course possible that the driver and M-Audio device is causing it but before this one I have used PRESONUS on FireWire port and similar thing was happening although not so often. At that time I was running WinXP and Live 6. Of course I can buy another interface but how can I know that the problem disappear if I do this ?

BTW> What would be recommended interface of this same class as M-AUDIO Fast Track ? I might eventually look for some upgrade. I do not make any money on music/sounds so such investments are more like toys for me and despite I love new toys I need to keep it in budget but also do not want something super cheap and super simple.

I will give a try with those two MaxForLive devices to see if it helps firtst.

Thank you

[albieg]

At the moment, I wouldn't buy another interface.

To troubleshoot your issues (I include your crashes in your different post), I would try to have a system which is stripped almost to the bone, but solid. A rule that applies to every system is: don't implement anything more than what you need to ensure functionality and safety unless you're experimenting; because everything can break and the less there is, the less can break. During troubleshooting, srip down and tackle one issue at the time, identifying your primary issue first. In this case, most of your troubles (save for the 4k issue, unfortunately I cannot help there) seem to have a strong relationship with your incompatible soundcard/OS/USB setup, which I'm not considering as an Ableton related trouble, but as a hardware/OS setup trouble.

1) Install 9.7.1 64bit pointing it to a different directory (rename during install calling it Live 9_7_1 Suite). New links should also point automatically to Ableton Live 9_7_1 Suite). You don't have to uninstall the previous version.
2) Install ASIO4All, configure and use your internal sound card (and Ableton Live of course) for troubleshooting. An integrated soundcard will surely have poor ADCs and DACs, but as long as you don't record audio with the internal soundcard it shouldn't be a problem. By the way, the ADCs and the DACs in Fast Track Pro are far from being the best on Earth, and even a cheap internal audio chipset could serve you well.
3) Avoid, if possible, using external resources such as VSTis and effects. Do you want a stable setup? Strip it down then build up. Start with the lightest possibile system. Then you add, and see what happens.
4) Only use the MIDI In of your M-Audio and not the MIDI Out, or even better, if you can use USB Midi if your controllers allow you to do it. Avoid the Fast Track completely if possible, and if it's not, plug it in a USB 2 port: while USB 3 ports have a certain retrocompatibility for simple peripherals, they may not work well (or not work at all) with some specific USB 2 peripherals which need steady timings and have a significant flow of data. USB 3 is not only faster than USB 2 (with the right peripherals, of course), it is different.

I cannot recommend, at the moment, a soundcard for you. Most people here seem to work on Mac and they swear on their RMEs but these are far more expensive products; I'm on Windows and I swear on my old, reliable and no longer produced PCI WaveTerminal 192X. It will soon be replaced by a mobile USB product with more audio ins because my needs have dramatically changed since using Ableton, but I understand my choice will be a risky, almost untested (and still unreleased) one. I'm going off the beaten track so I wouldn't recommend, in this case, what I'm personally going to do. Opinions are so wildly different on this matter, and I have no preference at all when it comes to soundcards except for what I personally know and use (and I've used the Fast Track Pro a lot for low quality field recordings, but I'm not using it anymore since Win 10).