Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Angel01
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:34 am

Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angel01 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:04 am

I am finding Ableton almost impossible to use. It takes 40 minutes to load, and when it does eventually load the lag is so slow that I can't really do anything.
I am brand new to Ableton - got the licence in August - so I haven't really done anything much with it yet.

I am working on a Windows computer - Windows 10, with Ableton 10.0.3. Ableton is the most memory hungry application that I have running - task manager says 301 MB (where google is the next most power hungry at 123MB). CPU usage seems to go up and down all the time when Ableton is running (ranging between 0% and 3.5%) - even if I am not actually in Ableton. I only have a little M-audio keystation 32 and a microphone/speakers attached. Nothing else.
I have only saved one project so far - it was after saving the project that things really started to go unbearably slow. If it is the project that is causing the problem, then how do I understand what about it is causing the problem so that I don't do that again?

I have search the internet for help on this, and tried many things, but so far nothing I have changed has made one iota of difference.
I was so excited to my licence and to get started, but I am slowly losing the will to persevere :(
Any help greatly appreciated!

jestermgee
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Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by jestermgee » Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:07 am

40 minutes 8O 8O

Yeah that is not right at all and some actual system specs would be handy to know. My guess is you are running Windows 10 on an old mechanical drive for a start but even so i'd expect something like maybe 2 or 3 minutes to start. 40 minutes screams something else is wrong and that would be completely unusable but it is unlikely to be Live itself being the issue.

scheffkoch
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Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by scheffkoch » Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:28 am

...try starting without anything connected to the computer...trash ableton's prefs...deactivate the vst folder and then try to start ableton again, if it's starting o.k. then the problem could be an incompatible plugin...do you have ni plugins installed? open them in standalone first before using them as a plugin...
macbook pro m1pro, macos monterey, rme multiface via sonnet echo express se I, push 2, faderfox mx12, xone:k2

Angstrom
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Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angstrom » Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:43 pm

40 minute start up time!
8O 8O 8O 8O

Surely the winner of the slow startup race. My Live 9 used to take around 60 seconds to start and that really annoyed me. As a guide to OP on what normal looks like - my Live 10 takes around 6 seconds to start up. It is not laggy. My desktop is about 4 years old.

40 minutes!?
Wow.

Angel01
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:34 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angel01 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:08 pm

Thanks for all your feedback and support!!

I have disconnected all hard drives and my midi keyboard etc, and now just have Ableton running and my mic/speakers attached.
I then rebooted. It took 15 minutes to load Ableton whoop whoop!! :-(
But when I tried to load my project it's still hanging saying Not responding after 50 minutes.

Spec of my computer is not great, but I think it should be ok ?? ...
Dell Pentium dual core E5500 @ 2.8 GHz, 4GB RAM (3.84GB usable), 64-bit operating system, 900GB hard drive (826GB free), and running Windows 10 Home

How do I "trash ableton's prefs" and "deactivate the vst folder" ? I have added an options.txt file with the -NoVstStartupScan command.
I don't have any plugins installed.

granted
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:18 pm

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by granted » Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:32 pm

Angel01 wrote:Thanks for all your feedback and support!!

I have disconnected all hard drives and my midi keyboard etc, and now just have Ableton running and my mic/speakers attached.
I then rebooted. It took 15 minutes to load Ableton whoop whoop!! :-(
But when I tried to load my project it's still hanging saying Not responding after 50 minutes.

Spec of my computer is not great, but I think it should be ok ?? ...
Dell Pentium dual core E5500 @ 2.8 GHz, 4GB RAM (3.84GB usable), 64-bit operating system, 900GB hard drive (826GB free), and running Windows 10 Home

How do I "trash ableton's prefs" and "deactivate the vst folder" ? I have added an options.txt file with the -NoVstStartupScan command.
I don't have any plugins installed.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but your 8 year old processor does not even come close to being acceptable. In fact when that processor was new it was a budget processor. Which is not good. If you read Ableton's very misleading minimum specs then your computer is OK. But in reality it's not. https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare ... quirements
Treat yourself to a new computer if you can.

Angel01
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:34 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angel01 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:58 pm

Oh poo! OK, better get saving then :(

Any advice on what is a 'suitable' computer? And is Mac or Windows better for Ableton (or is that a separate hot topic?)

granted
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:18 pm

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by granted » Tue Sep 25, 2018 5:35 pm

Angel01 wrote:Oh poo! OK, better get saving then :(

Any advice on what is a 'suitable' computer? And is Mac or Windows better for Ableton (or is that a separate hot topic?)
The macOS versus Windows is just going to start a war :) I would suggest buying what you are comfortable with.

As for specs try to aim for an 8th generation i7 processor, least 16GB of ram, and 1TB of SSD storage. It will be very expensive up front but will hopefully last you a long time. Depending on your needs you could scale back (some would even say to scale up!) on the specs. Obviously this is just my opinion on the matter. :)

Angstrom
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Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angstrom » Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:07 pm

Yep, I've got an i7 2600k which I bought in ... well, apparently it was 2012!
and because I'm an email hoarder I can tell it cost me £238.99 it was not the top range back then, it was several steps below. It still works just fine. I'll probably keep it for at least another 2 years. I can run plenty of tracks on it. Not that I'd suggest getting such an old CPU but it's an indication of the longevity of modern processors.

Compare rough CPU performance here. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... GHz&id=868
My 7+ year old CPU scores 8449, yours scores 1639.

Compare to the modern equivalent to my CPU sitting in the mid-range of performance and affordability (the i7-5820K @ 3.30GHz)
scores 12994
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id ... %203.30GHz

these numbers don't directly reflect the power of the eventual machine, but they give a good indication.

bilposey82
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 4:38 pm

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by bilposey82 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:44 pm

Profile

mr.adl
Post subject: Re: Unresponsive dialogs in Live 10.0.2 if Monitor Refresh >60HzPostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:30 am

Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:02 pm
Posts: 859
Had the lagging / freezing as well, here is a fix, which solved it for me (also suggested by the support):

-Create an option text file like in the description here:
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... s-txt-file

-copy this text inside the text file: -_ForceGdiBackend

-put it in the folder as described in the upper link

-restart Live 10.03 (or install it)

Hope it helps
I tried everything
This helps :mrgreen:

Shift Gorden
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Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Shift Gorden » Tue Sep 25, 2018 7:13 pm

I did a double-take when I read Pentium.

Sorry OP! Looks like it's upgrade time, mate.

Angel01
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:34 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angel01 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:39 pm

Thanks so much for all your feedback ... even if it is depressing to realise my computer is shit and I need to buy a new one :(
Oh well, it'll be worth the investment eventually. Sadly I only bought this computer 2 years ago - it was a refurb. Wish I'd know then to get a better spec!

I've tried adding the -_ForceGdiBackend to the options file, but its not made much difference for me unfortunately.

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho-Its-Off-To-Work-I-Go :(

pottering
Posts: 1802
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by pottering » Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:12 pm

40 minutes looks like the symptoms of low RAM, the system starts trying to move stuff from the RAM memory to a cache file in the hard drive to free memory, that is super slow depending on the hard drive and how full it is (most likely a Pentium PC won't have a SSD drive).

If that's the case, basically you need to free memory to use Live. Close all other software you can close. Number one is the web browser, those eat a LOT of resources.

Could be power management too. Set it to High Performance if it is not already.
♥♥♥

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by jestermgee » Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:55 am

pottering wrote:40 minutes looks like the symptoms of low RAM
I think it's more the case of what happens when you try to run something like Live + windows 10 on a calculator

Angel01
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:34 am

Re: Ableton Live 10.0.3 takes 40 minutes to load!

Post by Angel01 » Sat Nov 17, 2018 7:47 pm

Grateful for all the feedback and advise I've been given on this thread. I have now had a look at replacing my old computer, but not confident on whether I am making the right choice at all, so looking to you good people to help out again ...
My budget isn't much ... around £500, so I'm a little limited, but I'd appreciate guidance on whether I am on the right track, and also whether CPU benchmark is the be-all and end all, or whether NEW is better than USED, or what are the main stats I should be looking at? Its a minefield!
Here's some examples of what I am looking at. Thanks again for your feedback!!
*******************************
Lenovo Y50-70 15.6 inches 4K (3840x2160) Intel Core i7-4710HQ
CPU i7-4710HQ benchmark : 7737
16GB RAM, 1TB HDD+8GB SSD, Windows 8.1
£699 (USED)
**********************************
Lenovo IdeaPad 320-15IKBRN 15.6-Inch HD Notebook Intel Core i5-8250U
CPU I5-8250U benchmark : 7661
1.60GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home
£369 (NEW)
**********************************
HP 15-da0038na 15.6 Inch FHD Laptop Intel i5-8250U
CPU 8250U benchmark : 7661
1.6 GHz / 3.4 GHz, 6 MB cache, 4 cores, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Windows 10 Home 64
£499 (NEW)
*******************************
HP 15-da0595sa 15.6" Intel® Core™ i7-7500U , 2.70GHz/3.5GHz
CPU i7-7500U benchmark : 5173
4 GB RAM / 16 GB Intel® Optane™, 1 TB HDD, Windows 10 (64)
£499 (NEW)
*******************************
MacBook Pro Core i5 13-inch (Early 2015)
CPU 5287U benchmark : 4681
Dual-core Intel Core i5, 2.9GHz / 3.3GHz, 16GB SDRAM, 256GB Storage
£600 (USED)
*******************************
HP 15-da0596sa 15.6" Intel® Core™ i5-7200U , 2.50GHz/3.1GHz
CPU i5-7200U benchmark : 4620
4 GB RAM / 16 GB Intel® Optane™, 1 TB HDD, Windows 10 (64)
£399 (NEW)
**********************************
MacBook Pro 13-inch (Mid 2012)
Core i7 (I7-3520M), 2.9 GHz
CPU I7-3520M benchmark : 4539
8GB, 750GB HDD
£429 (USED)
**********************************

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