Can too much BASS crash Live?

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:34 pm

ok, here's what has happened to me twice.

- i'm playing after a DJ who has our 1k mackie rig cranked up loud.

- my set up has worked perfectly at home just hours before. the only thing that has changed is the environment.

- i set up gear (DELL Laptop, m-audio FW410, BCR2000 via USB)

- i boot up (fine, but slow), open Live (ditto) and open a Live file ... a 3 channel DJ setup i have been working on - it contains about 100 clips already in session view.

- at this point, the laptop hangs. just sticks dring the file loading phase.

the first time this happened i rebooted and tried again about 15 times whilst DJing vinyl, but never got it to work. back home the next day all was ok!

next gig the same shit was happening. this time i got the DJ to cut out all the bass buring a breakdown and the Live file opended so i began my set playing from live.

after 15mins i got carried away and dropped a big bassy tune. this caused the BCR to drop out!! luckily the the laptop kept playing, but i had to switch to vinyl and do multiple reboots with bass cut to get things going again. less bass, a bit of foam under the laptop and a jacket under the BCR saw me through the next hour but it was not ideal!!!

so what's going on here ... it feels to me like the bass is fucking with my hard drive? however, it's not a particularly big sound system and i've played on it before with traktor on the same laptop no problem. i imagine live is a bit more HD intensive though.

anyone had similar problems?

any suggestions? should i buy a MAC?!

Laptop spec is ...

2.0Ghz P4m Dell Inspiron 8500.
1GB Ram
100gb 7200rpm HD
XPsp2

this runs 10-15 tracks of audio fine at home so 3 tracks DJing should stress it too much,

cheers for any help,

B.

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:37 pm

sounds like youre rattling the crap out of your gear, put something under your stuff is my only idea

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:42 pm

thanks for the quick reply.

i know what your saying, but it's not THAT loud. no wires a flapping around, the decks are't feeding back. my gear was on a sturdy trolley, then on foam then in a foam lined flight case a about 5 feet from the subs. one of the gigs was even outside which meant the sound dissappated totally.

then again maybe i am still rattling the crap out of it ....

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:45 pm

can you feel any vibrations when you put your hands on the laptop?

there is also the possibility that you're overheating it.

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:45 pm

was there a lot of moisture in the place?

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Bass isn't usually a problem, it's salmon that can screw up Live.

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:50 pm

hi peeddrroo,

hmmmm. interesting.

the first time was by a the River Thames. it was windy and cold, maybe a bit dank?

the second was late night in a small club with los of people dancing ... maybe moist but not a full on sweatbox dripping off the ceiling affair.

so both had potential to have moisture in the air, but not excessively so.

thanks!

B

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:52 pm

Tone Deft wrote:Bass isn't usually a problem, it's salmon that can screw up Live.

well i was by a river the first time it happened ....

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:52 pm

is it possible that you're leaving your computer sitting idle for quite some time before you perform, sometimes live doesn't act right after it's been sitting idle for a while.

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:56 pm

Johnisfaster wrote:is it possible that you're leaving your computer sitting idle for quite some time before you perform, sometimes live doesn't act right after it's been sitting idle for a while.

hey ... that's definitely useful to know, but not where i've been going wrong. if anything i've been thinking my setup has been all too last minute as i've been booting up about 15 mins before i'm on and end up firefighting the laptop while playing records! not good.

cheers,

B

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:59 pm

like I said, can you actually feel vibrations when you put your hands on your laptop? thats a no no

OvertoneZero · Post by **OvertoneZero** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:04 pm

Focusing vast amounts of concentrated BASS within a small area can potentially open a sonic rift in the localized space-time continuum. This will in turn destabilize the ionic quark balance of your CPU's silicon wafer resulting in system crash. It's a good idea to dial it down at this point as if you push the envelope further you risk not only permanent damage to your computer but potentially shattering your own sanity. Look at what happened to Squarepusher.

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:05 pm

woah, so if I subject myself to enough bass I'll go insane and be able to make beats like squarepusher?

cosmosuave · Post by **cosmosuave** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:08 pm

Trance has been known to crash Live...

barry tone · Post by **barry tone** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:11 pm

Johnisfaster wrote:like I said, can you actually feel vibrations when you put your hands on your laptop? thats a no no

will check this out next time .... i couldn't say no for sure. thanks for your answers!

as for this spacetime continuum wafer shit i'm going to have to push that further .... sounds like i'm approching the next level of something or other.

and as for trance .... is that with the black notes or the white ones?