Do I need more memory?

[jbauerctu]

Hi,

First post sorry if in wrong section?!

Just installed Live 8. I have a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM. When I try to record my guitar through the line 6 guitar port it seems to take a while for anything to happen and I get the egg timer. Would upgrading the RAM to 2GB enough of a difference. I cant really afford to upgrade my PC yet but what I dont want to do is spend ££ on RAM and it make no difference.

Thanks

[capo-wear-i]

Live isn't very effecient compared to other apps. What's the processor speed of yr p4 ? If it's less than @2.8Ghz, I'd wouldn't waste yr money on RAM - your going to need a new PC. If you can get the memory cheap (or free) then by all means do it as a stop gap. 1Gb would be enough to start with for simple stuff.

Live is now really more suited for more modern PC's.

[jbauerctu]

Live isn't very effecient compared to other apps. What's the processor speed of yr p4 ? If it's less than @2.8Ghz, I'd wouldn't waste yr money on RAM - your going to need a new PC. If you can get the memory cheap (or free) then by all means do it as a stop gap. 1Gb would be enough to start with for simple stuff.

Live is now really more suited for more modern PC's.

Cool its a 2.8GHZ! So for a stop gap I should be ok if I aquire some more RAM?!

[shumer]

Hi. Actually 512Mb isn't enough. Look at the system requirements: http://www.ableton.com/live-8.

Windows: 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Celeron compatible CPU or faster (multicore CPU recommended), 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended), Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), DVD-ROM drive, QuickTime recommended

[DrXparaMental]

Hi,

First post sorry if in wrong section?!

Just installed Live 8. I have a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM. When I try to record my guitar through the line 6 guitar port it seems to take a while for anything to happen and I get the egg timer. Would upgrading the RAM to 2GB enough of a difference. I cant really afford to upgrade my PC yet but what I dont want to do is spend ££ on RAM and it make no difference.

Thanks

There are quite a few things that come into play here. A strong P4 with 2G of ram will be plenty to get you rolling although I have never used 8 with mine. I know that 8 has a larger CPU footprint but the real issue is what else is happening behind the scenes with it's audio engine and such. I have 3 dedicated music computers and used the P4 with about 2.5 gigs of ram for several years with Live 6. I use that computer now to master in a completely different environment than what I use Live 8 within.

There is no question that if you are using plug ins and decent sample loads you will need more than 512MB of ram, but that may not be the actual problem that you are describing here.

When you state that it "takes a while to process" there are a lot of blanks that would be nice for you to fill in. Are you referring to when you are trying to record, or just output the guitar audibly? I am just not certain what you mean there.

[jbauerctu]

Hi,

First post sorry if in wrong section?!

Just installed Live 8. I have a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM. When I try to record my guitar through the line 6 guitar port it seems to take a while for anything to happen and I get the egg timer. Would upgrading the RAM to 2GB enough of a difference. I cant really afford to upgrade my PC yet but what I dont want to do is spend ££ on RAM and it make no difference.

Thanks

There are quite a few things that come into play here. A strong P4 with 2G of ram will be plenty to get you rolling although I have never used 8 with mine. I know that 8 has a larger CPU footprint but the real issue is what else is happening behind the scenes with it's audio engine and such. I have 3 dedicated music computers and used the P4 with about 2.5 gigs of ram for several years with Live 6. I use that computer now to master in a completely different environment than what I use Live 8 within.

There is no question that if you are using plug ins and decent sample loads you will need more than 512MB of ram, but that may not be the actual problem that you are describing here.

When you state that it "takes a while to process" there are a lot of blanks that would be nice for you to fill in. Are you referring to when you are trying to record, or just output the guitar audibly? I am just not certain what you mean there.

Thanks for the reply. I'm definetely going to get 2GB of ram now as I think it'll help.

I'll see if I can explain - Last night I had a midi drum and bass loop playing. I then armed an audio track and hit record. When I did this I got the egg timer, the music was still playing then after 5-8 seconds later everything kicked back into life then when I played the guitar I could see it recording the audio. Hope that makes sense? Sorry I'm a Ableton Newb

[DrXparaMental]

Hi,

First post sorry if in wrong section?!

Just installed Live 8. I have a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM. When I try to record my guitar through the line 6 guitar port it seems to take a while for anything to happen and I get the egg timer. Would upgrading the RAM to 2GB enough of a difference. I cant really afford to upgrade my PC yet but what I dont want to do is spend ££ on RAM and it make no difference.

Thanks

There are quite a few things that come into play here. A strong P4 with 2G of ram will be plenty to get you rolling although I have never used 8 with mine. I know that 8 has a larger CPU footprint but the real issue is what else is happening behind the scenes with it's audio engine and such. I have 3 dedicated music computers and used the P4 with about 2.5 gigs of ram for several years with Live 6. I use that computer now to master in a completely different environment than what I use Live 8 within.

There is no question that if you are using plug ins and decent sample loads you will need more than 512MB of ram, but that may not be the actual problem that you are describing here.

When you state that it "takes a while to process" there are a lot of blanks that would be nice for you to fill in. Are you referring to when you are trying to record, or just output the guitar audibly? I am just not certain what you mean there.

Thanks for the reply. I'm definetely going to get 2GB of ram now as I think it'll help.

I'll see if I can explain - Last night I had a midi drum and bass loop playing. I then armed an audio track and hit record. When I did this I got the egg timer, the music was still playing then after 5-8 seconds later everything kicked back into life then when I played the guitar I could see it recording the audio. Hope that makes sense? Sorry I'm a Ableton Newb

No, you did a GREAT job explaining. Start with the 2Gigs, I think you will be much better off. There is no question that a multiple core processor helps a ton, but the extra ram may just do the trick for now.

keep us posted.

[jbauerctu]

I will do. Hopefully after months of wanting to record in a simple manner I will be able to via Live I'm very impressed so far. The other programs I have looked at before always seemed really complicated.

[longjohns]

i still use a p4 2.6 w/ 2G

I think w/ version 6 I had to do some upgrades. that's when I went to 2g ram. I also found at that time that i needed a SATA drive to smoothly run the new, big sample libraries (eic)

[jbauerctu]

i still use a p4 2.6 w/ 2G

I think w/ version 6 I had to do some upgrades. that's when I went to 2g ram. I also found at that time that i needed a SATA drive to smoothly run the new, big sample libraries (eic)

Ah its good to hear from people in the same situation as me! I've gone through the tutorials now..I kind of understand what I'm doing sort of. Apart from youtube where is is a good source for Ableton Tutorials? Or music making in general?

[DrXparaMental]

i still use a p4 2.6 w/ 2G

I think w/ version 6 I had to do some upgrades. that's when I went to 2g ram. I also found at that time that i needed a SATA drive to smoothly run the new, big sample libraries (eic)

That's exactly what the Dell has in it at home, except I left the two part 512 in it and added two 1gig sticks. That's a GREAT computer for 6. It likes Adobe Audition 3 too.

[jbauerctu]

On another note is it worth me getting a SATA 500GB HD and re-installing live on to that rather than use the HD where the OS is installed? Would that give me better performance?

[DrXparaMental]

On another note is it worth me getting a SATA 500GB HD and re-installing live on to that rather than use the HD where the OS is installed? Would that give me better performance?

I am glad to see you enthusiastic about such things.

Have you already checked to make certain your system's motherboard will accommodate a SATA drive? If it will, and everything jibes with the slave/master set up, it will make a real performance difference with respect drive access speed, but that is not what you are referring to here. What you are hoping to see a real change in is process/memory speed and capacity. Do you know what manufacture and model your computer is?

[jbauerctu]

Hi,

Its an old pc I bought from work. A Dell Optiplex GX270. Theres now 1GB of RAM in there as they gave me some 256 modules today for me to try. Thats made an improvement to Ableton already. So 2GB would be great.



EDIT - Also can I allocate more memory to Ableton in anyway?

[longjohns]

On another note is it worth me getting a SATA 500GB HD and re-installing live on to that rather than use the HD where the OS is installed? Would that give me better performance?

no

but what could make a difference is putting your library on a second drive. perhaps even more so if it is sata as compared to ide