Running live in XP vs. Win 7

[Faldoe]

I'm been having problems with Ableton - 8.1.1, which I know, as you're all said, is buggy. Is 8.1.1s buggyness in large part due to just the program or could it also be attributed to the OS? in my case - Win 7? I was using 8.0.3 suite prior to trying 8.1.1, and still had some issues. Would running 8.0.3 in XP ad more stability?

[Hermanus]

Maybe yes sure, try.

If you got another hard drive, or can free space on a logic partition, you can try with a dual boot install.

If you're on win 7, simply install XP on another partition, then you'll have the OS choice at the boot

Hope it helps,
Best.

[Faldoe]

that is what my friend suggested, a dual boot.

[dinaiz]

I don't think going back to XP will make anything better. Win 7 is way more stable than XP in general. I have been using Live under XP, Vista, and Seven (64 bit) and for me Seven has been the most stable (and Vista, the worst, definitely !).

Before suspecting the OS, did you try to give a go at the "usual suspects" ? In that order :
- hardware drivers
- VST plugins
- Amount of RAM

If I'd where you, I'd try to update all my drivers. Then I'd remove all my VSTs and try to use live for a few hours and see if it's stable. Then I'd add VSTs, one by one and see what happens. Generally crash happen when you are using a "bad" VST along with RAM-consuming stuff (long samples, many many tracks and so on ...) .

Having Windows Seven 64, 6 gigs of ram, and well tested VSTs, I can tell that Live 8.1.1 is dead stable for me
On the other hand on my old Vista 32 bit, 2 gigs of ram setup, it was constantly crashing, freezing, sttutering...well a lot of musically bad stuff

[dinaiz]

I don't think going back to XP will make anything better. Win 7 is way more stable than XP in general. I have been using Live under XP, Vista, and Seven (64 bit) and for me Seven has been the most stable (and Vista, the worst, definitely !).

Before suspecting the OS, did you try to give a go at the "usual suspects" ? In that order :
- hardware drivers
- VST plugins
- Amount of RAM

If I'd where you, I'd try to update all my drivers. Then I'd remove all my VSTs and try to use live for a few hours and see if it's stable. Then I'd add VSTs, one by one and see what happens. Generally crash happen when you are using a "bad" VST along with RAM-consuming stuff (long samples, many many tracks and so on ...) .

Having Windows Seven 64, 6 gigs of ram, and well tested VSTs, I can tell that Live 8.1.1 is dead stable for me
On the other hand on my old Vista 32 bit, 2 gigs of ram setup, it was constantly crashing, freezing, sttutering...well a lot of musically bad stuff

[distaudio]

Having Windows Seven 64, 6 gigs of ram, and well tested VSTs, I can tell that Live 8.1.1 is dead stable for me
On the other hand on my old Vista 32 bit, 2 gigs of ram setup, it was constantly crashing, freezing, sttutering...well a lot of musically bad stuff

I've experienced the exact same thing coming from Vista 32 to Windows 7 64. Running Live 8.0.9 on both.

Vista would crash when freezing tracks, occasionally when adding Live instruments to midi tracks and adding FX to audio tracks. So far, Win7 has not failed me.

So much so, that the only time I realised it hadn't failed me on WIN7 was just now when I read your post.

[leedsquietman]

2 gigs is not enough ram for Vista. 4GB ram works like a breeze for me on Live 7, Cubase and Reaper. (vista ultimate 32 bit, sp2). A lot depends on the hardware components in your system - for example, I need to disable wifi, Cd/dvd driver, Dell Dock, windows sidebar, inbuilt camera and stop any anti-virus/firewall stuff running. Actually I can normally leave this stuff on (except wifi) if I can tolerate the occasional dropout.

Win 7 should further refine this, but is some cases, there could be driver and/or plugin compatibility issues with win 7 64 bit. DO research and ensure you have all your audio and midi device drivers (which are still not very mature in some cases).

Dual booting would probably still be best for now if you're unsure. Some VSTS do not function so good yet in Vista 64 bit or Win 7 64 bit. Some VSTS may never function if they are legacy and the developer has stopped support.

The above posters obviously had no issues yet with their hardware, but not everyone is as lucky. If you are running a minimal amount of vsts and your audio and midi devices are well supported in win 7, it helps massively to create a stable system.

[dinaiz]

The above posters obviously had no issues yet with their hardware, but not everyone is as lucky. If you are running a minimal amount of vsts and your audio and midi devices are well supported in win 7, it helps massively to create a stable system.

I had some, that's why I wrote that drivers are the #1 suspects . Until very recently (begining of 2010) my soundcard (Edirol FA-66) would behave in a really strange way. All was solved by a driver update

To the OP, the amount of RAM is crucial when working with Live. As leedsquietman mentioned, 2 gigs aren't enough, unfortunately (when I think I made music with computers which had 32 megs of ram....but that's another story ) nowadays. Maybe going back to XP will ease the symptoms but I don't think it's gonna solve anything.

As leedsquitman (again ) mentioned it, it can be very usefull to try and run the cleanest possible system : remove everything from startup which is not VITAL (like the windows sidebar, aero themes, obviously MSN, ...), get a light antivirus (i.e. : not norton ) and so on ...

If you have the latest drivers, and a *CLEAN* system, you should already see a lot of improvement !!! When you launch windows task manager , just after a startup, you should have most of your physical ram free (at the very least : 80%) and your processor usage should be close to 0% . If it's not then there's something wrong.

Have a look here http://www.ehow.com/how_5215115_change- ... ndows.html to see which programs are running at startup and how you can disable (some of) them. Should you be in doubt, a google search on the filename can go a long way ....

In general, by default, windows runs a lot of useless stuff at startyup (MS office/open office tool bar, java update, and stuff like that). Well it's not useless in the general case, but if you use your computer to produce music, it does more harm than good !

Also a good virus/spyware scan is always a good thing to do.

Once your system is clean, you should also consider buying more ram ! (But only once your system is clean. It's useless to buy 2 additional gigs just because you've got some useless stuff running at startup)

Good luck

P.S. : By the way running cracked plugins is not good for the stability ... I know, I tried

[Faldoe]

I'm using an E-MU 0404 usb interface, could this be an issue? The drivers haven't been updated to Win7. They say on the site it works fine. It has worked in my setup but I'm wondering if that is what has contributed Ableton crashing, or the VSTS - I'm using a VST or widget thing called "Blinker" which is a virtual metronome - maybe thats it?

Using a Behringer FCB1010 Uno mod to control loops. I'm also recording simultaneously while I loop, live, with my drummer - my guitar does into one input on my interface, a condenser in the other, using both analog outs to send different loops to different amps... Any of this aiding on causing live to crash? Coupled with that 8.1.1 is a little buggy..?

[Hermanus]

the drivers are win7 ready, I did install them without any problems

The main problem with 7 is indeed hardware drivers.
In my case, I keep Xp for music.
I was hoping 7 to make a step forward concerning drivers... damn my firewire audio card doesn't need any drivers for mac, but on windows you can only install on xp 32bits.
No way to install it on 7.

I was not pushing anything wrong about 7, and the dualboot is not a pain.
At least he could test

Faldoe, for your concern, use ASIO drivers from E-mu>>> in live choose ASIO then asio E-mu.
No mme/dx and not Asio4All [only usefull if you don't have a valuable soundcard

[Belkin]

better is dual boot. because some vst dont work with win 7 yet

[Sandrah]

It's really hard nowadays find a person who daoesn't have any problems with Win 7, I'm currently using XP, and no problems so far

[dinaiz]

I'm using an E-MU 0404 usb interface, could this be an issue? The drivers haven't been updated to Win7. They say on the site it works fine. It has worked in my setup but I'm wondering if that is what has contributed Ableton crashing

Did you try using asio4all as an asio driver ? Could be something to try.

or the VSTS - I'm using a VST or widget thing called "Blinker" which is a virtual metronome - maybe thats it?

What if you don't use it ?

Using a Behringer FCB1010 Uno mod to control loops. I'm also recording simultaneously while I loop, live, with my drummer - my guitar does into one input on my interface, a condenser in the other, using both analog outs to send different loops to different amps... Any of this aiding on causing live to crash? Coupled with that 8.1.1 is a little buggy..?

FCB 1010 uno here too. Working fine.

It's really hard nowadays find a person who daoesn't have any problems with Win 7, I'm currently using XP, and no problems so far

Seriously ? I don't know anybody who HAS problems with win 7.