Ableton Forum

When I use Ableton to work on a project for any extended amount of time, I get CPU spikes. Say, for instance, I am just starting on a new project. The average CPU usage will be about 3-4%. Randomly, the CPU will spike to levels between 20-30% before dropping back down. As my projects get larger, and as the meter spikes to 80-100%, I start to get clipping.

This includes if I save a project and come back to it later. I am using the newest version of Live 8.2.x, but I had the same problems with previous versions.

I'm running Vista.

I have searched all over the internet and tried just about everything under the sun. I've reinstalled Windows, turned off my third-party VST(i)'s, updated drivers, messed with buffer sizes, and disabled devices. I have used ASIO4ALL and still have the same problems.

I have contacted Ableton support and the only solution they suggested was using ASIO and running Live as an administrator, both of which I had already tried.

I really want to buy Ableton, but if I cannot get these problems resolved, I won't be able to.

Thanks ahead of time for your help.

I understand Ableton and Vista do not get along, and I am considering saving my money to buy a Macbook, but I would really rather not do this. Macbooks are expensive and with the cost of Live, I'm looking at over $1,300.

It seems like you've had a look at Live's settings, but have you tried looking outside of Live? As in, are there any programs running "in the background" on Vista? I've heard that if your computer is searching for wifi connections, for instance, then every now and then it'll eat some CPU while it checks. Same goes for any anti-virus software that might be trying to auto-update. And of course any CPU those processes take up is CPU that Live can't use to rock your potentially-awesome tunes.

That's the first thing I thought of, anyway. If you use your machine as your main general computer and you don't want to turn off the extra processes, you could always set up two profiles - your "music" profile and your "everything else" profile. So the music one is absolutely bare in terms of processes apart from Live, and then the other one is where you do your internet surfing and whatnot.

Hope this helps at least a little - good luck with getting it sorted out, man.

I've already tried doing that. Actually I disabled every running process that I could, including all anti-virus software.

Thanks for your help, though!

No idea then, I'm afraid... I'll bump the thread in case one of the more tech-minded guys are wandering by though.

Here's my fix for Win 7-
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=147537
Worked for me but didn't stop Live crashing unfortunately.