Ableton Forum

I have been having this issue for years. I've tried every work around I can think off to no avail. I have 8 audio tracks all sharing the same stereo (1/2) input. The input is fed by a Mackie mixer which is mixing down all of my intstruments (guitar, bass, synths, etc....) to said stereo track. The idea is to use Ableton's Grid as a Loop creating machine. The main issue is whenever I have a clip going in an "Armed" (record button engaged) and I try to dis arm it, I get a horrible digital breakup sound. It permeates the whole mix and makes everything sound like crap. According to Ableton Support, my original setup was not good enough (macbook 2.2ghz 4gb ram with a Presonus Firepod). My current setup (Macbook Pro i7, 8gb ram and a Fireface 800) is surely strong enough if that was the problem, but unfortunately the horrible sound persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is pretty much the one thing that is holding me back right now. If any one has any better ideas on how to use the Grid as a looper in the manner I stated earlier, please don't hesitate to drop a line.
Thank you
Sean

UPDATE!! I believe I have isolated this. It's essentially a "pop" heard every time you arm a track that is fed from an external input. Is this just a fact of life in Ableton?

I've never had that problem, so I'm guessing it's not a Live issue.

If it persists across machines, it's most likely related to your particular interface - do you have another you could troubleshoot with? If it happens with other interfaces, it could be a plugin issue or perhaps something you're running in the background

Fortunately I figured out a workaround to this issue for my own setup. But, to answer your question, I had this problem on both a Macbook and a Macbook pro without using an interface. I also had this issue with a Presonus Firepod, Presonus Firebox and a RME Fireface 800.
He is a quick setup guide to reproduce this issue.
1 Start a new project with one audio track
2 set audio track to recieve audio from external source (I used the Macbook Pro Microphone)
3 record something in to a clip space OR just add an audio file to the clip
4 have Monitor set to "Auto"
5 start playing the Clip
6 engage/disengage the "Arm/Disarm" button and Voila!!!

It's not impossible, but it seems highly unlikely that both computers and all the interfaces I have used could be the culprit. Please let me know what you come up with.
Thanks
Sean

search the forum for the key words 'option.txt', create such a file, put it where it belongs and add this magic line of text in that text file:

-StrictDelayCompensation

i am quite sure it will solve your problem.

Robert

What are the pros and cons of this -StrictDelayCompensation?

What does it do overall: Use more CPU or increase usuable latency, but possibly make it more stable from a pops and clicks point of view? Could it be a good idea to turn this on anyway?

Any more info greatly appreciated as I get a few seemingly random pops and clicks when I press things sometimes which definitely aren't buffer size related..

P.S. read...

Ableton FAQ wrote:"StrictDelayCompensation"

This disables Live's play-through optimization.

When delay compensation is on, don't play-through optimize (favor exact sync over low latency).

Example: -StrictDelayCompensation

But that doesn't really tell me much.

... long story.

short version:

Live tries to optimize the latency when recording. When arming a track, it reduces the latency for that track . Depending on the plugins you use in the sends, this can cause audible jumps in the signal. The strict latency compensation option bypasses this function. The trade off between the two modes is not CPU, but latency versus sync. With the option enabled, things will never jump, things should stay perfectly in sync but if you use plugins in the send that have a high latency you'll have that latency also when recording.

Robert

Thanks for the reply! So does it only make a latency difference "jump" whilst arming/disarming a track?

So pops other than when arming/disarming are completely unrelated to this function?

P.S. Songboy... to save you forum searching for the options.txt info go here.. http://www.ableton.com/de/pages/faq/options_text

Thanks for all the replies guys. I will look into the "options.txt." I am running a rather large looping rig with lots of instruments going in. I have realized that setting the monitor "off" keeps the recorded signal muted until I actually stop recording and launch the new clip. This works perfectly as my instruments are running through an RME FireFace with Totalmix. Now I just leave all the instruments running through directly to their outputs in Totalmix and Ableton "samples" the sounds I want looped without me having to disturb the Instruments direct pathway to the speakers. That might not be a great explanation but if anyone has a similar need and is having trouble, just let me know and I can explain better what I did. This new setup is actually really really good! This whole issue turned into a blessing in disguise.
S

henke wrote:search the forum for the key words 'option.txt', create such a file, put it where it belongs and add this magic line of text in that text file:

-StrictDelayCompensation

i am quite sure it will solve your problem.

Robert

I've been having this problem for years and thought it was my slow, old computer. Nope. Still there on my new one too. This option.txt totally fixed it! Thanks for the hot tip!

-StrictDelayCompensation

could it be, that this doesn't work in live 9?
the other things i put into options.txt were working fine.
but this one created an error message;
it couldn't be recognized, and was ignored.

henke wrote:search the forum for the key words 'option.txt', create such a file, put it where it belongs and add this magic line of text in that text file:

-StrictDelayCompensation

i am quite sure it will solve your problem.

Robert

Same problem here. Strict delay doesn't seem to be a option live 9 can handle.
Any news on this? This noise really pisses me off.

Under Options menu:

Try unchecking (turn off) "Reduced Latency When Monitoring" and see if that helps.

koranek wrote:Under Options menu:

Try unchecking (turn off) "Reduced Latency When Monitoring" and see if that helps.

I had an issue where the sound would cut out for a split second when switching from one instrument to another using my Push 2 (in essence, disarming one instrument and arming another).

Making sure "Reduced Latency When Monitoring" was set to off fixed this problem. Thanks Koranek!