Ableton Forum

I've made quite an extensive template with something like 100 tracks total, probably about 5 or so "128s" (Instrument racks w/ 128 choices of drum racks/samplers in chain selector) and 8 return tracks with a handful of effects on each. The template is pretty perfect for me, except now I occasionally get an "out of memory" message and Ableton quits. This isn't a huge problem if I save all the time (except saving seems to make the problem more common), and luckily it doesn't usually happen while I create content, but rather when I split clips, make multiple midi assignments etc..

Also when I'm jamming out creating content I sometimes get the annoying audio glitch/stumble because my CPU will be at 50% or so.

My question is this: will a couple of GB of RAM do me any good? Like 4 GB or so? I figured so until I read this:

"Ableton Live is a 32 bit application. On native 64 bit systems, Live can address memory up to 4 GB.
OSX, Windows XP 64, Windows Vista 64, Windows 7 64"

After reading that it seemed to me that even with more RAM, Live will only use 4 GB. Help!

I have a standard Macbook Pro. The middle-sized one.

If you don't have at least 4 GB, I would recommend it.

No I definitely do have 4 GB. Would doubling that not help?

depending on whether you set uses video or M4L and what 3rd party VSTs are used, you might be interested in checking out the 64bit beta should you choose to upgrade your ram.

being 64bit it can see and use a lot more ram than the 4gb limits.

of course you'd have to be using a 64bit OS as well

I suspect that what you need most is processing power available to live. More memory could help, though it depends on a few factors.

As of this writing, the current version of Live is a 32-bit application, and can't use more than 4GB. Assuming you're on a recent version of OSX, the OS can use more RAM and allow Live to get the full 4GB if you have it to spare. If all you have is 4GB, then you could definitely use more. Just running the OS by itself uses up some of your RAM, plus ideally you want some additional memory as headroom in order to get best performance out of your machine (when RAM resources run low, the system starts swapping things to your drive - this is a much slower process than just running everything from RAM plus it eats up CPU cycles). If you have other programs running (IM/twitter clients, utilities, etc), they all use memory too - my recommendation is to figure out what everything you run will need, then upgrade your system to have at least double that amount. A 64-bit version of Live is in beta now, you can expect that to become available in the near-ish future, you probably won't have any trouble putting more memory to use.

That may not necessarily solve the problem you're having. With all that going on, you might just be overloading what your MacBook Pro's CPU is capable of. If you haven't already done so, take a look at what else is running, quit everything that's not essential to free up CPU cycles. If you're still having trouble, you may want to look at getting a hardware DSP (digital signal processing unit) to give you an assist (Universal Audio makes some great stuff). That offloads a lot of the effects processing work onto the dedicated hardware, which should eliminate your CPU load issues.

trilo wrote:I suspect that what you need most is processing power available to live. More memory could help, though it depends on a few factors.

As of this writing, the current version of Live is a 32-bit application, and can't use more than 4GB. Assuming you're on a recent version of OSX, the OS can use more RAM and allow Live to get the full 4GB if you have it to spare. If all you have is 4GB, then you could definitely use more. Just running the OS by itself uses up some of your RAM, plus ideally you want some additional memory as headroom in order to get best performance out of your machine (when RAM resources run low, the system starts swapping things to your drive - this is a much slower process than just running everything from RAM plus it eats up CPU cycles). If you have other programs running (IM/twitter clients, utilities, etc), they all use memory too - my recommendation is to figure out what everything you run will need, then upgrade your system to have at least double that amount. A 64-bit version of Live is in beta now, you can expect that to become available in the near-ish future, you probably won't have any trouble putting more memory to use.

That may not necessarily solve the problem you're having. With all that going on, you might just be overloading what your MacBook Pro's CPU is capable of. If you haven't already done so, take a look at what else is running, quit everything that's not essential to free up CPU cycles. If you're still having trouble, you may want to look at getting a hardware DSP (digital signal processing unit) to give you an assist (Universal Audio makes some great stuff). That offloads a lot of the effects processing work onto the dedicated hardware, which should eliminate your CPU load issues.

WOOT WOOT!

I'm PRETTY SURE I only have 4 GB, but will have to check when I get home. This is good news as it seems like upgrading to 8 GB will help. If I upgrade to 8 GB, Ableton should be using all 4 GB right?

Also yea, I'm definitely hitting the CPU hard. I use a Saffire Pro 24 as an audio interface. Not sure if that does all the DSP itself but I figure it does.

There is no such thing as too much ram, get the most you can afford (within reason).

Whilst Apple don't publicise it, the latest Macbook Pro's can take 16Gb of ram which is cheapish nowadays.

jonny72 wrote:There is no such thing as too much ram, get the most you can afford (within reason).

Whilst Apple don't publicise it, the latest Macbook Pro's can take 16Gb of ram which is cheapish nowadays.

But isn't that unnecessary as Ableton can only access 4 GB of it?

Ableton might only be able to, but the OS will put as much there as it can for it's own needs not to mention your other apps.

aioffermann wrote:But isn't that unnecessary as Ableton can only access 4 GB of it?

Not really. You'd want 8Gb anyway to allow Ableton the full 4Gb. Might as well get the 16Gb (which costs under $80) and it will be there for when you switch to 64 bit which can take full advantage.

Besides most people don't use their laptops just for music and I use other apps that can use a lot of ram - my Macbook was paging like crazy prior to upgrading to 16Gb and even now it's still paging a bit.

Check if you have any audio clips loaded to RAM.