Ableton Forum

Hey guys, So over the past few years that I have been trying to learn how to use Live, I have not worked much in arrangement view. Actually in the past few years I have maybe spent an hour total in arrangement view so I still struggle with controlling it.

Last night I decided to Mix a little music and record it. I use the Will Marshall Ohm template and a few other controllers. I changed my Master out channel to 3/4 so I could play everything through my headphones and just mixed music that I was really familiar with and didn't have to cue. After I got done recording everything for about 45 minutes in session view I switched over to Arrangement, selected everything I recorded and exported it. After exporting the file I opened it up in VLC to give it a listen and there is no sound. The file plays in VLC but you can not hear anything.

Am I right in assuming the reason this happened has something to do with me switching the master channel to 3/4 instead of 1/2?

If this is so, Is there anything I can do now? I mean I have the whole mix recorded to Arrangement view But im not sure what I can do from hear to export it and actually get sound.

Any tips would be great. Thanks.

Unlikely. The Master Out option just affects which output the system uses. It should not affect exporting.

What were the settings you used in exporting?

If you look at the rendered file, is there actually a waveform in it? What do you see if you open it in a wave editor?

P. S. The Peripheral was awesome. Your best in ages. Is there gonna be a sequel?

on export dialog you can choose which channel/s you want to export. did you choose master?
if there is sound when playing the mix from the arrangement view it can be exported correctly 100%

William Gibson wrote:Am I right in assuming the reason this happened has something to do with me switching the master channel to 3/4 instead of 1/2?

If this is so, Is there anything I can do now? I mean I have the whole mix recorded to Arrangement view But im not sure what I can do from hear to export it and actually get sound.

Any tips would be great. Thanks.

Just to rule this option out, try switching your "master out" to 1/2, make your selection in arrangement and do a render again (and like suggested by Zaplin, make sure you select the master channel in the dialog box). It's not going to change anything in your arrangement session, but it might work for the export render... see what happens and let us know. If that doesn't work, then we can investigate further

re:dream wrote:P. S. The Peripheral was awesome. Your best in ages. Is there gonna be a sequel?

Oh man, I totally missed the release of this book! I'm gonna get it ASAP. Can't go around doing things with an unread WG novel waiting out there

Hey guys, Sorry for the delay in response. work got stupid busy this week and I'm just not revisiting this since posting.

The rendered file does not have a waveform.

I have tried rendering both master track and each individual track.

Preferences are pretty basic. Export as as wav, 44000, start at 1:1:1, etc. Im pretty stumped, this should be working?

First, click the back to arrangement button. Then make sure you have the render length time set properly in the export dialogue.

Tarekith wrote:First, click the back to arrangement button. Then make sure you have the render length time set properly in the export dialogue.

I clicked back to arrangement> export audio/video, Render start at 1,1,1, Render length 1904,0,0 and clicked export. My rendered file is still coming out at 52 minutes long with no audio and no waveform when put back into live. friggen weird...

52 minutes long, I could see that being an issue with the 4GB file size limitation of some older OS's perhaps. What OS are you using?

Tarekith wrote:...being an issue with the 4GB file size limitation of some older OS's perhaps. What OS are you using?

It's not an OS limitation but a limitation of 32bit PCM headers, and with live it's not even limited to 4 but 2 GB, due to them using signed PCM, the signature bit halves the adressable space.

Cf.: Live stops recording or exporting due to the 2 GB file size limit | Ableton

Thank for clarifying that. I admit, I haven't had to think about this sort of thing in a long time, and had forgetting the specifics behind the issue.

Still, sounds like it's a possible candidate for his issue?

Tarekith wrote:Still, sounds like it's a possible candidate for his issue?

I should think so, though the article claims, Live would show a message to that respect. At what point though, I don't know.

William Gibson wrote:My rendered file is still coming out at 52 minutes long with no audio and no waveform when put back into live.

First: look at the file size, that should give you a first impression, if the 2GB limit is the actual issue. As a rule of thumb, a minute of 44.1/16 stereo pcm is about 10 MB, so your 52 mins should be in the neighbourhood of 5GB.

Then: Do have a classical audio editor like Source Forge or Wavelab? Audacity will do, too. - Check what happens opening the file with one of them, if it's opened, but still mute, try something else: Import/Open it as RAW pcm (ignoring the header), set sampling rate and bit depth according to what you have exported, and watch/listen to what happens.

chrk wrote: First: look at the file size, that should give you a first impression, if the 2GB limit is the actual issue. As a rule of thumb, a minute of 44.1/16 stereo pcm is about 10 MB, so your 52 mins should be in the neighbourhood of 5GB.

52 minutes will only be in the neighbourhood of 500 MB

Tarekith wrote:52 minutes long, I could see that being an issue with the 4GB file size limitation of some older OS's perhaps. What OS are you using?

Yosemite 10.10.3

chrk wrote: Then: Do have a classical audio editor like Source Forge or Wavelab? Audacity will do, too. - Check what happens opening the file with one of them, if it's opened, but still mute, try something else: Import/Open it as RAW pcm (ignoring the header), set sampling rate and bit depth according to what you have exported, and watch/listen to what happens.

Just tried opening in sound forge pro. No waveform, no sound.

Da hand wrote:

chrk wrote: First: look at the file size, that should give you a first impression, if the 2GB limit is the actual issue. As a rule of thumb, a minute of 44.1/16 stereo pcm is about 10 MB, so your 52 mins should be in the neighbourhood of 5GB.

52 minutes will only be in the neighbourhood of 500 MB

Pretty damn close guesstimate. 497.7mb



So last night I had a little spare time. I decided to reboot the computer and Live as both tend to stay on for months at a time. I may only shut Live down 8 times a year. I thought maybe there was just a glitch and rebooting everything may do the trick.

I recorded another 50 so minutes in session view, switched over too arrangement and did the same thing as I have been doing. tried exporting with all the same normal settings. Same deal as before, no waveform in any programs, no sound in any programs.