Ableton Forum

Within the past day or two, I've discovered an issue where the Undo function stops working in my project. When I go to the "edit" tab, the Undo option is always "Undo change 'gainReduction'" - and no matter how many times I undo it, it still says undo gain reduction. I should metion that the "redo" option never becomes available when this is happening.

I know it has something to do with plugins I started using within the past few days because this never happened before. It could be a few plugins causing this to happen- but it's either GGD Smash and Grab or Kontakt. (Most likely the smash and grab compressor)

Another thing to note, when I restart ableton and open the project, this usually goes away. However as soon as I start playing my track, this issue starts again and can't be undone unless I restart ableton again.

My guess is that during playback of my track, one of these plugins are performing constant adjustments that ableton picks up as something that I can undo, which it can't.

Has anybody had this issue? and is there a way to mitigate this?



**Edit: it is 100% GGD Smash and Grab plugin causing this. Should have assumed this before, but the gain reduction meter in this plugin obviously bounces around during track playback. So Ableton is registering every movement of this meter during playback as an action that can be undone. Is there any way I can stop Ableton from allowing this plugin to register in the Undo/Redo list?

Also having the same issue. Did you ever work out a way to fix it at all?

Same issue here

You could try informing the plugins devs about the issue.

Same here!

same here. restarting the app makes it work again for a while. However, that wont give you back the thing you wanted to get back by doing undo

I don't know the nature of Smash and Grab or what kind of plugin it is, but in a certain mode, Vocal Rider by Waves is an absolute nightmare, because it writes automation changes constantly, so it completely eats up your undo history.

Same issue here,

undo works fro a while, then cuts out. I need to restart to get it back

this is happening to me aswell. really annoying

Same problem - haven't added any new plugins though. The session is on the larger side with processor hovering around 40%.

Will try restarting...

Just happened with me as well. I was working on a session for a few hours and out of no where my undo isnt working and says Undo Change "Threshold1" no idea what the deal is

I also have an undo-issue;

when undoing I have to do it many times to actually undo.

For instance lets say I delete a clip and press cmd+Z. Nothing happens.

Then I press cmd+Z again and I get the clip back.

Some times I have to press cmd+Z multiple times to undo.

Same here. I was actually thinking my keyboard is damaged!!
Really annoying.

Same problem with Izotope RX8.
If using de-noise the undo will only show "Undo Threshold 6".

This would be easier to work around with an "undo list" like you would find on some other DAWs so you could just select an undo item from the list of events.

Ableton must be aware of this....

It is from plugins or M4L devices that use APIs that are reserved for emulating user input.

Only plugins meat to write automation in the DAW (very rare) should use those, definitely should not be used for knobs that just adjust parameters like ADSR or filter cutoff.

It is not Ableton's fault, it is 100% the plugin or M4L dev's fault.

Undo list would not solve it, but at least the user would see the undo list filling up with stuff the user is not doing, right after they added a certain plugin, and then would realize faster it is that plugin's fault.

EDIT:
In case it is not clear, Live's Undo works just fine, but if a plugin constantly adds "hidden" undo steps (even after the last actual user action), then when the user press ctrl+Z, what will be undone is not the user last action, but the last "hidden" undo step the plugin added.

Another effect is the plugin ends up disabling its own recorded automation, just like when the user tweaks an automated knob.