Ableton Forum

I just upgraded to Live 5 from 4.1.4 yesterday, and the first problem I've had was that every time I tried to open the projects I had been working on in 4.1.4, Live 5 would freeze - resulting in the program not responding. Over and over and with different sets and methods I tried to open my 4.1.4 sets and without fail Live5 would locked up.
Being a statistician by day, I decided to do some independant variable tests to isolate the possible problems. After closing numerous non-responsive instances of Live again and again, restarting windows over and over, I finally found something that works. In order to "convert" my sets from 4.1.4 to 5.0.1, I have to open the file through Live's 'open set' command under the file menu, and once I click open I have to WALK AWAY from the computer for around 20-30 minutes (dependant on set size). I found that even moving the mouse around the screen is often too much for the computer, and will result in Live crashing, and multi-tasking while Live loads is just suicide. Once the set finally loads, I quickly make a minute change in the volume/panning/etc. and resave the set and thats it! Once the set is saved from 5.0.1, it works just as it should from that point on.
I have read other posts with similar problems, so maybe this will work for you as well.
By the way, I'm using a P4 w/ 3.0Ghz & 1gRam, on windows XP - so lack of computing power doesn't seem to be this issue, I think it is just EXTREMELY memory intensive to convert old files to Live5.
Also notable, is that if I try to open a 4.1.4 set through a folder (without opening Live first) the Live5 splash screen will come up and scan the VST folder, etc. but then it will dissapear as if the app has shut itself down. This was the reason for a few of my first headaches. If during this process you CTRL+ALT+DELETE you will not see Live unless you look under the processess tab, and there it will be working its brains to death. So, to make a drawn out story end with an easy answer... Close any unneccessary apps that may be using ram and BE PATIENT. Don't multitask, don't even touch the mouse. I can't say this will happen on your computer, but I know that on mine, leaving it alone is the only solution I've come across.
Anyone else have similar problem/solution?

By the way, this is my first post. Glad to have a helpful community such as this.

Jonny

Hi Jonny,

welcome to the forum.

What Live 5 does when opening a Live 4 set, it reanalyze all audio files and recreates the corresponding .asd files. So when you say it freezes when loading a Live set, when exactly does it freeze? Do you already can see all the clips or is it immediately after opening the Live set?
Indeed it sounds a bit strange that a mouse move makes this kind of difference you wrote about.


It wold be nice if you can try if the latest beta of the upcoming bug fix update Live 5.0.2 makes a difference: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26978

regards,
Alex

I made an ass out of myself in front of about 100 people trying to use 5.0.2b6. While my Monday show (with a 2 gig set) was flawless, last night's show with a 4 gig set was a DISASTER.

1. Warped clips of vocal material is not playing back correctly. Painstakingly made in 4.1.4, they sound out of time in 5.

2. I had numerous audio skips...the red "D" kept lighting whenever I would select a new scene. Very embarassing.

3. I had audio dropouts as well.

4. It took over 12 minutes (with everyone waiting) to load the set to try again.

Meanwhile my partner on Live 5.0.1 on his Mac has never experienced a problem. Granted, his sets are tiny compared to mine.

My laptop is a 2.4 ghz P4, with a gig of ram, the Layla Laptop interface, and a 7200 rpm firewire drive. Any idea when this will all be solved?? I could be a freaking superstar salesperson for Live...I have been for years...but I'm keeping quiet at the moment.

Keeping the faith,
Solovox
www.solovox.com

Downloaded the most recent beta and tested it out. Seemed to work fine for the 2 sets I opened with it. Still took quite a while to load initially, but it was much more stable. I put it to the test multitasking while Live loaded the song, and it handled it just fine regardless of what else was going in. Thanks.

One other prob though, unfortunately Live5beta still doesn't let me use Reaktor4VSTfx - I can use the Reaktor4VST, but not the ReaktorVSTfx. I didn't mention this last post, but everytime I try to install that particular VST, Live crashes and the beta is no exception. Never had a problem with 4.1.4 but 5 just won't have it. Any ideas what to do here?

Jonny

Hi solovox,

could you please check (via the task manager) how much memory Live allocates when you load your 4GB set?


Hi Jonny,

do you use the latest version of Reaktor 4?

regards,
Alex

That's what it was, Alex. Downloaded the latest update for Reaktor4 and now it works smoothly.
Was having trouble with Battery v.1 as well, so I had to upgrade to Battery2 and everything works perfectly now.
Thanks for your help,
Jonny

Standby...I'll send you this memory info plus the log.txt file in a few hours.

Thanks!

I just send Christian Kleine this info...I'll paste it here just in case other folks are having this problem:

Christian,

Solovox here. Okay, I've just loaded the 4 gig set and the CPU on the Windows Task Manager for Live is jumping all around: 62-76-13-55 etc. Again, here are my specs:
Windows XP, P4 2.4ghz, 1 gig ram, Layla laptop interface, and a 7200 rpm drive.

I press on the Ableton tab and it takes about 10 seconds to see the program again. The CPU meter is at 2%. I use no VST efx, and Groove Agent is waiting. I use the Ableton Grain Delay and Reverb in modest amounts.

I fire a scene (with ONE clip in it) and the screen freezes...the clip plays about 4 seconds later. BTW, my buffer size is set to a very reasonable 1024 samples...my overall latency is at 49.4ms. With each new scene I fire, the stuttering continues. If not a stutter, then crunchiness or static. If I jump to a whole other group of loops further down the screen, the stuttering is huge.

I bump my buffer size up to 4096. The performance is improving, but the "D" in the top corner goes red upon EVERY scene change. Not to mention that at this buffer setting any real-time VSTi playing is out of the question.

Vocal clips that have been manually adjusted with Warp Markers (to match the music tempo) are playing correctly ONLY after one full play of the clip! Will they play correctly on the first time next time I open this set? Or will I have to play every vocal clip once before performing?

I am also experiencing drop-outs: half of the clips from a particular scene just vanish...then reappear in 2 or 4 beats.

Any movement of accessing Groove Agent or other windows (like the Return slots) and then going back to the full view causes the screen to freeze, and also dropouts.

Windows task manager is fluctuating between 46 and 76 cpu for Live.

More and more stuttering, dropouts, the red "D", etc.

I will close this session, and email you the log.txt file. Thanks guys...I'm kind of screwed until we figure this out. I made the mistake of saving this huge set in Live 5...so I can't perform at all right now, even with Live 4. So I'm kind of...desperate, you know??

Thanks,
Solovox

P.S.
As I close the session, I get a "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" screen that says "Runtime Error!" Program files Live 5.0.2b6/Program/Live 5.0.2b6.exe
Abnormal Program Termination

The Windows Task Manager registers 99% CPU usage for Live...the whole computer freezes and I have to manually shut down the computer.