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Ableton LIVE Latency/ Buffer Issue

Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:15 am
by markwily
Hey folks,

I'm running LIVE with Reason rewired into LIVE, and also using Reaktor, Kontakt and other plugins. Reaktor really kills my CPU limit and I hear this crackling/ digital distortion noise stuff when it goes over 70%. I'd really like to be able to have say 5 reaktor plugins running at the same time (and not have to constantly bounce stuff to audio) but as of right now, this is not possible. I've upgraded my computer and now it has 2gb of RAM. The processor speed is 1.6 Gb, but I think that this is a buffer size issue, I think. I have it on 512 samples (the lowest) which means that I have also got the lowest latency (sweet!) but 512 is not enough to run my Reaktor plugins, so when I bump it up to 2000 or 5000 samples, I can hear everything just fine (no distortion), but there is this nasty 500ms latency. I'd really like to find some way around this so that I can be running my plugins and edit them in real time (midi) and not have to deal with this lame latency issue. Someone please save me from my misery! LOL :D thanks in advance

help somebody! :(

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:14 am
by markwily
anyone have a clue about what i'm talking about. help! :(

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:17 am
by MrYellow
What soundcard..... Maybe it can't hack it.

-Ben

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:22 am
by DeadlyKungFu
there's also a plugin buffer size (options->preferences->Plug-in) mine's set to 'as audio buffer', try cranking it up, check for the problem to be gone then back it off.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:34 am
by mike holiday
the trade off for cpu power is latency

the harder you want to tax your system the more latency you will have to experience.

i can only run 1 instance of reactor 5 on my computer enev with the maximum buffer size

with a low latency setting, say 128 samples i get pops at 50% cpu

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:13 am
by AudioSoundation
MrYellow wrote:What soundcard..... Maybe it can't hack it.

-Ben
werd.

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:51 pm
by markwily
I read on a website that most laptops use something called core logic chipset. I have an inspiron6000 configured with the following (upgraded to 2 gbs of ram tho).

also, I'm using an mbox (which uses asio audio), I don't know if that changes anything. Thanks for the responses, so far. :)


G5982 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4WUXGA, NO-SPWG, LENGTH/LONG
H5897 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, COAXIAL, LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4, 6000
Y5995 BEZEL, PLASTIC, LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4, NOTEBOOK, 6000
8267R CONNECTOR, HEADER, 2X22, FEMALE, 2, S, G, 35K, THIRD HEIGHT, CHIP SET
G5845 HINGE, COVER, PLASTIC, INSPIRON, 6000
W4773 PROCESSOR, 80536, PENTIUM M DOTHAN, Pentium M Dothan, 1.6GHZ, 2 MEGB, 533FSB, PLASTIC GRID ARRAY, C0
W9260 ASSEMBLY, BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP), BOTTOM, INTEGRATED 6000, DELL MEDIA DIRECT
F7970 ASSEMBLY, ADAPTER, ALTERNATING CURRENT, 65W, LEAD FREE, LITEON
H5639 KEYBOARD, 87, UNITED STATES, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, SINGLE POINTING, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO
F2951 KIT, CORD, FLAT, 3F, D3W/3P, PROPOSITION 65, UNITED STATES
HD427 KIT, SOFTWARE, OVERPACK, WXPHSP2A, COMPACT DISKETTE W/DOCUMENTATION, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
Y5518 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 512MB, 400, 64X64, 8K, 200
J5225 ASSEMBLY, REMOVABLE MEDIA STORAGE, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, 128M, M-SYSTEMS
F5135 BATTERY, PRIMARY, 11.1V, 6C, LITHIUM, SIMPLO
P7464 ASSEMBLY, DVD+/-RW, 8X, SONY, INSPIRON, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO
D7377 HARD DRIVE, 80G, 9.5MM, 5.4K, HITACHI, MORAGA PLUS, LEAD FREE
TC400 KIT, SOFTWARE, MCAF-SCTY, 6.0, COMPACT DISK DRIVE, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
CD940 KIT, SOFTWARE, WORDPERFECT, 12, PLUS-TRIAL
H8162 CARD (CIRCUIT), NETWORK, MINI PCI CARD, INTEL, 2915LF, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
W9242 CARD (CIRCUIT), WIRELESS, LEAD FREE, INTERNAL, BLUETOOTH, 350

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:57 am
by markwily
do i need a new sound card? i'm not good with this technology stuff :(

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:18 pm
by markwily
someone help please :(

Re: Ableton LIVE Latency/ Buffer Issue

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:22 pm
by ekko
markwily wrote:I'd really like to be able to have say 5 reaktor plugins running at the same time (and not have to constantly bounce stuff to audio)
Holy Christ.

5 Reaktor plugs is asking a LOT from your system. I'm happy when I can get 2 at a time.

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:46 pm
by markwily
hmm... is it normal to not be able to run more than 2 or 3 reaktor plugins??? reaktor has the coolest sounds :(

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:10 am
by Clearscreen
try using http://www.asio4all.com and see how you go.
my machine can run about 5 instances of reaktor plus enough other stuff to get away without having to freeze things, but it is a cpu hog. try reducing the voice counts and sampling rates of each reaktor instance and it should use less cpu with the trade off of not sounding as clean and rich...

you can resample or freeze the reaktor tracks as well to reduce load.

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:46 pm
by markwily
hey clearscreen,

i did try asio4all, but then ended up using the asio setup that comes with my mbox (which i think is better). your system does run faster than mine, so i'm a little baffled... and envious of u.