Ableton Forum

Advice needed

I recently bought the cheapest macbook available.
* 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 512MB memory
* 60GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

Live runs smoothly but tends to struggle as soon as I play more than one audio file at the same time using Ableton Live 5. Obviously it doesn#t really appreciate loops either, generally spoken i need more memory but please please correct me if I'm wrong.

I went to my nearest apple store where they charge me 100 euros to upgrade to 1.256 GB memory. 180 euros for 2 GB. They were quite unfriendly and pushed me towards the 2 GB while I was shouting at them trying to explain that I'm a poor student.

All I need to know is if 1.256 would do to play a proper DJ Set without any disturbances.

Please help. Any possible advice is much appreciated.

i think 1.25 should be fine to play in a DJ kind of way... but don't over fill your live set with tracks and clips, and try to keep at least 10 gig of HD space free as the less RAM you have the more you will need that HD space as a buffer.

512 is certainly not enough for anything of use.

that computer should be ok. i find it hard to belive that it struggles with any more than one audio file.

yeah, you definitely want more ram, as much as you can. all sources suggest that the apple store is not the way to go - apple's ram is overpriced and there is plenty of other stuff you can use for way less money.

i would also suggest you upgrade to live 6. there doesn't seem to be much point having a dual core CPU and not using it.

danieldaniel wrote:Advice needed

I recently bought the cheapest macbook available.
* 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 512MB memory
* 60GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

Live runs smoothly but tends to struggle as soon as I play more than one audio file at the same time using Ableton Live 5. Obviously it doesn#t really appreciate loops either, generally spoken i need more memory but please please correct me if I'm wrong.

I went to my nearest apple store where they charge me 100 euros to upgrade to 1.256 GB memory. 180 euros for 2 GB. They were quite unfriendly and pushed me towards the 2 GB while I was shouting at them trying to explain that I'm a poor student.

All I need to know is if 1.256 would do to play a proper DJ Set without any disturbances.

Please help. Any possible advice is much appreciated.

Make sure that you use the intel version of Live.This is the 5.2 it is a paid version.
Or just get Live 6 and you will be happy.

nobbystylus wrote:... but don't over fill your live set with tracks and clips, and try to keep at least 10 gig of HD space free as the less RAM you have the more you will need that HD space as a buffer.

that's a good point. I'm trying to keep as much space as possible. I got about 34 left so that should be fine.

One thing is that ableton files take up a lot of space. not only the sets but the audio files save as ableton files as well.

thanks for the quick response.

itook4lefts wrote:that computer should be ok. i find it hard to belive that it struggles with any more than one audio file.

yeah, you definitely all sources suggest that the apple store is not the way to go - apple's ram is overpriced and there is plenty of other stuff you can use for way less money.

im not that good with macs generally and worse with hardware. does that mean i can go to any computer store and buy more ram even tho it s not an apple one.

im having issues with people in apple stores generally. and it wasnt even the one in london.

DJ VAKIS wrote:

danieldaniel wrote:Advice needed

I recently bought the cheapest macbook available.
* 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 512MB memory
* 60GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

Live runs smoothly but tends to struggle as soon as I play more than one audio file at the same time using Ableton Live 5. Obviously it doesn#t really appreciate loops either, generally spoken i need more memory but please please correct me if I'm wrong.

I went to my nearest apple store where they charge me 100 euros to upgrade to 1.256 GB memory. 180 euros for 2 GB. They were quite unfriendly and pushed me towards the 2 GB while I was shouting at them trying to explain that I'm a poor student.

All I need to know is if 1.256 would do to play a proper DJ Set without any disturbances.

Please help. Any possible advice is much appreciated.

Make sure that you use the intel version of Live.This is the 5.2 it is a paid version.
Or just get Live 6 and you will be happy.

do you reckon live 6 runs more smoothly

danieldaniel wrote:

DJ VAKIS wrote:

danieldaniel wrote:Advice needed

I recently bought the cheapest macbook available.
* 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 512MB memory
* 60GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

Live runs smoothly but tends to struggle as soon as I play more than one audio file at the same time using Ableton Live 5. Obviously it doesn#t really appreciate loops either, generally spoken i need more memory but please please correct me if I'm wrong.

I went to my nearest apple store where they charge me 100 euros to upgrade to 1.256 GB memory. 180 euros for 2 GB. They were quite unfriendly and pushed me towards the 2 GB while I was shouting at them trying to explain that I'm a poor student.

All I need to know is if 1.256 would do to play a proper DJ Set without any disturbances.

Please help. Any possible advice is much appreciated.

Make sure that you use the intel version of Live.This is the 5.2 it is a paid version.
Or just get Live 6 and you will be happy.

do you reckon live 6 runs more smoothly

Yes because supports coreduo CPU.
Just try the demo and you wil see what i mean.

thanks!!!

danieldaniel wrote:thanks!!!

No problem.

I've got exactly the same Macbook as you and I suffer the same problems with Live 6. Its workable for doodling but would be useless for any actual live use. More RAM would do the trick definately. If you're poor then go for 1.25 and you can bump it up to 2 at a later date. Go third party too, its way cheaper than getting Apple to do it. Also a faster (7200rpm) external hard drive would help a lot. A secondary priority to the RAM I suppose but still, it'd help a lot.

philipc wrote:I've got exactly the same Macbook as you and I suffer the same problems with Live 6. Its workable for doodling but would be useless for any actual live use. More RAM would do the trick definately. If you're poor then go for 1.25 and you can bump it up to 2 at a later date. Go third party too, its way cheaper than getting Apple to do it. Also a faster (7200rpm) external hard drive would help a lot. A secondary priority to the RAM I suppose but still, it'd help a lot.

well

i gave live 6 a go. it doesnt show any disturbances AT ALL even when i play 20 clips in a row. theres this perecentage thing in the top corner. i remember when i was using live 5 it went up to 13 % quite easily which was usually the point where it cracked. while using live 6 i can play 10 in a row and it doesnt go up any more than 4 percent.

i dont wanna get too optimistic but it looks really good now.

also thanks for the third party advice.

philipc wrote:I've got exactly the same Macbook as you and I suffer the same problems with Live 6. Its workable for doodling but would be useless for any actual live use. More RAM would do the trick definately. If you're poor then go for 1.25 and you can bump it up to 2 at a later date. Go third party too, its way cheaper than getting Apple to do it. Also a faster (7200rpm) external hard drive would help a lot. A secondary priority to the RAM I suppose but still, it'd help a lot.

Have you activate in the preferences, multycore support?

DJ VAKIS wrote:
Have you activate in the preferences, multycore support?

you mean in the live 6 audio output config? i guess im on mono.

theres 1 mono & 2 mono and then 1/2 stereo but that disables active track routings whatever that means.

No,preferences CPU multycore support ON