Ableton Forum

hi,
i don't want to give critics but i want to get some honest opinions about usefullnes of ableton live
i installed the livedemo and tried to work with it. it works in so far you can do 'some stuff' but i experienced so many restrictions and limitations in the way that it just eats all my cpu power with a small amount of things going on (a few audio files running and very few fx). ok you can make a new audio file of it but i even couldn't get that far to create one sequence of what i wanted (first it slows down and then at the end it just freezes)
i'm running on a G4 double 500mhz processor (9 and X) + 768mb plus a delta 24/96 audio card (asio) (but i also tried the apple soundmanager) and i tried it also on a fresh installed system with basic extensions.

so for me it seems completly untrustworthy to use 'live' live. if i worked with live it slows down after a few audiofiles running together and everything like knobs don't react properly (slow). the limits are reached and i didn't do a fraction of the music i wanted to do. i know a comp has limitations but....

so, the demo expired but really don't know if i should buy it. i don't want to buy something and irritating myself in that it doesn't fill my needs

is it working for you
can you trust on it's stability
do you experience very fast cpu restrictions
is it a dynamic instrument or is a small tool

sorry that i sound that negative. i know that it's not evident to make programs and that idea is great but isn't it so that computers aren't made or are not ready yet for such apps. my old yamaha synths never complain about to many this or less that. they just play 16 channels of audio and fx for each channel (and i think i'm going back to them

I use it on an ibook 500( G3) and experience no problems. I can get 10-14+ tracks with effects. It is very stable for me. (v.1.5.1)

Try to use the sends for the effects instead of loading up every track with multiple instances.
Also note that the reverb is very processer intensive but it is also great. Put one on a send track and route the other tracks to.

This is not exclusive to Live. Check out the Logic forums at www.sonikmatter.com and you will see that Logic Audio is very cpu intensive when several effects are loaded on to each track. The solution there seems to be - use sends.

I would also check your drivers/config. I had a delta 1010 on my desktop and had a lot of problems from app to app.

No app is perfect but Live is as good as it gets. It is so well designed and the company is very responsive. If for some reason there is a problem with your set up - let them know. They participate in this forum all the time.

thanks for your reply.
i didn't use excesif effects. just one reverb and sometimes even not any reverbs. i know about the send and i use them but anyway i'm not a very intensif fx user.
i have put the demo on an other partition so that i can test some more (it was expired). and if i use 3 or more tracks simultaniously in session view everything is slowing down. i can not tweek the knobs when it's playing >> so three tracks and one reverb an EQ and i've got a cpu load of 60% when it's playing. nothing is reacting when i try to interact.
i'm using the soundmanager now
im a logic user and i use it by times with some softsynths and other plugs and use a lot more realtime processes (synths. reverbs and other fx) but i get far more cpu power. i know it has limits but i can get somewhere
i don't understand. perhaps it's my double processor that's the problem. i don't think live recognize DP's. and some programs seems to work badly on my mac and work normally on my ibook 700mhz
but thanks i investigate some more

chao

i m using live with logic5,reson,and rebirth
and it works just fine...

i have G4 400mhz 704rams motu 2408mk2

i think it should be your computer or your audiocard(check the buffer size or use bounce audio track)

My system is a PowerBook G4/550 (OS X) and I also use Live on an old G3/300 (OS 9.2). The G3 stutters a little bit every now and then (v1.5), but the PowerBook is solid, and that's what I use for live shows. (Though I'm not using Live live yet -- I just got it a couple weeks ago.) I also run Reason at the same time as a Rewire slave, and it works great.

If you have a G4/500, you should definitely be seeing better performance than you are. I don't know any specifics to help, but there's absolutely something wrong -- Live is an excellent app and it runs great on my PowerBook with built-in OS X audio out, nothing fancy.

As for dual processor support: Live currently does not use dual processors. On OS X, however, if you're doing something like running Reason through Rewire, then the OS will schedule Live on one processor and Reason on another. Also, it's my understanding that Live doesn't use the Velocity Engine (altivec) in the G4, so you're better off running it on your iBook 700. Ableton needs to do something about that IMHO, though at the moment I'm not hitting its performance ceiling.

-Josh

Hey Amygdala--I've been performing with Live since September using an old G3 333 powerbook. I've only crashed it once (and I was using too many granular plugins) which is way more than I can say for my history with Reaktor. I use Live to perform with quite regularly--including several weeks of touring. It has always been stable and reliable. Considering that your computer is a lot faster than my lowly old thing, I'd say you have some significant problems with the way your system is set up. Make sure Live has plenty of ram (even though audio is streaming off the hard drive). Your sound card/driver may also have a role to play in your problems. I've had luck with an iMic, Sound Manager, and a VXPocket V2.

Keep working. Live is worth it. It seems obvious that you've only scratched the surface of what it can do.

thanks for your opinions and information about your experiences with live

i think i have to do some more investigation with 'live'.
the strange thing is that i have the same problem on a fresh partition (with a fresh os9) so no interference of my own installed apps or extensions in the background. i really suspect the double processor >>> that there is some incompatibility with 2 cpu's. (for os9 and i didn't use it in os x beceause i use other progs wich don't run in os x). aldo normally when the app isn't optimized for double processors it just use one processor but perhaps there is some conflict with the system (i think that os 9.2.2 is some 2DP aware). just thinking loud. it's the only thing what i can make of it.

thanks again
amygdala