Ableton Live 8 latency issues

[admin]

Just posted this over at their support forums but figured I'd copy it here in case anyone else was having the same issues (which are fairly frustrating to deal with but at least I found a temporary solution to one of them)

"In 7 it seemed as if only latency added by 3rd party plugs on the master buss affected
the overall latency of the system. Now plugins on the track level contribute to this as well.

I have also noticed that the midi outs have latency when playing hardware devices. This
latency is also a product of both track and master buss plugins.

I have found that by adding a negative track delay on the midi track will allow
realtime playing to not suffer any latency from the track based buffers when
using VSTi's and both track and master buss based latencies on hardware midi.


So to sum up:

Track based plugins with latency now add to the overall latency of the system in
8 where as only master buss plugins affected 7.

Negative track delays on a midi channel remove the delay experienced depending
on whether the track is VST or Hardware:

VST plugs will only experience master buss delay

Midi outs will not experience any delay"

Additionally audio recorded from an external midi device is showing uncorrected latency
according to the buffer settings. For instance if my buffer is 49ms total latency my recorded audio
of the midi is 49ms late.

If I create an external instrument instance to control the same device and freeze and flatten
the resulting audio it is corrected fine.

[sven hauck]

Thanks for the notice. In my case bouncing the Virus TI in real time over USB into Live incurs a latency whereas freezing and flattening a Audio Units or VST synth does not.

According to Access Music recording via the analog outputs gets rid of the latency.

[admin]

Sounds right from what I remember when using one. The one main issue I see with 8 so far (and to some extent 7) is that the latency problem doesn't always seem 100% consistent. Earlier I was getting double error (99ms of instead of 49ms) but deleted the tracks and started over and it was ok.

Definitely a little bit of a puzzle to have to think about each time you record which is a shame. I'm going to be doing more experiments to nail it down though so I can have some sort of procedure to count on.

[Rambunkcious]

"Additionally audio recorded from an external midi device is showing uncorrected latency
according to the buffer settings. For instance if my buffer is 49ms total latency my recorded audio
of the midi is 49ms late.

If I create an external instrument instance to control the same device and freeze and flatten
the resulting audio it is corrected fine."

I realized that as well with 8. My first couple of sessions in 8 had negative track delays all over the place, it was a bit frustrating.

[sven hauck]

Had to load Cubase 4 to work on someone's project. I dig Live but am definitely missing some of the features of Cubase like the input & output assignment (just seems more intuitive), folder tracks and the way you browse presets. May do a few tracks in it for old times sake.

[Waylo]

i gotta pile it on here... haven't recorded external instruments yet, but man am i having problems with Live 8.

(mac quad core, 10.4.6)

* when using any Waves plugins I get a screen redraw error where the whole screen goes white until I resize the sequencer window.

* CPU usage is atleast 2x what live 7 was... and freezing tracks or turning off plugins doesn't help-- they only stop affecting the CPU when I delete the plugins

* where are my presets for my plugins? i don't know how to pull them up- there's no drop down menu to access presets

[Rambunkcious]

Agreed, folder tracks would be good for organization, was kind of hoping live 8 would have them, I guess grouping tracks solve that to a degree. Browsing presets in cubase is def more intuitive in

Waylo, what version waves plug ins are you using and which plug ins specifically are using? i can try to recreate your situation here, however I am running OS 10.5.x so maybe we can rule the OS out.

I am also having issues locating presets for third party manufacturers, such as the waldorf PPG wave v2.

[sven hauck]

Waylo, can you click in the left nav on the Waves plug you just used and expand it (click on the triangle). That's where mine are.

[admin]

Ya I've never liked the preset system for 3rd party plugs with Live. I wish they worked the same as the built in ones where you can just drag them over to the browser area.I f I'm making synth presets I'll usually keep tweaking to make variations but I don't see an easy way to save to a new slot from the existing one I'm working on so I don't overwrite the current one.

Even C4 wasn't that great for me with presets, I love SX3's implementation as it's so direct and quick. C4 is more powerfully in how it handles presets but it just seems to get in the way.

Agree though I almost felt like switching over to something else for a while. Be hard to go back to 7 since I'm digging having the groove quantize. Hopefully they sort out the latency issues at least.

[sven hauck]

I am also having issues locating presets for third party manufacturers, such as the waldorf PPG wave v2.

Why can't all presets just be in the same place. :mad:

I got crap all over the place.