How to reduce the RAM load
- Live Versions: All
- Operating system: All
The absolute minimum RAM requirement for Live 10 to run is 4GB, however we recommend a minimum of 8GB to work effectively. If the current RAM usage is quite high, you might experience audio glitches, dropouts or crashes in Live.
What uses up RAM?
- Live devices or 3rd-party plug-ins that use lots of samples are very memory intensive. Ableton's Latin Percussion is a good example, but also plug-ins like Omnisphere or Kontakt are memory intensive when used with large sample libraries.
- Enabling clip RAM mode loads the audio file referenced by a clip into the memory instead of reading them from disk in real time.
- An extremely large number of clips might also lead to problems, even when the RAM button is not enabled.
- All other processes run both by Live and elsewhere on your system need memory.
Why do 'Out of Memory' crashes occur?
- Live doesn't know how much of the memory reserved for its operation is already in use. With the scenarios described above - having RAM mode enabled for too many audio clips and/or working with large sample libraries - it's very easy to reach the limits.
- Performing any action in Live that needs more memory than is currently available could result in a crash. These actions might be:
- Editing operations on clips and tracks (e.g. copy, cut, duplicate)
- Adding more samples
- Adding devices or presets
Live Set RAM optimizations and workarounds
- Flatten tracks containing memory hungry devices or clips:
- First, freeze the tracks.
- Then flatten the tracks, this will remove all devices from the track, leaving you with the rendered audio.
- If a Set containing memory consuming devices already crashes on loading, it can be restored like this:
- Open an empty Live Set.
- Locate the problematic Live Set (*.als file) in Live's browser.
- Unfold it by clicking the little arrow on *.als file - all the tracks contained in this Set are now shown.
- Import one track of the Set via double-clicking or dragging and dropping into the empty Live Set.
- Now, freeze and then flatten the imported track.
- Proceed with the next and following tracks.
- If a Set containing many (large) audio clips with enabled RAM mode crashes on loading, it can be restored like this:
- Open an empty Live Set and unfold the problematic Live Set in Live's browser as described above.
- Import a track containing clips via double-clicking or dragging and dropping into the empty Live Set.
- For all audio clips, turn off the RAM switch in their Sample display.
- Proceed with the next and following tracks.
- Save the new Set.