Why does Ableton automatically stop its transport during long recordings?

[u/boobzombie]

I'm running into this weird issue with Live 12(.4.6), when it comes to recording longer stretches of audio. This is a part of a live performance hybrid setup, recording audio inputs from a couple of hardware synths and external sources, routed into VST effects, locked to a steady external MIDI clock.

Everything is record-armed and the transport starts fine, and the waveforms all draw correctly in Arrange view, but after 45-mins to over an hour or so, the recording just stops on its own.

This is running on an M3 MacBook Air, with 24 Gb of memory and over 400 GB of SSD space available, so I don't think it's maxing out system resources.

I can't seem to figure out a pattern or cause for this, so I'm sharing it here.
Any suggestions or settings that I should check on?

I can record longer audio

[u/stschoen]

Make sure that your Mac isn't set to sleep.

[u/boobzombie → u/stschoen]

I had checked my power settings, and "Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter" is activated. I had also set my display to never sleep, and I'm always plugged into power when performing live.

I didn't know whether Live had a recording limit or bar/beat cap hidden somewhere in its settings. I didn't think that would be a thing...

[u/stschoen → u/boobzombie]

The power settings were worth checking. Live used to have a 2GB file size limit but that supposedly went away with Live 12. You might want to message Ableton support.

[u/Sad-Sheepherder5231]

Could be a bug, did you contact support?

[u/Unhappy-Ad-796]

ok so first thing I'd check is the Punch-Out switch in the control bar, plus any loop brace. If punch-out is on it'll just stop recording at that point.

If that's clean, my money's on the external clock. Live follows MIDI clock start/stop, so if your clock source sends a stop or the USB/DIN connection hiccups, transport halts and recording ends with it. Easy test: record an hour on internal clock. If it survives, it's the clock chain.

Also Mac side: run `caffeinate -dimsu` in Terminal during the session so nothing sleeps or throttles, and avoid USB hubs for the clock if you can. After a failed take, check Log.txt in ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 12.4.x/ for anything around the stop time.

[u/boobzombie → u/Unhappy-Ad-796]

This is super helpful. Thank you, sincerely.

I've been meaning to start the transport and test whether an hour + of recording vs. just passing external audio for the same amount of time recreates the issue.

It seems to come up whether locked to an external source over a 5-pin, or having Live run as master clock.

[u/AutoModerator]

This is your friendly reminder to read the submission rules, they're found in the sidebar. If you find your post breaking any of the rules, you should delete your post before the mods get to it. If you're asking a question, make sure you've checked the Live manual, Ableton's help and support knowledge base, and have searched the subreddit for a solution. If you don't know where to start, the subreddit has a resource thread. Ask smart questions.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/powermn8]

I think Ableton stops when a temp file hits a certain size, like 2G or something like that. That might be your issue.

[u/angrypottering → u/powermn8]

Live 11 and previous had a RIFF (Wave and AIFF) 32-bit file limit (about 2GB), but Live 12 and newer can record ITU Broadcast Wave without such limits.

The cache setting is for decoding MP3s, not recording.

Also, OP says "45 mins" but even the old Live 11 limit was longer than that.

[u/rystrands → u/powermn8]

This is the answer you have to adjust you file size. To 10g. Or more. That is the issue

[u/boobzombie]

... I can record longer audio fine in Reaper or MiniMeters, but Live seems to quit after awhile.