FabFilter User Forum
Why seems Fabfilter randomly causing distortion in Ableton Live?
Hi,
Some time ago I already opened a topic about that I am getting distortion in Ableton Live and the cause seems to be Fabfilter plugins.
(See: www.fabfilter.com/forum/2904/ableton-live-distortion-when-using-fabfilter)
The problem still occurs randomly.
I have already checked that my tracks are not clipping. Furthermore, I also checked that the in between steps on the effects chain of my track is not clipping. (I heard that third party plugins on the effects chain on a track can cause distortion when they clip in in between steps, this distortion does not happen with Ableton Live plugins in inbetween steps, but Fabfilter is third party, so that is why I checked this carefully)
Still, I get distortion. I really have the suspicion that it has to do with Fabfilter. It only started happening after I started using Fabfilter. It seems worse if I have opened the gui of the plugin. Currently I am mainly using Pro-Q2 and Pro C. Is there something special with the gui that can cause this distortion?
I am not sure if I can give you an example project. I use a couple of other third party plugins.( but the distortion only happened after I started using Fabfilter) Furthermore, the problem occurs randomly. So it will be hard to create a new clean project and to introduce the problem myself.
Any idea how this can happen?
Maybe I am unaware of something important? Like: VST vs Audio Units, 32 bit vs 64 bit, OSX version?
I am running:
OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 on iMac with 16 GB memory, 2.9 ghz i5, geforce GT 750M 1024 MB
Ableton Live 9 Suite 9.7.2 64 bit
I run the Fabfilter mostly as Audio Units and I use the versions that came out in March 2017.
(so I need to update the Pro-Q2 I just saw, but this distortion was also happening in the version before March 2017 so it has nothing to do with the bug that is introduced in March 2017.)
Hi Mandy,
Again, this problem is not familiar to us. You could try the following:
- Bypass one of our plugins to see if that fixes the distortion sound
- Close the interface of the plugins temporarily to see if that fixes the distortion sound
You could try to turn off graphics acceleration:
www.fabfilter.com/support/faq/#how-can-i-disable-graphics-acceleration-on-my-computer
Cheers,
Hi Frederik,
Thanks for your response. I have been thinking about it and I just realised that it can also be my audio interface settings. I know, this sounds dumb, but I am a bit new to all these things. I really did not think about that possibility. I have changed some settings (with gain staging) and since then, the distortion did not happen.
I bought the audio interface recently, like Fabfilter, and as I only saw it happening during production (not when listening music for example) I thought it had to be Fabfilter. But now I realise it can also be my audio interface, especially if you are unfamiliar with this (probably non existing) "bug".
If the problem comes back, I will try out your suggestions and I will also decouple the audio interface to eliminate it as a cause for the distortion.
Regards,
Mandy
I experienced a similar issue with Fabfilter saturn and Ableton. Increasing the Latency Buffer Size in Live Preferences seems to have resolved it for me.
Hello, I have the demo version of Pro Q3 in Ableton Live 10 and was thinking of buying it. However I am running into this same issue. It only happens if I run more than one instance of Pro Q3. For example, I have a lead instrument in One channel and some chords going on in another channel. There is Pro Q3 on both channels. I am experiencing a distortion effect with heavy reverb. Is this happening because I am using the demo version? I know some plugins will cut out or do something on purpose until you buy them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Herk