BPM Sync stops working for Bias Pedal (Delay) on Reload

Gig Performer on Mac OS X
1

For my Delay Plugin Bias Pedal the Clock Sync (syncing the BPM in gig performer to the BPM used in the Plugin) is not working. It only works the first time when i create the plugin, but as soon as a gig / rackspace is loaded, it stops working.
I’ve tested this on both GP4 and GP5 and the behaviour is the same, there seems to be an issue with assigning the correct BPM when the plugin is loaded.

Im running on a M2 Pro Mac (OS X 13) and im using the AU version of the Plugin (v2.3.4.5549), the VST version can not be loaded with Gig Performer.

I assume this has something to do, that the plugin provides a additonal way of specifying the BPM on its ui, which doesn’t get overwritten correctly by Gig Performer on load.

BiasPedalUI
BiasPedalUI1717×1401 151 KB

When i first create the plugin, the BPM sync works, i can change it via setlist / songparts etc.
But as soon as I do one of the following, it stops working

  • Restart gig performer
  • Duplicate the Rackspace
  • Export import a Rackspace

In those cases, it always uses the BPM of the Plugin UI, instead the one in Gig Performer.

Expected Behaviour

The BPM of the Plugin should always be overwritten by the one defined in Gig Performer. Changes in BPM should always be reflected within the plugin (Especially when a Song / Song Part is changed)

Steps to Reproduce
Variant 1:

  1. Create a Rackspace with the Bias Pedal Plugin (BPM sync works)
  2. Save the Gig file and Restart gig performer
    → BPM sync stops working

Variant 2:

  1. Create a Rackspace with the Bias Pedal Plugin
  2. Duplicate the Rackspace
    → BPM Sync stops working for the duplicated rackspace

Variant 3:

  1. Create a Rackspace with the Bias Pedal Plugin
  2. Export the Rackspace
  3. Import the Rackspace
    → BPM Sync stops working for the Imported Rackspace

Behavior in Mainstage

When i load a concert in mainstage the BPM of the plugin is the internal plugin one. But as soon as i change the BPM anywhere (eg Patch change) it’s correctly overwritten to the one defined in the Patch.

Behaviour in Reaper

In reaper the BPM is always correctly set to the one defined in the project, no matter if it’s first load or BPM change.
Reaper is also able to use the VST version of the plugin, both AU and VST versions work exactly the same.

Behaviour when changing the BPM in the Plugin UI

When you change the BPM in the Plugins UI, the plugin uses that tempo, until a new BPM change is detected. Then it will use the one defined by the Hosting program again.(Work the same in all programs / This is what’s not working in GP on plugin reload)

This looks like a Bug to me, in the way GP is loading and assingning the BPM for the Plugin, so that the wrong BPM is used / the internal plugin BPM always takes priority.
As stated above, Mainstage and Reaper both handle this correctly on the same machine, and on my Windows machine, everything works as expected as well (using the VST version of the Plugin).

Did anyone else encounter such a behaviour? Is this a bug that can be fixed?

2

Why not?

3

Does the internal plugin bpm not change in the ui when you are syncing with the host? If it does change, shouldn’t that be saved with the Gig file and then be the same as GP’s tempo when you next load the Gig file?

Where in Bias do you set it to sync with the host?

4

No, the UI BPM is not getting adjusted with the BPM sync, it happens in the background. There is also no setting to turn this behaviour on or off, it happens automatically and is always active.

PluginManager_FailedPlugins
PluginManager_FailedPlugins1920×1095 147 KB

GP doesn’t like the VST plugins, it has the same error message for all of them.
Dunno if there are some logs i can check out for more info?

In reaper the plugin is listed as VST: BIAS Pedal (x86_x64) while on windows specifically as BIAS Pedal x64, so not sure if the plugins are the correct x64 binary.

5

Are you running under Rosetta? Or are you running GP natively and using AU plugins that are running under Rosetta?

6

It seems all the Programs run the AUHostingCompatibilityService.

AUCompatibilityService
AUCompatibilityService1556×506 84.1 KB

Under Open Files and Port for the AUHostingCompatibilityService process i can also find the entries

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/BIAS Pedal.component/Contents/BIAS Pedal
.../BIAS Pedal.aot

So it seems that is the case …

7

So it seems this is the same issue as reported here

When i force GP to run using Rosetta, the BPM sync works again as expected.
I simply was not aware, that AU plugins will use the Compatibility mode by default, without me asking them to.

The last update for the BIAS Plugins has been Mid 2021, so i’m not very confident that they’ll ever provide a apple silicon compatibile version, so i worry i’ll be stuck on Rosetta forever…

Interestingly the BPM Sync works the first time (when i create the plugin) and Mainstage can Sync the BPM correctly despite running natively and using Rosetta for the plugins, so it seems there is a way to get this working in that configuration.

For now i contacted the PositiveGrid support to ask if they are planning to update the compatibility for the plugins, and the workaround with running GP under Rosetta is sufficient for the time beeing.

8

Yes, if you are running native but with Intel plugins, all bets are off and in fact we explicitly do not support that model as we have no control over what happens at the boundary between Rosetta and native.

So either run everything under Rosetta (and kudos to Apple, Rosetta works remarkably well) or run everything native,