Hi all!
This bug rubs me very the wrong way as it is crucial in performance and execution. It’s a very simple thing.
I have a list of files that plays (it can be wav or mp3) and at certain select spots within each song, maybe even once, I add a MIDI marker to select an effect on and off inside a plugin (S-gear) in this case, to switch between amp a and b. Not even changing preset… and of course sometimes just turning on an effect and off again.
Now, the GP - more often than not - skimps and misses these markers and doesn’t change it. Which is embarrasing in live situations. On rehearsal at home, whenever that happened I stopped the track playin and wondered why the F I’ve missed, but when I move the “head” back to before the marker and plays it, it hits it properly and does the change. Only to missing it the next time, or the next track. I have done nothing wrong it seems, because it used to work, and actually does work… intermittently. Some times it executes them properly at the first half of the song, only to miss all of them later in the song… beats me. I can’t continue working like this.
You using the Streaming Audio File Payer, right?
What are MIDI markers?
Which version of Gig Performer are you using?
Can you upload a small gig including the used Audio File, so we could check?
I hope all this makes any sense to you. The word “Skärmavbild” means screen shot in english. Alas, I can’t send you the plugin S-gear as it is license. I have made screen shots from the markers and the ACTION they do (or are supposed to do). The thing is they work sometimes, and sometimes not. The MP3 file is just one in a huge playlist of mp3 files. The list consists of MP3 files only and are not mixed up with wav files or different bitrates/resolution (say, that one should be 44 Khz and another at 48 Khz and so on). Consistent all the way through. The total playlist is of like 30 files, and each of them contains at least ONE of those MIDI markers to send to the plugin S-gear to either shift preset, or doing other things, mostly on/off of internal effects in the S-gear plugin. Also, the S-Gear plugin is of the latest update too.
Some of the added Midi markers can contain as many as 7-8 within one streaming player file, but some contain just one. It’s not the ones with 7-8 that has bugs, it can be those with one only in them too. So there’s really no consistency in this phenomenon.
One really really far fetched and a long shot idea from me, is that maybe the SPEED button inside the player where you can slow down and speed up the song, jinx the markers in any way so it skips, or jumps above the marker, and keeps that whenever setting the SPEED knob back at 100 % again?
I’ve done so to test if it was that but found no idiosyncrasies at all, regarding this phenomenon. This bug occured anyway with files that I’ve not sped up or slowed down not even once, or at all.
When you connect a MIDI monitor to your OMNI MIDI In Plugin, can you see that the messages are always sent?
Maybe you should not send different CC values at the same time ?
Try to create 2 markers at slightly different time positions and each sends 1 CC message.
Yes I have done so too. Tried it to no avail. As I said, it happens with even one marker and ONE only midi event. I e ONE action. At the beginning of each player file, there’s always a pause/break of silence and the only cc sent is a PRESET UP midi change for the whole thing. And even that one it misses some times, but too many timers to be accepted. Preset up changes the S-gear preset to a completely different amp setup and its internal effects (delays and reverbs etc). Just ONE cc sent.
I have deliberately made a silent part of 4-5 seconds, at the start of each song, in order for the plugin preset to have time to load and finish within itself and the settings. Before the song actually starts. I’ve discovered that I can’t set that marker at the very very beginning of the song. It must happen a while in, after 0.5 seconds or so, and having some “slack” or “leeway” still a couple of seconds after that. But then it’s smooth sailing, or really was. I do have played the setlist all the way through ONCE with everything worked flawlessly. Now, after a while these things started to show up, without me tinkering or editing it in any way. Why should I, if it worked all the way through the first time?
Another thing may be of importance. I tried this too on a Windows 10 computer with the RME Fireface UCX interface, if that should make any difference but it didn’t. I do not have license for both Mac and Windows but I managed to download then Win/PC demo (14 day free trial) and try it out there. That one have to have 2 different licenses for each beats me, but that’s another topic altogether that we don’t have to bicker about in here.
Maybe you should not send different CC values at the same time ?
See above, it all is sort of “now it works, but now it doesn’t”. If that should be a problem it would show up consistently all of the time, with two actions at the same time.
You have to narrow it down to either (a) GP didn’t send the message, or (b) S-Gear received the message but didn’t process it.
The best way to determine this will be to insert the in-built MIDI Monitor before S-Gear. That way, if it happens again, you will be able to review whether GP sent the message.
The insertion of a Plugin Handle does not reveal all settings possible or available for some strange reason. Inside the plugin, CC messages Preset Up and/or Preset Down is available but not when displaying the options available in Plugin Handle. Also, the display at the Plugin Handle just shows for - example - ONE delay setting for one instance of digital delay inside S-Gear. S-gear has the possibility to add yet another instance of a 2nd Digital Delay of which cc parameter settings shows “Digital Delay 2” inside is midi parameters which is lacking from the Plugin Handles inside GP action. So it was a nice try but didn’t work out.
I have no doubt that this will work in some situations where those CC parameters are the same, inside the S-gear and the Plugin Handle, but the plugin handle lacks too many options/choices for THAT particular plugin. I am suspicious though, why S-gear or any other plugin should track or trigger better on these MIDI messages just because you’ve created a plugin handle of it. Seems kind of strange IMHO. It is a MIDI message nevertheless, and me thinks it sounds like an unnecessary “middle” relay or something, that is excessive to it all to make it work.
I might give this a chance by adding those MIDI messages that works through the Plugin Handlre, and leave the rest of them alone, but I doubt that this will help in the long run.
Well, I had a run through yesterday, with MIDI monitor on all of the time, vigilantly monitoring it as I played, and during the 2 hour course of all 30 backing tracks, midi cc left the monitor and hit the plugin properly as it should, changed sound as it should, so I don’t really know why using MIDI OSC should be more stable, because this method has worked and was recommended to me by others in another thread. And did yesterday, it’s INTERMITTENT.
What happened though, but totally unrelated to this, there was heard small gaps of silence, i e drop outs from some of the mp3 files when playing them. It has occured before. When I stopped it and moved back the “head” to before the gap and played it again, it played up normally without dropouts. But hey, let’s not get sidetracked by this right now at the moment. Keep it at OCCASIONALLY missing midi events that has worked before, but not … now.
I will do a runthrough again today, I will thoroughly eschew S-gear and use other plugins which has faced the same problem too, before. The CPU load is never above 25% its running like between 17-20 % all of the time. It should be said, which I forgot to mention before, that I never switch rackspaces or switch plugins between songs. Those listed or screenshot above in the wiring panel are the ones used throughout. The reason for just using S-gear as a plugin is when switching delays on or off, or switching between A/B amps you retain all cabs, effects after it and no abrupt switches are heard, one can retain “overspill” effects from delays and reverbs too.
It is not more stable, but when you use the MIDI IN Omni you could also get MIDI in from any connected physical MIDI device.
And when you use virtual MIDI you could get infinite MIDI loops.
