Software instruments won't trigger

I have an intermittent issue, which I don't understand. It appears to be a bug. Never know when its going to show up, frustrating as hell.

 

I record midi with a software instrument, then when I play back there is no sound. I have to create a new channel strip and insert the instrument, move the original region to the new track in order to hear it. I thought this was an issue with specific third party plugs, but this happens with built in instruments too. Even this new channel will drop out intermittently.

 

Strangely, when I put the track in the Piano roll editor, I click notes and hear the instrument. It just won't play back, the f'in region is not triggering. I've checked that there is no muting anywhere. Looked in the Environment, all is routed correctly. Don't know what to do, don't see any topics covering this issue.

 

Using Logic 9.11 on Quad Mac Pro, with Metric Halo ULN2. This issue did show up before updating.

 

thanks

 

Neil

I've checked that there is no muting anywhere.

 

Are you absolutely sure there is no muting anywhere? You may be unintentionally muting individual regions and/or notes.

I've checked that there is no muting anywhere.

 

Are you absolutely sure there is no muting anywhere? You may be unintentionally muting individual regions and/or notes.

 

I will double check. There is none I can see. Any other places to check besides:

 

Region on

Notes on

Channel mixer on

track header on

Instrument on

all volume sliders up.

Strangely, when I put the track in the Piano roll editor, I click notes and hear the instrument. It just won't play back, the f'in region is not triggering.

 

This is the part that makes me think you have muted regions or notes. When you mute a region you can hear the note when clicked in the piano roll but not during playback. Does the region with the "notes not playing" have a circle in the upper left corner?

 

If not, I'm not sure what's going on but it seems like that's what is going on.

Ok, this time it must be the mysterious issue mentioned in this thread (though I've never run into it)

 

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=53694&sid=d545e72589134034725e92d4ef6f8600

 

J.

I have that sinking feeling, as this message scrolls down, that I'm on my own in nowheresville. I hope I end up discovering it was a stupid oversight. I certainly don't see similar bug reports here.

 

I want to emphasize that this happens at any time, usually I notice that the track isn't playing back immediately after recording.

 

Assuming its a non user error, what do you suggest I do attempt to fix this. Destroy preferences?

 

I think I'm going to get in the habit of bouncing all softsynth tracks to audio ASAP in order to avoid this frustration in the future. Sorry if I sound whiny, I had hoped I would find that others had this issue before and wisdom would be discovered. This happened in a critical point in a session last night and I was flummoxed.

 

Neil

Strangely, when I put the track in the Piano roll editor, I click notes and hear the instrument. It just won't play back, the f'in region is not triggering.

 

This is the part that makes me think you have muted regions or notes. When you mute a region you can hear the note when clicked in the piano roll but not during playback. Does the region with the "notes not playing" have a circle in the upper left corner?

 

If not, I'm not sure what's going on but it seems like that's what is going on.

 

Thats what makes this so frustrating, that this is exactly how its behaving, but alas there is no muting.

 

The thread linked in the other message does show that this is a bug that others have experienced. I've been using Logic for a long time, and see no user error here btw. The workaround is creating duplicate channel strip and moving the region to it. Last night even this new channel would stop playing, and I'd create another one.

 

Until this is fixed, my workflow is going to have to change to record, immediately edit, bounce in place. Might be an improved strategy anyways.

By any chance, are you working in an older template that was maybe created in Logic 8 or earlier? Or are you working in a new, "empty project" factory template from the template dialog?

By any chance, are you working in an older template that was maybe created in Logic 8 or earlier? Or are you working in a new, "empty project" factory template from the template dialog?

 

It is an song that started around one year ago, it was created in whatever version was out then. Really I forgot whether it was started from an empty template or not. What are you suspecting?

Wondering if that's where the problem could be coming from. A lot of time when people have issues that I've never ever had myself, I suspect they must be doing one of those things I've decided I'd never ever do. And working with old templates or working with project files across major versions is one of them.

 

I would try working with new Logic 9 templates from now on and see if that problem disappears.

Wondering if that's where the problem could be coming from. A lot of time when people have issues that I've never ever had myself, I suspect they must be doing one of those things I've decided I'd never ever do. And working with old templates or working with project files across major versions is one of them.

 

I would try working with new Logic 9 templates from now on and see if that problem disappears.

 

Thanks! I haven't used the transfer items from other songs feature---might be worth a try.

 

When you have projects that originated in older Logic versions that you want to work on currently. How do you handle that?

I try to complete my Logic 8 projects in Logic 8 and start new projects in Logic 9. I no longer work with Logic 8 as all my Logic 8 projects were completed. If I have to go back to those projects, I'll either work in Logic 8 or open them in Logic 9 knowing that some things may behave funny. If I have to do major work on a Logic 8 project and want the Logic 9 features, I'll use selective track import to rebuild the project in Logic 9.

I've been having issues with drum triggering on Logic Pro9, with projects created from scratch in LP9. I'll get a snare track ready, create the triggers, select the sample and all's well and good. Then it'll decide for itself to stop playin the triggered samples. Pain in the back-side. Happened just moments ago and the level meters were bouncin up and down, track was soloed, output was properly defined, correct audio device selected in prefs, I even wacked on a gain plugin just to be doubly sure I hadn't mysteriously gone deaf. Nothing. Closed down LP9 and reopened. Worked fine.

 

I've noticed before that the solo function can be a little buggy. If you've got a track soloed and you add a plugin whilst the track is playing then it'll just stop playin the audio file. You have to de-solo and then re-solo and it resolves itself. Dunno if any of this is related or whether I'm just rambling. Thought I'd share my troubles and solutions (if you can call them that).

 

So swamilove, you're not on your lonesome! Would be nice if some of these little bugs would get sorted in an update, though I'm sure everyone thinks that about their little frustrations...

I have had exactly this same issue on some Logic 8 sessions (I'm still on Logic 8 BTW):

 

After recording a midi region, playback does NOT play the midi notes from new midi region. When stopped, I can click on these notes on the piano roll and hear them, they just don't sound when playing back.

 

Here's the other part

 

When I save the session, and re-open it, The same new midi region opens as a muted region. When I un-mute it, it plays fine.

 

any ideas?

 

Jon

It's a bug that seems to crop up quite a bit...

the mysterious issue mentioned in this thread

 

FWIW, here are a couple of other threads that seem to be reporting the same issue:

 

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=56223

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=56461

Any change of a fix? this is a pretty major bug

Until it's recognized as a bug and fixed by the software folks at Apple, here's what you can do to fix this issue - turn off track folders for MIDI tracks...

 

This is under "Project Settings" - "Recording", make sure "Track Folders" is not selected.

 

After trying all sorts of things I found this consistently caused the bug described here, and turning this feature off, consistently fixed it.

 

Enjoy!

It's been happening to me without track folders, haven't been able to consistently reproduce it though. First I thought I was unconsciously muting the stuff somehow, apple should fix this soon before more people start doubting their sanity.

This is under "Project Settings" - "Recording", make sure "Track Folders" is not selected.

 

I think he means take folders...

 

J.

I've got the same problem as the original post. I can record notes for an instrument and it will play correctly. Then, I record another take or two and the entire track stops playing. Nothing is muted. The only thing I've done is to record another take. Sometimes I can record 3 or 4 takes before it stops playing.

 

My solution is to hit the "Duplicate Track" button (next to the "Add New Track" button), and then pull the MIDI regions down onto the new track. They play fine then...until I record another few takes. Then they stop. VERY frustrating. This happens so frequently and predictably that I now create 5 or 6 duplicate tracks and just pull the regions down to the next track when they flame out.

 

One poster noted that by disabling the "Create take folders" option (in Settings > Recording) the problem is reduced. I'm wondering why such a major bug still exists and why more people aren't screaming about it. Of course I'm also wondering why when you create multiple takes, you can't select parts of each take to create a comp like you can with audio takes. And why now that I've purchased an Apple Magic Trackpad, I can't double-click on anything with my trackball. But that's another story.

I've had this problem in Logic 9.1.1 and now (still) in 9.1.2

 

I record some notes in a MIDI track, can hear the notes that I'm playing, the notes are recorded. Then when I go to play back, that track doesn't play.

 

Saving and then re-opening the session, the problem region is now MUTED.

 

Unmuting the region makes the region play.

 

It seems to be related to how huge my session is, the problem is really bad (can't record anything and then play it back) when I have more than about 80 tracks).

 

I spoke with Apple Support and they suggested importing the track into an empty Logic 9 session. This has seemed to work so far, which makes me suspect that something is being messed up / corrupted when working with sessions that originated in earlier versions (my template originated from Logic 7).

 

Other posts here suggest it's a 'take' issue/ bug, and one workaround seems to be unpacking the region. Another workaround suggested is undo/redo.

 

No matter the workaround or cause, it is a very annoying bug that interferes with workflow.

I know this is an old thread, but I was having the same problem, and even a copy/paste of the track didn't fix it.. While looking at the piano roll, I noticed that the start of the first note was just before measure 1. So the note started before the actual recording began - no midi trigger because no midi note detected. I just clicked on the sound and moved it to start at measure 1, and that fixed it!

 

Hopefully this helps someone!

 

 

Peace!

hello Everyone, I had the same problem

 

And the way I fixed it was this.

 

When the midi notes didin't play. All I did was UNDO back until the last step I worked on when the problem appeared. And the problem is gone.

 

I know for some of you this won't solve the problem now, but when it happens, just UNDO until MIDI notes are triggered again.

 

I don't know what caused the problem, and I can't find out. But now I go back and forth With UNDO and REDO and that seems to work as a quick fix.

Hey LogicHeadaches, welcome to our community - and thank you very much for sharing your solution to this issue.

To anyone that may have had the same problem. My Logic 9 software instruments..Just the Logic Synths- stop playing back on already recorded parts in the Arrange Window. All my NI and other plugin synths are working just fine, I can't even trigger from my controller . The sound will play for a bar or two and them the sound just disappears..both from triggering and playback

 

I've gone into my MIDI parameters and changed settings and ...nothing. Dumped my prefs from my Library...nothing...I've been using Logic since it was owned by Emagic and I've NEVER had this issue. This happened as soon as I upgraded my Logic 9.0.0 to 9.1.8.

 

PLEASE...I'm at my wits end here....WTF is going on??

 

Can someone perhaps help me here

See below... Edited July 17, 2014 by Atlas007

To anyone that may have had the same problem. My Logic 9 software instruments..Just the Logic Synths- stop playing back on already recorded parts in the Arrange Window. All my NI and other plugin synths are working just fine, I can't even trigger from my controller . The sound will play for a bar or two and them the sound just disappears..both from triggering and playback

 

I've gone into my MIDI parameters and changed settings and ...nothing. Dumped my prefs from my Library...nothing...I've been using Logic since it was owned by Emagic and I've NEVER had this issue. This happened as soon as I upgraded my Logic 9.0.0 to 9.1.8.

 

PLEASE...I'm at my wits end here....WTF is going on??

 

Can someone perhaps help me here

How about providing some specifics such as those required in Board rule #5...

Does your plugins (NI) work outside of Logic when they stop working from within Logic? If not, check your cables and in the AMS window...

Have you updated your NI plugins via the Service Center?

I know this post was a long time ago, but I found myself here in 2018, so I thought I'd share this.

 

I'm still using Logic Pro 8 on my old boiler G5 Quad Core, but I don't see why it won't work on later versions, I've also had this problem before, but with only one instrument, I didn't realise all the software instruments could stop. I have a 22 min electronica project with 13 AU instruments, lots of guitar parts and some loops. There's a lot of work programming and playing that I didn't want to lose as well as really liking the music, so I was determined to sort it out.

 

So in case anyone else is having this infuriating issue, this is what I did to cure it.

 

Select the first non working midi instrument in the mixer screen, (I say this because the first 3 instruments worked fine in my project! ) then copy the channel strip from the 'Setting' pop down at the top of the channel.

 

Then in the arrange screen below the non working midi instrument track, create a empty 'Software Instrument' track.

 

Go back to the mixer screen and paste the copied channel strip setting into the newly created instrument channel.

 

Go back to the arrange screen to drag and drop all your midi programming on to the new pasted instrument channel.

 

Not only did the copied and pasted midi instrument come back, much to my relief, they all came back! I then used the 'Freeze' function on all the midi instruments (including the UltraBeat) with the philosophy that if any thing on them needed changing, I can do it on an individual basis, thus if anything broke again I would only lose that one and not 13!