Note Hang with multiple Scripter plugins [FIXED in 10.0.5]

Note - this has been sent to and replicated by Apple.

 

When trying to create MIDI plugin scripts to increase the key switching capabilities of a project, I was having some occasional hanging notes. After investigating, I was able to create a small sample project using four measure ascending chromatic scales on seven tracks using only instruments included with LPX and all tracks using only the "Factory/Tutorial Scripts/1 Simple Pass Through" script from Apple. At the default 120 BPM, this always resulted in at least one hung note on at least one track. Sometimes more. The note were 1/8 notes with 40 tick overlap.

 

The problem can reduced/eliminated by:

 

1 - removing the overlap

2 - reducing the number of tracks

3 - reducing the BPM drastically (to 30 on my iMac, 25 on my MBA)

 

This project was deliberately extreme to cause the problem.

 

This post is just to provide info for anyone with similar problems.

 

I hope Apple will fix it. I have had to stop trying that particular use of MIDI plugin scripts for the moment.

Edited December 20, 2013 by drb

Hi drb!

 

Would you care to share this project with us so that we can confirm?

OK. I'm new here. So give me a moment to look up how to do that.

 

I forgot to add, I put a trace on the plugins and found that the reason the software instrument had a hanging note was the note off pitch was incorrect.

Hopefully this the project.

for Apple 2.zip

Hanging notes project.

Thanks drb.

I'm not near Logic at the moment but I'll check it out later.

Confirmed!

Hangs every time for me.

Tried this out for the past 10 - 15 minutes. Crashed Logic every time.

 

I altered the script to display (trace) the notes. Didn't see anything unusual. But anyway, yeah, this is serious.

Ski,

 

Crashed? As in Logic exited, or notes hung? I did not have have a Logic "unexpected" exit.

Ski,

 

Crashed? As in Logic exited, or notes hung? I did not have have a Logic "unexpected" exit.

 

Crashed as in exited. Happened 4x when I let playback go to about measure 6 or 7.

Hmm, I just played several time beyond measure 10 without a crash, but notes hang. However, that was with 10.0.2.

I tested in both 10.0.1 and 10.0.2.

Never crashed but always hanged notes.

Just played it in 10.0.2 without a crash playing past measures 7, 8, 9, 10. Played it back from the top, fine. Played it back from the top again and **crash**. Exit, poof.

Trashed prefs. That's a big deal for me because I only do that as a very last resort.

 

Relaunched 10.0.2, ran the project. Hung notes galore.

 

Then I thought that maybe having the "clip length" parameter enabled might be a culprit (it's on by default, not sure if you know that). Anyway, turned off clip length in the first flute part, solo'd that part, hit play and Logic hung. Then, **crash** exit poof gone.

I believe that soloing only turns off the audio, the MIDI processing is still being done. Actually deleting tracks works. Other things might also.

I believe that soloing only turns off the audio, the MIDI processing is still being done. Actually deleting tracks works. Other things might also.

 

Not sure about that... I just did a test, adding "event.trace();" to each of the scripts to display outgoing MIDI events. With both scripters open to show those events, soloing a track stops the display of MIDI messages in the unsolo'd track. That means that MIDI isn't getting to the instrument channel in the first place.

 

Just created my own project from scratch, using two instruments and the same script you did, just with my addition of the "trace" function. Crash freekin' city.

 

I've run MUCH more complex scripts than this in my projects and not run into this problem. Wondering what's going on.

Set up a new project with 3 tracks using some of my Scripts which do a lot of processing of MIDI. By contrast, the Script in the project you posted does no processing to speak of. All it does is detect MIDI events and pass them through). Everything was running fine for quite a while, but then out of the blue, hung notes started to occur. Rather than risk another crash, I closed my project without saving and that's that.

 

Wow, thanks for pointing this out. I've been wondering if there was a limit to how many Scripters could be used in a project without there being any kinds of side effects, but my conclusion is this: the limit is one! (Maybe none?!)

 

Damn. This blows.

Ski,

 

On the Solo question. I confirm what you said about the Scripter trace. Oddly, the instrument I was using, Garritan Personal Orchestra, shows the notes being played on its virtual keyboard. Same for Mute. This is what made me think MIDI processing was still occurring.

 

I don't know what to make of this.

Strange... OK, using EW Play and watching its keyboard for MIDI action... Here's the behavior as I see it and understand it:

 

• Hitting the [M] button on the track mutes the audio but MIDI is still getting through to the plugin; MIDI messages are displayed in the scripter's console. (Why did I see it stop tracing before? Maybe I hit mute on the region instead? Dunno. I rarely use the M button, so maybe that's where my observation came from. Dunno. Anyway...)

 

• Muting a MIDI region kills transmission of MIDI from the region to the instrument.

 

• Turning the track off doesn't prevent MIDI from passing through to the instrument from live playing. It just kills the transmission of MIDI to the instrument from existing MIDI regions.

 

• Hitting S to solo a region (or with no regions selected, soloing nothing) prevents MIDI from hitting any non-selected instrument's region, so no activity is seen in the Scripter or on non-solo'd instrument's GUI keyboards.

 

• Clicking the S on a track header doesn't prevent MIDI from reaching other instruments, it just mutes the audio.

Edited August 21, 2013 by ski

I was using the channel strip "M" and "S" buttons. So, I think that is consistent with what you said.

Cool. Well, OK, "inquiring minds" would love to know if/when you get any kind of definitive answer from Apple. I've got a case open with them too about some other scripting weirdnesses, so let's keep our fingers crossed! 8)

This appears to be fixed in 10.0.5. Yeah!!!

 

drb

Fantastic!!!!

Yes, great news!