Problem with instrument tracks
 

Hi.

I have a problem with instrument tracks.

Often ie. clap or bass won't play at all, and suddenly in a middle of a session they start to play. I am confused.

I have to copy my instrumental tracks to a normal track.

Have anybody have this problem. How to solve this?

Thanks.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

My crystal ball is empty.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

You got mutes written into template automation or something?

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

Hi senghor,

There are many things that can make PT unstable, and you will have to eliminate possible causes one at a time. The main culprit could be incompatible plugins. Have you trashed your prefs? That solves many problems. Does it happen all the time or is it only with specific sessions? You will need to find out...Sessions can become corrupt and you may have to open a fresh session and import your tracks into it one at a time.

Being a Windows user, I know corrupt Windows files can cause problems with PT. Run chkdsk, sfc and dism to find out and repair system files. It's good to do this regularly.

Are you running large sessions with lots of VI's? PT sometimes has issues running lots of VI's. You may need to increase your RAM. SSD's are better than HDDs for sessions, audio and sample streaming.

Are there many plugins in your session? Low buffer settings can cause problems with CPU usage in large/busy sessions.

Happy troubleshooting! :D All the best...hope you find a solution.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

Or volume automation.
I'd also check the MIDI driving whatever vi is in use to see if there's any messages there that shouldn't be. OP doesn't say what vi he's using.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

Did you play in the parts yourself or are they midi loops you got from someplace else?

I had a client send me a midi performance that she wanted included in a mix I was doing for her and had a very similar issue. The midi would start late and come and out.

What it wound up being was a CC message and a program change that caused it. I stripped out all cc and program change messages, only leaving the sustain pedal and it worked fine.

Take a look there, in the automation lanes of the instrument track.

@musicman691 Jack just saw your reply. Great minds and all.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

I've fallen prone to that from some MIDI files I downloaded from the 'net. The other one I see is notes with zero length in the MIDI event list. Drives me batty.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

He's talking about random drop-outs, and that moving MIDI to a MIDI track fixes it, so that tells us a lot.

We ran into this issue quite a lot with prior versions of PT, to the point that I would never put MIDI on an Instrument track, but I haven't seen this issue at all over the past 6 months or so (I'm on PT 2020.3 with OS Mojave). What we would also see often was reopening a session that had been created at a previous time and the MIDI on an Instrument track was greyed-out and refused to play with that instrument. We had to copy MIDI to MIDI tracks, as you're doing. This was infuriating and it wasn't entirely rare. So our whole team of composers stopped using MIDI on Instrument tracks. I believe we've all returned back to it though.

So, a little more information about your configuration would help us a lot.

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

Did you open instrument view in the edit screen to check the MIDI routing on said instrument track? We all know that PT sometimes loses the routing.


Actually the op doesn't say anything about moving the MIDI to a MIDI track. He says he has to copy his instrumental tracks to a normal track and he doesn't say anything about MIDI. Never assume what someone means - that's dangerous. Besides what's a 'normal track' anyways?

Re: Problem with instrument tracks
 

He either copied the VI to an Audio or Aux track, or he moved MIDI to a MIDI track -- in any of these cases he'd have to move MIDI to a MIDI track. And most of this thread is making assumptions due to the fact that, like many threads here, the OP's question lacked details. Much of this forum is based on assumptions.