Insert changes not showing up (Logic Pro X)

[earthtrip]

Hi all

I'm using Pro Tools Control with Logic Pro X (10.3.1). When I want to add an insert it works fine. I can select the plugin and load it up but after I add the plugin a few things don't happen
1) The plugin window doesn't open up
2) When I go back to the inserts section, the Pro Tools Control application doesn't show the plugin/insert in the Channel view yet the plugin is inserted into the track
3) I can't launch the plugin window by selecting it in the Control app.

Also if I remove the plugin from Logic, the screen in Pro Tools control doesn't open up.

Am I doing something wrong or is there just some bugs in either Logic's or Control's EuCon integration?

Thanks for any help.

Mike

[EddieJones]

This is a bug with Logic, you have to reopen your session to see it. We have already passed this to Apple but reporting it to their site will help.

[earthtrip]

OK great.. Thanks - I'll report a bug at Apple.

[earthtrip]

I've added a bug report and gone back and forth to Apple. Their first reply was that they couldn't reproduce the issue which seems weird since it's clearly not working. I replied with a ton of screenshots and an even more precise set of steps to reproduce so hopefully that works.

Its still not clear to me when this broke. Does anyone know what version of Logic Pro X broke this functionality as it used to work fine. Any chance it's a bug in EuControl itself and not Logic? It's pretty hard to debug stuff like this when versions of both systems are a moving target.

[earthtrip]

OK well after spending a bunch of time writing bug reports and going back and forth with Apple on this, it's simply a networking issue. By switching to a 2.4Ghz network for my iPad everything works perfectly. I'm not sure why Avid recommends a 5Ghz network for Pro Tools Control since after switching to a 2.4Ghz network for my iPad and leaving my MacBook Pro on the 5ghz network everything works much more reliably. I would recommend that Avid remove that suggestion since it clearly impacts the performance and reliability of the application itself.

Also what I found very odd was that this networking issue was that Pro Tools Control seems to take precendence over the entire Eucon chain of hardware/software because my Artist Mix was also behaving with the same problem even though it was hard wired via Ethernet to my computer.

Anyway - if people out there are having anomalies in the behavior of Pro Tools Control I'd suggest attempting different networking settings.

Eddie just a recommendation but I'd go back and have your engineers review this problem since it's clearly NOT an Apple Logic issue with their EuCon support. My suggestion would be to have Pro Tools Control do some network diagnostics either at startup or intermittently in a background thread and put up an alert suggesting changing the network protocol to 2.4Ghz if things aren't reliably returning data. Note that both my 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks are on an Airport Time Capsule and both are 802.11n based networks. But I think the 802.11n running at 5Ghz switches to use 802.11ac when available so maybe it has something to do with that although it shouldn't as 802.11ac is just a faster protocol and TCP/IP doesn't really care if it's going over 802.11b or 802.11ac

Either way the application should be able to tell if it's networking configuration is sub par and let the user know instead of just dropping packets and having the application behave oddly.

[EddieJones]

You got lucky, this issue has been around for a while on all EUCON surfaces even hardwired ones like the S5MC. What you are seeing points to a timing error (which is helpful and I'll send this new info to Apple)

As for your network and the use of 2.4GHz over 5 GHz this points to a possible congestion in your 5GHz band and switching your router to use a different channel might help there. 5 GHz is recommended as its way faster and if setup right, gives a better experience. It does however only cover a shorter distance so being within a reasonable range is necessary too. BTW the Ethernet Camera adapter from Apple is the best way to connect the iPad for use with Control when using larger sessions.

[earthtrip]

ha.. ok. Well I'll open my bug again at Apple then and let them sort it out. It's definitely easy to reproduce it seems in my tests.

Thanks for chiming back in !

[earthtrip]

I just wanted to follow up something on this topic. I just realized that while the inserts don't show up still in the ProTools Control that I can still press the button to open an the insert although it requires knowing that there's an insert there.

So for example if I have two inserts added after my session was opened, the Pro Tools Control insert section has two blank sections for insert 1 and 2 but I can actually press the knob for insert 1 or Insert 2 and it opens the right plugin window in Logic and the parameters spill into Pro Tools Control correctly.

This is actually huge for me as I was about to sell my Dock due to this EuCon issue with Logic... While not ideal I can at least use the dock's rotary controls to tweak params on all my plugins without having to go to the hassle of closing and reopening my session. I can save that for when I take breaks but while in the flow I can simply look at my monitor and press the button and put my head back down and use the dock.

Hopefully Apple can fix the bug eventually though but after my initial reply from Apple on their bug reporting system saying it's not a bug I haven't heard a peep.

[adelbabar]

Hi guys!
Old thread I know, but can’t seem to find any other info anywhere..
Has this issue been addressed? Any solution as of yet?
I’m having similar problems with my Avid Artist Mix and Logic Pro x(all the latest versions of soft/firm-ware) on Mac OSX Sierra.

When instatiating or replacing a plugin on an audio track in logic, it doesn’t update on my Artist Mix display. And the only way to make it update, without closing and opening session/or restarting logic, is by going in to controller settings in general preferences and changing one of the bottom three or four settings in the “general” tab.

This problem does not occur when on instrument tracks, so I’m struggling to find any logical reason for it.. Anyone figured this out yet??

Many thanks in advance!

[earthtrip]

Sorry but I ended up selling all my Avid controllers partly due to Eucon being a PITA and partly due to Avid's end of life strategy for hardware - I took the get out while I'm ahead option and lost some money on them but it wasn't too bad. Apple continued to say this is a Eucon bug and closed my bug reports. I'm a software engineer by day and I've worked with Apple on many bug reports many of which they have acknowledged/fixed over the years. They treat them seriously and work hard to fix bugs in their code or at least acknowledge them and put them into their backlog. The fact that they closed this bug multiple times to me would imply that it actually is a Eucon bug and not a Logic bug.

I ended up for a while with a set of Behringer X-Touches/Extenders, which for the price are the best bargain going (the main control + 2 extenders gets you 24 faders for < $1300) if you're a Logic user and once I realized how well integrated MCU was with Logic and much customization was possible. I used RTPMidi (midi over ethernet) and the performance/stability was 100% which is something I never had with Eucon. They're not very beautiful to look at as they're bulky but so was the original Mackie Control and MC Pro which are twice as much (and I've owned I didn't like at all).

I just recently upgraded to an SSL Nucleus 2 which is by far the nicest hardware control surface I've tried that's not a much more expensive console style control surface (I've never used the bigger Avid control surfaces like the S6, etc and don't have the need).

Good luck!