Plug In Racks&Console Freeze/Compatibility Issues

[Zackdh89]

Hey guys,

had to ring Venue 24/7 support yesterday as we had a problem with my SC48 during rehearsals on wednesday and sound-check prior to a show yesterday. The Mc Dsp ML4000 ML1 and ML4 limiters and multi-band compressors don't work well on venue consoles as i've been told by tech support. They were causing my plug in racks and whole board to freeze and were completly stopping audio from passing through to the L-R outs. It had me scratching my head for a while and not to mention made me look very unprofessional..Avid asked me to send off my log files to them which they could forward to Mc Dsp. I've had to disable the ML4000's now and now i'm down 6 limiters and multi-band drum compression in the middle of a tour. The issues with these plug-ins should have been made public via the Mc.Dsp website, this has got nothing to do with Digidesign themselves although the ML4000 should be immediately removed from the compatible plug-in list @ http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...d=22&mkt=VENUE . The plug-ins caused no problems for weeks prior to this as i have been using them in pre production for this tour. Do anybody know of any limiters of equal quality? The only ones i can see are the Waves L 2 Ultramaximizers or the L1's, i already have the Mc.Dsp Mc2000 i can use for my multiband compression but i'm stuck with Focusrite d2/d3 limiters for now until i can find a replacement.


Thanks guys.

[Nicolas Lowman]

Hey Zack,

I would get in touch with McDSP. I am using a Mixrack system and not an SC48, however my normal show file contains 4 instances of the ML4000. The only issue that have had is that when selecting the plugin the gui sometimes takes a couple of seconds to load. Other than that I have never had any issues with the ML4000 or MC2000. I have run well over hundred shows with the ML4000 in my show file. I know of a least one other engineer that was running the ML4000 on venue without any problems as well.

Is it possible that it is some sort of software conflict when running 2.8.1 vs 2.7.1???
I am still on 2.7.1

Please let us know what you find out.

Nicolas

[Zackdh89]

Hey Nicolas,
thanks for the reply. Are you using just the ML1 limiter or are you using the ML4 multi-band comp + limiter in your show files? It could well be a compatibility issue with 2.8.1, having just gotten the SC48 6weeks ago i have never used an earlier version of the d-show software so i couldn't say..

Zack

[Nicolas Lowman]

Zack,

I am using the ML4 limiter with the multiband comp. It is an amazing bit of processing. I did install the XP version on accident, there is a venue installer for the plug in and that is the one that you want.

Nicolas

[Sheldon Radford]

Hi Zack,

I'm really sorry to hear about this - it's not the type of experience we want customers to have. We'll pass along the feedback on our end.

In the meantime, it's worth checking to make sure the latest versions of plug-ins are installed. This can be done by selecting the plug-in from the "Installed" column on the Options > Plug-Ins page and reading the text that appears in the info pane. Sometimes an update is available and solves the problem. And sometimes the plug-in developer doesn't even know about an issue until a certain combination of circumstances happens. It's rare, but it can happen. Most plug-in developers understand the "mission critical" nature of live gigs and are quick to respond, once the cause of the problem is known.

It's not likely that there's anything between D-Show versions (2.8 versus 2.7) that would cause this.

Sheldon

[digidesigner]

Likely McDSP crew is at the NAMM. If you need an fast replacement to work with check out Massey 2007 limiter. Similar to Waves L series. The demo runs forever but won't save settings. Demo is stereo only. Check the details here: http://www.masseyplugins.com/?page=l2007

EDIT: for limiting you could check out TC MasterX as well, the look-ahead can be turned off and then you get a plug that is super fast (has almost 0 latency) but is still a brickwall limiter. Has multiband dynamics too. The auto gain compensation is on but of course output can be turned down. My favorite for the drums!

[Zackdh89]

Hey Sheldon,

yeah its a shame, i have the latest version of the plug ins installed and used the VENUE installers from the Mc Dsp website. Im going to delete the plug ins and re-install them tomorrow. They are an amazing piece of processing i don't want to loose for live!! Thanks for all the replies guys, ill keep posted on my progress.

Zack

[mcdsp]

Howdy everyone,

just got back from the NAMM show and this thread was forwarded to me by the folks at digi.

Not sure what the problem might be - but I understand there are ML1 and ML4 configurations in use when the problem occurs. It would be REALLY GREAT if I could know how many ML1 (mono and stereo) and ML4 (mono and stereo) configs were in use at the time of the crash. I believe this information might point us in a good direction to correcting the problem.

My direct email is [email protected]. Phone is 650 318 0005, x104. Zack please give me a holler.

Craig McFarland also called today. I will be getting back with him by Friday with any ideas. Meanwhile the above information would be great to know.

Thanks all.

Colin McDowell
1/19/2010

[Zackdh89]

Hey Colin,

I sent you off that info.

Thanks,

Zack