Need help with Midi & Virt. Inst. playback in PT 7

[docric]

Hey folks,

First off I have to apologize for my ignorance here. I've done a little work with midi/VI's, but my bread & butter has been tracking live instruments. This is probably something really simple that I'm overlooking/unaware of.
Did a few searches (this am) of past threads with no luck...
...so, here goes:

Working on a project for a local singer/songwriter. Too tight of a budget to rent a studio with the "real deals", so producer had a session player in last night to track keys using VI's. Tracked B3 (NI B4 II), Piano (Ivory 1.5), and EP (Reason 3.04- NN19 Wurley).
We used instrument tracks for all 3 in 2 different songs and the original tracking went without a hitch. Set the hardware buffer at 128, and the player had no probs, and the track sounded great as we were laying it (and Bass/Drums/Vox simultaneously) down.

When we went to listen down to the tracks, the EP and B3 tracks were cutting short on playback. I set the buffer back up to 1024 and that didn't resolve the problem.
The midi note data was displayed correctly on the tracks (proper length of chord holds, etc...), but the playback was screwed. It's not late or early, just intermittent. Most of the time-but not always- it cuts the notes short on playback. Chords that should be sustaining (and visually,the midi note is there and playing) aren't.
Controller data (Volume/Sustain for EP & Volume/Mod Wheel for B4) also showed up correctly on the tracks. I don't see any sustain data on the controller track of the B4, but I'm not sure if this is an issue or not, as held chords do not play back correctly either.

Initially, the Ivory track played back fine. Later in tracking ( just to really piss me off !) it stopped playing back at all ??

Session went late, so I decided to sleep on it and come back to it this am. [ since apparently (from what was visually displayed on the track in PT) the performance had been captured.]

This am, re-instantiating Ivory took care of that problem. Simple fix. Plays back fine. Sounds great.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to solve the problem with the B4 and EP tracks (they're both still having the same problem). Digi TS isn't open yet, and I'm supposed to be cutting Guitar this am. Yikes!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[DigiTechSupt]

What are the version numbers of the B4 and EP plug-ins are you using?

Have you tried trashing preferences yet? Does this happen in only this session or in other sessions as well?

You could try doing an 'Import Session Data' to a new session to see if that helps - it may be some kind of session corruption. Alternately, you could try instanciating the B4 or EP plug-ins on another track and copying the MIDI data to the new track to see if that helps.

[docric]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the prompt response.

What are the version numbers of the B4 and EP plug-ins are you using?

B4 II 2.0.0 , Reason 3.04

Have you tried trashing preferences yet?

Nope. I'll give this a try.

Does this happen in only this session or in other sessions as well?

Don't have any other active sessions using these plugs at the moment. Created a new session with each plug individually and ISD'd the midi info from the current session into it and the problem persisted.

You could try doing an 'Import Session Data' to a new session to see if that helps - it may be some kind of session corruption. Alternately, you could try instanciating the B4 or EP plug-ins on another track and copying the MIDI data to the new track to see if that helps.

See above...

[jeremyroberts]

B4 II 2.0.0

Rick, if this means anything, my version of B4 II is 2.0.0.007 - and it works great here. Is the .007 version later than what you have?

[docric]

Hey Jeremy,
Thanks man.

if this means anything, my version of B4 II is 2.0.0.007 - and it works great here. Is the .007 version later than what you have?

I think that it is. I just tried to check the version # on NI's site (what a nightmare).
When I tried to download from their automatic page, it didn't list an upgrade "as needed" ??

I'll try again.

[GW]

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...=&fpart=3&vc=1
Read Nikki-k, Rail and Ed Grays posts... Being on a PC LE-system I have for now reinstalled my NI-instruments with the VST-wrapper... In my experience it's better to use these plugins in the Kontakt2-player. (One can always download the demo?)

Ivory posted a new upgrade today 1.52
OS X and Win XP - RTAS Update 1.52 - Provide native Pro Tools 7 compatibility and more.

Reason is that what really surprises me! On my setup that is the player of the above that has been working flawless.

The session isn't big - you can't e-mail it to someone else to see if it behaves the same? (I know the jam you're in and the stress it creates.)

[docric]

Hey GW,

Thanks for the link.
Guess I'm not alone in all this... Sure hope Ed Gray is able to fulfill his commitment.

Been tracking Vox all afternoon, so no chance since this am to try to fix this issue.

Next step is Uninstall/Install PT 7.0 and then update to 7.1 cs2 and see if that fixes things??
These plugs were running fine (and playing well together) in 7.1cs2.
It's possible that this issue is directly related to the recent upgrade to 7.1cs3, but I just don't know ?? Digi TS says maybe, and at this point, I got no other options.

What a PITA.
Man, the last 6 months with this system has SUCKED.

[jeremyroberts]

[Ivory posted a new upgrade today 1.52

FYI, I had problems with it and pulled it. Went back to Ivory 1.50, FWIW.

[sleiweke]

I was having trouble with Native Inst. Akoustik Piano. Lot's of weird artifacts and pops. I tried every possible buffer setting. The fix for me was to go back to single processor mode in the Playback Engine / Setup menu. Then everything worked like a charm. Not sure if this is a Digi thing or Native Inst. thing. Probably Native Inst.

PT 7.1cs3 HD3 G5 Dual 2.3 2.5 gig RAM OS 10.4.3