MIDI to SL in AULab

Using SL with Apple's AULab

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Viennaloop
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:00 am

MIDI to SL in AULab

Post by Viennaloop »

Greetings Jesse, greetings all,

Every time I finally figure out something that's had me stumped, I realize anew just how good, simple, stable and unproblematic (and worth a donation) SL is. But the devils in the details getting various things to work together ... you know the story. Anyway, each new level of complexity I add to my nascent setup poses new challenges. Which I guess is why we're all here.

So ... here's something weird:
AULab - SL - MIDI.jpg
AULab - SL - MIDI.jpg (245.22 KiB) Viewed 18641 times
As you see, I'm using SL in AULab, now fed by an RME FF400 (which replaced my reliable but very limited Edirol UA-25EX). This, in turn, is fed with MIDI from a Roland FC-300, which has its quirks but, with those accounted for, did quite well in my previous setup.

So the first thing I tried to do with the RME was basically replicate the simple setup that worked with the Edirol (at least I think that's what I'm doing). MIDI Monitor tells me everything's coming through fine (once I filter out the constant "active sense" messages, which I assume aren't the problem). So with an input and an output set up, I add a bus and insert AULab. I've moved the standalone version of SL to the right place, so the plugin version finds the GUI by itself ... so far so good. Then I go to the MIDI Effect Editor view in the bus window and ... it comes up blank. Simply blank. Despite the fact that I've connected the Bus with the RME's Port 1 in the "Midi Sources" area of the AULab studio view. So I go back to the SL plugin view, and nothing comes up anymore. No GUI and no option to start or find it. Again, just a blank window. The only way to get SL back seems to be to delete the plugin and re-add it. For the record: when I just go ahead and try to use the GUI after adding the bus and plugin, the MIDI messages I send do not reach it.

I'm not convinced that this has to do with the different audio interface. But as far as I can tell, that's the only significant factor that has changed.

Have any of you had a similar issue? And how have you solved it???

Many thanks for any and all input...!

Chris
Viennaloop
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:00 am

Re: MIDI to SL in AULab

Post by Viennaloop »

So, with my equipment and myself having slept for a night...

...today I powered everything up and started AULab. Opened my RME document. Went to start Sooperlooper. The Plugin didn't find the standalone program on its own. But once I pointed it in the right direction and opened the GUI, I went to the MIDI window in the inspector and ... my audio interface was there. Went back to the GUI (which was possible, this time) and loaded my MIDI bindings. And the whole thing worked. The only possible explanation for this which I can think of is that, when I started the program and loaded my document, the bus with the AULab plugin was assigned to Port 1 (studio view / MIDI) from the moment it was loaded, since that's how I'd saved it. Perhaps one (sometimes?) has to restart the program (or reload the document) to have certain new assignments take effect.

I'm sure it could also be any number of things which I'd never think of, but if anyone else runs into similarly strange connection behavior with AULab and SL, saving your document and restarting everything is perhaps one thing you can try ... I feel silly for having taken a whole evening to find no solution, waking up the next morning, doing (almost?) the same thing and having the problem miraculously solved.

Apparent moral of this story: banging your head against a wall again and again in the exact same way can indeed solve seemingly complex problems. (i.e., you CAN do the same thing over and over and expect different results -- Einstein must be rolling over in his grave... :-P )
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