Unable to restore the port Engine 3:06

*** Using Engine1 as a replacement host for Engine 3:06

That's just a notification. Nothing to worry about.

*** Error: CreateDrone: kAPI_DroneCall Timeout
*** Unable to restore the port Engine 3:06

And that's an error ;-)

Synfire can not create a new drone on the engine, because the engine does not report back.

Looks like the engine got locked up. Did it crash? Any plug-in that causes it to lock up, so you can only force quit it?

Try rebuilding the global rack after Synfire started.

The Engine is found on the dock. Put it in the foreground and check out the main menu. The IP address should read 127.0.0.1

If that doesn't help, please install the latest download once again. Make sure you don't skip the Audio Engine component during installation.

It works without problems on OS X 10.9 here.

Little Snitch, perhaps? Or another firewall?

Do the engines respond when opened from the dock?

EDIT: sorry, I missed you already said the engine freezes.  So then, please try the following. Move the global rack file aside (filename depends on what rack you last used), so Synfire will not attempt to restore it on startup. Then attempt to load the plugins . If one of them freezes the engine, theres a problem with that plugin that I could investigate.

Not much has changed with the Audio Engine code since 1.6, so I doubt the 1.7.4 update could make it crash in the first place. Possibly the installation went wrong, or files were corrupted.

If nothing else helps, you can try and reinstall Synfire from scratch, following these instructions:

(https://users.cognitone.com/content/uninstalling-software-manually)

by 'move the global rack file aside' what exactly do you mean?

Find the "GlobalRack.cogsetup" file in your personal projects folder under "Config" and "Racks" and move it to another place, so Synfire will not find it on startup. Your personal projects folder is in /Users/YourName/Documents/Synfire Pro/ (or wherever you set it to be in preferences under the "Files" tab).

Note that if you last used another global rack, e.g. "My Jazz Fusion.cogsetup", you need to put that one aside.

Out of curiousity, are you using a PreSonus Firebox?

Can you not remove the path(s) to the 32 bit pluginfolder in Synfire..than no 32 bit vst is scanned

Than you can try by adding one 32 bit Vsti after another in the folder to scan

Try removing /Users/YourName/Documents/Synfire Pro/Config/Racks/CurrentRack.cogsetup

You find all the engine apps in /Library/Application Support/Cognitone (you may need to navigate to that hidden folder using Finder's GoTo menu). You can launch Engine.app and Scanner.app and their 64 bit counterparts from there. They seem to cause the problems, so making them run will make Synfire happy.

Run Scanner.app from that folder and re-run it after a crash. That will collect all defunct plugins in BrokenPlugins.txt. The file BannedPlugins.txt keeps plugins to ignore even after a reset (new scan from scratch).

To further narrow down the issue, you can stay with the engine apps. They don't need Synfire to run. 

I've mailed you a link to an updated Audio Engine for OS X. Let's hope it fixes this issue.

Hello Andre

I am experiencing similar problems using Windows 7 and have spent days doing full Synfire uninstallations/installations, shuffling rack setup files and VST directories etc as per the previous messages but have a persistent problem with the 64bit engine that i can't eliminate. Here is the story;

1. Installed latest setup of Synfire etc

2. Both 32 bit and 64 bit engines working fine

3. Added JBridge VST directory to 64 bit engine. Encountered the "needs admistrarive permission" warning from JBridge - ie the engine encountered a problem. Gave appropriate rights etc

4. From that point every time I try to use the 64 bit engine I get "the audio engine does not report back to synfire" as soon as I try to load Synfire.

5. If I do a clean Synfire (and Engines) install; then I can access Synfire and the 32 bit engine ok. However, if I try to use the 64 bit engine then the " audio engine does not report back to synfire" warning repeatably flags up. From that point I am no longer able to use Synfire as the problem arises as soon as you try to load Synfire.

6. I am able to run the 64 bit scanner directly and have redirected the VST directory away from the JBridge directory, so that is not likely to be the problem.

7. The 64bit Engine can be started directly (independently of Synfire) and seems to run ok according to task manager.

So, in a nushell, if the 64 bit Engine encounters a problem during VST loading, then that problem seems to be inpossible to eliminate from that point on , despite repeated uninstalltion/reinstallation and shuffling of directories.

Follow up from previous message...

I completed a complete uninstall, removing as many Synfire directories as i could find after that. Then downloaded the the latest Synfire (again) and did a complete reinstallation of Synfire and the 32 bit & 64 bit Engines.

On tryng to load Synfire this time the same "the audio engine does not report back to synfire" error came up for both the 32 bit & 64 bit Engines (I do have the "launch engine already on startup" box ticked....)

To cut a long story short, I found the only solution is to load both of these engines manually every time before loading Synfire - then it works fine ...

I now have all my 64 bit VSTs loaded and also Jbridge working fine...

However, that does not explain why I am getting the loading problem in the first place. I strongly suspect there is an underlying issue somewhere...

Unfortunately this has wasted an awful lot of my time and I can understanfd why some folk are wary of using the internal engines. However, on the positive side, it is a pleasure to work without a DAW to load up everytime ...

Hi joho,

thank you for taking the time to write this detailed report. I am sorry to hear you faced so much hassle. However, your discovery that starting the engines manually seems to make a difference, will be very helpful to further narrow down the problem.

If that is at all necessary. This issue, or at least a very related one, was resolved for OS X already. We did not yet release the updated engine for Windows, because it needs more testing. I expect the issue to disappear on Windows too. I will upload the new Windows build as soon as possible.

However, on the positive side, it is a pleasure to work without a DAW to load up everytime

Yes. It really makes composing easier. 

New Windows builds are now available for download in your user account area on cognitone.com. They include an updated version of the Audio Engine, which likely also fixes this issue.

Hello Andre

Thank you. I have downloaded Synfire v1.7.4b10, completed a normal unistallation and reinstallation, but the  "audio engine does not report back to Synfire"  error still occurs on trying to load Synfire. As before, if I load the engines manually prior to that, Synfire then loads ok.

Synfire does raise the "access local network" flag as usual on loading, whick I obviously approve.

Many thanks,

Joe