Posted
Steinberg Halion 6 and Halion Sonic 3 instruments are missing from selection in Synfire, and all iZotope effects are greyed out (the folder is present but all effects are greyed). This is using the 64-bit engine in Synfire on Windows 10.
I tried a Scan and Reset of the plugins but it didn't help. At the end, Synfire displayed a big list of plug-ins that it didn't load (I assume they were mainly 32-bit ones?). I couldn't read it though because the window disappeared after a couple of seconds!
I've used iZotope before but I've only recently upgraded the Steinberg instruments. However, Halion 5 and Halion Sonic 2 used to work without any problems.
All the above work correctly in my DAW.
Sat, 2017-09-30 - 19:36 Permalink
Fixed the build numbers for the download now, sorry. The number that's more important is Audio Engine 2.5.7.
The 64 bit engine can't load 32 bit plugins and vice versa. So if some plugins are 32 or 64 bit exclusively, they will show up in the summary at the end as failed. On the Mac, 32 and 64 bit are in the same file. On Windows they are different files. You need to point the 64 bit scanner to the 64 bit plugin directory, etc.
Sat, 2017-09-30 - 22:37 Permalink
My point about the summary is that I've no idea what it said because it disappeared very quickly. There seems no point to it unless you have the option to view it, then clear it by clicking OK or something.
You need to point the 64 bit scanner to the 64 bit plugin directory,
Yes, obviously. I get that! I don't scan for 32 bit as I only ever use 64 bit plugins. The instruments and effects I've mentioned are all 64 bit and are in my 64 bit plugin folder, but I can't use them in Synfire.
Sun, 2017-10-01 - 17:36 Permalink
I recorded the scan, paused the recording during playback, and made a snapshot (attached) of the dialogue because it's the only way to see what's on it. You can see the instruments and effects that did not load, but the list is not complete, you can't scroll it and it disappears very quickly. I've also noticed some Native Instrument effects that are greyed out, and so is Toontrack's EZ Mix.
These are all 64 bit plugins in my 64 bit folder and they all load correctly in my 64 bit DAW, Please can you take a look and let me know why they won't load in Synfire?
Many thanks
Mon, 2017-10-02 - 21:11 Permalink
Thanks for the screenshot. Basically only very few plugins should be listed there. A list this long is absolutely strange, especially if these plugins loded fine previously. Ironically, I wish there were more reports of the scanner failing this way. This would point to a bug that could be narrowed down.
Are you sure you have Audio Engine 2.5.7 ?
Plugins will appear grayed out, if they have more than 8 inputs (4 x stereo), or more than 70 outputs. This usually applies to mixer-style plugins and some larger effects only.
Mon, 2017-10-02 - 22:17 Permalink
Hi yes, I've checked and it's version 2.5.7.
It's a good point about Halion 6, as I think this is the first time I've tried to use Synfire since I upgraded to it. Synfire used to work fine with Halion 5 and it's little brother Halion Sonic 2.
I have a quite large selection of iZotope effect plugins and they are all greyed out, but it's possible I've not used them with Synfire since uprading to Windows 10 from 7. I know I've used them before though.
Most of the Native Instrument effects are available, but the two that are greyed out are Reaktor 6 FX [16:16] and Reaktor 5 FX16x16 [16:16] if that helps?
Toontrack's EZ Mix is a nice little plugin to use as an initial "rough sketch", especially with Synfire.
Whatever it is, I hope we can get to the bottom of it. I particularly want to use Halion Sonic and some of the iZotope effects in Synfire.
Tue, 2017-10-03 - 08:55 Permalink
Pete
You're a smart guy and know your way around .... but if you're in clutching at straws mode then I got caught out with Halion 6 and Halion Sonic 3.... the vst 2.x versions turned up in C:\Program Files\vstplugins. Doesn't explain what else is happening .... but the Halion 6 update wipes out Halion 5 and perhaps you're scanning an earlier plugin.
Cheers
Ray
Wed, 2017-10-04 - 16:04 Permalink
Other than input/outputs exceeding the limits, or a directory not being included (or the wrong directory), I can't imagine why a plugin would not be scanned properly.
The actual scanning code that looks into the plugins hasn't changed in a long time. We merely changed the way the small scan processes run on each plugin report back to Synfire (pretty much bomb proof, though). If none of the above causes are the culprit, I'll look into this once again.
Sat, 2017-10-07 - 11:09 Permalink
Thanks Andre. While I wait for that, I have found something interesting that may or may not be a problem.
All the iZotope effects are available as instrument plugins, and I can load them as if they were an instrument. I've noticed that other effects are also available in this way so not sure if that's normal or not.
See attached GIF.
Sat, 2017-10-07 - 17:53 Permalink
A software update unexpectedly broke our build system, so no patched Audio Engine today, unfortunately.
Thanks for the gif. I have some of the iZotope effects showing up as disabled here too. Interestingly, this is only with the VST versions. AudioUnit variants of the same effects work fine. The reason: Alloy 2 VST reports only 1 input and 1 output (mono). Same with Ozone 6. I don't know why, but will look into it.
Oh, and if you're a bit adventurous, you could just edit ScannedPlugins64.xml and set inputs and outputs to 2 manually ;-)
Sun, 2017-10-08 - 02:03 Permalink
Ah yes, that's done it for the iZotope effects. I changed all occurrences in the file from 1 to 2 (inputs and outputs). This also fixed the EZ Mix effect but not the two NI effects (i'm not bothered about them though).
However, the Halion instruments still don't show up, and they weren't in the file either so I guess that must be something else?
EDIT: Although the effects are now available, when I use any of them I only get audio through the left channel. Think I'll wait for the fix for this, and hopefully we'll be able to get the Halion instruments working as well.
Tue, 2017-10-10 - 17:28 Permalink
Lastest build #8 includes Audio Engine 2.5.8 with a fix for this issue.
If a plugin reports some non-stereo channel configuration as default (iZtotope reported mono as default), Synfire will attempt to figure out a stereo setup and remember that for later use.
Please do a full re-scan with reset.
Tue, 2017-10-10 - 21:40 Permalink
Thanks Andre, I can report the effects can now be used, and also now play in stereo! Thanks very much indeed for sorting this out. They all still show up on the "failed" window at the end though, but I'm not too bothered about that as long as they work.
The Halion 6 and Halion Sonic 3 instruments still will not scan. However, there is now a free standalone version of Halion Sonic SE which I thought I didn't need until now. So I thought I'd download it and that version works fine with Synfire! So, not sure why the other two don't work but I'm happy with the SE version in Synfire.
By the way, although it's free, you still have to own the content so it's no good downloading it unless you already own Cubase or one of the other two instruments.
Thanks again for sorting this out, I very much appreciate it.
Wed, 2017-10-11 - 07:57 Permalink
A few things you could still try:
1. Make sure Halion isn't installed as VST3 only
2. Test if eliminating the space in "Halion Sonic.dll" has any effect (should not, but who knows)
3. There's a new option <VALUE name="scanResultFile" val="1"/> in AudioEngine64.xml. You could try and set that to 0 and do a full rescan with reset.
Wed, 2017-10-11 - 23:11 Permalink
1. I tested this by renaming the VST3 with an invalid extension and started Cubase, which loaded the VST2 version instead. So that confirms it's not installed as VST3 only
2. Tried that but it didn't work
3. Also tried that and it didn't work so I've changed it back to 1 again. I thought this option may prevent the iZotope effects being reported at the end as not loaded, but it still reports them for some reason, even though they now load correctly.
Now I've got HSSE working with Synfire I don't mind the others not loading, but you may find another user reporting a similar problem with another plugin in the future. If ever you get bored sometime (!) I think there's a demo of HS3 available that you could try!