Synfire 1.7.8 Release

In Soundcase's post is the following quote

thanks to Andre now has official support!
called :
Transient Module.

Also, it is clear if you watch his video that you must not save the global rack.  Are you now saying it worked incorrectly in 1.7.7 but that you don't know why?  It seems very strange if you don't know why the two versions are working differently.

I tested with 1.7.8 and it works as described. 

Again, in my GIF you can see that it doesn't work for me!  What am I supposed to do now? I spent a lot of time setting this up and I am working on some projects using this method.  Now suddenly it no longer works.  The only way I can think of is to add the drones in manually and see what happens.  But I don't really want to do that every time I open a project.  I just want it to work as it did in 1.7.7!

All I can think of Andre, is that you're setting it up differently to as described in the video.  If you follow the video in 1.7.7 and then try it again in 1.7.8, you should see the same difference I'm getting.

Soundcase and Juergen, are you getting any problems with 1.7.8 or is it only me?  I can't think that I'm doing something wrong.  All I did was installed 1.7.8 and changed nothing else.  You can see in the GIFs that it's working differently.

I am now one extremely frustrated Synfire user!

It seems very strange if you don't know why the two versions are working differently.

Oh, this happens all day long ;-) The code is a huge beast. It's impossible to remember the details of any of the roughly 3000 classes it consist of for longer than a few days.

What your problem looks like is that something along the way of starting Synfire and loading your DAW templates turns your drones into 'Reserved' status where they should be 'Global'.

What status do the drones show in your DAW without running Synfire? ('Global', 'Private' or 'Reserved')

Reserved, the same as in Soundcase's video at 1:15, and the same as they were in 1.7.7

Pete, Do you use version 7.5 Cubase ?

Reserved drones did never show up on the global rack. If this was the case, adding a new drone to the DAW would make it appear on the rack immediately (it certainly didn't with 1.77). The code that requires transient drones to be global was last changed a year ago.

Something weird must be going on. I have no idea why it worked in 1.7.7, because nothing related to transient drones has changed with 1.7.8.

Please try the following: 

1. Add one of these drones to the rack with (+) as you did in your second GIF
2. Exclude it from the rack again (options menu, top right of the rack)
3. Check if it now works as intended
4. If so, save the Cubase track template with the drone's new state. Repeat so for all templates that don't work.
5. If not, discard everything (don't save anything in Cubase and quit Synfire)

Reserved drones did never show up on the global rack

I agree with that.  At first, you have to add a drone to the rack (+) so that the drone becomes global.  The point is however, under 1.7.7 you only had to do this once.  Next time you opened the DAW and Synfire, it remembered the setting and loaded the MIDI drone into Synfire automatically.  This no longer happens in 1.7.8.

You can see this behaviour towards the end of Soundcase's video from about 3:31 after he has closed both programs and opens them again.  You can also see it in my 1.7.7 GIF.

For now, I will try your suggestions and report back.

Jan,

I'm using Cubase 7.0.7

The workflow for adding Transient Drones is:

1. Add drone to DAW
2. In Synfire, add it to the global rack (select DAW, click +)
3. Load plug-in and assign DD, set other options as desired
4. Exclude it from the rack (options menu, top right of rack)
5. Save the DAW file or track template to include the drone's current state.

When the drone in the DAW goes offline, it will silently disappear from Synfire. When it comes online again, it will show up as a transient drone that can be used on-the-fly without belonging to a particular rack.

For whatever reason, the drones in your Cubase templates turned 'Reserved', i.e. where probably added to an arrangement or rack and then removed again by deletion.

3. Load plug-in and assign DD, set other options as desired

You don't load a plug-in in Synfire for a Transient Drone, the plug-in is loaded to the DAW!

Well, you don't need to. This is just an example. Transient drones can go with or without a plug-in. What you need in any case is a DD however.

I mayhave got this working at last!  I did it by setting up a brand new Cubase project and the drones re-apperaed in Synfire after closing.

Is it possible that existing projects, templates, etc. no longer work due to something that changed between updates?

Anyway, I'll try loading an old project, adding the drones back in to Synfire, and then testing if they are still there again when re-started.

Well, I've kind of got it working, although now it forces me to open the DAW first, or I get an error message that the DAW couldn't be found (or something similar).  With 1.7.7 it didn't matter what order I opened the programs in.

I'll keep plugging away and try to nail this.  I'll be interested to hear if Soundcase or Juergen have any comments about it.

@André :

3. Load plug-in and assign DD, set other options as desired

@Pete : You don't load a plug-in in Synfire for a Transient Drone, the plug-in is loaded to the DAW!

With this André is explaining here that this is all happening in Synfire itself : load a Vsti ( the same plug as in the DAW) in the global rack and assign a DD for it and then disconnect the Vst from the rack, while the DD keeps existing--> you need this for the Vsti in your DAW.

(if you don't do unload the Vsti  from the rack, then for the midi -only mode tickbox you get a warning message )

The explanation of André gives room for misunderstanding..and is not his strongest point ..explaining things in a sort of programming style.

it forces me to open the DAW first, or I get an error message that the DAW couldn't be found

This shouldn't happen with a transient drone. Be sure you save the DAW end after the drones were converted to the transient state. Do not save your DAW templates with drones that are still part of the global rack!

And also be sure there are no non-transient drones left on your global rack (or just don't save the rack).

Success!  What I had to do was as follows:

1. Open Synfire with my normal empty rack
2. Open my Cubase template
3. Go back to my empty rack and add all the drones in (I didn't have to do this under 1.7.7, they were already in the rack)
4. Save my Cubase template again
5. Close Cubase
6. Close Synfire (WITHOUT saving the global rack)

Now everything works as before, i.e. it doesn't matter if I open Synfire or Cubase first, all the drones are in the rack automatically (once both programs are running of course!)

Thanks for putting up with me on this one Andre!  It seems something in 1.7.8 must have changed forcing me to do this (re-adding the drones in Synfire and re-saving the Cubase template).  It also explains why you couldn't reproduce if you were creating a new one from scratch.

One smiley, happy Synfire user again :)

Pete good luck with the installation and maybe you get it done :)

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With 1.7.7 it didn't matter what order I opened the programs in.

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Perhaps has it to do that you now saved the global rack in Synfire also together with the DAW template, while in video it was only saving the DAW template ? 
Synfire is then by starting up looking at the Racks and their connections..

A non-transient drone in Synfire: is a Vsti loaded in the global rack together with his DD 

Hi petearch,
i just checked (with a little panic)
.. there is no problem; all my old drone templates are still working.

in your case sounds really strange  but
( i also  did   "re-save templates"  thing but it was right after the official support for the Transient Drones..after that everything worked well,without problem)
anyway...
i glad you figured out. :-)

For me, it works as before with 1.7.7 (see GIF).

Also at 1.7.7 it happened occasionally that the transient drones did not show up immediately. If that happens, then I close Synfire and reopen it (while I let the Cubase Project still open). Usually, the drones do appear then.

Has it a advantage of not saving the global racks for the transient drones ?
If you save it..Synfire reminds you to open the DAW template and if you not save the global racks for the transient drones you can open Synfire without warning and open after this the DAW

But saving the global transient rack in Synfire has the advantage that you keep your carefully constructed global racks for the DAW templates ..a backup.While only working with DAW templates ..if you lose one you lose also the global rack for the transient drones in Synfire.  So my preferred workflow should be of that one as explained by Cognitone  (save the transient drone global racks )  

Thanks Soundcase and Juergen, I'm glad it's working fine for you.  It's now working fine for me. the same as in Juergen's GIF.  I now realise that in Cubase, my drones were somehow Reserved not Global which was causing the problem.  The only thing I don't understand is how it was working before, it's a mystery!  Anyway, never mind as thankfully it's all working now.

Jan, there's no need to save the rack, the only thing of importance is the DDs for the drones.  These load automatically into Synfire when you start Cubase , because the matching DD is already stored in the Cubase template.  Try following Soundcases's video, that's how I got it working.  It moves quite quickly but you can keep pausing, re-winding, etc.

If you can get that started and you need any help with the MIDI channels, etc. let me know (you have to use Input Transformer on each track in Cubase to filter out the other channels on the drone).

I'll try and do a video if you're still stuck, but I won't have time for a while I'm afraid.

Pete, if you loosing your Cubase template then you will loose all drones configuration too, but it will be a rare situation.
Well i will ook at those input transformers for Cubase.. the only problem how to setup correctly the Cubase template then.

I am looking forward about a video or explanation about this from you.