Strange VST issue in MuLab 5.3.25

[Ambient Mechanics]

I'm posting here in the hope that one of you guys will know what's going on and how I can sort it out. I did take a brief look around to see if the same issue has popped up recently on here, but couldn't find anything like it..but my apologies in advance if this topic has come up since the last upgrade was released.

Basically, I'm running MuLab UL 5.3.25 on a Windows 7 Pro 64 bit system and have various VST programs installed..both 64 bit and 32 bit versions..the latter bridged using JBridge and there has been no issues with this setup to date.

So I found it a little strange and a bit worrying when, towards the end of last week, vsts started to "die" for no reason..they just go silent and will not make a sound. For example: Let's say I open a project I'm working on, that already has a number of tracks recorded and I want to start work on a new element of the mix recording a new track. So I load, say, the Alchemy VST..which I have also never had an issue with, but after a 20 minutes or so of using it, it just goes silent and even if I were to hit record, nothing is recorded, as there is no sound.

The other tracks already recorded play away just fine..even those that were recorded using Alchemy..it just seems to be the current instance of Alchemy that is the problem. Now that's all well and good..if it were just Alchemy it is happening with..but it's not. It happens with any plugin I am using and the only way I can get things to work is to close every thing down and reboot my system..and open up MuLab and start all over again..until it happens again.

To be honest, it's getting to be very annoying and I wish I new what's causing this. I've scanned my system for malware and viruses and it comes up clean. I'm gone through each item that shows in the Device Manger..including the hidden ones and checked and updated all their drivers..all to no avail.

For the record, this issue has only started since I upgraded to the latest version of MuLab..in fact, that's the only change I've made to my system of late..so I'm wondering is it something to do with the upgrade? The funny thing is why does it seem to just happen after a while of working..and not when I first load a VST?

Any help or advice you guys can offer would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Dan (Solaris65)

[mutools]

Don't know what's going on, first time i hear something like that. What i would do is this: As soon as the problem occurs, then start deleting all other racks and plugins except for the problematic one, except for any racks or plugins that are downstream the problematic one. Bottomline of this is that you simplify the session as much as possble and isolate the problem and hopefully this will give you a more clear view on what's happening. Maybe there is some routing that is not as you would expect or so..?

[Ambient Mechanics]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I tried that already..running a new instance of MuLab with just one Alchemy loaded and it happened again. It's also happening with Omnisphere, which it never did before. I'm not really sure what to make of it, as my system is just under a year old and it seems to check out OK.

I searched online for anything like this problem, but can't seem to find anything like it.

[mutools]

Ok, so if you create a new session and insert a VSTi and send a sequence to it and let it play, then you hear sound, and when you let it play for +-20 min without doing anything then suddenly sound stops??

[Ambient Mechanics]

Not exactly. Say I open a project and play what I have recorded so far..it plays fine. I then load another VST in order to record a new part of the mix and all works fine for about 20 minutes or so, at which point the VST I loaded just seems to stop working. It doesn't "hang" or crash. All the dials and knobs work just fine..there's just no sound being made by the VST..but all the parts that were already recorded play back just fine..even those that used the same vst to record them.

Hope I've explained that clearly.

[mutools]

I'm sorry but i have no idea what's going on. I also did not receive any similar report. If anyone could add a piece to this puzzle, please do. @Solaris65 Please keep on testing and narrowing down the problem as much as possible using scientific/logical methods. Hopefully you will also be able to add more info, or even better find the reason.

What you also could try is to re-install the newest MuLab 5.3.25 cfr http://www.mutools.com/info/docs/mulab/ ... ation.html
For maybe you're .exe and .ID files are not matching because you updated only the exe some time ago?

[Ambient Mechanics]

I'm sorry but i have no idea what's going on. I also did not receive any similar report. If anyone could add a piece to this puzzle, please do. @Solaris65 Please keep on testing and narrowing down the problem as much as possible using scientific/logical methods. Hopefully you will also be able to add more info, or even better find the reason.

What you also could try is to re-install the newest MuLab 5.3.25 cfr http://www.mutools.com/info/docs/mulab/ ... ation.html
For maybe you're .exe and .ID files are not matching because you updated only the exe some time ago?

OK..will do..thanks. I'm also asking around online on other music forums about this issue, trying to find out if this is a common thing or just related to MuLab in particular. I'll let you know what I find out, if anything.

[pljones]

It's a shame it's not Win8 as the Task Manager has somewhat deeper monitoring but I'd suggest running Resource Monitor and seeing whether anything obvious is being used unexpectedly heavily. That may find something unexpected happens.

[mutools]

OK..will do..thanks. I'm also asking around online on other music forums about this issue, trying to find out if this is a common thing or just related to MuLab in particular. I'll let you know what I find out, if anything.

I would appreciate that you first further research (cfr the methods mentioned above) things more before making implicit associations between MuLab and the problem. That's not good for the future of MuLab and MUX. IF the problem is inside MuLab i'll be the first to admit and work on it. But if not, please don't harm it by making implicit associations. Hope you understand. Thanks.

[Ambient Mechanics]

OK..will do..thanks. I'm also asking around online on other music forums about this issue, trying to find out if this is a common thing or just related to MuLab in particular. I'll let you know what I find out, if anything.

I would appreciate that you first further research (cfr the methods mentioned above) things more before making implicit associations between MuLab and the problem. That's not good for the future of MuLab and MUX. IF the problem is inside MuLab i'll be the first to admit and work on it. But if not, please don't harm it by making implicit associations. Hope you understand. Thanks.

With all due respect, the only thing that changed on my system was MuLab when it was upgraded. I don't think it too unreasonable to speculate there may be a connection between the issue and the upgrade..in fact it would seem a logical connection to make.

Anyway, I understand what you're saying and why..and, trust me, there's no need to be concerned. I'[m sure we will get this issue resolved.

[mutools]

With all due respect, the only thing that changed on my system was MuLab when it was upgraded. I don't think it too unreasonable to speculate there may be a connection between the issue and the upgrade..in fact it would seem a logical connection to make.

Understandable but for me it's not sufficient prove. There may be something you forgot or maybe you're doing things in another way now or...
Not meant in a bad way, i'm just logically listing possible other reasons. And also: If it would be a MuLab prob, then why doesn't anyone else have this issue? I know, that's also not a prove it's not a MuLab prob, but at least it's a relevant aspect too.

Anyway, the problem must be narrowed down. To do so i would start from a new session add a VSTi and send a sequence to it, let it play long enough then if the problem does not happen, add something else, wait long enough to check if the prob is there or not, if not continue adding/changing 1 thing at a time until the problem is there and then the last action you did should reveal a reason.

Another test is doing the same things as you did before but without using any VST plugin thus only using the internal synths and effects and see if the problem is there too. Is it?

Thanks.

[Ambient Mechanics]

I did start from a new session, adding just one VSTi and sent a sequence to it and the problem happened again. In fact, I repeated this with a number of VSTi synths and the problem kept appearing.

Having said that, you will hopefully be pleased to know I followed the advice you gave me before and downloaded the recently updated version again and installed it. At the time of writing this the issue seems to have stopped completely.

For the record, I followed the exact same installation steps as before and got no error messages. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the original downloaded file might have been corrupted in some way during extraction, which might have lead to a faulty installation.

If the issue starts up again, then I will let you know.

Thanks for your help.

[jonljacobi]

I remember something like this as well. I believe it happened with Guitar Rig when I used it on a mono track. But I haven't had it in a while so I'm assuming Jo fixed it.

[Ambient Mechanics]

Well, I've been mixing in MuLab all day, trying to replicate the issue since I reinstalled and I can't..so I guess that's good news.

[mutools]

I suppose your exe and ID files were out of sync due to an update of the exe only. Did you recently update the MuLab.exe only? Could that have been it?