New user, big problem - Sometimes only the "selected" tracks will record or playback

[DiscoDevils]

Greetings

I am a brand new Bitwig user. I have a fairly complex setup so it's possible I am just doing something wrong but I am unable to use the product as configured.

I have a Zed R16 desk/interface and have configured Bitwig with 16ch of mono audio I/O and 4 more stereo channels for my hardware effect returns. I generate all of my sounds, do all my mixing and effects in hardware and generally use the DAW as a multi track recorder and arranger. The only midi track I use is a single stereo midi instrument track to host the VST for my Syncgen clock generator. The VST plays the audio signals that the Syncgen uses to generate its clock signals. My template has all tracks armed to record so when I hit play, the Syncgen track should start, send out start signals to all the external gear and everything gets recorded in to individual tracks within the DAW for mixing and arranging later. I have used this same sort of template in Ableton for years.

When I hit the spacebar, the expected result is that all of the armed tracks start recording and the track with the Syncgen VST starts up and the whole studio fires up. That is not happening in Bitwig. I have to have the VST track "focused" or selected with the mouse to get it to play audio when the DAW starts and I have to individually select each armed track in order for them to "turn on" and start recording. Once I "select" the VST track, I can stop/start the DAW several times in a row and it seems to be working but then I will move my focus to another track and after a few more stop/starts. the VST track will no longer start again until I select it again.

This seems to me to be an issue with the audio engine. Thoughts?

Thank you

[stamp]

Hi Discodevil,

I have similar problems when playing notes from Push in drumracks and vsts, too.
No sound when palying notes, I have to select the track or toggle monitoring on/off in inspector to make the sound come back.
There must some bug with the monitoring of tracks.
Did you report your problem to support?

Cheers

[DiscoDevils]

I haven't brought it up to support, no. I just installed Bitwig 2 days ago and have not had much time to spend with it so I assumed I was doing something wrong. Perhaps it's an issue with the latest build and if I installed an earlier version, it might work? I am trying to get away from Ableton as I have been having intermittent problems with audio artifacts when editing. I was told Bitwig handles audio differently and pops and clicks (not related to latency) are not an issue. This seems to be true IF I can actually get the audio to play...

[stamp]

Happens in older versions, too.

[DiscoDevils]

Well, that's disappointing. Pretty major showstopper for me. It's completely unusable for me at this point. I opened a support ticket.

Thanks for the feedback

[stamp]

Well, that's disappointing. Pretty major showstopper for me. It's completely unusable for me at this point. I opened a support ticket.

Thanks for the feedback

Well I'm in since december last year. Perhaps earlier versions work.

[DiscoDevils]

I've found workarounds for most issues I was having except the instrument track not playing unless it is selected. Once selected, it will then function normally for a seemingly random amount of time before it stops playing again and needs to be reselected. I opened a ticket with Bitwig 10 days ago and have yet to receive even an acknowledgement. Anyone else have any feedback on what could be causing this issue?

[KazRemark]

I use a similar setup with an SND Acme-4 syncing an army of drum machines, Cirklon sequencer etc. The ACME is triggered by a VST plugin that outputs the clock signal, and I have not had the issue you describe meaning the clock output works regardless of whether the track is selected or not. However, I did have problems a few months ago where the clock signal would work and then eventually it would stop working, causing all my external gear to go out of sync or not start in tandem with Bitwig. The solution ended up being very simple, try right clicking on the plug-in and turn "auto-suspend" from default (or on) to off.

[DiscoDevils]

I use a similar setup with an SND Acme-4 syncing an army of drum machines, Cirklon sequencer etc. The ACME is triggered by a VST plugin that outputs the clock signal, and I have not had the issue you describe meaning the clock output works regardless of whether the track is selected or not. However, I did have problems a few months ago where the clock signal would work and then eventually it would stop working, causing all my external gear to go out of sync or not start in tandem with Bitwig. The solution ended up being very simple, try right clicking on the plug-in and turn "auto-suspend" from default (or on) to off.

This is exactly what fixed it. Bitwig support finally responded to my ticket. I set Auto Suspend to "OFF" and now the VST starts every single time I hit the spacebar! Woohoo! Now that I can reliably test out the product, I might be making my switch! My DAW needs are pretty simple. I mostly just need a multitrack recorder and arranger so Bitwig is looking solid!

[stamp]

@ KazRemark
@ DiscoDevils

Did you definitely solve your problems?

[KazRemark]

Yes 100% solved as soon as I figured out that auto-suspend needs to be off for a plug-in that should never suspend (since it's providing the clock). I've sent a request to support to allow setting off as the default setting.