Topten Software

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:22 am

Hi.

I'm having some trouble with using "VstSynthFont" in Cantabile.

It seems to crash easily, especially when I open up it's gui or any of the options dialogues in there. Otherwise it seems to work most of the time... except when I load more than one instance... this seem to cause trouble too...

I don't trust "VstSynthFont" too much and guess it's mostly something in the plugin but maybe Cantabile isn't ready to catch some of the quirks and could help and handle that better to?

Think I'm trying to check some diagnostic options now but I remember I had trouble with this plugin in earlier versions of Cantabile too.

Maybe someone knows a good replacement for VstSynthFont?

What I'm really after is an XG compatible vst plugin - best with Yamaha megavoice support... - but it looks like this does not exist... Bandstand seems to be discontinued. Rolands Soundcanvas is somewhat aged too and not all in this package runs under Vista, not to mention 64bit...

bradr · Post by **bradr** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:31 pm

Sounds like a multi-core issue if it crashes when using more than one instance - either that or perhaps just a buggy plugin (or host?). Does it run reliably in other hosts?

What do you have Cantabile's Multi-core support set to? Have you tried disabled and/or the non-aggressive mode? If this fixes the problem, let me know and I'll update Cantabile's compatibility settings file to explicitly disabled multi-core for that plugin.

Brad

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:48 pm

Hi Brad.

I'm going to check the options in Cantabile.

Unfortunately the problem seems to focus on the VstSynthFont plugin.

I've checked out on Vista64 and NT32 - even with one instance I get unpredictable crashes.

Another odd thing is that changing to another session when VstSynthFont was loaded before does crash Cantabile every time...

I've also checked out "SyFon" which is a stand alone version of the SynthFont stuff with roughly the same possibilities as the VSTi... again odd behavior under Vista and NT...

I'd happily dump that plugin when I'd know any alternative to play SF2 via another VSTi... or any other good alternative to get a GM, XG, maybe megavoice compatible softsynth/sampler... but all I know about is limited and old and/or discontinued stuff... or hardware...

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:57 pm

...I've checked to switch off Cantabiles multiprocessor support and "prevent momory from paging" options - no difference.

It looks like VstSynthfont stalls Cantabile on unloading.

[Edit: both above seems to be related to another issue with partial send routing - follow the related thread please]

If I open the VstSynthFont gui there are even more odd crashes... looks like I have to dump that plugin for now and email the develloper of that stuff...

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 5:32 pm

bradr wrote:Sounds like a multi-core issue if it crashes when using more than one instance - either that or perhaps just a buggy plugin (or host?). Does it run reliably in other hosts?

What do you have Cantabile's Multi-core support set to? Have you tried disabled and/or the non-aggressive mode? If this fixes the problem, let me know and I'll update Cantabile's compatibility settings file to explicitly disabled multi-core for that plugin.

Brad

I've checked to disable agressive multi processing mode and it seems to fix the issue with multiple instances of VstSynthFont in Cantabile.

However, VstSynthFont is a multi timbral 16 channel plugin and comparably expensive (or inefficient - no clue) on processing... I've tried to spread channels over several racks with multiple instances of VstSynthFont to spread load over the 4 cores too... but if just compatibility mode works this is a useless action...