horrible problems on Mac version waveform [Fixed]

[carllackey]

I recently switched to a Mac (iMac 8 gigs ram 3.06 ghz intel core I 3,2010 model) and I have had issues where when I initiate collective, the spinning wheel goes on for about 3 minutes, then I have to force stop the program. also, when I use bio ten the sounds won't stop after releasing the key on my controller. when I got to change the program it seems to sound terrible. and, last, with bio ten on a track my cpu meter is reading 84-88 percent with only one track! help?

[Spitfire31]

It is my experience that Tracktion/Waveform is fundamentally a PC program that has never been adequately fine tuned for Mac OS. If you're on a Mac, use Logic or Live.

/Joachim

[jabe]

It is my experience that Tracktion/Waveform is fundamentally a PC program that has never been adequately fine tuned for Mac OS. If you're on a Mac, use Logic or Live.

/Joachim

Which is pretty weird, because I'm pretty sure it's first written on Macs.

[dRowAudio]

It is my experience that Tracktion/Waveform is fundamentally a PC program that has never been adequately fine tuned for Mac OS. If you're on a Mac, use Logic or Live.

/Joachim

This is simply not true, Tracktion, from the very first version was developed to be a cross platform application and the main driving force behind Jules's cross-platform development kit, JUCE.

Both Jules and myself primarily use Macs for development and Roland Windows (then we switch platforms when dealing with platform specific code and issues or for testing).

Our beta team and real-world customers fairly accurately reflect the real world in that there are more PC users than Mac ones but to say the Mac is an afterthought is nonsense. Woody is the first to bring up any issues and he only lives on the Mac.

If you are having issues specifically with the Mac please let us know as I personally like look in to these problems and tend to take the bulk of the Mac related issues it being my primary platform.

[dRowAudio]

I recently switched to a Mac (iMac 8 gigs ram 3.06 ghz intel core I 3,2010 model) and I have had issues where when I initiate collective, the spinning wheel goes on for about 3 minutes, then I have to force stop the program. also, when I use bio ten the sounds won't stop after releasing the key on my controller. when I got to change the program it seems to sound terrible. and, last, with bio ten on a track my cpu meter is reading 84-88 percent with only one track! help?

Hi Carl, can you let us know what versions of Waveform and Collective you are using? We've quite heavily optimized Collective launching recently in both Waveform and the plugin so we need to make sure you're on the latest versions (Waveform v8.0.25, Collective v1.0.3).

With BioTek, can you let us know what preset you are using? The CPU usage will vary a lot depending on the complexity of the sound and how many voices are being used.
Can you also click on the CPU meter in the top right to show the Resource Manager and see if it is BioTek that is consuming all the CPU please (it might be other plugins too).
Hopefully with this information we can give you some tips to fine tune it on your system.

[carllackey]

will do as soon as i get off work. thank you!

[carllackey]

ok,i was using waveform ver.8.025, with collective 1.01, and bio ten, I believe 1.5. collective froze when I tried to change patches for over 3 minutes. I then went to my account page and downloaded bio tek 1.5.5, then collective1.03. works great! thank you dave, and all at tracktion. side bar, the cpu on biotic was under 2%! collective, also very small.

[Spitfire31]

It is my experience that Tracktion/Waveform is fundamentally a PC program that has never been adequately fine tuned for Mac OS. If you're on a Mac, use Logic or Live.

/Joachim

This is simply not true, Tracktion, from the very first version was developed to be a cross platform application and the main driving force behind Jules's cross-platform development kit, JUCE.

Both Jules and myself primarily use Macs for development and Roland Windows (then we switch platforms when dealing with platform specific code and issues or for testing).

Our beta team and real-world customers fairly accurately reflect the real world in that there are more PC users than Mac ones but to say the Mac is an afterthought is nonsense. Woody is the first to bring up any issues and he only lives on the Mac.

If you are having issues specifically with the Mac please let us know as I personally like look in to these problems and tend to take the bulk of the Mac related issues it being my primary platform.

Whatever. Still, back in the bad old T3 days (I started with Tracktion 1), most of the plug-in problems were with AU:s and, in the forums, bug reporting Mac users seemed to be inordinately represented.

I deserted T5 (OS 10.6.8 and later 10.9.5) because of recurring plug-in problems and other bugs. I just couldn't stand working with an unstable DAW.

Now, when I decided to forgive and forget and give T8/Waveform a chance, because like so many others, I'm still attracted by the immediacy of the basic Tracktion ethos. Well, almost the first thing that happened after firing up the demo (8.0.25) – a poof crash out of the blue, when I try to drag a couple of EZDrummer MIDI clips. No proper crash log was found, either, so…

Also, if Tracktion is developed in parallel on Mac OS, how come age old Mac conventions aren't respected?
Option/Alt, when dragging, makes copies, nothing else, to mention but one example.

Tracktion has a dedicated following and the fans seem to take all these glitches and bugs in their stride. If this kind of thing happened using Logic, Live or Digital Performer, there would be a collective outcry! Using Tracktion, I feel the ghost of Total Music, from back in the roaring eighties. A pro DAW shouldn't crash while performing normal tasks. Stability should always be number one.

If there are errors (as there will always be, I suppose) they should be handled by the program.

Kind regards,

Joachim

[dRowAudio]

T3 was a different beast and owned by Mackie. Since T4 we’ve been developing fairly equally between Windows and Mac.

What version of EZDrummer are you referring to? I just downloaded EZDrummer 1 and was able to drag MIDI clips to tracks without any problem but you might be talking about EZDrummer 2?
If so, my trial has expired so I can't test this at the moment, I’ve contacted Toontrack for an NFR but am waiting for them to get back to me.

We use our own log files as they give us a bit more information than the crash files macOS produces (e.g. warning and error messages from devices, plugin versions and architecture etc.). This also enables us to have a button in the app that can show the single log file so users can easily send this to us. Having multiple entries in a single log file also means that we can look back and see if the problem is persistent or if there were changes in the configuration etc.
As of v8.0.24 we include stack traces in the log files which are what you would normally see from the macOS problem reporter so we have the same level of information. Similarly, on Windows we do store the dmp files and provide the path to them in the Waveform log file so users can easily find them to send to us.

There may be small breaks from platform paradigms but this is usually to maintain consistency between platforms. For example, for most common tasks (copy/paste etc.) the ‘ctrl’ key on Windows becomes the ‘cmd’ key on the Mac. To maintain this kind of consistency some common shortcuts follow the same conversion paradigms (e.g. copying a file is ‘ctrl + drag’ on Windows which converts to ‘cmd + drag’ on the Mac). You could argue this is incorrect but it’s the way it has been for many years and never really caused too much of a stir. Some other audio apps follow the same principles and changing this now would be more troublesome for existing users.

We are always looking at ways to improve stability and will also be looking at ways to improve the recovery files in case crashes do creep through in the near future.

[dRowAudio]

Waveform 8.0.25 and Collective 1.0.3 solved the hangs reported by the OP.

[carllackey]

works like a champ!!

[dRowAudio]

works like a champ!!

[bongo_x]

To maintain this kind of consistency some common shortcuts follow the same conversion paradigms (e.g. copying a file is ‘ctrl + drag’ on Windows which converts to ‘cmd + drag’ on the Mac). You could argue this is incorrect but it’s the way it has been for many years and never really caused too much of a stir.

I've used Tracktion since the beginning and always been a fan, but this has always made me crazy and stopped me from using it more. I would say the number one thing that kept me from working much more in Tracktion has been the unconventional key commands and tools.

I use several DAW's and other programs and have to remember lots of different key commands. But when they don't even follow basic convention it seems lazy and like they're screwing with me, but mostly it's just too much work to invest a lot of time in remembering what does what. I will option-drag something every time, and it's always frustrating.

It seems like the release of Waveform would have been the perfect time to fix this.

[dRowAudio]

It seems like the release of Waveform would have been the perfect time to fix this.

Yes, perhaps, but this is honestly the first time I've heard of this being a problem for people. We did use this launch as an opportunity to unify the default keyboard shortcuts, they now follow Bill Edstrom's that he created to write the Tracktion manuals.

These kind of things seem simple if you live on a Mac but we have to translate the modifier keys back to Windows which basically means we're one down. So often ctrl/cmd functionality will get duplicated and the Windows ctrl conventions will take precedence.