Anybody having problems with Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII Thunderbolt in Waveform?

[rlindsey0]

(System details in my sig.)

I just bought this interface, and it's great when it works, but every time I use it, I eventually get to a point where the audio engine stops working properly. Either I get garbage sound, as if sample rates were clashing, or the transport stops entirely and I can get no sound at all.

(EDIT: Actually, with further experience, it seems that these two things happen in sequence. First, the sound gets distorted and, interestingly, slows down in tempo considerably, so it sounds like a vinyl record being played, badly, at the wrong speed. Then the audio freezes entirely, and the transport controls stop working until I reset the device. As noted below, VST plugins freeze the audio entirely, and not even Reset Device works to fix that.)

Going to the Settings tab and clicking Reset Device always solves the problem, but only temporarily; eventually I always have to do this again.

I've disabled all other sound devices on my laptop, so it's difficult to see where a conflict could come from. I've updated all the Thunderbolt software I could find, I'm using a UA-recommended Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter, and I've installed the newest available UA ASIO drivers. Otherwise, I haven't changed my setup at all from when I used my Roland Quad Capture, which functioned more or less perfectly for years. Of course, that was USB rather than Thunderbolt, but still....

I've also followed UA recommendations for buffer size (<512) and done everything else I can think of that they suggest, but the problem remains.

TSC suggested using ASIO4ALL, but UA specifically recommended against doing that.

EDIT: I've also found that using the UA plugins as VST plugins, which is one of the two ways they're supposed to work (the other being to use them at the front of everything in the UA Console software) IMMEDIATELY freezes the Waveform audio engine, and not even resetting the device will fix the problem then. This is the case as long as the plugin is in the edit, even if it's disabled. The only answer I can find is to delete the plug and reset the device.

Has anybody out there used this interface successfully with Waveform, and if so, can you think of any tweaks I might be missing?

Thanks!

[rlindsey0]

Shoot ... so I guess either no other Tracktioneers have this interface or nobody is having problems with it. Just my luck. Oh well, I have queries in to both UA and TSC, and we'll see what happens. I'm hopeful that they can talk to each other, but I'm just one guy with one problem, so who knows.

FWIW, UA seems kind of weirdly particular about their compatibility statements. I always thought the whole point of standards like VST and ASIO was to enhance and to some extent guarantee interoperability. I guess it is, but sometimes it sure doesn't seem to work as well as you'd hope.

[rlindsey0]

Update, if anybody is actually following this: I'm starting to think that more of this particular issue is on the side of TSC/Waveform. I tried Reaper with my UA interface, and it seemed to work just fine, more or less exactly how I would have expected, at least as regards UA's own plugins. I had no audio freezes, and monitoring made sense. I'm hopeful that TSC can find some kind of answer that will let me use this (for me pretty expensive) interface and its plugins the way I need to. If Reaper can do it, surely TSC can?

[Mr Coffeehouse]

rlindsey0 - I appreciate your putting a spotlight on this, as I am in the same boat as you. Tracktion Waveform is definitely not playing well with UAD Apollo Thunderbolt interfaces in Windows 10, 64bit PC, as we can deduce by your and my sound engine freezes.

Tracktion Corp Developers:

There are a boatload of UAD Apollo system users, many that will want to use Tracktion Waveform as time goes on..

I personally need my Apollo Thunderbolt / 64 bit PC system to work, as this is being used for my commercial, open to the public studio setup for my full-time work..

PLEASE take a good look at this situation. Talk with the developers UAD. I will help as much as you need from me as a user in the field. I'm sure rlindsey will also..

Cheers, Michael at The Coffeehouse

[rlindsey0]

Just bumping this in case anyone besides Michael and me is having similar problems, or is considering a UA device to use with Waveform.

I'm not trying to bash anybody, because I know the folks at TSC are trying to get with UA to work this out. But as of right now, this combination does not seem to be working acceptably.

[rlindsey0]

It's great to hear that TSC will be working with Waves to iron out the ongoing issues with some of those plugins. I know those folks have been waiting for that for a while.

In a similar spirit, may we hope that they can also work with UA to iron out the issues with ASIO Resync that occur with the use of the Apollo Twin Thunderbolt? I understand from UA that they are happy to work with TSC when they reach out.

[bulevardi]

I'm having the same problems.

But with total different settings, using Linux Mint, ALSA audio. Recording even without any plugins, works perfectly, until you replay or loop again, and suddenly it starts playing distorted sounds

Same problem with audio / midi / importing wave files,...

[rlindsey0]

FWIW, it seems that TSC was interested in working with UA, but the opposite was not true. TSC reached out a couple of times to my knowledge, but as far as I know, the UA engineers didn't respond in any really effective way.

Because my accustomed workflow in Waveform was more important to me than a piece of new gear, I sold my Apollo and the accompanying plugins. I bought a PreSonus Quantum 2, which may not be at the same level and doesn't come with as many goodies but which so far works perfectly with Waveform on my system. Latency is low, sound is clear, and glitches are nonexistent (so far).

Pity ... UA is great gear, and I really wanted it to work. It just didn't work out.