Mackie BigKnob and Waveform 12 free guitar plugins not working

[Baz5000]

Is anyone using the Mackie Bigknob with Waveform 11 or 12 free? I am having issues with all guitar plugins. They will record OK but not play live.
I have tried all methods to
enable\disable "Track for recording" and
enable\disable "Live Input Monitoring. No Joy.

[Peter Widdicombe]

1. Does track output indicate levels (i.e. level bouncing) when input shows input?
2. Not sure if you have to, but if you ARM the track and have live input monitoring, does that make a difference?
3. Does "master out" at the bottom indicate levels as well?
4. If you remove or bypass the guitar pluging, do you get output sound (will be disappointingly clean, but...) ?

[Baz5000]

On Windows 10
1. Track indicator output levels bouncing ok
2. No difference if I arm\disarm the track or have live input monitor on\off
3. Master out showing output levels ok when track is armed and live monitor is on
4. Guitar gives clean output to monitors an headphones. with or without plugins.

Only time plugins work is I if I record the guitar track and play it back..

[talby]

I cannot test this feature for you but simply provide an idea for your problem solving:
I have experienced in other software that a feature was not active although toggled ON so that it should have been active. Obviously the software internally did not recognized this setting - until I toggled it OFF and ON again. Maybe you suffer something like this? The following locations appear to my mind when thinking about where I have seen maybe relevant settings:

a) in the Inline Mixer, where your chain of plugins is listed horizontally you can right click on a plugin and then is available in the context menu a function "Bypass all plugins in this track" or "Enable all plugins in this track", depending if the clicked plugin was in the enabled state or not.

b) in the header line of a selcted Clip you can click or right click on the right icon of the icons grouped centrally in the Clip view, it looks like a sheet of paper with earmark, and then is available in the context menu a function, "Pass through Plugins".

Good Luck!

[pough]

4. Guitar gives clean output to monitors an headphones. with or without plugins.

Only time plugins work is I if I record the guitar track and play it back..

So to be clear...

1. If you are strumming your guitar when Waveform is doing nothing (ie. not playing or recording) you can hear the clean signal going through Waveform and out the monitor outputs but not through the plugin.

2. If you are strumming your guitar when Waveform is recording, you can hear the clean signal going through Waveform and out the monitor outputs but not through the plugin.

3. When you play back the audio of your guitar recorded clean, it will play through the plugin.

Is that correct? I don't believe you specified if you are using the direct monitor of your device, so I don't really know if you are hearing the direct monitor or Waveform's live input monitoring or both. That's very important to know.

Please consider posting a screen capture. In some cases, new user will do things that make sense to them, but are so wrong that experienced users would never imagine it. We get a lot of people who can't figure out why they can't hear an instrument and it turns out that they didn't know they needed to add an instrument to be able to hear one.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Might help if we had some details.

- which model of BigKnob. USB connection? What settings are you using on it (A/B input and A/B monitoring ?)
- if Bigknob passive, how are you getting audio into the computer?
- where are your headphones connected that you are listening on.
- using Windows Audio or some flavor of ASIO - if so, manufacturer's or ASIO4all ?
- if Windows Audio, do you have a browser or other application open which might be "blocking" Waveform's exclusive lock on the output device?
- Can you hear clean/unprocessed guitar even when Waveform isn't running and you're strumming?

[Baz5000]

Everything is through the Mackie Big Knob Studio via USB to Windows 10 (Pics Show the setup)
I have tried device using ASIO and also Windows audio. Both having the same result.. Guitar plays fine but plugins (even simple Chorus) don't have any effect live. Only work after being recorded.
I have included a pic showing all options ticked and all meters showing good input.

I have tried the REAPER DAW with the same result, wonder if its the Mackie Studio causing the problem..

[Baz5000]

No other Apps are open
Yes - Can hear clean/unprocessed guitar even when Waveform isn't running when strumming?

[Peter Widdicombe]

Then what you are probably hearing is direct monitoring headphones into the Mackie unit; and not the return path from Waveform.

Do you flip a setting on the mackie when you want to LISTEN to waveform? (like to monitor B?) That should be on all the time if you want to hear the Waveform-processed sound; and you should ONLY hear the guitar in that case when input monitoring is selected...

(and it's possibly the 2TR line inputs, and it should have 2TR and not CUE selected. Direct monitoring turned down all the way.

[Baz5000]

Thanks for the tips but I have tried all combinations of switches on Mackie and options in DAW.

Does anyone else use the Mackie Studio as pictured above?

Not plugin effect works when live strumming.

[Baz5000]

Got it, found this for Mackie.
Big Knob direct monitoring set to inputs. Turned the knob to Cue and set headphones button (2 Track/Cue) to Cue and I can hear all effects. Thanks everyone!