ArcSyn v4.0.4 announced with M1 support

[SPC Plugins]

I have further information on this issue regarding the audio output of the VST3 version of ArcSyn v4.0.4, which may assist in determining the bug.

After updating ArcSyn to v4.0.4. when projects which were saved with the previous v4.0.3 of ArcSyn are loaded into FL Studio 24 (tested with current version 24.1.2.4394, Windows 11), there is no audio output from ArcSyn v4.0.4.

Please disregard what I reported previously regarding the "use fixed buffers" within the wrapper as being responsible for the issue, because I now realise that this apparently is not the cause. Instead, you can get the audio working by going into the wrapper settings for ArcSyn v4.0.4 and simply clicking "Reload plugin."

Somehow, that jolts it into life / resets it and the audio output works properly.

Likewise, if you load a plugin preset from a fresh plugin scan of v4.0.4. The audio output works immediately, without any requirement to reload the plugin or change any other wrapper settings of ArcSyn.

So as long as the user is ONLY creating new projects loaded and saved using v4.0.4 onwards, they will reload with correct audio output.

The bad news: What this does mean however, is that (as far as I can tell), all previous projects saved with previous versions of ArcSyn will all be muted upon their project loading. Which would be awful for backwards compatibility, since every instance of ArcSyn would need to be manually reloaded in each project (and to then reload the correct preset settings, etc.)

To help with testing this audio output issue, I have attached the following:


ArcSyn v4.0.3 - VST3 Plugin Preset (No Audio Output upon the Initial load of ArcSyn v4.0.4).zip
^ An FL Studio plugin preset for ArcSyn v4.0.3 (which exhibits the no audio output bug when loading with v4.0.4).


ArcSyn v4.0.4 - VST3 Plugin Preset - Fresh Scan After Installation (Audio Output Working).zip
^ An FL Studio plugin preset for ArcSyn v4.0.4 (which was performed from a fresh scan after ArcSyn v4.0.4 was installed and which works correctly - i.e. no audio output bug).


FL Studio Project File - ArcSyn v4.0.3 update to v4.0.4 Compatibility Test (saved with v4.0.3).zip
^ A bare bones FL Studio project file, saved with a single instance of ArcSyn v4.0.3, which exhibits the "no audio output" bug, upon instantiation with v4.0.4.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much for investigating this so thoroughly. I'll download the demo of FL Studio and investigate this, but I'm afraid I can't give you any idea when this might get fixed as I'm currently battling worse problems with the Mac version. (Also in my private life!)

[MrJubbly]

Thank you very much for investigating this so thoroughly. I'll download the demo of FL Studio and investigate this, but I'm afraid I can't give you any idea when this might get fixed as I'm currently battling worse problems with the Mac version. (Also in my private life!)

No problem and please do take your time, as there's no need to rush for a release regarding this update. It's totally understandable that you have to prioritize other more important real life matters.

In the meanwhile, I have reverted back to ArcSyn v4.0.3, which is still working perfectly fine as before.

Thanks.

[killmaster]

Thank you very much for investigating this so thoroughly. I'll download the demo of FL Studio and investigate this, but I'm afraid I can't give you any idea when this might get fixed as I'm currently battling worse problems with the Mac version. (Also in my private life!)

No problem and please do take your time, as there's no need to rush for a release regarding this update. It's totally understandable that you have to prioritize other more important real life matters.

In the meanwhile, I have reverted back to ArcSyn v4.0.3, which is still working perfectly fine as before.

Thanks.

Yeh, I agree. I didn't even think of reverting back to 4.03 but so happy I can use it again. I just searched and deleted anything installed in 4.04 and 4.03 seems to work fine!

[mambo888]

4.0.4 in Logic Pro working fine but cannot load any presets (crashes on reload or does not do anything). What is the solution?

[Download SOphist]

yeah, same here on Live 12 on a Mac, but I´m just trying the demo out - could this be a demo limitation thing?

[SPC Plugins]

yeah, same here on Live 12 on a Mac, but I´m just trying the demo out - could this be a demo limitation thing?

(Sorry I didn't reply earlier - I'm not getting any notifications of new posts.)

Just to confirm this isn't a demo limitation, it's a bug in the installer, which is why I've removed it. (At least, I *think* it only affects the installer, not the plug-in itself?)

[SPC Plugins]

No problem and please do take your time, as there's no need to rush for a release regarding this update. It's totally understandable that you have to prioritize other more important real life matters.

In the meanwhile, I have reverted back to ArcSyn v4.0.3, which is still working perfectly fine as before.

Thanks.

To update this: The problem seems to be that FL Studio opens ArcSyn v4.0.4 with it's output turned off. If you click on the gear icon, you can see that the output is unticked. I *think* this is due to v4.0.4 having a different input/output arrangement to v4.0.3. I assume that FL Studio sees that it has changed and deselects the output just in case.

What I've done is to upload a new build of v4.0.4 with the same input/output arangement as v4.0.3, which is 2 inputs and 2 outputs. I removed the inputs in previous v4.0.4 builds because they are no longer used internally. (They were added originally so that ArcSyn could work as an effects processor, but I don't think many DAWs allow synths to be used as effects.)

Could you give the new build a try when you have some time? That would be great.

[MrJubbly]

No problem and please do take your time, as there's no need to rush for a release regarding this update. It's totally understandable that you have to prioritize other more important real life matters.

In the meanwhile, I have reverted back to ArcSyn v4.0.3, which is still working perfectly fine as before.

Thanks.

To update this: The problem seems to be that FL Studio opens ArcSyn v4.0.4 with it's output turned off. If you click on the gear icon, you can see that the output is unticked. I *think* this is due to v4.0.4 having a different input/output arrangement to v4.0.3. I assume that FL Studio sees that it has changed and deselects the output just in case.

What I've done is to upload a new build of v4.0.4 with the same input/output arangement as v4.0.3, which is 2 inputs and 2 outputs. I removed the inputs in previous v4.0.4 builds because they are no longer used internally. (They were added originally so that ArcSyn could work as an effects processor, but I don't think many DAWs allow synths to be used as effects.)

Could you give the new build a try when you have some time? That would be great.

Okay, so I just tested the latest v4.0.4 beta.

The issue is similar to before. i.e. any FL Studio projects which were previously saved using Arcsyn v4.0.3, still have no audio output upon re-loading in ArcSyn v4.0.4.

ArcSyn 4.0.3 Projects when loaded in ArcSyn 4.0.4.png

However, since you have now highlighted the simple "fix" of manually re-enabling the Audio Output from within the ArcSyn v4.0.4 plugin wrapper settings. This shouldn't be too much of an issue for users, so long as they are made aware. (perhaps list it within the F.A.Q. / Known issues, to inform users?)

In my opinion, this is not too much of a hardship for me, as I can now just re-enable that audio output setting within any affected instances of ArcSyn within my projects and then resave them. Whereupon, once the re-enabled setting has been saved then reloaded, subsequent reloads of those projects are then working fine within ArcSyn v4.0.4.

Also, the disabled audio output bug, never exhibits when loading new instances of ArcSyn v4.0.4 (after a fresh plugins scan in FL Studio.) So new projects using ArcSyn v4.0.4 shouldn't be affected.

Additionally, just so you're aware (although it doesn't bother me), but this latest beta of ArcSyn v4.0.4 was was not able to overwrite the previous version in my Windows 11 device. I had to instead manually delete the previous VST3 folder and then install v4.0.4.

ArcSyn 4.0.4 - Unable to Install over the top of 4.0.3.png

Thanks again.

[killmaster]

Additionally, just so you're aware (although it doesn't bother me), but this latest beta of ArcSyn v4.0.4 was was not able to overwrite the previous version in my Windows 11 device. I had to instead manually delete the previous VST3 folder and then install v4.0.4.

This is exactly the same on Mac (Sequoia)

[SPC Plugins]

Okay, so I just tested the latest v4.0.4 beta.

Oops! I forgot to say that the new build is only the VST3 itself, not the installer - that is still the previous build. Sorry for not making that clear I've removed the link to the Windows installer temporarily.

That might also explain why you had problems with the installer. Could you please try downloading just the VST3 itself, not the installer, and giving that a try?

[SPC Plugins]

This is exactly the same on Mac (Sequoia)

I'm not sure if this is an issue with ArcSyn, with the new VST3 format (where it's a folder rather than just a single file), or with Sequoia. I'm currently on Sonoma, but I keep being pushed to upgrade to Sequoia so I'll try doing that tomorrow and see if that gives me any ideas.

[MrJubbly]

Okay, so I just tested the latest v4.0.4 beta.

Oops! I forgot to say that the new build is only the VST3 itself, not the installer - that is still the previous build. Sorry for not making that clear I've removed the link to the Windows installer temporarily.

That might also explain why you had problems with the installer. Could you please try downloading just the VST3 itself, not the installer, and giving that a try?

Yeah, sorry for not specifying clearer, but I did try both methods. First, I tried the VST3 installer, as explained above. And when that didn't work (i.e. still no audio output upon reloading older projects), I did then try the other method of downloading just the zipped VST3 folder itself from your above beta webpage link and manually replaced the ArcSyn VST3 folder with the downloaded zipped VST3 folder instead.

Unfortunately, both of these methods elicited the same result of having no audio output within ArcSyn v4.0.4, when reloading projects saved using the previous v4.0.3 version.

I even tried a third method (just in case) of re-installing ArcSyn v4.0.3 (which still works perfectly fine within FL Studio) and then just manually replacing that v.4.0.3 installation with the v4.0.4 zipped VST3 folder. To no avail.

This was tested on Windows 11 (current update) in FL Studio 2024.2 [Build 4503] (i.e. the latest official release).

Brand new instances of ArcSyn v4.0.4 have absolutely no problems working and always (thus far) seem to instantiate with enabled audio output. But for some reason (whatever that is), FL Studio continues to disable all saved instances of previous versions of ArcSyn, when loaded within ArcSyn v.4.0.4.

But as mentioned previously, while not an ideal solution (perhaps from your perspective, as you will likely want to avoid future customer tech queries about this issue, once v.4.0.4 and onward are officially released). I personally don't mind manually re-enabling each audio output of ArcSyn v4.0.4 and resaving my older projects, now that you have identified what the issue was (and the workaround).

[SPC Plugins]

Hi MrJubbly and others. I've uploaded a new Windows VST3 build of ArcSyn v4.0.4 to my beta page. It might fix the FL Studio muting bug which you've reported. Please give it a try and let me know how you get on.

PS: I've now updated to Windows 11 (and macOS Sequoia) so I'll hopefully be able to investigate the installation issues you've reported. I'm pretty sure they're caused by the (annoying!) switch to the new VST3 format where it's a folder rather than a file.

[MrJubbly]

Hi MrJubbly and others. I've uploaded a new Windows VST3 build of ArcSyn v4.0.4 to my beta page. It might fix the FL Studio muting bug which you've reported. Please give it a try and let me know how you get on.

PS: I've now updated to Windows 11 (and macOS Sequoia) so I'll hopefully be able to investigate the installation issues you've reported. I'm pretty sure they're caused by the (annoying!) switch to the new VST3 format where it's a folder rather than a file.

Hi there.

I first saved an empty test project using just an instance of the v4.0.3 VST3 ArcSyn plugin.

Next, I uninstalled the previous VST2 and VST3 versions of the above. So that there was no version of ArcSyn on my Windows 11 device.

I then downloaded the latest v4.0.4 Beta "ArcSyn.vst3" folder from the SPCPlugins beta page (https://www.spcplugins.com/beta), which stated the most recent upload: 4th January 2025. I unzipped and copied the folder to the relevant VST3 folder location: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\ArcSyn.vst3

I rescanned my plugins (as Verified) within FL Studio's Plugin Manger. I did notice that it did seem to take quite a while (much longer than usual) for FL Studio to verify the new ArcSyn beta (nearly a minute, when it usually just takes a second or two). But eventually, it did verify the plugin as okay. Not sure what caused the delay there?

Tried reloading the previously saved Test Project in v4.0.4 ... same issue. i.e. The audio output is automatically deactivated. Manually activating it from within the plugin wrapper fixes it however. And saving the project with v4.0.4, permanently fixes those instances when reloading that project again. Mind you, I believe these steps would still need to be manually actioned for every previous v4.0.3 instance within FL Studio users older projects saved with previous releases prior to v4.0.4.

As I mentioned previously (since this same deactivated audio issue is still present in the latest Beta build). I am personally content to stick with v4.0.4 and onwards. Since, you have identified the relatively straightforward "workaround" for users: to reactivate the wrappers' audio output for ArcSyn instances and then re-saving those projects.

I feel most FL Studio users may probably be likewise as understanding, so long as they are clearly informed of the suggested workaround, i.e...

1. Select: ArcSyn VST3 wrapper > Detailed Settings > Processing > Activate Output 1

2. Resave FL Studio project files.

[maxdis]

I'm having some problems in Reaper (in Win11), using 4.0.3: after using it for some minutes and randomly loading presets, I get some very loud distortion sounds; other times instead the sound disappear completely, and changing presets does nothing, I have to remove the plugin and open it again. It happened once when trying to load the "Patchbass" preset, but then it didn't happen again with that preset, but with others, so the problem occurs in a very random way, but it happens every time I'm using Arcsyn, after a few minutes