Demo version crashes constantly

[themixtape]

DISABLE USER ACCOUNT CONTROL FULLY!!!

THEN... set that slider to NEVER NOTIFY.

Incredible! A suicide.

Nope. In 15 years of using Windows, and in the past 5 years alone of "never notifying", I have never run into a problem. I keep my studio computer offline, and my work laptop for internet (AND music/demoing)... never run into problems.

I use a firewall on my work computer, but no anti-virus. Again, never a problem. I'm good with computers, and I regularly maintain them/keep them clean. It's like a car. If you regularly maintain and don't make it do something it's not supposed to, it will work wonderfully.

I understand why people use it, but there's no need. It just annoys the crap out of me. And again, if you know what you're doing, then you won't run into any issues.

[dsan@mail.com]

I think the key phrase here, "if you know what you're doing" is the object of relevance.

You and I are power users and have learned what we need to and can do to make our systems more reliable and usable.

Most are not. Even at home I am amazed how little my partner knows and how often she gets into trouble. She has been a computer user since the late 70's. But she doesn't have a clue. Turn it on and it MUST work or ELSE!

I can agree there are many tricks and tweaks that can give us what we need for a stable DAW PC. But it can also be dangerous if "you DON'T know what you're doing." More often that not there are those that "THINK they know what they are doing" hence the forums filled with users complaining about, well, whatever they are complaining about.

The average user will get into real trouble running a system without protection, just because of the sites they would visit. My partner has received infections from legitimate sites when she has downloaded desktop icons for example. Something I will never do because I know how easily virus's get transferred, even from a legitimate site.

I think it wise most users should run their systems the way they are meant to be run and learn to become a power user and then make such tweaks.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[musicdevelopments]

Thank you for reporting back, petearch.

I am looking at the install method, and I still have no clue why it makes a difference to run the .exe as Administrator or the installer asks your administrator password.

>EDIT: Regarding the right-clicking, I've realised it needs to be
>a generated phrase, not a standard one. New user syndrome!

No, right click should work with any phrases. I just tried the version that you are using and it seemed to worked during the short time I used it.

BTW I have UAC turned on on all my PCs because they are connected to the net. However it is perfectly fine to disable it on a computer without networking which you run only trusted programs on.

Thanks,
Attila

[dsan@mail.com]

Attila,
UAC requires admin privileges to write to certain locations (such as those where RC wants to install information as themixtape pointed out.)

Sometimes people have set up passwords on their computers so it is Windows asking for verification of the password, not the installer. UAC intervenes the install process and confirms what it needs to be satisfied before handing off the installation to the *.exe.

If the machine is not password protected then the notification from UAC will just be to confirm the installation.

It may not be at all necessary to run the installer as administrator, but since most people to not disable UAC it is the safest install method.

It is good to know petearch is now able to demo the product successfully.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[Raymond0]

Hi all
I've just gone through some installation issues with Automap (legacy bound?) in a Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8 x64 environment and have been waiting for a more stable RC before exploring it more. So ... a small contribution to make that happen ... not a programmer and beyond my level of expertise so apologies for not being more specific/helpful.

There's a good article on UAC at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/maga ... 6.uac.aspx that might be useful .. the author is also responsible for Sysinternals so knows his stuff.

I've had experience of problems with midi click and drag across applications caused by a mismatch of permission levels (run as admin) between DAWs and the software interfacing with them.

Another issue is how DAWs and other software engage with the 'install all/single users' option. If certain information is stored in different places for single or all users eg Cubase (and possibly Halion) this might cause issues for interfacing software that isn't designed to cope with the alternatives.

Other areas to check are virtualisation/best folders for storing plugins (in Programs folder or not - possibly some security concerns), compatibility (shouldn't need to use troubleshoot compatibility), and x86 v x64 differences (eg program location).

A good uninstaller can help too as often too much stuff is left lying around.

Hope that helps

Ray

[musicdevelopments]

Thank you, Ray for your contribution. Also I am grateful for dsan for sharing the trick with the installation.

As a side note, Data Execution Prevention is turned off in RapidComposer. The reason for that is that some VST plug-ins do weird things as copy protection. I was suggested by a VST plug-in developer to turn off DEP, and the plug-in started to work without crashing.

The new version will be much more stable and I hope these issues will go away.

Thanks,
Attila

[dsan@mail.com]

Thank you Attila! I am hopeful users will understand why they are having problems with the demo and be able to give it a fair shake instead of assuming your program is bad. They really don't know what they have been missing.

While I do not have stats to back up my claims, I feel the biggest reason for instability lies in the installation method; that is, not changing the "allow" status immediately after a download. I cite this from the results of my personal experiences when I do or do not give Windows "permission" to fully install.

I'm really looking forward to the next update!

@Ray - RC has become very stable over the generations and I recommend demoing so you don't miss out on a lot of fun and productivity.

BTW- an interesting article you have provided, thank you! I have fixed the link to give easier access to any that may be interested in reading it:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/maga ... 6.uac.aspx

So I'm wondering how petearch is getting along now with the demo? I would like to read his take on RC now.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[petearch]

Well unfortunately I'm still having some problems. It always crashes when I use it with Halion Sonic (it doesn't work at all with Halion 5 as reported earlier).

At one stage I was in an 'eternal loop' crash were it couldn't recover, forcing me to use the Ctrl key to re-start.

There is a nice feature in some other software I use where (before closing the program after a crash) you can submit a Crash Report which goes to the developer for analysis. Maybe something like that would be useful as I know it can't be helpful being told of crashes, but not what was being done at the time (it's not always easy to remember the exact steps).

It seems more stable with the built-in soundfonts, but I want to hear the finger-picking with a guitar sound as it doesn't feel right with the piano. If I get any more crashes I will try really hard to report exactly what I was doing, I promise!

I've also tried using RC as a plug-in in Cubase 7 but after a short time it just crashes Cubase (which never normally crashes at all).

So for me at the moment I'll have a play for a while longer, but I'll probably wait for the next version as I'm most interested in the Melody Generator anyway.

One final point - I don't think the un-installer works fully. I've un-installed both from the program option and from the control panel, but in both cases it brings back everything the way it was (i.e. with my Audio/MIDI set-up, the last arrangement I was working on, etc.). So I'm not sure if the install method previously mentioned has worked on re-install or not.

I thought of trying the 64 bit version as this would be a fresh install, but like I said, I'll probably wait for the next version. Any idea yet when that will be?

[musicdevelopments]

Thanks for the feedback.

Right, the uninstaller should remove the settings from the user directory\AppData\Roaming. Probably in a next update another installer will be used.

The next version is expected in about 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Attila

[dsan@mail.com]

petearch, I am sorry to hear you are still having problems.

Look here for crash reports:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive (or Report Queue)

Inside the latter folder you will find AppCrash Data. Search for the folders that indicate RapidComposer. Inside you will find a file "Report.wer"

WER files can be opened with a simple word viewer like NotePad.

I am confident Attila will find useful/necessary information to be able to resolve issues.

FWIW - I don't use RC as VST inside my DAWs so I can't advise on this; however, you may want to consider running RC standalone and set it up with virtual midi cables to your DAW vst's or standalone vst's. I run RC this way via Tobias Erichsen's rptMIDI and his loopMIDI. You will find more info here:

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software.html

Hope all goes better for you soon.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[Raymond0]

dsan
thanks for your install hint, fixing the hyperlink and also for the FWIW - I hadn't considered that setup.

Attila
re Data Execution Prevention - I did a bit more reading and as I understand it well written code should work without having to disable either soft or hardware DEP and other security settings. Windows 7 x64 (maybe others) allows you to set software DEP for essential Windows programs and services only or nominate software DEP exemptions by program and/or service (Control Panel/System/Advanced System Settings/Advanced/Performance Settings/Data Execution Prevention).

I'm looking forward to the next version.

Ray