OB 1.10 Public Beta: OSX El Capitan Issues

Beta Public Beta
#1

Hey everyone,

In Ableton, I’ve set up tracks exactly according to the OB manual for the first 2 tracks on the A4, thus I have 5 tracks (one for the A4 VST, 2 audio, 2 MIDI)—the 5 visible in the attached screenshot.

There are a few issues:

  1. When playing polyphonically, audio will be picked up on more than a single track (labeled “A4 1 Audio” and “A4 2 Audio” in my screenshot). If I disable audio monitoring on one audio track that’s picking up the audio, I can no longer play polyphonically; the focused track only registers monophonically.

  2. Related to above: recorded clips that are polyphonic (recorded prior to using OB), now playback as monophonic while OB is enabled.

  3. When focused on one specific MIDI track (“A4 2 MIDI”), I can’t play polyphonically ever—with a note sustained, sounds from subsequent key presses don’t output. This problem does not present on the other MIDI track.

In 3 the above issues, the problem has been present while using the A4’s onboard mini-keys and an external controller (Push 2).

  1. While trying to set up Overbridge in its Control Panel app, after I hit “Apply,” I receive an error message, which is then followed, every time, by what I assume is a kernel panic, causing a forced reboot.

Connecting the Analog Four directly to my laptop, instead of to a powered USB hub, has resolved the issue. But now I’m lacking needed USB ports.

I’ve also tried using a USB 2.0 cable for connecting my powered hub to my MacBook Pro—it does not work. Is there any resolution that can involve a hub?

Thanks for any help.

OB multitrack and polyphony with A4
#2

Adding screenshots of my configuration while experiencing the above problems, in case it should reveal any user error rather than it being bugs.

Screen_Shot_2016_01_25_at_1_10_32_AM.png1324×482 35.9 KB

Screen_Shot_2016_01_25_at_12_46_34_AM.png880×1104 201 KB

#3

Overhub works acceptably well for me now that I’ve started using a usb2 cable, so there’s that.

Regarding issues 1-3, I suspect that going into the kit screen on the A4 or the Overbridge plugin and having a look at your voice routing might help - afaik polyphonic sounds work best when routed through the main outs, outs 1-4 are only capable of playing a single voice.

Also, I think there’s a setting for midi behaviour (switch off always use track sounds?) to allow polyphonic playing on one A4 midi in? I’m guessing though that your voice allocation and polyphony settings in the plug / on the A4 hold the solution.

I’d suggest using an external instrument device in live to both send midi and receive audio from the A4’s voices, aside from convenience and tidiness, it has advantages when it comes to latency compensation.

Haven’t encountered crashes that appear to arise directly from making changes in the Control Panel or any error messages whatsoever, but in my experience best practice is to disengage live’s audio engine whenever making any changes to Overbridge.

I do get feedback loops that seem to emanate from the Overbridge software on occasion (usually involving the A4), but 9 times out of 10 disengaging live’s audio, restarting the A4, then reengaging does the trick.

#4

Thank you for all the considerations to look into. I checked them all, trying a variety of settings, but I couldn’t enable polyphony.

I wanted to make sure I understand your comment above. Are you saying that when using OB none of the tracks can ever output polyphonically? If that’s the case, are the ideas you mentioned looking into workarounds to enabling it or something similar but not quite the same as getting polyphony on the individual tracks?

#5

No worries - there’s a diagram of the A4’s voice architecture at pg 15 of the Overbridge 1.1 manual that might help clarify. Basically, if you’re playing 4 note polyphony on track one, each voice is assigned to one of the other tracks. If you monitor the output from any individual track in OB, you’ll only get one voice - in order to hear all of them together, you’ll need to route each to the main outs in OB/on the A4 and route the main outs into live. As I understand it, you will never get more than one voice out of the individual outs 1-4. So, unless I’m picking you up wrongly, (1) and (2) of your post are expected behaviour.

This isn’t just in Overbridge, when playing polyphonically in the A4, none of the tracks/voices play polyphonically, the notes are assigned to other tracks/voices and summed to the main outs.

Re (3), I’m not so sure, I’d have thought that it relates to your polyphony settings - i.e. in kit, poly config, voices, on the A4, voice 2 should be ticked if it’s to be played polyphonically, along with the voices that are to output the additional notes. e.g. if you want to play 2 voice polyphony on track 2, voice 2 and one other voice must be ticked. Again, though, each voice will play separately, and will have to be summed either to the main outs, or subsequently in Live, if that makes sense.

#6

I did see that part of the manual, but having inspected it for a short while, my brain shut down, so I moved on. Looking at it again now, I still can’t deduce the understanding that you have of it. So thank you for explaining what the diagram says about the polyphonic limitation.

Also, thanks for mentioning the usage of the External Instrument device earlier. That’s what I usually use for external hardware, but I never considered it with the Elektron, since I simply followed the manual rigidly.

If you don’t mind me asking a separate, but related question. The reason I wish to have polyphony per track is because I’d like to use a Live device with separate settings on separate A4 tracks: Auto Filter with a different Filter Cutoff Frequency on the A4’s Track 1 and 2. Since I need to choose the LR Main outs in OB, instead of Tracks 1-4, to enable polyphony, would my desired setup be possible? Presently, the two A4 MIDI tracks (Track 1 and 2) in Live refer to the same A4 plugin track, which houses Auto Filter, so the two A4 tracks share a single Auto Filter setting.

#7

I’m not sure it’s fair to describe this as a limitation exactly - each A4 voice is just that: a voice, if you’re playing two voice polyphony, two voice circuits will need to be activated. The patch plays polyphonically, it’s just that you can’t get the summed output of the relevant voices through their own individual tracks.

Don’t know if I really get you here what you’re saying that you want to have a track with three note polyphony and say a bassline separate?

As I understand it, say you select 1, 2 and 3 as polyphony enabled. If you route them to the main outs on the box, the audio from these channels will be summed in the Elektron and come out on the overbridge plugin channel itself by default - you’d just need to mute the individual outs in ableton if you have them set up to avoid doubling up - and turn off fx routing if appropriate in the A4. I think this is likely to be the best sounding solution. You could then apply your desired effects on the OB plugin channel.

For the bassline route track 4 through its individual out from the plugin (deselecting its channel routing to the main outs) and treat separately.

Alternatively, you could sum tracks 1, 2 and 3 in ableton - run them from the plugin into a channel, then group the two channels or run into another channel. I definitely think that summing in the hardware would be the better option in terms of quality though.

Not sure if that answers your question - not pretending to be any great expert here, either …

#8

Definitely a few issues on my end.

Hard to pin it down, but my conclusion was it was Overhub also - It may be necessary to buy a power supply for this badboy (wish it came with one).

I had the AR and A4 plugged into 6 & 7 on the OH, but moving them to 1 & 2 seems to have fixed the issue for now.

#9

I did a backup before i update to El Capitan. So last night i go back to Yosemite. Overhub issue with A4 still existing, either USB 2 or USB 3 cable.
With OB 1.0 it was working fine. New issue is A4 combing his input only left channel is plugged but i get signal on the right also. Not happen in El Capitan and not happen with Yosemite/OB 1.0.

#10

But you know much more than me. Some of the things you said were helpful in enabling me to set up the tracks to work as I’d like. Thanks again. You’re a most helpful cat.

#11

I’m not sure if this is an issue - I’ve had repeated issues with my iMac running 1.10.

I’ve just plugged my Macbook Pro in - it worked straight up. Really, I was super confused about what I was doing wrong with the new version or if something had changed.

My iMac has the so-called ‘Fusion Drive’. I wonder if that may be the issue.

In any case I’ll keep playing around for now. It may be something for the big E to consider. I had been using 1.0 on my iMac without issue.

It definitely seems more solid on the MBP however.

#12
#13