Crashing problem w/ Maestro

[IOComposer]

Hello fellow GOS users!
This library is so totally awesome, I hate to complain about anything, but I\'m having a crashing problem that\'s preventing me from getting any work done which is extremely frustrating. Has anyone else experieced this:
Go into Maestro and bring up the MIDI hardware inputs dialog box. When I initially set it, everything worked fine, but now every time that I try to change something and then click the OK button, I get a hard freeze and it happens every time on 2 DIFFERENT MACHINES! Would anyone here try this and let me know if you crash as well?
TIA
-J

[KingIdiot]

what kind of MIDI interface are you using?

I\'ve been able to change MIDI I/O no problem

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Really...I am an Idiot

[IOComposer]

I\'m using a Wavecenter PCI on both of my machines.
-J

[KingIdiot]

and it dumps each time you select nother MIDI input?

I dont have this problem. did it ever work? Try unistalling MAestro and reinstalling it and the drivers.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[Haydn]

Are you using MaestroTools with a sequencer program? If so, you don\'t need to use the MIDI hardware inputs - they should be set to \'none\'.

[KingIdiot]

If I remember correctly J uses Giga on its own machine....but I could be confused http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif


wait I am always confused :P

I\'m not sure what the deal is. We need Jeff http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[IOComposer]

Well, as I suspected, the WDM drivers for the Wavecenter PCI card seem to be the culprit. After installing the older 2.09 drivers, everything is working well.

I would recommend staying away from the WDM drivers if you\'re using a Wavecenter PCI card http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif
-J

[IOComposer]

Thanks for the replies http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
I\'m using 2 dedicated PCs, both with Wavecenter PCI cards. There\'s nothing else installed on these PCs, except for GigaStudio, and the Wavecenter drivers. I sequence on a Mac and send midi to these 2 PCs via a MOTU MTPAV, (only midi going into the Wavecenter\'s MIDI inputs).
It doesn\'t really dump me out of the program, I press OK and nothing happens. I let it sit for about 15 minutes to see if anything would eventually happen, but no go. It did work the very first time I set it, but I set it wrong and so now I\'m stuck using 1 input. I tried reinstalling both the app and the drivers. No go.

I talked to both Gary and Tom about this and we\'re all using the Wavecenter cards. However, I think the problem might be with the WDM drivers that I\'m using. They\'re extremely buggy in every other way, so I wouldn\'t be surprised if there\'s something messed up in the midi code that\'s causing this problem. I\'m going to switch back to the old drivers and see if this fixes thing.

I\'ll let you know http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
-J

[eschalit]

I am experiencing the same problem. I am using Maestro Tools on a machine that only has GigaStudio96 (No Sequencer). My Midi and Audio interface is an Egosys WamiRack, and I am running Windows 98.

When I launch Maestro Tools, it tends to freeze (50% of the time), after which I essentially have to restart the computer. The only way to resolve the issue is to go to GigaStudio, enable the hardware midi inputs (instead of the MarbleHead), reboot, restart MaestroTools, restart GigaStudio, enable the MarbeHead inputs and then it works. I sometimes have to repeat this manoeuver several times.

A patch correcting this would be more than welcome.

[Tom Hopkins]

Try starting GS first, followed by MaestroTools. Others have had crashing problems when they launched the programs in the opposite order.

[eschalit]

I actually found the source for the error. The error happens if you laucnh GigaStudio (with Marblehead midi ports) BEFORE launching MaestroTools. In that case, even if you quit GigaStudio, you cannot launch MaestroTools, and the only way is to reboot.

So the solution is to never launch GigaStudio before launching MaestroTools.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tom Hopkins:
Try starting GS first, followed by MaestroTools. Others have had crashing problems when they launched the programs in the opposite order.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Damon]

I have had no problems opening up Cakewalk first and minimizing it, then Giga and minimizing it, then Maestro Tools.
This is automatically configured right when I start my computer where the midi in ports in Giga are already set to Marble Sound Port 1 and 2 and Cakewalk is configured for Midi outs of Marble Sound 1 and 2.
It will save the changes you make once you hit \"apply\" in Giga before you begin your project for the very first time without actually having to save anything, it automatically just remembers. The same goes for Cakewalk.
By the way, I\'m getting fantastic results with the Auto Alternator for fast string stuff and writing medium tempo legato violin lines with the EXP controller can be done in about 2 to 4 takes now. Where as before I could spend an hour trying to get a legato violin line just right! I\'m thrilled this library came with this program. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

[Jeff Hurchalla]

I should introduce myself as the MaestroTools programmer. A few of you may recognize me already (and certainly the beta testers!), but I want to let folks know I\'ll intermittantly be checking the board here and trying to help you out however I can.
I\'ve already talked briefly with IOComposer and it seems the WDM wavecenter drivers were problematic - with luck an update to their drivers may work, but in the meantime he seems to be getting along fine with an older rev of the drivers. Damon, I\'m glad you have liked Maestro. Eschalit, it\'s good to hear you\'ve found a way to get Maestro and GigaStudio to work with each other. Ideally, you shouldn\'t need to do anything special for Maestro to work though. I haven\'t heard of the sort of problem you seem to have so far. It may be a bug in your midi card drivers or in Maestro. Unfortunately I can\'t reproduce your problem - it may either be hardware specific or something particular in your setup or way of starting things - and it\'s really tough to solve a problem without isolating it. You\'re welcome to post more info, or if the method you have of starting things no longer works, I\'d like to know too. For what it\'s worth, I wouldn\'t expect that the order of starting GS or Maestro should matter. Best wishes.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Hurchalla (edited 09-26-2001).]

[Aaron Symonds]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by eschalit:
I actually found the source for the error. The error happens if you laucnh GigaStudio (with Marblehead midi ports) BEFORE launching MaestroTools. In that case, even if you quit GigaStudio, you cannot launch MaestroTools, and the only way is to reboot.

So the solution is to never launch GigaStudio before launching MaestroTools.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmm...I\'m running GigaStudio on dedicated PCs with the WaveCenter PCI cards and the older 2.09 drivers and I always startup GigaStudio first and the MaestroTools from the sequencer button and it all works fine for me.

[Robert Kral]

I can\'t seem to get Maestro going on a new machine of mine. After installation (Unzipping etc), I open Maestro and the firs step of the help file says to choose inputs from within Maestro. On the input dialog box I can\'t select anything in the four pull down menus: they are all empty. Any suggestions??

[dnortana]

Hi Robert,

It seems you have a problem with Maestro recognizing your MIDI I/O device. If you go to Control Panels/Multimedia, and check your MIDI devices, is (are) your MIDI gear and channels showing up there? If not that\'s the source of your glitch, and you might have to reinstall your MIDI gear driver(s).

If everything is showing up in the MultiMedia MIDI page, then I am at a loss to explain or help.
Regards,
Trond

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Aaron and others, be very careful if you launch Maestro from the sequencer button in GS. I\'ve recommended against starting Maestro this way because GigaStudio will close all of its inputs (including the required MarbleSound inputs) when you press the \'launch sequencer\' button. You will have to manually reselect the MarbleSound inputs in GS, even though they would appear to you to still be active, and press apply for it to work. I think it makes more sense to start Maestro seperately, since you won\'t have this problem, and Maestro isn\'t really a sequencer anyway. (There was in the early beta revision of Maestro a reason to use the sequencer button, but it doesn\'t apply and could cause problems now)

What\'s annoying is that the sequencer button still causes problems in another sense when people run GS and their sequencer on the same machine. Again, pressing the button would close the inputs in GS, and this again would include the required MarbleSounds inputs. Only in this case, people are quite used to launching their sequencer from within GS, and for good reason since an apparent problem in the Nemesys midi out drivers can crash your system - if your sequencer uses the Nemesys midiouts (without Maestro this is just about always the case) and you close the sequencer after GS you get a system crash. Remember that when you launch the sequencer with the button, it\'s impossible to close GS before the sequencer. The saving grace in all this is that when you are using your sequencer with Maestro, you use the MarbleSound midi outs and not the Nemesys midiouts, and hence you don\'t get the crash I described when starting the sequencer outside GS. So again I think the simplest thing is just to not use the launch sequencer button, even for a sequencer, when using Maestro. Although in this case I admit it seems intuitive to want to keep using it for starting a sequencer, so if you like you could go through the steps of reselecting the MarbleSound inputs in GS and pressing apply after you press the button and that should work fine too. I think this aspect of getting Maestro running was the one thing I was never satisfied with - I don\'t believe there\'s any good way to deal with the side effect of the launch sequencer button other than if Nemesys removed the side effect (not a good idea), or much better if they fixed the crash with the Nemesys Midi out driver. Alas, at least it\'s not difficult to work around, though it\'s still not very satisfying.

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Robert,
As Trond suggested, I\'d go into the Control Panel | Multimedia applet from the Windows start menu and see if any midi devices are listed there. If not, then you\'ll need to install or maybe reinstall the drivers for your midi card. Oh, you should at least see the MarbleSound midi devices there if you\'ve installed the MarbleSound driver as you\'ll need to do to use Maestro. But for our purposes the MarbleSound midi won\'t count, since what you really need is to see your midi card device there. FYI, Maestro will never show the MarbleSound midi inputs in the Midi Hardware Inputs dialog because it purposely filters them out - so if your midi card drivers weren\'t installed or had problems installing, the input boxes in the dialog would probably be empty. Let me know if this isn\'t the problem and you do see a number of midi devices in the control panel multimedia applet. If you mention the midi devices listed, that would help too.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Hurchalla (edited 09-27-2001).]

[Robert Kral]

Thanks for the response. I\'v ejust checked the multimedia applet: Under the DEVICE tab, then under Midi devices, the following is listed in the tree:

MIDI for ALS4000 Device (WDM)
MIDI for Midiman USB Midisport 4x4 Midi Driver
MIDI for PCI822

The hardware I use for midi on this machine is the Midiman 4x4. I know some say don\'t use USB but I use the midisport on other machines and it works flawlessly.

The PCI822 is a tascam board that I use for TDIF audio to my digital mixers.

Anyway, taking your suggestions, yes the Midiman is recognized in the device list.

Maestro still doesn\'t recognize anything at all in its input dialog menu.

[Jeff Hurchalla]

Robert, I\'ll try to put together a test program for you today. It will examine the midi devices on your system exactly like Maestro, but in various steps with diagnostics, so I can see what it\'s picking up and/or missing. Could you send a message to me jeff @ marblesound.com , and I\'ll continue on. Thanks-

[Robert Kral]

Thanks Jeff!!

To anyone following this thread: I just got off the phone with Jeff. Customer support doesn\'t get any better than this.

I\'m a mac user and wasn\'t that accustomed to using WinZip. We ran Winzip in Classic mode instead of the default Winzip Wizard and all was fine.

Very soon the GOS library will come with non zip versions of the Maestro files instead, which will make things very easy for those of us not used to PC procedures.

Thanks again Jeff: the utility is superb. I\'m especially fond of the alternating patches!!!

[This message has been edited by Robert Kral (edited 10-01-2001).]

[eschalit]

Jeff,

first thanks for programming Maestro Tools, it turns a great library (Garritan Strings) into a unique tool.

As for the problem, I have, it seems to be more complex than I thought.

Here is all I know at this point:

My configuration:
-PIII 800 Mhz 512M RAM running Windows 98 first edition (Dedicated to GS)
- Audio/Midi interface Egosys WamiRack 24
- GIgaStudio 96 v 2.2

What I experience is that from time to time (20% of the time), when I launch Maestro Tools, the program freezes and appears as not responding in the task list where i can kill it. This mostly happens if launched after GS but can also happen if launched before. The only solution is the to reboot and retry.

Not sure you can do much with this but if you have specific questions I am glad to help.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jeff Hurchalla:
I should introduce myself as the MaestroTools programmer. A few of you may recognize me already (and certainly the beta testers!), but I want to let folks know I\'ll intermittantly be checking the board here and trying to help you out however I can.
I\'ve already talked briefly with IOComposer and it seems the WDM wavecenter drivers were problematic - with luck an update to their drivers may work, but in the meantime he seems to be getting along fine with an older rev of the drivers. Damon, I\'m glad you have liked Maestro. Eschalit, it\'s good to hear you\'ve found a way to get Maestro and GigaStudio to work with each other. Ideally, you shouldn\'t need to do anything special for Maestro to work though. I haven\'t heard of the sort of problem you seem to have so far. It may be a bug in your midi card drivers or in Maestro. Unfortunately I can\'t reproduce your problem - it may either be hardware specific or something particular in your setup or way of starting things - and it\'s really tough to solve a problem without isolating it. You\'re welcome to post more info, or if the method you have of starting things no longer works, I\'d like to know too. For what it\'s worth, I wouldn\'t expect that the order of starting GS or Maestro should matter. Best wishes.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Hurchalla (edited 09-26-2001).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>