FIXED: DSP-Quattro won't launch after cloning to a new iMac

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mhschmieder
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Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Annandale VA

Re: DSP-Quattro won't launch after cloning to a new computer

Post by mhschmieder »

I'm too worn out to think straight at this point, given the confusing results I'm now getting.

Peak is no longer replacing the P7 preference file for audio control ("ACA") with a zeroed file. It is still moving it (that is, deleting the top-level file and rewriting it in the recreated com.bias.peak folder that it makes any time I delete it), but its contents now remain stable.

The RME interface is identified correctly as "0Fireface UFX (23392276)Fireface UFX (23392276)" and matches what Audio MIDI Setup says, So I suspect the RME driver may have a privileges issue that DP9 is fine with but not Peak or DSP-Quattro.

The com.bias-inc.peak.plist file does not seem to be involved in the problem. I did, however, delete all "NS" directory/file references using PListEdit Pro, just to be on the safe side as some of the refs may no longer be valid.

I've run out of ideas for tonight. I have isolated for one variable at a time, and made second copies that can always be retrieved, but am now getting the startup crash with Peak each time rather than asking whether to initialize audio settings. So there must be another file I forgot about that causes that action on startup when the file is missing.

Oh, I bet it's when the ACA P7 Preferences file is neither found in the main Preferences folder or in the com.bias-inc.peak sub-folder. I'm pretty sure those were the steps I recreated a few times, because even putting a known good copy of that file in either location causes startup crashes.

In other words, to start Peak, I have to trash even good copies of ACA P7 Preferences, regardless of location, and the presence of that file causes it to crash, whether it is during app exit when it tries to create it if it doesn't already exist, or at app startup if the file already exists or if it is created during startup due to agreeing to the dialog that asks about audio setup "for the first time".

I'm too tired to be more concise at this point, but I'm quite clear in my own head at this point that the issue with both DSP-Quattro and BIAS Peak Pro 7 is that they are having issues with Apple Core Audio.

The reason I say this is that I just now deleted all preferences directory files associated with P7, turned off the Fireface, started P7, and said "No" to the audio setup dialog, then went to the Audio Menu with the Mac's built-in audio as the only choice, and even still it crashed and rewrote a new ACA P7 Preferences file containing just a single "0".

So I no longer think this has anything to do with the RME Fireface UFX, but rather Core Audio itself.

Also, note that DSP-Quattro behaviour (the main topic) has not changed one iota no matter what changes I make.
iMac 27" 2017 Quad-Core Intel i5 (3.8 GHz, 64 GB), OSX 13.6.1, MOTU DP 11.31, iZotope RX 10
RME Babyface Pro FS, Radial JDV Mk5, Hammond XK-4, Moog Voyager

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35
Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, Johhny Marr Jaguar, 57 LP, Danelectro 12
Eastman T486RB, T64/V, Ibanez PM2, D'angelico Deluxe SS Bari, EXL1
Guild Bari, 1512 12-string, M20, Martin OM28VTS, Larivee 0040MH
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mhschmieder
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Re: DSP-Quattro won't launch after cloning to a new computer

Post by mhschmieder »

I may just download Steinberg's WaveLab to give the latest version a try. Apparently it has mostly been getting better, in spite of too many change-for-change's sake workflow topsy-turvy from version to version.

What I like about Peak is the wave editing. Nothing else comes close. Quattro is good for stacking plug-ins in sequence, with gain-staging in between. But I don't like its overall workflow and editing.

iZotope RX Advanced is mostly for audio correction, and can only do one plug-in at a time, which forces me to save each step of the mastering chain as independent files, for recoverability.

Even at that, after all this time they still haven't fixed its most glaring bug, which is that converting to 96 kHz causes the saved BWAV file (exported these days vs. saved per se) to identify its file length as half what it really is.

When dragging into DP, I can then sometimes forget about this quirk, and if I do an audio merge or other destructive write operation, lose the original. But last night, I noticed that in DP9 you can now drag the audio file to its true length and then do an audio merge to rewrite it with correct internal tags. In DP8, you'd simply get empty or unrendered data due to file corruption.

Even though I stopped using Peak for processing a while back due to 32-bits, I was still using it for basic waveform editing, track-to-track gain adjustments, MP3 conversion (when necessary), and especially to correct and resave sample rate converted files that iZotope RX tags incorrectly.
iMac 27" 2017 Quad-Core Intel i5 (3.8 GHz, 64 GB), OSX 13.6.1, MOTU DP 11.31, iZotope RX 10
RME Babyface Pro FS, Radial JDV Mk5, Hammond XK-4, Moog Voyager

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35
Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, Johhny Marr Jaguar, 57 LP, Danelectro 12
Eastman T486RB, T64/V, Ibanez PM2, D'angelico Deluxe SS Bari, EXL1
Guild Bari, 1512 12-string, M20, Martin OM28VTS, Larivee 0040MH
User avatar
mhschmieder
Posts: 11282
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Annandale VA

Re: FIXED: DSP-Quattro won't launch after cloning to a new i

Post by mhschmieder »

Turns out that the "Original Folder" info for my "Music" alias had corrupted itself during a disc swap when I upgraded to a larger hard drive for my music and project data.

I should have used the Unix command line instead, so I'd have a higher awareness level of whether a soft alias or hard alias is in play. I guess the Finder and Get Info use a soft alias that updates dynamically with any changes to the original drive that the linked folder is on.

When I do drive swaps, I name the old drive to something else, use the old name when formatting the new drive, the re-establish aliases as-needed. Sometimes this works well, but not always.

Get Info, has a button to change the "Select New Original", and that did the trick for DSP-Quattro as well as the latest Ivory update (though Ivory itself crashes on launch instead now, with almost the exact same error that Peak Pro 7 crashes with).
iMac 27" 2017 Quad-Core Intel i5 (3.8 GHz, 64 GB), OSX 13.6.1, MOTU DP 11.31, iZotope RX 10
RME Babyface Pro FS, Radial JDV Mk5, Hammond XK-4, Moog Voyager

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35
Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, Johhny Marr Jaguar, 57 LP, Danelectro 12
Eastman T486RB, T64/V, Ibanez PM2, D'angelico Deluxe SS Bari, EXL1
Guild Bari, 1512 12-string, M20, Martin OM28VTS, Larivee 0040MH
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