DP10 issue with Metric Halo ULN-8

[thedeadsea]

Hi,

Having just recently started using DP again after many years (and generally loving it!) I'm having an issue where perhaps 50% of the time DP will not pass audio to my Metric Halo ULN-8 and MIO software console upon launch.

When this occurs, DP/ULN-8 are clearly otherwise in communication as I can change sample rate from DP and this will be reflected on the interface, yet no audio passes. In order to fix the situation some combination of rebooting the interface, relaunching DP, flipping interface in 'Configure Hardware Driver...' seems to eventually get there, but it's a workflow bummer to say the least!

Has anyone experienced this? Any help much appreciated!

Tim

[Gabe S.]

I know this is a late reply but-----I just got a 2019 Mac Pro and upgraded to DP10.1. I am having the same issue-----a session opens and there's no sound. And the CPU meter in DP is empty, but the clip light is constantly lit up.

The way I get audio to sound is to change the sample rate in the MH Console app after the DP session loads. DP doesn't like that and throws up a warning window, but it wakes audio things up after you clear the warning dialogues.

However, even once I get audio to sound, DP10.1 is working HORRIBLY at the moment on the 28-core Mac Pro. Literally completely unusable.......spinning beachballs every few seconds in a session with just audio and a few plugins.......

I may be calling MOTU on Monday to see how to uninstall 10.1 so I can try 9.5........

Did you ever find a solution to your troubles?

(fwiw, I also have Cubase Pro 10.5 on this computer and it fires right up without issue......no sound issues that I can tell.)

[leigh]

Sorry you are having such a frustrating time!

Occasionally (maybe once or twice a month), DP 10.1 won't be connected to my ULN-8. It's not enough of a problem to be more than mildly irritating. I'm using PB9 of MIO Console.

Is your ULN-8 3D? Are you using Public Beta 9 which has the latest driver, firmware and MIO Console? Are you connecting with MHLink Ethernet or USB?

You might consider opening a support ticket with MH. They are very responsive to problems.

**Leigh

[Gabe S.]

Sorry you are having such a frustrating time!

Occasionally (maybe once or twice a month), DP 10.1 won't be connected to my ULN-8. It's not enough of a problem to be more than mildly irritating. I'm using PB9 of MIO Console.

Is your ULN-8 3D? Are you using Public Beta 9 which has the latest driver, firmware and MIO Console? Are you connecting with MHLink Ethernet or USB?

You might consider opening a support ticket with MH. They are very responsive to problems.

**Leigh

Thanks for your notes.

Yes, I have the 3d upgrade connected via CAT5 with vPB9 with the latest firmware/drivers.

The ULN-8 setup worked flawlessly on my 2010 Mac Pro with DP9.

I have discovered that most of my DP10 spinning beachball problems were due to the fact that I had to view the new Mac Pro via Screen Share. Once I hooked up a monitor those problems went away. But the silence issue continues to persist.

Today, I seem to have found an odd workaround that has alleviated the silence issue. If I load the standalone app of Omnisphere and keep that loaded when I launch DP10, I don't have any issues getting audio to play in DP10.......that's not weird at all! hahaha

[moroller]

I’m having the same problem with my 2882 with the 3d upgrade. Very very frustrating and haven’t been able to work out a solution. It seems like neither MH or MOTU have got anything to say about this. Work is stalled unless I switch to a backup 2 channel interface that really isn’t satisfying.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only person...maybe there will be a fix.

[Gabe S.]

I’m having the same problem with my 2882 with the 3d upgrade. Very very frustrating and haven’t been able to work out a solution. It seems like neither MH or MOTU have got anything to say about this. Work is stalled unless I switch to a backup 2 channel interface that really isn’t satisfying.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only person...maybe there will be a fix.

Each day that goes by, more and more of my setup gets re-installed. Now that Kontakt 5 is in the new Mac Pro, I tried the same workaround trick I did with Omnisphere. It works.

So, if you have either a Spectrasonics VI that you can launch standalone or you have Native Instruments Kontakt that you can launch as a standalone app, launch one of them and keep it loaded while you boot DP10. Then just leave the VI app hidden somewhere and DP runs perfectly with the MetricHalo box. I've been pounding on my monster orchestral temp testing it out without any audio issues.

Do you have one of those VIs so you can try it? Or maybe ANY VI that has a standalone option could work.

Just having something like TwistedWave, the audio editor app loaded doesn't seem to be enough. If TwistedWave is the only thing open, I don't hear audio in DP.

Please report back if you end up trying it!

I spoke with MOTU tech support on Friday and Today about this issue. The tech I spoke to was nice, but said he was unaware of the issue. He did a screen share on my computer so he could see the issue for himself. I also showed him the Omnisphere workaround. He said he will be reporting it. He mentioned they don't have any MetricHalo boxes there. I told him if they need a ULN-8 box and MetricHalo is unwilling to help, I have a second ULN-8 3d I can ship to MOTU. I am---shall we say---uhhhh---persistent. I will stay on this. It needs to be sorted out. Forum User thedeadsea reported this in June for goodness sake......

Cheers.
-gabe

[Gabe S.]

I decided to test today if my laptop would act the same way with DP10.1 and the ULN-8. It's a 16" MacBook Pro running 10.15.2. Same OS as the new Mac Pro.

Same result. The first time you launch DP10.1, it passes sound and everything seems fine. Once you quit DP and relaunch, DP goes silent and the problems start. Exact same behavior as the 2019 Mac Pro.

At least now we know it's repeatable on a different machine......yay.

I've continued to be in contact with MOTU about the issue.

-g

[bongo_x]

This worries me a bit as I'm waiting on a new ULN-8 now.

[Gabe S.]

This worries me a bit as I'm waiting on a new ULN-8 now.

I'm in direct contact with both MOTU and MetricHalo now. Although, I don't beta-test for either company, I have a long history of beta-testing music software, so I'm familiar with how to help chase down software issues with a developer. I'm being---uhhh---persistent about it, so hopefully we can get a fix pushed through efficiently. I've even volunteered sending them one of my ULN-8 boxes if necessary.

For the time being, I am quite confident that you can use the standalone VI app workaround that I mentioned previously as long as you have Omnisphere or Kontakt. (Maybe some other standalone VIs could work too.) For me, DP10 runs perfectly as long as either Omnisphere or Kontakt is launched prior to launching DP10. I pounded on a huge orchestral template yesterday for hours without issue. If you use Kontakt standalone, you can just leave it empty and reduce it to the Dock and forget about it. Or I guess you could just use DP9.5 for the time being. That didn't have any issues with the ULN-8. MOTU has a document that shows you how to uninstall DP so you can safely switch from one version to the other: https://motu.com/techsupport/technotes/uninstalldp

I really like the ULN-8 3d setup. (I upgraded my original ULN-8 to 3d and then bought a second 3d one.) The sound that comes from it is great. The mic pres are nice. The new Console software is nice---much more straight forward than previous versions. The CAT5 connection system is great for networking multiple boxes over long distances. This issue seems to be isolated to DP10. It did not happen for me in DP9. It does not happen with Cubase Pro 10.5 or the latest Logic. I have all of them and they're fine with the ULN-8. (Pro Tools is not ready yet for 10.15.2 or the new Mac Pro yet, so I haven't been able to try that yet, but Pro Tools worked just fine with my ULN-8 on my old 2010 Mac Pro.)

Anyway, I'm hoping MOTU and MetricHalo will take it seriously. When MOTU takes an issue seriously, they can issue a fix quite quickly. Years ago, I did a fairly minor OS update---like 10.6.5 to 10.6.8. Something in the update did not play well with MOTU. DP would not even launch. My backups were clone backups at the time, not Time Machine backups, and the backups had already run before I tried DP. So, there was no going back. I was stuck. I contacted MOTU and to their credit, they jumped on it. I was put in contact with their software dev guys and they were sending me software that would generate reports which would help them work on a fix. In a couple days they had a solution sorted out. So, I know if MOTU is willing to deal with a problem, they can solve these kinds of things. As for Metric Halo, the drivers, firmware and software are still in development (latest is pb9). I have to assume they could jump in too if something is needed from their end.

Anyway, a 28-core Mac Pro, two ULN-8 boxes and DP10 as my main DAW means I'm heavily invested in this situation and I'm quite eager to find a solution quickly.

Plus, NAMM show is next week. I have a ticket. Do I need to drop by the MOTU booth and---uhhh---continue being persistent?

-g

[Gabe S.]

PS. I should add that after a new install DP10 plays audio fine through the ULN-8 on its first launch. But then, when you quit DP and relaunch it a second time, that's when the silence issues begin.

I have confirmed this behavior on my 2019 Mac Pro and my 2019 16" MacBook Pro both running 10.15.2.

-g

[Gabe S.]

I have one more workaround for the DP10 silence issue with the ULN-8 that Metric Halo found.

In the Metric Halo Console software, if you record-enable a channel strip, DP10 works normally.

-g

[douglas-m]

I'm experiencing the issues you describe with DP 10.1 and ULN-8 3d MH Link,
Has there been a fix that anyone is aware of ?
Thanks.

[Gabe S.]

If you email MH Labs tech support, they have another firmware. It helps.

Prior to getting the new firmware, record-enabling any channel in the Console app before launching DP helped too. And having the standalone of Omnisphere or Kontakt launched before DP helped as well.

I don't know where the problem really lies, but no other audio program has the issue----Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and Twisted Wave do not suffer the issue on my computer.

I did the work to move my [big orchestral] template over to Logic 10.5. Started working with it. I plan to continue going down the road with Logic. Because Logic only loads what is being used, I've actually been able to ditch Bidule and ReWire. You can put a zillion instruments in a template, but nothing loads until you need it. All my latency issues are GONE. It feels so amazing to play instruments with no latency.

[Henry Robinett]

I wish I had seen this earlier only because it affirms my assessment that DP and ULN-8 are angry with one another. I bought the 2019 Mac Pro back in late December. I've had nothing but problems. I alerted MH and Apple and they've been on it. I mean I got a little relief but it's not fixed. MOTU has been much less responsive. I have a 16 core, 4TB with several SSD . Audio stops and I get an error alert the the processor as overloaded. I do most things at 96k which just seems to piss DP off more. What often happens is it hangs and crashes after recording a take. I've learned to save immediately after a take and copy the audio files in the folder before it crashes. It's like there's a problem creating the waveform.

Except for legacy projects I'm already started with DP I'm moving on to either Logic or PT. I've had it. For some reason DP can't handle SOMETHING in Catalina or 7,1 Macs.

[leigh]

Henry,

Open a ticket with MH. They will get you going.

I opened a ticket on my problem and within 24 hours I had a patch that fixed the problem.

**Leigh