WORKAROUND FOUND: DP11: Sequence Tab won't engage on certain chunks: "Unknown Mode"

[mhschmieder]

Yeah, the fact that no one else has chimed in with a similar experience, has me focusing on what might be unique about my installations of other products etc., as otherwise it seems this would be a shared problem.

I'm going to search for updates to RME's drivers right now, as that is a strong contender for a hidden conflict.

One clue is that opening up Logic Pro gives me an error every time, on not being able to find my old Fireface UFX for MIDI -- though it knows to use the RME Babyface Pro FS for audio, and there are no settings anywhere that reference the UFX.

I trashed all the old RME preferences file, as far as I can tell. I may still have other related files to hunt down and destroy.

[ComposerDude]

I'm having the same error. Except it's a universal problem on my computer, not specific to any files.
When a colleague opens up the same exact file on his computer, he can open the sequence menu fine.
When I open the file and try to access sequence view, I get the error message: "DP has encountered an error. Unknown mode."

Did anyone find a solution?
Thank you very much!

[mhschmieder]

Yikes, I don't know whether to feel relieved or not, that I'm not the only one with the error, and of course I feel for you, but it also makes me wonder what combination of conditions may be shared, if any, between our systems, that others aren't experiencing this problem.

Unfortunately, I don't know when it started, as I've been in non-stop disaster recovery mode since March due to repeated floods of my new house, so I doubt I have tried to use Sequence Mode on a project since then, as the few dips into DP that I've done have been to overdub new parts on a few songs, in Tracks View where I sit during that phase of project work.

I updated my RME firmware earlier today but decided not to relaunch DP until a fresh reboot, and that will be tomorrow at this point as I just put in a super-long late night shift at my day job and am done for the night. I'll try to remember to launch DP right away tomorrow morning though, before launching Splashtop for Business, which I.T., requires me to use for remote logins to the office. I'm pretty sure it wasn't running earlier, but it may have an ongoing background process.

[Phil O]

I've never seen the error, or any error with the word "mode." There's a bunch of references to modes in chapter 6 of the manual, but I don't know if it's related to your problem.

Good luck
Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[mhschmieder]

On page 94, it mentions Cursor Selection Mode, so I suspect this is the bug, that the cursor selecting the Sequence Tab is getting an error in Cursor Selection Mode (which it probably shouldn't be mapping to).

[Phil O]

Have you tried changing the mode to see if it makes a difference?

[ComposerDude]

I just spoke with a MOTU support tech on the phone. Luckily, he was familiar with this issue and found a workaround to address this bug.
In my files, there was some blank MIDI data that was causing the problem. After deleting the blank MIDI event, I could access the sequencer editor. I hope it works for you as well!

[mhschmieder]

Great to hear! What do you mean by "blank MIDI event" though? It isn't possible! So I guess it means something else, like maybe a MIDI track with no data on it? I'll look at the MIDI Event List though to see if somehow there is now a MIDI event with a null value in the value field. That would represent corrupted data (never seen it before either) but is easily fixed.

[mhschmieder]

Phil, not sure what you mean by "changing mode". I have tried every possible workflow, if that's what you mean.

At any rate, I'm about to launch DP as I am doing a harmonica overdub on one of the problematic chunks anyway, so I'll see if I can simultaneously discover and clear up these "blank MIDI events".

It's funny, whatever that means, because it is so close to my initial supposition about SysEx and the like, but there's no SysEx in any of my projects; I swore off it years ago for anything other than patch transfers to hardware synths, due to issues.

Looking forward to discovering what needs to be fixed, as it affects almost all of my projects and should have the same solution everywhere.

[mhschmieder]

OK, you meant what you said literally! Still, it's impossible, so it's a DP bug. There is no way that an end user can insert a blank line in the MIDI Event List!

I'll have thousands of these to delete, but will just have to remember to do it at the start of every session, until the problem is cleared out of every chunk in every project. Fortunately, all-audio chunks won't suffer this issue just MIDI.

What I don't know is whether DP stopped supporting a particular MIDI command and replaced it with a blank line, as I set up my template so many years ago that I don't remember what's in it, in terms of precise details.

Basically, I start every sequence with setting pitch bend to zero, mono-pressure to zero, and MIDI CC 121 for Reset All Controllers.

I think I had one more in there, which might have been MIDI CC123 to turn off any notes that somehow are still (or start) ringing.

When I still had Roland Cloud membership, I had to remove one or more of these startup commands on their plug-ins or they'd never turn the note off ever.

I know DP now deprecates certain MIDI CC's, but I always say no when it asks to remove or replace. Nevertheless, it might be defaulting in some cases, or when opening old projects saved in previous versions of DP.

Whatever the case, DP either inserted a blank line in the MIDI Event List on the first bar of a lot of MIDI tracks, or it replaced a specific MIDI CC with a blank line. I suspect the latter, as only tracks where I do resets at the start, have it.

[mhschmieder]

Yep, sure enough, MIDI CC123 for All Notes Off, has been replaced with blank lines.

I was able to open an older MIDI track in Logic Pro, that hadn't been opened in DP in years, to verify my original track template.

I copy/paste the combined reset events into every MIDI track that will have notes, but not tracks dedicated to expression etc.

There have historically been a lot of plug-ins, VI's, and sample libraries, that won't function properly without a proper reset at the start of the sequence. And yet there are others, like Roland Cloud, that have the opposite issue.

[Phil O]

Phil, not sure what you mean by "changing mode".

Preferences>Editing>Tools
At the top of that window is "Cursor Selection Mode. You have three options from a pull down menu.

But...it sounds like you may have already identified the problem. Hope the MIDI data thing works for you.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[mhschmieder]

Thanks, I looked at that option earlier today after you posted. I don't think I'd noticed it before, but I don't think it's having any side effects. Even so, I'm a bit confused how to interpret the effect of the drop-list choice on the selections below; whether each of the three drop-list choices can independently map those choices or whether it sets which way they're applied. Probably in the user manual but I've gone down too many ratholes today already.