Hi Dietz. Well, you've asked me this before and I didn't answer because I've looked everywhere for a yellow arrow in the main MIR window and couldn't find one... Most of the time I just get a white rotating "loading" icon at the upper left (the standard OSX "wait" icon), while the left side of the interface gets progressively populated with all the instruments.

When the issue I have is happening, I don't get anything. Just a blank MIR window showing "Select a venue".

Ah, definitely not. I just checked by switching as fast as possible to MIR (which loaded correctly). I've got the five static icons but not the yellow arrow. I don't even have the gray arrow, the last icon I have is "MIRx Mode". Probably a Mac thing, we don't like arrows as much as you Windows people :)

This icon should be visible whenever an existing instance of MIR Pro receives new "Engine Project" data (even on a Mac ;-) ...).  

I trust you when you say that it *should* be visible. I don't think I ever noticed it, even before the last update, so I don't know if it *was* there before, but it certainly *isn't* there now...

I can confirm this has been happening regularly after every system restart (in the morning), probably also after a Cubase restart later. Further loading of projects while Cubase is running is working as expected.

1. Same problem here with Cubase 8.5.10 on late 2013 Mac Pro, OS 10.11.3, and latest VEP and MIR Pro. This morning, needed to start Cubase 5 times until the MIR Pro plugin and Cubase finally loaded properly. The Yellow arrow never shows up, whether the project data is loaded or not. Problem did not occur with previous VEP/MIR versions.

Hi, 

Sorry for the delay.

Checked on El Capitan, with different sequencers, everything working as expected.

All of you are working with MIR PRO in VE PRO, is that correct?

Could you send a song that shows this behaviour as a zip file to support@vsl.co.at? I´ll take another look. Please include the used software versions (DAW, VE PRO, VI PRO, MIR PRO). 

Best, 
Paul

I'm running MIR Pro as a plugin directly in Cubase, not in VE Pro. Isn't that how you run MIR as a plugin? Will try to send file.

@Paul said:

Hi, 

Sorry for the delay.

Checked on El Capitan, with different sequencers, everything working as expected.

All of you are working with MIR PRO in VE PRO, is that correct?

Could you send a song that shows this behaviour as a zip file to support@vsl.co.at? I´ll take another look. Please include the used software versions (DAW, VE PRO, VI PRO, MIR PRO). 

Best, 
Paul

You can run MIR from within VEP or as a plugin in Cubase. Like I wrote in my original post, I'm using it in Cubase, too, not in VEP. 

I'll try sending a Cubase project later this evening.

EDIT: Just sent my Cubase template to the support mail address.

Seems the issue is more complex. I've been having a huge downtime after making my Mac Pro a VEP slave and switching for a iMac 27 for Cubase. I've posted about this in the Cubase forums but from the tests this morning this really seems related to MIR and the plugin loading issue. Please bear with me because this is a bit long, I've done thorough testing.

Mac Pro running VEP (latest), using my regular template. iMac running Cubase (8.0.35), also using my regular template only this time connecting remotely. MIR is loaded in Cubase, as inserts on channels coming back from VEP.

It seems that Cubase & MIR, together, are somehow trashing my RME Fireface UC driver. This has *never* happened on the Mac Pro but I've narrowed it down to MIR, it seems. The following is repeatable my system. RME Fireface is set as output both in System Prefrences and in Cubase.

1. Restart
2. Play AIFF file with Quicklook : OK
3. Lauch Cubase
4. Open Cubase template
5. MIR launches but doesn't load plugin info (as described above by three users)
6. Cubase meters moving but no sound (no meter movement on TotalMix)
7. Quit Cubase
8. Quit MIR (MIR doesn’t quit automatically in this case)
9. Power cycle RME Fireface UC (off/on or USB unplug/replug, same result)
10. Play AIFF file with Quicklook : OK
11. Lauch Cubase
12. Open template (MIR is now loading plugin info)
13. Cubase meters moving but no sound
14. Remove all MIR inserts from Cubase
15. Save Cubase project as “No MIR"
16. Quit Cubase
17. MIR quits automatically
18. Play AIFF file with Quicklook : No sound
19. Power cycle RME Fireface UC
20. Play AIFF file with Quicklook : OK
21. Load Cubase project “No MIR"
22. Everything is now normal

At least I've discovered I can get some work done by quitting & power cycling the interface but this is very, very annoying. The template I'm using has been sent to VSL Support on February 23rd (attachment is called VEP v12 24fps.cpr.zip).

*Please* help. Thanks.

More doubts being lifted following this simple test:

1. Make a copy of the Cubase template with all MIR inserts removed.
2. Restart.
3. Launch Cubase and load the non-MIR template.
4. No problems.

I hope this helps you track down the problem.

Thanks.

EDIT : Most definitely confirmed by trying the following (twice):

1. Continue from the above steps. Add a single MIR insert into one of the channels from which all MIR inserts were previously removed (step 1 above).
2. MIR loads. Set position, rotation etc.
3. Save the Cubase project.
4. Quit Cubase.
5. Restart.
6. Launch Cubase and open the project saved in 3.
7. MIR loads in an empty state.
8. No sound.

In case it's still unclear, when I say "no sound" in 8 it doesn't mean "no sound from MIR", it means "no sound from Cubase", even when playing Zebra...

So it seems to me that, in addition to the problem mentioned in the original post, on the iMac 27 MIR is actually disabling audio output altogether on my audio interface, when launched for the first time.

Thanks for your report - VSL Support is already testing, although to no avail until now, as far as I can tell. Thanks for your patience!

Thank you for letting me know, Dietz. I'm literally counting the days here, until my system can go back to normal... Please make sure you've seen the edit to my last post above.

@Talino said:

[...] So it seems to me that, in addition to the problem mentioned in the original post, on the iMac 27 MIR is actually disabling audio output altogether on my audio interface, when launched for the first time.

Just for testing purposes, to rule out some variables: Does this also happen when you switch to other audio hardware and drivers (e.g. the built-in audio device of your iMac)?

I tried a couple of times. Launching Cubase with the built-in audio driver allows me to open my regular template (with MIR as usually set up) and play audio without any problems, although MIR still doesn't load the plugin states the first time it's launched.

I also tried launching the regular Cubase template with MIR by choosing the RME driver, then, after witnessing again that audio output has been disabled, switching to built-in audio again and then back to RME, hoping to have the driver reactivated somehow. This didn't help. The only way I found of resetting the audio output to normal was by power-cycling the RME interface itself.

The Mac was rebooted before each test (thankfully these new machines reboot in less than 10 seconds!)

I hope this helps.

Hi, 

Just letting you know that we´re hunting down this bug. Not so easy. Luckily, MIR PRO 5.4.13888 works fine, and the changes for 14074 were not that dramatic.

We´ll keep you posted, thanks for all your input!

Best,
Paul 

Thanks for the update, Paul. First bug that I encounter in VSL software in 5 years! If you need any other tests done here, please let me know.

Paul, Dietz, some more info to help with the hunt. After further testing and investigation I now start to think that the two issues (MIR not loading the plugin info and the audio disappearing from my RME interface) *might* be unrelated.

MIR not loading the plugin info is consistent and repeatable, I have no doubts about that.

However, it seems that there might be an issue with the way the iMac's USB3 ports handle USB2 devices, e.g. RME's interface (or even an iLok key). I've posted about it in the RME forum and others have desribed weird issues as well.

As of now, I can open Cubase sessions with MIR loaded. I have to do it twice, of course, because of the bug originally described. When the audio disappears, I power cycle the RME while Cubase is running. Cubase complains and switches to Built-In Audio. I then switch back to RME and can work again.

Looks like two distinct bugs now. I hope this helps.

Sorry - hadn't realised this thread was being updated.

I'm running Mir as a plugin in ProTools (NOT within VE Pro) and seeing the issues described every time I load my ProTools session.  I have now discovered that I can get Mir working by shutting it down (whilst leaving ProTools open) and then restarting Mir standalone.  When I do this, ProTools seems to connect to Mir and Mir loads the correct venue and Instrument settings.

Jules