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Waldorf or ableton?

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:08 pm
by geek
Hi

Ive just bought a Waldorf Blofeld and am having trouble with the unit freezing when using it over usb with Ableton.
Waldorf are saying it is a problem with Ableton sending unknown midi messages that are causing this to happen.

Anybody els had this problem or know what the cause is?

Thanks

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:39 pm
by lola
It could be that this is the fact of mi midi interface jitters.

The unknown midi messages that is.
I always wondered why ableton has no midi filtering settings.

Is there a tool which can measure and show these "unknown midi massages?" what ableton actually sends?

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:11 pm
by andrewbrewer
lola wrote: Is there a tool which can measure and show these "unknown midi massages?" what ableton actually sends?
midi-ox

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:13 pm
by Machinate
"unknown midi messages" - DAMN YOU, unknown midi!

Erhm, sorry for the sarcasm... what I meant to say is that midi shouldn't be crashing a synthesizer.... unless, in a freak accident, you have the one copy of Ableton Live that is capable of sending sysex, that is.

I think waldorf are pulling your leg is what I'm saying.

Re: Waldorf or ableton?

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:54 pm
by ze2be
geek wrote:Hi

Ive just bought a Waldorf Blofeld and am having trouble with the unit freezing when using it over usb with Ableton.
Waldorf are saying it is a problem with Ableton sending unknown midi messages that are causing this to happen.

Anybody els had this problem or know what the cause is?

Thanks
I had one for a couple of days now, and it freezes up from time to time when changing presets while the decay of the note still runs. Standalone, directly connected to midi keyboard. No usb. Just been playing around with it so far. But this would concern me to as I expect to use it with Live soon.. Did you try the latest drivers, firmware and all that? Guess so..

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:18 pm
by Coupe70
i found something about this issue on the waldorf homepage.

the blofeld can freeze while booting if there is a usb connection
and a sequencer software is open. in this case the blofeld appears
as a new midi device and some sequencers send some sort of
data to the new midi port. this is what causes the blofeld to freeze.

they recommend to disconnect the usb cable while booting
the blofeld.

hope this helps...

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:28 pm
by ze2be
Coupe70 wrote:they recommend to disconnect the usb cable while booting
the blofeld.
Well, im not even using the usb cable, so it must be the Blofeld..

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:38 pm
by beatpoet
If you're on a mac, I find MIDI Monitor really handy for seeing what's sending what, sounds like a Waldorf problem though, I personally don't trust synths with USB connections.

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:55 pm
by Coupe70
ze2be wrote:
Coupe70 wrote:they recommend to disconnect the usb cable while booting
the blofeld.
Well, im not even using the usb cable, so it must be the Blofeld..
yes, i was referring to geek's problem.
and yes, this is a blofeld issue.

seems like you have another problem.
firmware is 1.04 now and it seems they are
working on bugs reported by the users...

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:01 am
by geek
Yo everybody.

This is my conversation with waldorf on the issue thus far...

> My Blofeld freezes when connected to ableton via usb!

We have discovered some strange things when the Blofeld is connected via USB-MIDI to Ableton Live. Live is sending some unidentified MIDI data to the Blofeld which causes freezes. This doesn´t happen with Cubase, Logic or other sequencers.

> Are these incompatibilities on your web site? What should i do. Buy logic?

We investigate this incompatibilities at the moment. But it seems that Ableton has to fix the Live MIDI engine. We try to find a workaround. And yes, Logic would be a workaround ;-)

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:05 am
by geek
Btw

The blowfeld freezes when sequencing from ableton and editing the sounds on the hardware! Not at boot up.

Cheers.

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:54 am
by Coupe70
geek wrote:Btw

The blowfeld freezes when sequencing from ableton and editing the sounds on the hardware! Not at boot up.

Cheers.
ok, was just a guess.
good luck !

still curious about those "unknown midi data"...

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:18 am
by crumhorn
The golden rule when receiving MIDI data is to ignore any data that doesn't make sense to you. It's the whole basis for MIDIs expandability and backwards compatibility.

So if the waldorf is crashing because of "unknown" MIDI messages then waldorf is at fault.

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:18 am
by BoimB son of BoB
try using the midi cable and not usb. should fix it.

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:40 pm
by geek
I think its Waldorfs fault too. But then again i had a virus ti when they first came out and that worked terrible with ableton. Access said it was an ableton midi timing fault and couldnt do any more. I ended up selling the ti.