VCV Rack 2, Ableton, and Core Audio

[steve]

@KrankyOne

Steve - I only started having this problem with 2.0.3b and now with 2.0.4. The way I was finding it at first was working on a patch in Standalone, and then to open it in the VST version. This is how the settings for audio get set up in a way that screws up the way Live seems to be running. I was freely going back and forth between Standalone patches and VST patches without this problem in 2.0.2.

Yes - It was only in 2.0.3 that access to Core Audio from within the VST was added - so if your issue relates to core audio in the VST, it would not have happened before 2.0.3. And then (I think) in 2.0.3b, separate Rack templates for Standalone and VST were added to avoid problems related to the VST loading templates with Core Audio rather than DAW driver enabled by default.

@KrankyOne

Also Steve, I’m not sure what you mean about this being the VST’s best feature. Live is using Core Audio on my system to send audio signals to my hardware audio interface. Ableton is responsible for routing any audio signal from itself, from clips, and from plugins out to Core Audio.

It’s the best feature because it means you are no longer limited to the 16 channels offered by the DAW driver and you can access other devices from directly within Rack VST (sending CV/Audio back and forth to hardware Eurorack for example) without having to bother with sending it to the DAW first and then routing it from there, which can mean having to create DAW tracks dedicated to routing with the right ins and outs to do that. It’s just much quicker, easier and more convenient to do it directly from within Rack.

@KrankyOne

On my system, if I start with a completely empty rack in the VST in Live, and then create an audio interface module, like Audio 8, and then set it up for the module to route audio to Core Audio directly, instead of to DAW, it instantly freezes Live’s interface. I can’t trigger clips, I can’t start or stop the Transport, I can’t even now start up Push 2 and have it initialize and connect. It seems like the VST rack can still make sound, but Live is crippled. However, if I initialize it to DAW, everything works fine. So I’m not understanding how this is a good feature. Maybe your system is working differently

My system is definitely working differently, which is odd because like you, I’m also on a 2020 iMac running Catalina 10.15.7. I mainly use Bitwig but I just fired up Live to test. My main audio interface in Live is an RME Digiface. In the Rack VST I can switch between DAW driver and Core Audio driver without any problems. When I have Core Audio selected, I can switch between different devices - I can use the same Digiface Live is using or I can go direct to an Audient ID22 that I use for monitoring, or I can select and use an ES-8 - no problem doing any of it.

When you say Live freezes/crashes when you select core audio driver in Rack VST, does it happen immediately on the selection of the core audio driver (and no device at all) or when you try and select a device? If it’s when selecting a device, make sure that device is set to the same sample rate as your DAW and Rack are using. I run everything at 48kHz. When I first tried my ES-8 it would not load because it was set to 44.1 (trying to select it didn’t crash/freeze Live though). All fine after switching it to 48k in Audio Midi Setup.