Mixbus 3.0-1268 "Interim Release"

[x42]

But it's really a weird problem though..... I'm taxing my brain trying to figure out what could cause Mb3 to not see the plugins even though you scanned them...........

Well, you could read the source-code

It's a two step process:

1. Discover - Mixbus searches all .dll, then launches a tool to try-run the plugin and write all information about the plugin in a cache file (plugin-name.dll.fsi). If this test-run crashes the plugin is blacklisted (by creating a plugin-name.dll.fsb file). Since an external tool is used the crash will not affect Mixbus itself. Discovery can take a long time (think minutes).
   
2. Scan - Mixbus searches all .fsi files, reads information from there and populates the available plugin list. (very fast, just reading text files). Blacklisted plugins are ignored.
   

One explanation would be that discovery succeeds, but scanning fails to find the result.

Currently MB3 writes the .fsi .fsb files in the same folder where the plugin resides (same as MB2). If that folder is not writable by the current user, %localappdata%\Mixbus3\Cache is used as fallback. ...and that's where we think things go wrong (probably combined with some locale issues, but we lack conclusive evidence and cannot yet reproduce those issues).

There is the plan to rework this discovery/cache mechanism (also to avoid polluting the plugin folders themselves), but before doing that the various issues the users out there have need to be understood (best guesses are permission problems for the cache/blacklist files, maybe due to running MB once as Admin, once as normal user and/or mix of locales, maybe NTFS vs FAT and duplicate extensions .dll.fsi on some systems).

As Ben noted in the announcement email. "[..] issues with Windows [..] VST plugins are still in development."

[clintmartin]

It would be nice if those .fsi .fsb .err files were gone. I was wondering what they were for. I asked once in the forum and was told by someone that they were not getting those files created (maybe that was there problem). I don't remember my 32bit plugins (for Mixbus 2.5) creating these files, but I'm off to check...I checked and I don't see any .fsi .fsb or .err files in my 32bit plugins?

[Summer2000]

I'm delighted to report that I figured out the source of my problem. I needed to change the date and time on my workstation/DAW (OpenLabs Neko LX5) to the current date/time. My DAW doesn't go online so it had been a while since I updated the time on it. The modified date on the "fsi" files which MB3 creates in the plugin's folder must be later than the plugin's modified date. That was resolved by synching the clock to internet time.
Once I did that, I cleared the VST cache and blacklist. I ran a scan on my "EQ" VST folder, and noticed the log reported all the EQ plugins got added. I went through most of them so far and was able to add the plugins to a track. Sweet.

Now to go through and add the rest of my VST collection!!!!

Big thanks to the Harrison support team and all the users here who tried to help me solve this issue over the last few days. I appreciate it very much.

[Jouvert]

So far, I have only used the interim release for audio and my experience is nothing new, in that mixbus is still not changing readily to my chosen sample rate (it could be my outdated emu 1820 M sound card).
After one or two tries, MB will open and everything works fine from there (as before).
I did notice that my vst plugins were not showing up in my project, so I re-scanned my folders, closed and restarted mixbus and every thing was smooth as silk.
Haven't tested the gain function in the edit window as yet, so my biggest issue for now is when MB is starting up.

Jouvert

[C.j. Perez]

So far, I have only used the interim release for audio and my experience is nothing new, in that mixbus is still not changing readily to my chosen sample rate (it could be my outdated emu 1820 M sound card).
After one or two tries, MB will open and everything works fine from there (as before).
I did notice that my vst plugins were not showing up in my project, so I re-scanned my folders, closed and restarted mixbus and every thing was smooth as silk.
Haven't tested the gain function in the edit window as yet, so my biggest issue for now is when MB is starting up.

Jouvert

That Sample rate issue , i am having as well..... Already sent info to harrison's support email.....I'm sure they'll get us sorted..

[x42]

I'm delighted to report that I figured out the source of my problem. I needed to change the date and time on my workstation/DAW (OpenLabs Neko LX5) to the current date/time.

Cool. Great job in tracking that down!

Yeah. That's another small detail. if the .dll is newer than the .fsi cache file. The .fsi cache is ignored because Mixbus thinks the plugin was changed/updated in the time between Discovery and Scan.

You bring up a very important point. Future versions of Mixbus should not rely on the system time.

[clintmartin]

It's great to hear that progress is moving quickly. I'm a bit nervous about running the Interim so I'll wait for 3.1, but it seems things are moving in a great direction. I appreciate the effort Harrison!

[Ross]

Thanks for the progress. Still having problems with the "freeze" function, crashes EVERY time on my main audio computer Windows 7...(and Windows 10 test computer). Sample rate changes still a little buggy but works after a restart of MB3. Using Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

[davefk]

There is the plan to rework this discovery/cache mechanism (also to avoid polluting the plugin folders themselves),

Yep, that would be useful......

[clintmartin]

Should we un-install Mixbus 3 before trying to install 3.0 1268?

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Well that didn't work out well at all. I had several errors during the install...including VST scan stopped. Now I don't have Mixbus at all.