So far I have been using BiaB 2022 in standalone mode and everything has been working out fine. I now wanted to transition into using the DAW Plugin in Ableton Live 10 but I can't get it to work.
The VST3 loads up fine but when I try to select a style, nothing happens. When I try to generate tracks, it pops up the style picker and lets me select a style. When I select a style, the picker closes but nothing happens. The style isn't loaded and nothing is generated. I also noticed, that the plugin will hang (spinning beach-ball) when I try to open the preferences. I get the same behavior when I try to run the Standalone Plugin App. (No style can be loaded, preferences hang). Using the AU plugin leads to the same behavior. Plugin Version is shown as 4.8.7 I have BIAB installed on an external disk. (Ableton is installed on the same disk). BIAB, StandaloneApp and Ableton have full disk access in security settings. System is a 2018 MacMini, 3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, 32GB RAM
Any ideas what I could try to get this up and running? Let me know if you need more info...
I tried the VST3 in Element. It loads the plugin but then it already fails bringing up the style-picker. Attempting to open preferences will also cause the plugin to hang (spinning beach-ball) and I have to force-quit Element.
I have ProTools (Intro) installed here as well and the AAX plugin has the same behavior as the VST3 in Ableton. It hangs when I click preferences. Picking a style has no effect. Trying to generate will first bring up the style picker and when I pick a style there, the style isn't loaded and nothing is generated.
Try dragging a track from the main Biab app onto a track in the Plugin and see if it takes it without hanging up. Try right click on the chord sheet of main app > Copy then right click on Plugin chord sheet > Paste
Thanks Andrew. I installed the patch and as you suspected, it doesn't help since I don't get that far. Unfortunately I can't say whether the plugin worked before I upgraded to MacOS Ventura since I was using the standalone application before and only now wanted to switch to the plugin.
I'll try to reinstall the full software and see if that changes anything. I suspect that my problem might not be specific to Ventura since I don't even get to the point where the problem occurs that the patch addresses. So something else must be broken in my case...
The re-install did not help, so it seems like there is a more fundamental issue where something on my system is incompatible with the plugin in some way. Any ideas what to try or look for (is there logging that could be enabled?) would be greatly appreciated...
I have updated the BIAB installation to build 611 which comes with DAW plugin v4.8.15 MacOS Ventura 13.2.1 BIAB install on a secondary HDD (not on the system volume) BAIB DAW plugin standalone or VST/AU in Ableton gives the same behavior: - Selecting a Style, RealTrack or RealDrums has no effect. The picker opens up but selecting an item and pressing the OK button just closes the picker but nothing gets loaded. - Entering chords - Opening the preferences will send the Plugin into a hang. Curser becomes a spinning beachball and the app must be force-quitted. - Plugin log shows nothing out of the ordinary...
Is there a modal dialog (message box asking you a question) appearing, but hidden behind the main window. I would do a reboot to make sure there are no instances running (or check activity monitor) and then run the plugin again. This time, when it seems to hang, move the window out of the way or command tab between applications and see if there is something hidden that is waiting for input.
That's a great idea. unfortunately there was no hidden dialog. Even with a clean re-boot. I took a sample of the hanging process so one could see what it was trying to do: https://1drv.ms/t/s!Ahn19Qp_SaKQrwgJVnYs3KXTPrSX?e=59Pt6g Maybe that can be passed on to the team...
Same problem here. I'm using a M1 Mac mini. DAW plugin doesn't change styles in either standalone or in Logic Pro X. BIAB works fine. I made sure the plugin was running under Rosetta. I have the latest update, but no different. Also, in BB 2022 Mac, the dragging an instrument (e.g piano, bass, guitar etc) on to the rendering box (wav, mp3, aiff etc) doesn't work the way it used to. It used to light up (green as I remember) and allow you to drag from there into your DAW. Not so anymore. It's really not a deal breaker, as I can use save as an audio file and load the tracks into a folder; but it kind of defeats the purpose of having the DAW plugin at all. I'm kind of glad to see that I'm not the only one having these problems. Spent a couple of days trying to work it out. Anybody found a way to get these things going?
This version of the plugin does not require Rosetta to run so please test again without using Rosetta.
It sounds like the plugin does not have access to certain files and folders that it requires. To fix this, you can open "System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy Tab". In the left pane select "Files and Folders" and then find Band-in-a-Box DAW Plugin Standalone.app. Make sure that "Removable Volumes" is checked. This should allow the Standalone app to work correctly.
Thanks for the new patch link. It still did not fix the problem of the DAW plugin not being able to load any styles for generating tracks. Clicking on Preferences still leads to a hang. I also verified that everything has full disk access (see attached screenshot)
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