Superior has possessed my computer?

[dschrammie]

First, please excuse the very long post here. Okay, so this is something that I posted over at the Toontrack forum as well...at this point I'm just trying to get as many brains involved as possible 'cause I have no idea what's going on.

Here's the post at Toontrack:
Alright, I'm at a complete loss here. I'm using Superior 2.0 with a Megadrum and DIY drumpads. When I first got the Megadrum I decided to just learn a little bit at a time so I was only connecting one pad at a time to learn how to configure stuff. I started with the snare, then kick, then hihat. I was just using Toontrack Solo to listen to everything. That was working just fine...I could hear the hihat, the snare, etc. The appropriate pads were "flashing" in the construct window of Superior. Finally after I felt like I had the hang of it I decided to connect the rest of the pads and start getting everything working. Now all of a sudden I'm not getting any sound at all and everything I mapped from my pads & megadrum seem to be off (for example I hit the snare and I see the floor tom flash...didn't do that before). I check through all of my sound settings...everything is directed through the correct outputs of my Layla card (20 bit). MIDI is selected as the Layla device. The ASIO setting is ASIO Echo WDM (or something like that). Basically I haven't changed any settings at all from one I was using just one pad at a time.

So I decided to check and see if I get audio from anything else. Fired up Windows Media Player and tried a .wav file and it gives me the failure window, something like "your device is not capable of playing back audio." Huh? Checked Device Manager, it of course says the device is functioning properly. Not really sure what's going on here. So I restarted the computer. Checked all my sound configuration settings again, everything is correct. This time I decided to check Windows Media Player first...and it played the .wav file just fine. Started up Toontrack Solo, selected Superior Drummer, and waited for it to finish the "loading samples". Guess what...no sound. I didn't even have the Megadrum turned on...I was just clicking the toms/cymbals and nothing. Went back to Windows Media Player and guess what...suddenly it couldn't play the same .wav file and I got the same message saying that the device wasn't capable. I went through this process several times and every time is was the same - it played audio just fine until I start up Toontrack Solo...then suddenly it all seems to go down the tubes.

Based on that I can only assume that it's something with Toontrack Solo. The thing that I don't get is that I haven't changed anything since I first got it set up and it was working fine. My sound configurations are all exactly the same. The one and only thing that's different is that I have disconnected the computer from the internet. I can't imagine that impacts anything at all.

Anyone have any thoughts here? I am absolutely baffled.

System: XP home, AMD Athlon 64 X2 5800+ (3.0GHz, 2x512KB cache,1000MHz FSB, Dual core, Socket AM2), max RAM that XP Home can handle (about 3.78 MB), older Layla 20-bit PCI card.
I purchased Superior 2.0 about 4 weeks ago and downloaded all of the updates so to the best of my knowledge everything I have is current.

Toontrack Reply:
I would check if there is an update for your Layla card which you haven't installed.
Next, it sounds as if you are using the Media Player at the same time as you are running Toontrack solo. If your card isn't multi-client, it may not work since both applications are trying to claim the same driver.

The notes assignments is a completely different thing. How are you setting things up; are you assigning notes in the Megadrum or are you setting things up in Superior?
Or are you doing both? Do you use the E-drum controller option in Toontrack solo? Since you say are using the latest version of Superior (2.2.2), you shouldn't use the E-drum controller option in Toontrack solo but set things up in the Superior 2 plugin. You can use the E-drum MIDI Preset as a starting point.

My reply
I wish it were as simple as making sure that I'm not using a media player at the same time as Toontrack Solo. The two programs were definitely not active at the same time...in fact, the only reason I even started WMPlayer was because I wasn't getting any sounds out of TtrackSolo. The Layla card is actually relatively old so the manufacturer hasn't made any updates for this version in quite a long time...however, it still has functioned just fine prior to this. Again, the thing I just don't understand is that this seems to have come from out of nowhere...the exact same set up was working just fine 2 weeks ago. That's the part that's extremely frustrating. I guess I can try reinstalling the sound card drivers, though I would doubt that would actually solve anything. Even if it came up working again, I don't have a solution of why this happened in the first place, you know what I mean?

As far as the note assignments, I was assigning the notes first in the Megadrum...that's what I've been told to do by the other guys at the Megadrum forum. So you're saying under the 'MIDI > note mapping" menu I should not select E-drums? I was pretty much following what other users at the Megadrum forum advised which was to check the E-drums preset and CC offset. I'll look into using the MIDI preset when I get home from work.

______________________________

So there's my situation. I'm so frustrated at the moment because I finally made the time to get the whole thing set up and working and then this happens. GRRRR! So...you all seem like you are WAY smarter than me. Any thoughts?

[Firelord]

So there's my situation. I'm so frustrated at the moment because I finally made the time to get the whole thing set up and working and then this happens. GRRRR! So...you all seem like you are WAY smarter than me. Any thoughts?

Could indeed be a driver issue.

* Install ASIO4ALL and try Solo with that;
* Try another PC;
* Use S2.0 from within a proper host (Reaper comes to mind because a full version is freely downloadable)

[dschrammie]

Just in case anyone is curious, here's an update of the conversation on this issue over at the Toontrack forum:

user reply:
Have you checked in solo that it is using the correct driver? Make sure this hasn't jumped to something else.

When you assigned the pads did you then save the project? If not then it will not remember your settings

Toontrack reply:
No, what I was trying to say (but didn't manage to) was that you should be using the 'E-drum' MIDI Preset found on the Mapping page in the Superior 2 plugin as a starting point. Not the 'E-drum Controller' option in Toontrack solo or a mix of both.

The advice of checking the driver settings in Toontrack solo is a valid point.

my reply:
Okay, well I'm starting to believe that it has to be some mixer or output setting in TTSolo. Last night I started the system and went into TTSolo and still got no audio. I started up a couple of different media programs (Nero, to watch an .mp4 file and Audacity to check a .wav file) and I was able to hear audio from those through my Layla card...so I determined that the sound card was working properly. Then I fired up Cubase LE and somehow managed to figure out how to load Superior into it...admittedly, I am new to this whole VSTi world and am doing the best I can to learn. I don't really know how to use Cubase, I just did a lot of clicking around. Regardless, the Superior construct window came up and sure enough, I was able to click on all of the drums/cymbals and hear their sounds (and about blew my eardrums out because I forgot that I had the volume way up on my headphones!). So it's only in TTSolo that I'm not getting the audio. Unfortunately, in Cubase I was not able to find where I can tell it that I want the Megadrum to be the e-drum controlling device...yet another thing that I'll need to learn.

So I can only assume that there's something in TTSolo that I am just not finding. Maybe a mixer setting somewhere? I actually have tried to stay away from the mixer for now, just until I can get this resolved.

(and then in response to user asking about checking in solo for the correct driver) > If by that you mean section 4.1 of the TTSolo manual, then yes, I have checked over and over to make sure it's selecting the ASIO device and not WDM or MME. Quick question on this section of the manual: under the portion where it says "select Audio>Audio Channels to choose the physical OUTs among those published by the ASIO/Core Audio driver for your sound card and allow them to be used for internal routing." Is it safe to assume that this is saying that the outputs that are listed are specific to the sound card? And is there anything wrong/bad about selecting all of the outputs, even though at the moment I'm only using one set of outs? For example, my card has 10 analog outputs and 2 digital outputs available...I have all of them selected. I have 2 of the analog outputs connected to a headphone amplifier.

(and then in response to Toontrack tech's comment about the E-drum MIDI preset) > Hopefully I'll get the audio routing figured out so I can look into this a little further. On the Megadrum, for each pad's input I need to enter a "note number", so I had assumed that means I refer to the note numbers corresponding to those in Superior. Perhaps that's not correct? Or maybe I'm on the right track but need to move on to what you're talking about with the E-drum MIDI preset? I don't know...I hadn't gotten that far in my set up process yet and the audio routing hiccup has gotten in the way.

So that's where I am at the moment...just thought I'd throw down that update in case anyone was curious about its resolution.