ANA 2 - Automation Issue in Ableton Live 12: Phantom Macros Affecting All Channels

[djspiritquest]

Hi all,

I believe I’ve encountered an issue with the ANA 2 plugin while using Ableton Live 12. When I create an automation in one channel, it appears to generate phantom parameters labeled “program” across all channels that use ANA 2.

This has caused a significant problem in my project, as it reset all cutoffs. Unfortunately, this means I now have to redesign all my sounds and rebalance everything from scratch.

Is there a known workaround or solution to salvage my original settings? I’d greatly appreciate any guidance to resolve this issue without having to rebuild everything manually.

Thank you for your support!

Update:
After further investigation, it seems that the issue lies within the source files that make up the plugin. Reverting to an older saved project file unfortunately carries over the same problem. Additionally, the issue becomes apparent after you play your project file a second time.

Update 2
I’ve done some further investigation and found a temporary solution to this issue. Here are the steps I used to resolve it:

On a PC :
C:/Users/Your_Username/AppData/Roaming/Sonic Academy and delete your ANA 2.settings file

While this workaround addresses the immediate problem, I feel it’s not a true fix for the underlying issue. There needs to be a proper patch to resolve this at the source level.

Currently, both automation and MIDI learning within ANA 2 are likely to cause significant issues. This makes it challenging to use these critical features without encountering the problem described earlier.

Unfortunately, as it stands, my most recent project file is effectively unusable. I’ll have to rework my sections from a previous save. Let this serve as a reminder to everyone to save backups of your projects regularly to avoid losing significant progress.

I urge the developers to look into this and provide a permanent fix. I hope this information is helpful to anyone encountering the same issue. Let me know if you have additional insights or alternative solutions!

[Tekalight]

It is likely that you had 1 or several ANA 2 parameters that was ( were ) MIDI CC assigned to your computer keyboard Space Bar causing the cutoff knob & parameters to reset to default each time you start/pause playback in your DAW ( or press the space bar ).

First of all, there’s no interaction between ANA 2 instances across channels inside your DAW.

Also, the “Program” option in Ableton Live’s automation is used to control MIDI Program Changes which ANA 2 does not handle.

The fact that you experienced a change in cutoff parameters with each instance of ANA 2 was more likely because this ( or those ) parameter(s) was ( were ) MIDI CC assigned to the Space Bar.

When this happens, you have 2 ways to remove the MIDI CC assignment :

1 - Right Click the Parameter ( knob or slider ) that’s MIDI CC assigned inside ANA 2 and click on REMOVE MIDI CC : Value

2 - Delete your ANA 2.settings file, which is what you did.

As long as this MIDI CC assignment is active, it will take over your automation lines inside Ableton and any parameter that’s MIDI CC assign to your Space Bar will not follow automation since it will instead reset to it’s default value and this causes automation lines to get disabled inside Live.

Ultimately, once the MIDI CC assignment is ( are ) removed, your automation lines will work again after reactivating them inside Live and this shouldn’t affect your Ableton projects.

If you think you had a different issue, please take some screenshots and provide a step by step description of what exactly you did that lead to the issue in order for SA Team to be able to troubleshoot this further and replicate the issue.

But I’m pretty sure this was caused by MIDI CC assignments of some ANA 2 parameters, likely the main Cutoff filter.

You could recreate this by Right Clicking the Cutoff ( or any other MIDI CC assignable parameter inside ANA 2 ) and click on Set Midi Learn and then Press your computer keyboard Space Bar.

Then Right Click the same parameter again and Remove the Midi CC assignment.

[djspiritquest]

Hi Tekalight,

Thank you for getting back to me about this and for pointing out the removal of the MIDI CC command in the plugin is a solution. I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the future.

Unfortunately, in my case, I had saved the settings of the cutoff filter, and it overwrote those settings across all instances of ANA 2 in my project. Luckily, I had a previous save to fall back on, though it does require some mastering rework.

That said, I feel that the interaction between the MIDI CC command and the space bar is a major flaw in the plugin’s programming. The space bar is a universal shortcut in most DAWs, including Ableton Live, for playing and pausing audio. Overlapping this critical command with a plugin’s functionality creates unnecessary risk. Someone without prior knowledge of this behavior could unintentionally wipe out their entire file, which is a significant issue.

I strongly believe there should be a patch to address this problem, ensuring that plugin functionality does not conflict with standard DAW shortcuts.

Thanks again for your input, and I hope we can bring more attention to this problem to prevent it from affecting others in the future.

Best regards,

[Tekalight]

There’s no MIDI CC mapping done unless you Right Click a parameter inside ANA 2 and then press a key or move a MIDI Controller knob or fader.

When this issue arises, it’s usually by inadvertence, don’t think there’s anything that requires a patch here to be honest, the ability to MIDI CC mapped ANA 2 parameters is super useful when you use a MIDI controller to write/record ANA 2 parameters automatons.

[djspiritquest]

Thank you for taking the time to explain how MIDI CC mapping works within ANA 2. I understand from a design engineer’s perspective that implementing a patch for this might seem like unnecessary work, especially when the current functionality is already quite useful for many users.

That said, I believe ANA 2 is a fantastic plugin with a lot of potential, and I truly appreciate the versatility it offers. However, I strongly feel that addressing the space bar issue could significantly improve the user experience and prevent unnecessary problems for those who might unknowingly trigger this behavior.

While I understand that you may not see this as something requiring a patch, I feel it’s a missed opportunity to enhance the plugin’s usability and safeguard against issues that could disrupt entire projects. It’s frustrating to see such a great tool lose its shine due to a relatively small, fixable problem.

I hope the team might reconsider addressing this in the future, as it would go a long way in making ANA 2 even more user-friendly and reliable.

Thank you.

[phil_johnston]

Will have a look in to this after the holidays!!

Thanks for flagging it up.