Follow up - ANA 2 + Bitwig + Windows 10 issues

I’m using that init button a lot lately guys…

Spend a bit of time just flicking through presets and you will get the following:

  • keys stuck down on the virtual keyboard

  • presets being loaded in which are either completely mutilated or almost silent, click init, load that preset again and it’s fine. But it happens very VeRy VERY often. Also once it’s bugged out its often many if not all the presets you select after that they are all incorrect. And some presets will actually restore its capability to load presets correctly again… ???

  • there seems to be the ability to resize the window but it drags out a black/dark area so the sides of anna or cuts it of it resized too small to fit Anna 2’s GUI/UI (would be a good idea to remove the resize drag mouse pointer changes etc if your not going to finish the scaling programming)

  • Often mouse scroll wheel stops working in the preset browser, this can sometimes be restored by a preset or using the slider to the right… It’s pretty random…

Other than that, all is fine in the world…

  • Change preset, play some tune
  • Change preset, play some tune
  • Change preset, play some tune, oooo like that, record sequence, reload track, preset no longer sounds anything like what it was before
  • Change preset, play some tune
  • Change preset, play some tune
  • Change preset, play some keys, preset is corrupted or no sound or very quiet gentle noise
  • Slap the init button
  • Find where you were
  • Find preset you like, hit init button and find that preset again just encase it’s in the gone mental mode, then record some notes…

Rinse and repeat…
Rinse and repeat…
Rinse and repeat…

OS: Win 10 Pro Latest 21H1 Build 19043.1052
i9900k @ 4.76Ghz, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVME, 4TB SSD, RTX 3080

Video of the sounds going mental and scroll wheel stopping working:

Video of the GUI/UI resize

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Hi there @Darcey

Thank you for your feedback + explanation and videos :thumbsup:

I’ll have a look at this on Windows 10 Pro 21H1 later on and try to test / replicate, especially the Presets Browser inconsistency and odd behavior + mouse wheel scroll loosing focus.

For the resizable window, I’ll asked the devs but I’m not even sure that the option was introduced in v2.0.98 and the GUI Size adjustment should still be done via the settings option I believe.

This is only happening with the VST 3 plug-in BTW and if you look well, there’s no Resizing Arrows option in ANA 2 GUI itself, they are only showing up when hovering the plug-in window edge with the mouse. This is not happening with the Audiounit and the VST 2 plug-ins, so looks like something introduced with the new VST 3 plug-in format.

I have checked this inside Ableton Live as well and I have the same behavior ( though I’m on the other side of the Matrix right now… MacOS ).

  • Could you please check with the VST 2 plug-in format on your end ?

Inside Bitwig VST 3 appears with a “grey” sign on their instrument icon and VST 2 an “orange” one, if you can’t see both then make sure than the option “Prefer VST 3 over VST 2 (when available)” is unchecked inside the Bitwig/Settings/Locations

  • Could you please let me know what version of Bitwig you’re using BTW ? I’ll be checking under 3.3.11 on my end, haven’t upgraded to v4 yet.

Thanks :wink:

64 Bit VST 2 instrument tested, and the results are fresh in:

  • Sound corruption no longer a problem switching between presets

  • Mouse scroll wheel loosing focus still an issue but does restore it’s functionality a bit more often than the VST3 version / API wrapper? (not my area of programming)…

  • Corner resize, no longer available on the VST 2 x64 version so I guess that’s something to do with the VST3 format?

  • Didn’t have enough time to fully play around and play some tunes to check if the virtual keyboard keys were getting stuck down but I didn’t see any in the 5 minutes that I had (just finished work 01:25… nakard)…

The plan of action I am thinking is I will locate the VST3 installation and remove the file and keep the VST 2 x64 version installed so I can keep BitWig set on pref’ VST3 over VST2 for the others.

Thanks for the hint on the VST2 version, odd though it didn’t do this before I installed the 2nd sound bundle that you released… or did it and I just didn’t notice…

:thumbsup:

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Yes, that’s the other way to do it if you’d like to keep this feature in Bitwig. Should you reinstall or run an update in the future, you can choose to skip the VST 3 install as well.

Still have to test things out under Windows on my end, but thanks a lot for your updates and what you’ve already find :smirk::sunglasses:

Cheers !

Same thing happens for me with the sounds of presets being almost muted (sometimes still some sub bass) or mangled. The video captures it well. Also using VST3 in Bitwig 3.3.11. Not upgrading to 4 yet.

I’m generally moving to VST3 these days so would like to keep using that. Would be great if you guys found the issue.

Thanks

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@robj

Thank you for reporting here as well Rob, we’ll definitely have a look into this one and try testing/replicate this on our end and check if that could be something wrong with the VST 3. :wink:

Cool ,thanks. I forgot to mention that I’m on Windows 10.

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Any progress with this issue. Definitely keeps me from wanting to browse the presets of Ana, as they are often messed up.

Hi there Rob,

From what I know there’s an upcoming new release that’s still in progress and testing, no time frame yet as for when it will be available.

Ok good to know, but do you know if they have actually reproduced this issue? Seems like it’s definitely happening to lots of people. Phil asked me to follow up with him to demonstrate on the KVR forum but he never received my PM. But as long as they have reproduced it then no need. Just want to confirm.

@robj

Yes, I was able to reproduce the issue with ANA 2 VST 3 v2.0.98 for the presets being mangled when browsing/switching through them.

This is specific to ANA 2 VST 3 / Windows / Bitwig Studio ( initialy tested in 3.11 but I have upgraded to 4.01 since and had the same issue ).

However I was not able to replicate issue with using mouse scrolling an also keys hanging/stuck on the virtual keyboard as reported in the 1st post by @Darcey

Ok great that you reproduced the messed up presets issue. I haven’t encountered the other ones either.

Scrolling issue - Added some tool I found to display mouse activity and key presses to on screen visuals (bottom left of video)…

VST3 and VST2 tested after a re-install.

This happened on bitwig 3.?.? (cant remember which version I was on) and same on 4.0.1

RE: VST 3 Sounds
Not usable, have to use VST2 x64

RE: Visual Keyboard - Keys getting stuck down
This is hard to catch as it only happens after you play around for a while.

Hope this helps.

D

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Thanks for the update and the video : :thumbsup:

OK, we’ll look into this again as well, but yep, it’s not obvious to catch those ones :wink:

RE: Scroll issue - FLStudio Producer Edition v20.8.3 [build 2304] x64

Ana 2 x64
No scroll issues

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Hi there @Darcey and @robj

Latest release v2.0.99 is now available for download : My Account / My Downloads / Plugins


  • This version brings several fixes & improvements to ANA 2, recalling presets & settings when reopening projects, mouse scroll and other minor issues have been addressed, please let us know if you still have issues in those areas.

!! :disappointed_relieved:!! Unfortunately :

The main issue reported with the VST 3 that leads to ANA 2 mangling the presets and audio output is not resolved in this version. We’ve identified another problem that we suspect being an issue with Bitwig Studio and the way the DAW handles presets.

This has been reported to Bitwig and we’re waiting for their feedback and input on this one.

As a result, It is NOT recommended to INSTALL the VST3 plugin version if you’re using Bitwig.

This can easily be turned off during installation ( choosing “Customise” ), but remember that you will need to remove any ANA 2 VST3 from a previous installation ), here’s the VST 3 location reminder for PC & Mac :

Mac : Your MAC HDD DRIVE/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 remove ANA 2.vst3
PC : C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3 remove ANA2 x64.vst3


Also make sure to check the Readme file from the download archive for other fixes/improvements/new feature
( there’s a cool one with the ability to manually edit/enter values using Alt + Click ).

That’s unfortunate to hear that it’s not resolved but I do appreciate the follow up on the thread. I hope that once it’s worked out, it could be a relatively quick hotfix and not have to wait until a later release. Please continue to keep us posted on progress once you hear from Bitwig. Thanks!

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Thanks for the update, but seems the scroll issue is still present in BitWig 4.x, it was all working great at first then after a few navigations and group/category selection and then preset selections, it’s back to it’s old sticking and starting functionality. The old trick of navigating out or over other areas of the vst doesn’t seem restore functionality as quickly anymore but if you wait or go to use the scroll bar it comes back to life. Is this functionality tied into mouse movement in some way? Maybe put the programming in a low polled event loop or in a loop but only to execute when certain flags and conditions are not met restoring functionality?

Maybe it’s a focus issue, maybe add a debug console which pops out to the right, or bottom to the vst so you can watch the scroll flags/variables and see when things are not what they seem.

Often when I’m programming something visual the standard debugger and the drill down and skip function & variable and function traverse features are not that useful so I often build a visual debug output where I can watch the flags & variables in real time.

Keep track on mouse over, what mouse is over, when wheel is used and focus, might show something.

I often find it’s always something small in the code that takes the longest of time to find and fix.

ADDITIONAL
I’ve noticed that if I don’t move the mouse after preset selection that’s when it most often stops the mouse wheel from working, if I keep moving the mouse after selection it comes back… Eventually…

RE: Virtual Keyboard keys getting stuck down
Also still there, but this time it actually happened pretty soon after starting ana2.

https://aftc.io/share/ana-2-key-stuck-down.png

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Additional - New Bug
I closed the song in Bitwig with Ana 2 visually open and it remained on screen. If I minimize bitwig it minimizes with it, so that’s working fine, but very odd that it remains open when the song is closed and there is no way to load any VSTs as there’s no song to work with. Event calls for closure not being executed? Accidentally left commented out for testing?

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RE: Studio One 5.x & FLStduio 20.x
No issues with scroll in FLStudio or Studio One. Did not try it out long enough to see if any of the keys on the Virtual Keyboard would get stuck down however, but that’s just cosmetic.

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