Posts by ChrisCabbage

Quote from djantimatter

Not with the Virus, it was a specialised driver and API that handled MIDI and audio streaming to the unit. The virus was never class compliant

For MIDI, yes a driver is needed. Hence the simple MIDI driver. However, if you use the Aura plugin, that doesn't use a special driver to get audio streaming. All it does, is change the setting in the Virus to allow USB audio.

Without a driver, on the new MacOSes, if you go into audio settings, you'll see the Virus recognised as an audio device with 6 inputs.

Quote from Lioio

i d'ont use USB for audio. Only OUTPUT AUDIO-1 (RIGTH+LEFT) whith my Sound-card and USB for MIDI (in/out) with convector

In which case, I don't think a new Ploytec driver will help you. The USB driver (if I remember correctly) is/was for audio streaming only.

Do we need Ploytec to get involved though? We can already stream USB audio from the Virus as-is, *if* you use something like the Aura plug-in to enable USB output on the unit. I might be wrong, but it looks like USB audio streaming is already there, built into MacOS...!?

...and before anyone asks if I've contacted Aura about this - yes I have, several times.

Every time I open the plugin, it's forgotten which MIDI ports it's using. That applies to at least Ableton and Cubase. Anyone know if there's a way around this?

Thanks!

Quote from michelena

Help any one can use the access virus plug in vst with Mac os Monterey 12.6?

Sorry, but nothing beyond MacOS Mojave works with the plugin.

Quote from DovGoldman

ChrisCabbage on my system (specs a few messages up in the thread if you’re curious), the Mystery Islands stand-alone editor remembers the settings reliably.

I am not using the plug-in.

It's the plug-in which seems to forget the settings every time. Mostly Ableton in my case. Haven't extensively tried with Cubase.

Standalone seems to mostly work OK.

On the subject of Mystery Islands editor, anyone found a way to get it to store and remember its settings for MIDI and device type (e.g. Virus C or Virus TI)?

Currently, ever time I start it, I have to go and edit those settings.

Update - public beta of RME's USB driver, released only today, cures the aggregate problem!

I now just need their HDSPe drivers to be updated.

Update - new info!

It looks like Cubase *is* now supporting aggregate devices, except for my 3 word-clock-synched Hammerfalls. That wasn't the case a short time ago.

In which case, I guess I can now take it back to RME.

That's interesting. I can't get it to work on 3 different Macs. All Intel based.

RME (who make my sound cards) accept that it's an issue. I've spoken to a lot of other people who say it's an issue.

Even Steinberg have accepted it as an issue which they're not going to address. They said that they don't support Aggregate devices!

Quote from AndrewM

I'm able to use aggregated devices in Cubase 12. Not sure about previous versions.

Which MacOS though? Latest MacOS with Cubase 12 fails.

Other DAWs are OK.

There's sadly a problem here with the Steinberg products (e.g. Cubase). Steinberg don't support aggregate devices, and aggregate devices don't currently work. They're refusing to update their asio converter.

Quote from SeleN

Glad you found this way too as my post in this discussion

I'd missed (or forgotten) your previous post - sorry!

Quote from Quark

There might be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum…0b8661824ad24624d1942a679

That is interesting for sure, but I reckon we still need a way of dealing with the hardware we have.

Right.

I've found a work-around which works for me, but it's really not ideal!

What I'm now doing, is using an old MacBook running an older MacOS, to host the plug-in with Ableton.

Then, on my main system, I send MIDI to the Virus' MIDI input DIN. Ableton is mapped with multiple channels, one for each MIDI channel I'm using, so that I can drive multiple channels from my main DAW.

Outputs are then send to the analogue outputs.

"Live" mode used, to cut latency.

Then, when I've finished editing, I move my patches to the RAM slots. Performance and recording then done using groups which I set up manually.

It's a real pain in the backside, but the only practical way around I've found so far - until and unless the Mystery Islands plug-in becomes usable.

Easier to add a DAC unit to the SPDIF output?

Quote from SeleN

Anyone can tell anything about the sync stability with the simple midi driver?

In what sense? Midi clock sync?

Quote from Barletta

can anyone please tell me if virus is still working with Mac OS Mojave ? any reply would be appreciated .. fired up my old Mac with Catalina and plug in works fine with hardware but can't pass sound through the usb . when I hooked up analog outs it works but virus can't be set up correctly in daw . I am 100 percent thinking about going back in time with Sierra or Mojave if they fully function that is

cheers .

Yep. Works OK with Mojave.

I have 2 volumes on my desktop Mac. Primary Big Sur volume and also a Mojave volume, which I use for the legacy stuff.

Quote from hugol

As a software engineer myself - I am a firm believer in constantly/ incrementally updating the libraries/frameworks that your application relies upon - and not just leaving your application to rot. We've long adopted this approach for our own software - and it's served us well.

Moving drivers out of kernel space, is definitely a good thing security-wise.

In the case of USB streamed audio via a plug-in, since Elektron are now using the Apple frameworks for their system, it also means that they're not reliant on Ploytec to get their act together every time the OS changes.

Quote from Biappi

Hello,

A while ago I managed to write a CoreAudio MIDI Driver to support the USB Virus MIDI ports, and posted it here: https://github.com/biappi/SimpleVirusUSBMidiDriver, it should support Catalina and Big Sur because it's completely user-land and does not have require any custom kernel extensions.

Well, it's built with no errors, so that's a good start! Will try and test over the weekend.

Edit: Yep - it actually works! Nice one! Had to delete the .plugin file and re-build though. Re-build on its own, didn't do the trick.