So your Virtual Instruments don’t work in Pro Tools… February 12, 2008
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Leopard, Pro Tools, Virtual Instruments , trackbackApple just released 10.5.2. Hours later, Digidesign announced an update for Pro Tools HD that will make it compatible with 10.5.1. ???? Why would they do that?
For all of the LE users out there (including myself), Pro Tools incompatibility with Leopard has been a big headache. This is obviously not all on Digidesign, as Leopard CoreAudio is buggy and 3rd party plug-in/VI companies are also having a hard time getting compatibility.
However, most of us have the “audio part” of Pro Tools working just fine. I get the occasional weird buffer error or CPU spike, but for the most part, recording audio into Pro Tools with Leopard 10.5.1 has been no problem. But using virtual instruments?? Big Problems. Even Digidesign’s own VI Box Set is shaky. With a little patience and creativity, you can still be very productive in your studio.
I have the box set on my new 2008 Mac Pro (10.5.1). So that’s Structure, Strike, Velvet, Hybrid, and Xpand. One of them works… Structure will load up samples and trigger from MIDI, although it is rather slow and buggy. All the other VIs have big problems. All four of them have this neon yellow color scheme, and the windows seem to stay on top of each other, creating a big neon mess when you turn knobs or change pages within the VI. For what its worth, most of them (have had the least luck with Velvet) will generate sounds if you can actually figure out what you are looking at. I have a few Pro Tools sessions from a Tiger machine that I transferred into Leopard, and as long as I don’t mess with the VIs (aka even open the window), they work fine.
I am having a hard time getting 3rd party VIs to work (EastWest mostly, I don’t have many others).
So, what are the solutions? Well, the first is wait it out… but who knows how long that will be. For the time being, I would suggest doing your best to work around it. For example, I spent some time figuring out how to load up some basic beats in Strike through the neon interface (its harder than it sounds!). Now when I am writing songs, I can at least call up some basic rhythm without a lot of fuss. Structure works, so I try to use instruments from that (like basic rhodes pianos etc) rather than calling up an instance of Velvet. If you only have XPand, that’s ok too. Yes, the interface is messed up, but just get used to loading up a few instruments that you use a lot, and don’t get picky about tweaking things. Also, if you have other “real” instruments (keys, bass, guitars, synths), now is a great time to bust them out and record some audio, rather than using a VI for those sounds. You may find that you prefer to play the real instrument (at least I do when I can).
If you get really stuck, sequence your MIDI, export the files, and send them to a friend with a working DAW setup. Then he/she can run it through an instrument and send you back the audio in no time. I would suggest using yousendit.com to send large files rather than through email.
All I can suggest for now is be patient and try to make the best of it with any other resources you have. If you are a Pro Tools user who switched to Logic in all this compatibility fuss (and are having a hard time adjusting), check to The Studio Files soon, as there will be articles on that. You can either email me with questions, or just post them in the comments of any article on the site. We will answer them ASAP.
C
The Studio Files
Comments»
Whats up? I am having trouble finding/uploading the virtual instruments for pro tools. what do I do ?
@Kyle
I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you saying that you have Pro Tools installed but don’t have any virtual instruments available when you go to select plug-ins?
Also – take a look at this page:
http://thestudiofiles.com/?p=848
If you can give me that information as well, I bet we can figure out your problem.
Thanks!