Tracks reassigning at random

Question

Level 1

9 points

Tracks reassigning at random

I've been experiencing a VERY frustrating problem since the 10.5 update.

What happens is that sometimes all my tracks just suddenly reassign their routings - so suddenly a software instrument track will assume the channel strip settings of another track in my session (and it will change species - i.e. a midi track will suddenly adopt the channel strip of an aux track and I'll lose my software instrument entirely - however the regions will be transferred - so a midi region is suddenly on an audio track). This issue affects most tracks in the session at the same time, and there seems to be absolutely no logic to the bug or how it scrambles the routings (for instance, a track hierarchy of Audio ^ Audio ^ Midi ^ Midi could turn into Midi ^ Audio ^ Aux ^ Midi, and tracks seem to reassign attributes at random. What's more puzzling is that after this happens, the UNDO command does not undo any of the damage, and my session needs to be restarted from the last save.

It's a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad problem, and having worked on Logic for the last 5 years it's a totally new issue as of the latest update.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 17, 2020 6:28 AM

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Answer 1

Iaamusic

Level 4

1,354 points

Jun 17, 2020 8:27 AM in response to nicolaasvr

It may if there is no other obvious candidate, so the usual three things to check when stuff seems to occur without explanation.....

Test Logic Pro with a new user account

Create another user account on your Mac, then test Logic Pro with the new user account.

Reset Logic Pro preferences

Resetting preferences doesn’t affect your project files, presets, or patches. However, you do lose any custom preference settings that you might have made.

Choose Logic Pro X > Preferences, and note any specific Logic Pro preference settingsthat you’ve made.
Choose Logic Pro X> Preferences > Reset All Preferences Except Key Commands.

After resetting preferences, open your project and try to reproduce the issue that you were experiencing. If the issue no longer occurs, open Logic Pro preferences and reapply your custom preference settings.

Delete Logic Pro preferences

In Logic Pro, note any custom preference settings that you’ve made, and save any custom key commands you've created.
Quit Logic Pro.
In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder.
Enter ~/Library/Preferences, then click Go.
Remove the "com.apple.logic10.plist" file from the Preferences folder.
If you upgraded from Logic 9 or earlier to Logic Pro X, also remove the "com.apple.logic.pro" file.
Restart your Mac.

After deleting preferences, open your project and try to reproduce the issue that you were experiencing. If the issue no longer occurs, choose Logic Pro X > Preferences, reapply your custom settings, and import your custom key commands.

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Answer 2

nicolaasvr Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 17, 2020 8:43 AM in response to Iaamusic

Thank you. I'll reset the preferences - and if I the gremlin reappears (or doesn't) I'll update here. If it does, I'll document my undo history and update my post. Is there any other logging system (other than a crash log/undo history) that might prove useful in identifying the culprit if the error occurs again?

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Answer 3

Iaamusic

Level 4

1,354 points

Jun 17, 2020 9:58 AM in response to nicolaasvr

Crash log is the thing if it crashes. There are system wide event logs, but I wouldn’t go there at this point!

undo history is be useful to see if you’ve done some strange key combination. if it does happen again it is worth checking your shortcut keys

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Answer 4

Jul 9, 2020 10:27 AM in response to nicolaasvr

EXACT same thing has happened twice to me as well. Two separate projects, exactly the same behaviour, and I can't for the life of me figure out what triggered it. Just as nicolaasvr has described...complete random and near total reassignment of the tracks...settings change tracks, and even track type is switched, just as he has described.

In an incredibly frustrating twist, reverting back and even opening a different alternate take is NOT fixing the issue, which means I'm looking at rebuilding a 40+ track project almost from scratch. The only good thing is the midi information is still there, but honestly that's hardly anything to cheer about. It also suggests to me that there is some kind of funky corruption of the project container file happening, if this is spreading across alt projects.

Does anyone have any updates on this? Fixes?

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Answer 5

nicolaasvr Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 9, 2020 10:37 AM in response to Stu_Harrison

Good to know I’m not alone! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to replicate the error, since as you say, it seems completely random. I have however reset all my preferences as laamusic suggested, and haven’t had it happen since, so while it’s a bit of an unsatisfying solution, it works (thus far)

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Answer 6

Jul 9, 2020 6:23 PM in response to nicolaasvr

I've now also reset all preferences, and....fingers crossed! I'd love to have an engineer look at the data log to figure out what happened, because whatever occurred at 'random scramble' time affected ALL alternate versions already saved, and saved in working order.

So this is what I just experienced in detail:

I notice something is weird on Project XY at 10:00pm July 1st...scrambled etc as described earlier.

As in:

Originally working in Project XY - ALT TAKE 1, and I start working around 10:00pm again (project already open, and computer was asleep). Immediately things screwy (as described in prev post and by nicolaasvr). I don't save the project (obv), close project, restart, reopen etc etc, and now without having saved the scramble, the most recent save is also scrambled.

Try to open Project XY - ALT TAKE 1, most recently saved 8:00 pm July 1st (in working order)... and that's now also screwed up when opened.

Open Project XY - ALT TAKE 2, most recently saved 6:00 pm June 30th, also saved in working order... and also all screwed up.

Fix:

I had to open up all the alt versions, and go back to one of the earliest reversions, back to June 29th. Opened it up, wasn't scrambled...immediately exported alt version to a new project, now seems to be fine.

But what is TRULY CRAZY is that not only was the project scrambled, but that it seemed to scramble past saved working versions as well. I've never experienced a bug of this nature with any professional software ever. Sure...messed up working files that are in front of you, you have to close down without saving, you lose a few hours of work and you do a bunch of swearing. But bugs that occur in real time and then RIPPLE BACK THROUGH TIME, across multiple saved versions? HUH?!?