Octane VST

Cartman1337 · April 25, 2021, 07:36:51

Have anyone tried to use the Octane VST (https://sonicsounds.com/product/octane/) with OpenMPT successfully? It's cheap VST, but it has some cool sounds, so it would be great to get it working with OpenMPT.

The setup program installs both a 32 and 64 bit dll in the appropriate VST folders, and both are possible to connect in OpenMPT via the plugin manager. I can also connect it to an instrument, open the plugin editor to select a sound, and after doing so I also get sounds when putting notes down in a pattern. However, if I try to play the pattern, all sound disappear, and after playback the notes no longer play if I try to add more notes.

I'm able to get sounds while playing a pattern by opening the instrument editor (the "plugin" button in the pattern editor) and keeping it open in a separate window during playback, but I sometimes have to reselect the instrument in the plugin window. However, when playback stops, OpenMPT hangs, with the OpenMPT Plugin Bridge program consuming a lot of CPU, and I have to end it from the task manager, so it's not really very practical.

Not sure which program is most at fault here. I haven't got very much experience with VSTs, and only have one more in addition to this one. That one, however, works excellently with OpenMPT.

Would be interesting to hear if anyone else have any experience with this VST, or if anyone have any tips of getting it to work better with OpenMPT.

Saga Musix · April 25, 2021, 10:06:03

Can you try the following: After associating the plugin with an instrument, play some notes in the instrument editor to confirm that it still works. Then press the Panic button (speaker with red cross next to the VU meters) and try playing more notes. Does it still work?

Speed · April 25, 2021, 10:33:36

Interesting, I never had similar scenario with any VST instrument.
So, if you start ModPlug Tracker, just load your previously created music project with this VST, and then hit F6 for whole song playback, then there will be no sound until you open its window?
I am curious what happens when you are using export to wav, is there still no sound?
Have you contacted the author of this plugin?

Cartman1337 · April 25, 2021, 10:46:42

Quote from: Saga Musix on April 25, 2021, 10:06:03
Can you try the following: After associating the plugin with an instrument, play some notes in the instrument editor to confirm that it still works. Then press the Panic button (speaker with red cross next to the VU meters) and try playing more notes. Does it still work?

Just tested this now. After pressing the "Panic" button (interesting name), no sounds play when trying to play more notes.

Quote from: Speed on April 25, 2021, 10:33:36
Interesting, I never had similar scenario with any VST instrument.
So, if you start ModPlug Tracker, just load your previously created music project with this VST, and then hit F6 for whole song playback, then there will be no sound until you open its window?
I am curious what happens when you are using export to wav, is there still no sound?
Have you contacted the author of this plugin?

No, you're right; if I start the tracker, load a project with this VST and hit F6 (or F5) to play the song, no sound is heard until I open its window (and by opening its window a crash is pending, whenever playback ends). If I export the song, the output wav is also completely silent.

No, I haven't contacted the author of the plugin yet. Like I said initially, I'm not sure where the problem lies. From reviews I've seen online, the VST seem to work with various other programs. But the problem may very well be poor programming on their part, not being completely compliant to VST standards, or whatever.

Saga Musix · April 25, 2021, 11:02:43

Quote from: Speed on April 25, 2021, 10:33:36
Interesting, I never had similar scenario with any VST instrument.

It's not entirely uncommon. Some plugins don't like the CCs OpenMPT sends when pausing plugin playback (which seems to be the case here), and other plugins don't expect the host to constantly open and close plugin playback, because OpenMPT does this very differently compared to other hosts.

Quote from: Cartman1337 on April 25, 2021, 10:46:42Just tested this now. After pressing the "Panic" button (interesting name), no sounds play when trying to play more notes.

Okay, that confirms that the plugins probably doesn't like one of the MIDI CCs OpenMPT is sending, and it's something that is fixable in OpenMPT.

OpenMPT sends three MIDI CCs when restarting playback or pressing the Panic button:
- CC 120 (All Sound Off)
- CC 121 (All Controllers Off)
- CC 123 (All Notes Off)

I have attached a test module which should help finding the culprit among these three. Please load Octane into that module and associate it with the first instrument. Then play the module. Optimally it should play four scales, but will probably stop playing any sound at row 16, 32 or 48. Can you tell me at which point it stops playing anything?

Cartman1337 · April 25, 2021, 13:46:44

Quote from: Saga Musix on April 25, 2021, 11:02:43
I have attached a test module which should help finding the culprit among these three. Please load Octane into that module and associate it with the first instrument. Then play the module. Optimally it should play four scales, but will probably stop playing any sound at row 16, 32 or 48. Can you tell me at which point it stops playing anything?

Tried it now. It stopped playing at row 0, in other words no notes played at all, just like all my other experiments.

Cartman1337 · April 25, 2021, 13:51:13

Strike that. I obviously did something wrong the first time. Tried again now, and it played up to row 32, then crashed.

Saga Musix · April 25, 2021, 15:21:35

Thanks for testing. I have sent a message to Sonic Sounds with more information so hopefully they can fix this CC in their plugin, and if it's not possible I will think of adding a workaround in OpenMPT.

Cartman1337 · April 25, 2021, 15:32:47

Quote from: Saga Musix on April 25, 2021, 15:21:35
Thanks for testing. I have sent a message to Sonic Sounds with more information so hopefully they can fix this CC in their plugin, and if it's not possible I will think of adding a workaround in OpenMPT.

Thanks for you assistance!

Would be great if I can get this working some way down the line.

Saga Musix · May 03, 2021, 20:20:04

Update: I have not heard from their developers yet, but I received a license code from support and was able to confirm the problem myself. It's not an OpenMPT bug - any host sending CC 121 to the plugin after at least one note has been triggered will freeze the same way. Hence I'm inclined not to change anything in OpenMPT for now, because I expect them to issue an Octane update which solves this problem for all hosts.

Saga Musix · June 30, 2021, 07:45:27

The developers have now released an update which you could try. I'll try to verify the fix myself later this week.

Cartman1337 · June 30, 2021, 13:24:55

Thanks for the heads up. I have downloaded and installed the new version now, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be any different with regards to workability with OpenMPT yet. Still the same behavior and crashes on my side.

Saga Musix · June 30, 2021, 21:46:13

You are right, I just tested the latest version I can see (1.1.7) and it still hangs in OpenMPT and also in Reaper with the test MIDI file I sent to them. I wrote to them that the problem still exists.

Saga Musix · September 25, 2021, 21:26:46

I got another reply from the developers and the latest version of the plugin should finally fix this issue. Based on a quick test it does that here.

Cartman1337 · May 31, 2024, 21:13:13

Quote from: Saga Musix on September 25, 2021, 21:26:46I got another reply from the developers and the latest version of the plugin should finally fix this issue. Based on a quick test it does that here.

Do you still have this plugin? Contrary to your short test, my tests with all previous versions of it have all been the same as before; crashing OpenMPT and the plugin within a couple of minutes. However, they released a new version yesterday, which I haven't manage to crash yet. But now I face a different problem; if I try to Stream Export to an audio file, the resulting audio file receives no audio whatsoever, except sometimes it gets the remaining reverb if I don't choose "clear cache" before going quiet.

When playing the OctaneTest you provided earlier it now doesn't crash, but it goes quiet when it gets to the Z79 row.

If you have some new tips on getting sound out of this VST now that it seems somewhat more stable I can perhaps finally get some use out of it.

Is there a way to export audio in real time, while playing the track?