Automatic Failover

Trying to set this up using VSTL.
Two PCs setup identically linked by Playaudio 12 with the Lifesine plugin (signal generator) inserted directly on an output in PC A.
Everything works as intended except when I switch songs the failover triggers the switch to the other PC.
I can remedy this by setting the failover detection interval above 250ms but that renders the point of automatic failover useless, it should be seamless.
I thought setting up the plugin on an output would be global and wouldn’t be interrupted during song switching?

Hi! Yes, iConnectivity is ideal for failover :slight_smile:
What is put Lifesine to Global-STACK? Does that work better?

How you start the PC-“B”? via MIDI connection, sending PLAY, NEXT, etc signals from PC-“A”?

I’m doing exactly this but with a Playaudio1U. What I have done is to set up the failover to automatically switch back to A when signal is detected. So technically it jumps over to B for a fraction of a second and then back again, but I never noticed it.

I haven’t tried using Global Stack though, will check it out quickly tomorrow when I have the rig in front of me again.

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Yes. I tried the Global Stack and it was the same.

The MIDI controller is connected to the host port on the PA12 so the transport messages and all the MIDI control goes to both PCs simultaneously.

I tried the switch back to A option which works on changing songs but not when unplugging PC A. It just brings up an error that the ASIO driver cannot be found and everything goes silent. How did you resolve that? I’m quite new to the PA12 so it could be user error? Both scenes A and B are set identically.

First time I’ve seen these - interesting but these units don’t have any audio inputs as far as I can see. How are you folks doing inputs?

Consider a VST Live Song an entire Cubase (or other DAW) project.

When you switch projects in Cubase & Co, that takes quite a while, depending on its complexitiy it may well take minutes.

We try to keep audio processing alive during all transitions, but there are cases where data which is beeing destroyed when deactivating an instance - such as a Part or Song with all its assets - needs to be protected from audio processing to access it. In these cases, audio processing may need to be haltet for a short period of time.

We are nevertheless working on further separating global instances (mainly, out and group channels, and Global part) from those transition actions, but you may imagine how tricky this can be, considering Cubase etc may take all the time in the world to do so.

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Thanks for your efforts. Isn’t preloading supposed to take care of this?

I use a mixer with my keys outputs and the PA12 feeding into that.

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@JeffB63 Ah - I thought you might say that. I prefer all my I/O handled by VL

There are functions"Preload" and “Preload Parts”. Those prime plugins, channels etc.
Then there is “preload” which means before any media can be played back, they need to be gathered from the tracks into buffers ready to play when the actual processing takes place. This all takes time. And sometimes thousands of events (DMX, Midi, Automation), video frames need to be rendered etc etc.
Also, the entire mixer needs to be re-constructed. Part Triggers need to be calculated, and that is all just scratching the surface. As said, there are good reasons why it takes so long to activate a Cubase project. Even when it has been loaded already (similar to “preload” in VST Live), activating it takes its time nevertheless.

You mean that if you kill PC A, that PC B loses its connection? Don’t know if PlayAudio12 works differently in this regard but on the 1U it’s independent, whatever you do on comp A doesn’t affect comp B.

Fair enough. My old host used to handle that fine but then it’s a much more mature product I suppose.

I need to do more experimentation but I think it switches back to PC A which now doesn’t have a driver so is silent. I assumed it would detect that PC A is not functioning and not switch back?

It would only switch back to A if it detects the test tone.

That Didn’t seem to be the case here. As I said probably user error. I’ll experiment further.

Are you perhaps running comp A as master clock?

Good thought but no. Can I ask you what time you have set for failover detection?

2ms. But the fact that you lose driver connection points to a separate issue. Reach out to iConnectivity, their support is top notch

Thanks for your help.