SEVERE issues using Oberheim SEM V with Logic Pro 9.. Please help

[james_mccullen]

Not sure if it's gonna help opening up another topic, as I'm aware others are having issues with this software... I'm at my wits' end, battling with this software in Logic Pro 9.

Firstly I adore Arturia, and the products they make are wonderful. Owned a Minibrute for quite some time now, and it's an absolutely fabulous bit of kit. Also was lucky enough to get my hands on the 'MiniMg V Original' software, courtesy of Arturia. This 'MiniMg V Original works wonders in Logic Pro 9. I'm using an iMac with OS X 10.9.
Never had issues with the MiniMg V. Recently I picked up the Oberheim after hearing some demos, that blew me away. I NEEDED it.

The first problem I have is (from day one of purchase), when using it within Logic pro 9 (i'd say at least 80% of the time) it will just freeze, and Logic will crash. It's even worse when I'm flicking through presets, to find a particular sound I want, more crashes! :/ ....Another issue I have is (this happens frequently, not as regular as the crashes), when I go to open a project i've been working on, all the tracks that are using Oberheim have reverted back to the standard preset sound that you get when you first open the program. Even though it says it's the preset I did actually choose... This is bloody frustrating, as I have to click on EACH track and click the arrow up (or down) on the preset drop down list in Oberheim and then go back to the sound I originally chose. This sounded clearer in my head, but hopefully you get the gist. It's a nightmare when I've got like 10 tracks (or more) that I have to change, just so I can carry on with a project

It's got to the point, where I start to dread using the thing within my projects, which is a shame considering it wasn't cheap, and when it works properly (rarely) I manage to achieve great results.

Anyone else having these kind of issues? Any advice would be great.... Or just any news on bug fixes in the pipeline. It's a small relief actually, cos I was debating whether to get the whole V Collection. If all the others are this savage in crashes and problems, I'm glad I settled for just the Oberheim. Like I say, the 'MiniMg V Original' works wonders, I've NEVER had it crash on me, or any loss of presets.. etc.... Sorry for the waffle, just getting hacked off now. If the software was shit, then I wouldn't be fired up. It's great, it just feels broken! lol.. As do i! haha

Cheers  

[pkdick]

I gave up on this plug-in with Logic 9 because of massive CPU overloads and crashes, from the day I bought it its never worked properly- 2yrs ago? From my experience flicking through preset crashes is common to a lot of Arturia plug-ins, it happens regularly to me with the Jupiter 8, CS80 and Spark. In fact I don't bother using a lot of Arturia stuff because it wastes too much of my time and I decided I wouldnt buy anymore of it for this reason along with the appalling customer service ( it took them 21 days to address a recent issue I had in any serious way).

As for advice, prob best not to drop a load of cash for their other plug-ins until you properly demoed them first.

If you don't already own them i can recommend these 'analog' plug-ins, all have been rock solid for me on Logic 9 and Logic X - Korg Monopoly and Polysix (never had one issue with them), TAL's  Juno 60, (a little CPU heavy but never crashes), D16 synths (same as the Tal Audio) and GForce.

[james_mccullen]

Thanks for your response man.

Glad to know it's not just me. Although that's pretty shitty that you've had these major issues too.
Yeah you're totally right, been having problems with it from day one, but really starting to tear my hair out now as I'm deep into a project and things are buggering up constantly. Makes me so very relieved that I didn't go with the whole V Collection bundle, hearing your experiences with Jupiter 8 and the CS80. I was considering those two as well... That sucks. I think, the reason I confidently bought one is because of the MiniMg V Original works like a treat.. I assumed the others would be reliable; oh well. Better to have wasted £89 than £400 or whatever the whole Collection goes for.

Mate, thanks so much for the recommendations, I'll check them ALL out. They all look like a good price range as well. If they're stable enough, then that's definitely a done deal. I'm a big Korg fan as well, so I trust them with my money!

Thanks again!

[emmanuel.segard]

Hi,

I am facing the same problem. You will find the details below. I didn't reproduced it with Arturia Prophet-V2 or Logic software instruments.

Environment:
Mac Book Pro
Mac OS X (10.6.
Logic Pro 9.1.8 (1700.67) (32-bit)
Oberheim SEM V 1.1.1 build 34782 (32 Bit Version) - Build date: May 25 2012 16:59:04

Steps to reproduce :
1) Open an empty Logic project ;
2) Create 2 software instrument tracks ;
3) Use an instance of Oberheim SEM V AU instrument plugin for each track ;
4) Create a sound with the first instance, save it as a SEM V preset (from the plugin window) and save it as a Logic software instrument preset (from the host window) ;
5) Create another sound with the first instance, save it as SEM V preset and save it as a Logic software instrument preset ;
6) Enable the live mode (red R button on track header) for each track from the Logic arrangement window ;
7) Save your Logic project ;
Open your Logic project and check the 2 sounds (with a MIDI keyboard) ;
9) Select the other track (the live mode is still enabled for the 2 tracks) ;
10) Save your Logic project ;
11) Open you Logic project and check the 2 sounds.

Expected result :
Each time your open your Logic project, the 2 sounds are the 2 presets you saved.

Actual result:
At step 11, the 2 sounds are the default SEM V preset.

Kind regards,
Emmanuel

[james_mccullen]

Cheers for your post man.
Damn that's a really involved way to work around an issue we shouldn't even have when spending this much on Software instruments. Did it not work then mate?

To be honest, I've given up using the thing now. As soon as I reach for it in one of my projects, problems start occurring - Crashing Logic, losing presets (or reverting back to defaults), It's just too much hassle and stress. After my last project I had loads of Oberheim layers and tracks that sounded fantastic in my project. But EVERY time I opened the project I had to go through each track correcting it back to what preset it 'should' be!!! Total bullshit, waste of time. If the thing wasn't caked in bugs It would be a very useful and powerful tool indeed. Oh well. 

'pkdick' kindly posted some fantastic alternatives above which I'm slowly working my way through. Some of these have trials/demos so I can actually get an idea how it works within Logic.

[emmanuel.segard]

You're welcome !

I tried to describe a simple way to make the bug happen so that Arturia could easily work on it.

Actually, I often loose the SEM V presets when I don't take care. In some cases, the presets won't be lost. As far as I can remember, you have to select a track that doesn't take the SEM V as input before to save your project. Nevertheless, it's also a waste of time to check that every time...

Can you tell us what is your SEM V version ?

I've got this one  :
Oberheim SEM V 1.1.1 build 34782 (32 Bit Version) - Build date: May 25 2012 16:59:04
(I can see it from menu "Oberheim SEM V->About Oberheim SEM V" from a stand alone instance or by clicking on the small drawing on right top of the keyboard from a AU instance).

Thanks and regards,
Emmanuel

[james_mccullen]

Hi mate.

That's hopefully gonna be useful to them. It seems completely erratic when I lose the presets as well. I mean, It happens almost all the time, but occasionally I will open a project and it's actually fine, just like yourself. This is rare though to be fair! lol ...It's also pot-luck/roulette - Problem is, you don't know (well I don't) what's gonna happen when you play a project track. I've almost had my ears blown through my headphones, because that default preset sound is bloody horrible. Really loud horn! When you've got 10 tracks producing that mental sound, it's pretty much burst eardrum central! haha

I just think it's a real shame, as this software would be fantastic if it was bug-free. I've managed to get some great things out of it, but I just can't be doing with being stupidly cautious when using plugins/software synths within Logic Pro. I like to flick through presets while playing, then tweaking them. Can't do any of that shit with this.

The version I'm using is the same as yours mate, except mine is '64-bit'.

[GIROUX]

I'm having the same exact issue. Has anyone heard any explanations or solutions from Arturia?

[james_mccullen]

Sorry buddy, I haven't heard any solutions or anything.... I've given up using it now to be honest - It's completely broken, and messes up Logic every time I use the damn thing  ....No other plugin or software synth has caused this many problems so far.... utter crud!

[pkdick]

I agree, its a badly written piece of crap, arturia should concentrate on fixing plug-ins that people have paid good money for instead of churning out countless other half finished products. Good luck with getting an answer from them, their silence speaks volumes...

[allthebuttons]

Similar problems here. Arturia plugins regularly crash Logic, and in a particularly nasty way: I get a HUGE audio spike and then Logic goes silent until I reboot. I'm scared to even load the plugins in case it happens when I'm listening loud. Hundreds of pounds wasted, and a bug that has lasted through updates and different installations.

[james_mccullen]

Glad to know it's not just me and my bad luck!! Although not glad that we all have this problem

Totally agree as well, I keep getting notified that new products have been released, but that's no good to me if the one I'm trying to use is totally messed up. I'm not buying anymore... It needs to be fixed and it sounds like the other software synths from Arturia have this same problem. Luckily for me I only bought the one... I'd happily spend more money and buy the rest of their software synths if I didn't have all these crashing problems though... these things aren't cheap!

[ben arturia]

Hi,
This bug seems to be a nasty one !
Unfortunately or fortunately i'm unable to reproduce.
Have you try this with latest version of SEM 1.2 and of Logic 9.1.8 ?
I've tried several project and each time i've been able to recover all my presets.
Thanks for report

[emmanuel.segard]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay...
I've got the Arturia V Collection 3.0.
I updated the SEM V from 1.1.1 to 1.2.0 and it seems the bug is not there anymore. Good thing !

Nevertheless, I have a lot of problems with the Analogue Lab now. I get this message :
"The plugin preference cannot be loaded (or smthing like that)."
Then it lost the user preset I did with the SEM V ! 

Should I update the whole collection next time I need an update of only one synth ?

Thanks and regards,
Emmanuel

[emmanuel.segard]

Oh, I got the error message again :
"Could not open plugin's preferences"
It seems my Analog Lab is in a very bad state since I updated the SEM V !!!
HELP !!!
I may have to do something to tell the Analog Lab the SEM V version changed, isn't it ?