Not good in Ableton

After hours of trying to use it and continuous crashes, freezes and overall “bad behavior” I am giving up on Vital until there is a new version that addresses issues in Ableton 10 on Mac. Here is what I have found so far?

Login issues, semi solveable by opening the standalone and logging in that way, but don’t start a new instance without that standalone running or you’re done.

Existing instances will freeze if you try to edit them.

Sometimes it just crashes Ableton upon instantiation.

I get it, it is a new synth… Frustrating nonetheless since I’ve kinda started using it. I want to love this thing because it sounds great but yikes… so buggy.

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I’m using Ableton 10 on OS X 10.13.6 and have had zero crashes or freezes. Same with friends using it on their Macs, in Ableton or FL.

What’s your OS/hardware?

No crashes for me in ableton on osx 10.14.2

Closer look at specs?

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows: 10 and higher
MacOS: 10.12 and higher
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 and above

System Requirements:
OpenGL 3 or higher

I have the same problem - When I load the VST in Ableton it just crashes and I get the spinning wheel. Can still play sound from Vital with the midi keyboard, but everything is frozen, can’t click on anything, have to force quit. OS 10.13.6 Ableton 10, Imac retina. The stand alone seems to work fine.

Beautiful sounding synth and I’m very grateful to Matt for all his hard work on this. it just has some issues which need ironing out. Got the free version but will definitely purchase once I know I can run it.

Any suggestions anyone please let me know,

I’m running
Live 10.1.3 on OSX 10.15.7
2018 Mac Mini i7
RME Babyface Pro FS

Bobbs is describing the exact behavior mine has. Not exactly sure how I got instances running in the first place, but you can’t interact with their GUIs without causing a lock up.

I’m running ableton and am actually getting better performance out of vital than wavetable when it comes to cpu usage. probably has something to do with your hardware or os rather than the daw itself.

Probably right since it seem to do the same thing in Bitwig. I tried my Mac Mini’s built-in speaker and a different USB audio interface and same issues, so it seems the audio hardware isn’t the issue.

Any idea when we can expect a new version? Hearing all these tales of amazing performance and smooth running on other people’s Macs are giving me major fomo.

Same for me. Crashed after 10 minutes creating a sound.
Don’t think it’s system related. Using Ableton for hours with Serum, Wavetable, Massive, bunch of other Plugins. So guess it’s Vital related.

What happened
Crash of Ableton and Vital.

What I did
Clicked through filter-types of Filter 1, activated on OSC1 and OSC2.

System
macOS Big Sur 11.1
Ableton Live Suite 10.1.30
Vital AU v1.0.3 (free release)

It seems there are some system specific issues I need to track down. I think it’s system specific and not general bugs because I have a lot of users on both mac and windows that have used Vital heavily for months with no issues.

I haven’t quite nailed down why it’s happening to you but any extra information about your setup could help track it down. Stuff like what resolution you’re OS is at, using any external monitors, any special firewalls or special internet related settings, etc.

As a first quick test I’d be interested to know if you log out (in the hamburger menu) and don’t sign in and just click around the login screen that pops up and use Vital like you would. If it still crashes (or works better) that would help me eliminate some things.

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Hello, I’ve tried logging out of the stand alone and clicking around, and the synths seems to work fine. It’s just within Ableton as a VST which seems to be the issue.
My Specs are:
Imac Retina 5K 27 inch late 2014
3.5 Ghz Intel Core i5
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB
Ableton Live 10 suite legit
Running at the native resolution, no external screens

Don’t know if that helps. Thank you so much for all your hard work

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Same here running Ableton 10 suite on Mac OS 10.15.6 with 0 issues and it runs more efficient than most Ableton stock plugins.

I run in to the same issues as this post. Primarily that I can never log in, it just gives me “signing in…” and nothing. When I click past the little login box it lets me use Vital as normal but I cant access TTW. It will also crash for me randomly. I have been sounding desiging in blank projects with only one channel to try to minimize other plugins/ cpu and it will still happen randomly. Had it happen twice last night over the course of 3 hours. Both times when I was moving around a parameter relatively quickly to see its effect and if I liked that movement.

I have a 2017 Macbook Pro running Mojave version 10.14.6 running ableton live 10.1. Using an external monitor and have norton installed.

Another thing on the external monitor that is minor. When I move ableton to that screen and I open vital occasionally I will only be seeing the bottom left corner of vital where the filters are taking up the whole plugin screen and the text will all be enlarged. Typically I exit out of it and open it back up and that problem resolves. I also can not make the plug in bigger which is quite frustrating

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE

I have fixed my issues, and I believe this will fix many other Mac users issues.
It has to do with the firewall in OSX. I discovered this when another plugin I bought couldn’t perform it’s authorization in Ableton, but was able to do so in Logic (same as Vital minus the UI lockup). It was quite an easy fix, though.

  1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall
  2. Unlock to make changes (enter admin pw)
  3. Click “Firewall Options”
  4. On the next screen, click the plus “+” and select the Ableton Live app from Applications
  5. Make sure it says “Allow Incoming Connections”, click OK
  6. Lock back up to prevent changes

I thought simply turning the firewall off would accomplish the same thing, but it doesn’t. You need to tell OSX to let Ableton (and the plugins its hosting) to talk to the interwebz. Have not tried this in Bitwig yet, but I suspect it will work.

Would love if some of y’all could give this a shot and see if it works. If it does, I bet we could save Matt a ton of work replying to messages, etc. Maybe pin these instructions somewhere?

Happy this monster is breathing now!

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Ryan I’ve just tried this and unfortunately it still doesn’t work for me. Thanks for the info though!

I had my firewall off, just tried this. Will report back after using it if I get any random crashes still

bobbs, do you happen to own Logic Pro X? I am wondering if maybe me having successfully run the app in one DAW first may have something to do with it? Also and if not, try opening the standalone during the firewall procedure and while opening it in Live. There is absolutely no science behind this idea mind you, I am literally throwing things at the wall to see if anything sticks.

Also, you mention the VST in Ableton. Have you tried the AU?

I don’t have Logic no, only Ableton. Just tried the AU and that also froze Ableton. Also tried having the standalone open while launching Ableton and also while doing the firewall thing. I guess I’m unlucky!

dang, that is rough my dude. sorry I couldn’t be of more help. I didn’t really expect mine to work without a new version from Matt, so maybe I just got lucky. I can promise you it will be worth whatever wait you have to put in. tbh it started crashing on me again, I would run the standalone and make mudpies out of it (long recordings of tweaking sessions to chop up later) because I like it that much. the sound of these wavetable sweeps is priceless!

Same issue here. MacBook Pro 2019. macOS 10.15.6 / Ableton Live 11 Beta 11.0b19

Tried the firewall, made no difference. Tried launching the standalone first, no change.

What DID fix it, was turning off WiFI and leaving my machine with no connectivity while trying to load the plugin.