[Ardour-Users] From Ardour 2 to 3 and from mac to Linux *MEGA-ouch*

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

Wendy,

On 05/07/2013 09:30 AM, Wendy Van Wynsberghe wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to open my files made in Ardour 2, now in Ardour 3
> (I had to move all my sound files)


I would recommend against taking complex sessions from A2 to A3.
The limitations in "upgrading" sessions are known.

With the number of new features and structural changes to A3, it would 
be very complicated to have perfect A2 import. Instead, the devs 
concentrate their limited resources on stability and new features in A3.

Given that A2 will continue to be available for download, I guess that's 
fair enough.

 From my own experience in upgrading sessions, you can pretty much count 
on the following being b0rken afterwards:
* all automation
* most if not all controller mappings
* some plugins seem to get lost
* timecode and sync settings

In rare cases, I've ended up with sessions with a broken processing 
graph - when playing, you don't see any channel meters and there is no 
sound despite the routing being correct.
I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem, but I worked around it by 
simplifying the session in A2 before loading it in A3.

OTOH, the actual sound content and region layout has been preserved 
correctly. So I'm now confident to take an edited session from A2 to A3 
for mixing, but if you have started mixing in A2 and there is a 
deadline, for your own sanity's sake finish it in A2.

> I get the following warnings:
>
> -> [WARNING]: Legacy session: automation list has no automation-id property.
> -> [WARNING]: AutomationList node without automation-id property, using
> default: gain

These are well known and might not be fixed for the reason stated above.

> -> pop-up window : Port registration Window
> unable to create port: failed constructor
> please press close.. (and then you start all over again)
>
> -> [ERROR]: JACK: Disconnect: can't disconnect named semaphore name =
> jack_sem.1000_default_ardourprobe err = Invalid argument*

That's a new one. Maybe you have a zombie Ardour session in the 
background and have used up all your ports?
If you are using JACK2 (a.k.a. version 1.9.something), it will sometimes 
leave stale files in /dev/shm which prevent a restarted jack from 
working correctly. If your jack is dead and there is still stuff in 
there that has "jack" or anything related to audio in its filename, 
delete it.

> And my session does not want to open
> (stress..)*

Try using A2. It should be fully compatible with A2 on mac, with the 
obvious caveat: if you have used AU plugins, they will not be available 
on Linux.

> - I am running Linux Mint Maya (Lts)
> - the sessions were made on Mac OS X*
>
> ---> I have never used Mantis before --> is this the kind of stuff I
> would report there? It seems daunting to a non developer*

It's actually quite friendly. If you don't understand a particular 
field, just leave it empty. More experienced mantis users can polish 
your ticket if necessary. But before you report such issues, maybe go on 
IRC, talk to the devs and ask what classes of bugs they are actually 
interested in and have time to eventually address.

> ----> for bug reports, is it best to start Ardour from the command line?
> gdb is a bit too far off :-/*

Yes, good point. Starting from the command line will let you see any 
critical error messages in your terminal window.

GDB is not too scary either, there's a simple recipe to create 
meaningful backtraces. But it can be very slow with large sessions.
However, GDB is most helpful for end-users when there's an actual crash. 
Simple misfeatures can't be diagnosed with a backtrace.

Best,


Jörn


-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier
Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487

Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio)
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