Hung Save Indicator [RESOLVED]

[ardourwlk (M Aaronwalker)]

First, a question, then the (unrelated) issue:

If I have the choice between an LV2 and, say, some flavor of VST plugin (like with Sfizz), which should I choose? I’m using AVLinux MX-21 with pre-installed Ardour, etc.

Second, the issue:

I have a session where the “save indicator” is on constantly. It’s probably related to one of the Sfizz tracks or its related CC automation. Nothing in the Ardour log jumps out at me. I don’t really want to undo any of the snazzy stuff I’ve done to try to figure it out. What’s my next step?

Thanks!

[x42 (Robin Gareus)]

@ardourwlk

If I have the choice between an LV2 and, say, some flavor of VST plugin (like with Sfizz), which should I choose?

The main factor here is moving sessions to a different system or OS. Historically LV2 was preferable since most LV2 are cross platform. With VST3 this is less of an issue these days.

In some cases (eg. LSP-Plugins) LV2 variant offers inline displays or additional features that other formats cannot.

but other than that VST3 and LV2 are pretty much equal contenders from a user’s POV. – Just avoid VST2 if there is an alternative (it’s EOL, Steinberg does no longer offer licenses, and it never officially supported Linux).

@ardourwlk

I have a session where the “save indicator” is on constantly.

We have seen this with some plugins. They constantly mark the session as modified.

To test this hypothesis, load the session with “[x] Safe mode: disable all plugins” (checkbox in the load recent session dialog) and see if that makes the problem go away.

Later you could try to bypass some plugins and see if you can find the one causing it.

[x42 (Robin Gareus)]

@ardourwlk

It’s probably related to one of the Sfizz tracks or its related CC automation.

If that is the case, there is little one can do about it.

If you manually send a CC event to change the plugin’s state, you do want the plugin to mark the session as modified.

But the plugin cannot know or tell where the event originated from: automation, or live signal [1].

–

[1] This is not entirely true. Recent VST3 SDK allows the host to flag events, Ardour does that, but it also depends on the plugin to interpret this correctly.

[ardourwlk (M Aaronwalker)]

Thank you sir. Started in safe mode, and the save indicator disappeared. Restarted normally, and disabled the plugin for the main Sfizz track, and the save indicator disappeared. Re-enabled the plugin, and removed an essentially unused automation lane, and all is back to normal.