Surge does not work properly in my workstation

[tavasti]

Trying to find out why Vember Surge is working ok in my laptop, but not in my workstation.
On workstation, only some of the presets produce sound, maybe 1/15.

Both computers are running same version of Surge. Same version of Mixbus5.
Listing packages which provide libraries which Surge depends on, on both computers, list is identical, same versions.

Code: Select all

tavasti@hermo:~$ dpkg -l $(for i in $(ldd /usr/lib/vst/Surge.so | sed 's/.*=>//;s/ (.*//') ; do dpkg -S $i | sed 's/: .*//' ; done ) 
dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern *linux-vdso.so.1*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                         Version             Architecture        Description
+++-============================-===================-===================-=============================================================
ii  libbsd0:amd64                0.8.7-1             amd64               utility functions from BSD systems - shared library
ii  libc6:amd64                  2.27-3ubuntu1       amd64               GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2:amd64              1.15.10-2ubuntu0.1  amd64               Cairo 2D vector graphics library
ii  libexpat1:amd64              2.2.5-3             amd64               XML parsing C library - runtime library
ii  libfontconfig1:amd64         2.12.6-0ubuntu2     amd64               generic font configuration library - runtime
ii  libfreetype6:amd64           2.8.1-2ubuntu2      amd64               FreeType 2 font engine, shared library files
ii  libgcc1:amd64                1:8.2.0-1ubuntu2~18 amd64               GCC support library
ii  libpixman-1-0:amd64          0.34.0-2            amd64               pixel-manipulation library for X and cairo
ii  libpng16-16:amd64            1.6.34-1ubuntu0.18. amd64               PNG library - runtime (version 1.6)
ii  libstdc++6:amd64             8.2.0-1ubuntu2~18.0 amd64               GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libx11-6:amd64               2:1.6.4-3ubuntu0.1  amd64               X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6:amd64                1:1.0.8-1           amd64               X11 authorisation library
ii  libxcb-cursor0:amd64         0.1.1-4ubuntu1      amd64               utility libraries for X C Binding -- cursor
ii  libxcb-image0:amd64          0.4.0-1build1       amd64               utility libraries for X C Binding -- image
ii  libxcb-render-util0:amd64    0.3.9-1             amd64               utility libraries for X C Binding -- render-util
ii  libxcb-render0:amd64         1.13-1              amd64               X C Binding, render extension
ii  libxcb-shm0:amd64            1.13-1              amd64               X C Binding, shm extension
ii  libxcb-util1:amd64           0.4.0-0ubuntu3      amd64               utility libraries for X C Binding -- atom, aux and event
ii  libxcb-xkb1:amd64            1.13-1              amd64               X C Binding, XKEYBOARD extension
ii  libxcb1:amd64                1.13-1              amd64               X C Binding
ii  libxdmcp6:amd64              1:1.1.2-3           amd64               X11 Display Manager Control Protocol library
ii  libxext6:amd64               2:1.3.3-1           amd64               X11 miscellaneous extension library
ii  libxkbcommon-x11-0:amd64     0.8.0-1ubuntu0.1    amd64               library to create keymaps with the XKB X11 protocol
ii  libxkbcommon0:amd64          0.8.0-1ubuntu0.1    amd64               library interface to the XKB compiler - shared library
ii  libxrender1:amd64            1:0.9.10-1          amd64               X Rendering Extension client library
ii  zlib1g:amd64                 1:1.2.11.dfsg-0ubun amd64               compression library - runtime

Running out of ideas, what could be such difference that on one Surge work ok, on other only small part of presets produce sound?

[tavasti]

And on workstation, Surge loaded with carla, 100% identical problem. Tested few versions of surge package.

[tavasti]

Tried also:

- building surge myself
- creating new user account, and running with it
- re-installing all packages which contain libraried which surge uses

And still, nothing has changed, they are same presets that work, rest not.

[stanlea]

Are there differences between your jack settings on the 2 machines ? (frequency, samples)

[tavasti]

Are there differences between your jack settings on the 2 machines ? (frequency, samples)

Thanks for idea!

Tried, does not change anything.

When surge has 'defect' patch loaded, even surges own Output level meter is dead, not showing any move.

[stanlea]

Are there differences between your jack settings on the 2 machines ? (frequency, samples)

Thanks for idea!

Tried, does not change anything.

When surge has 'defect' patch loaded, even surges own Output level meter is dead, not showing any move.

I have the same issue on my laptop.

[tavasti]

When surge has 'defect' patch loaded, even surges own Output level meter is dead, not showing any move.

I have the same issue on my laptop.

Do you have same patches working?

For me, only small part of presets play anything. Started to browse presets, and checking first ~20 from bass, and these were working:
Bass 10, Deep end, Distorted MW, FM Bass 1

From pads, Ghost pad is first to produce anything usable, some patches before it produced only some single cracks.

[rghvdberg]

What is the actual sampling rate you run with your audio card ?
IIRC Surge could misbehave on samplerates other than 44.1Khz.

Also, did you put in an a bug report (issue) on github ?
If you don't feel like doing that (all cool with that) I'd suggest hopping on irc, freenode #surgesynth, and mention your problem there.
That irc channel is linked to the developers slack channel, and will surely be picked up.
You know what, I'll post a link to this thread there.

And thank you for your time investigating this problem.

Cheers,
Rob

[tavasti]

What is the actual sampling rate you run with your audio card ?
IIRC Surge could misbehave on samplerates other than 44.1Khz.

Tried both, doesn't matter. It is possible that some cracklings may appear only at 48k, but silent presets are silent on both.

Also, did you put in an a bug report (issue) on github ?
If you don't feel like doing that (all cool with that) I'd suggest hopping on irc, freenode #surgesynth, and mention your problem there.

Did not yet, because I was so sure 'I have messed my system'. I'll do some more testing this evening, and I'll create issue. And I will join irc also

[tavasti]

Got this same problem with fresh installed virtual machine with xubuntu 18.04.

- install xubuntu 18.04. At testing time, old install image and not upgrading packages, but problem does not disappear with upgrading
- install there ardour with apt (no official ardour) and surge from releases deb
- present usb audio interface to virtual machine
- start jack with qjackctl, configure to use that usb audio interface. Tried 48k and 44.1k, same results

Actually most likely not even usb audio interface presentation is needed

[tavasti]

Same virtual machine with ubuntustudio iso, and all presets seem to work.

I'll create issue with this data.

Edit: https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/surge/issues/710

[stanlea]

I'm almost sure it's a know issue, I have the information on the discord KXstudio channel.

[tavasti]

I'm almost sure it's a know issue, I have the information on the discord KXstudio channel.

Know issue by whom? And is reason know, and how to fix this?

[stanlea]

Copy/paste from discord :

falkTX05/02/2019
"surge" package is now on kxstudio repos
no more manual build needed
but of course remember this is still experimental stuff. the UI flickers a bit, but hey it finally runs

stanlea05/02/2019
Can someone confirm the presets loading badly ?

ecv06/02/2019
@stanlea I can confirm that at least in the build provided days ago. Only a few presets work for me. Mainly basses

rghvdberg07/02/2019
Known problem

no more accurate

[tavasti]

I have the same issue on my laptop.

It is locale issue. Run this before starting your DAW

export LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8

(Most likely this will get fixed, but for now)