Duplicate system setups, but VDMX "forgets" soundcard?

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I’m working on two identical systems (so can switch over instantly if problems). Macbook Pro M3s, VDMX 6Plus, all same OS/software. NDI cameras to share inputs. The audio and MIDI input devices are Volt 2, both getting exactly the same MIDI and audio flow from a third computer.

All VDMX projects use Audio Analysis with the Input Device set to the Volt 2. All VDMX projects are synchronized so edits to one appear on the other.

However, if I save a project on system 1, close it and open the same project on system 2. The Audio Analysis inspector indicates seemingly correctly with words in the inspector that “Volt 2” is the current device in use. But, there is no sound! Never. I always manually have to select any another device (effectively de-selecting the “Volt 2”), then select the very same “Volt 2” again. THEN audio is flowing. This gets tedious over time.

Is this a bug in VDMX… or might something be broken in my setup?

My intuition is that this might be a bug but a visual bug not an audio bug. Because the soundcards are titled “Volt 2” but they likely have another way to identify themselves under the hood. They must have unique IDs, if not multiple cards would wreak havoc. I don’t know if VDMX tries to connect to the soundcard via that identifier, or via the display title. I think the first, it uses the unique ID, does not find that card, and then mistakenly claims in the inspector that it is using a device that is not there. The bug probably happens because there IS a device with the same name on the system, but it is not the device connected by ID. However, if it is indeed the latter, VDMX uses the name to connect, then why isn’t it working..?

If it is as assumed, it would be great if VDMX correctly displayed NO INPUT, so at a glance, I would know if it was connected or not. As of now, I have to always deselect and reselect to be certain.

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Hey GMM,

This could be a bug on our end, I’ll walk through the codebase / try to create a similar reproducible test case over here.

To answer your general question, yes we do get a unique identifier from each device, and we do try to connect to the device that matches it, and in theory it should be trying to select a device that has the same name but a different UID as a fallback (it sounds like this fallback might be silently failing in some way according to your notes!).

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Thanks David. Since I posted the question, I’ve upgraded from Sonoma 14.8.2 to Sequoia 15.7.3 just yesterday (on all systems), and I’m currently testing everything, including this issue:

This issue seem to “work” better now, in the sense that the Audio Analysis plugin does not connect to a device called “Volt 2” and then makes no sound, it still makes no sound but now the display falls back to the “-” placeholder, so at least it does not display the Volt 2 wrongly and I can then both visually identify the missing connection and also it is only one select operation to correct it (not two).

Though it would be great if VDMX could manage to use a soundcard with the same name, if the unique identifier does not match.

If this helps you, here attached are two simple VDMX projects, both with just a audio plugin using a Volt 2 interface, but saved on two separate systems (MB15 and MB13), so I suppose the UID of the Volt 2 will be different.

Archive.zip (38.3 KB)