Plugin Blacklisting with maschine?

Warren Postma

I have no problems running Maschine and having it find my plugins on my windows machine but on my Mac running Mac OS Monterey maschine is a disaster.

1. If I run in rosetta, maschine hangs scanning bx_masterdesk. It doesn't write anything into its plugin scan data files (whatever those may be called) and so it's redoing the scan each time it relaunches.
2. When a plugin scan hangs ESC key does not close the scan (at the splash screen).
3. If you KILL the ScanApp using the Activity Monitor (like task manager but the mac version), you can get into maschine, but even inside maschine the scans still hang on some plugins.
4. If you run in native (m1 mac) mode, maschine hangs scanning Arturia Analog Lab V.

All plugin alliance and arturia plugins are up to date and all work fine with 5 other DAWs on this machine.

Maschine alone has a lot of trouble with a lot of my plugins, none of which are too rare or uncommon.

I don't see any evidence that Maschine bothers to maintain a blacklist of plugins (which it would do by writing to a temporary file, saying, if I should die before I wake, I swear this plugin never to scan again, remember this, like tying a piece of string around your finger as a reminder). Just about every other daw has this feature. (Ah the sound of my country, Maschine.)

Any ideas what to do?

Warren

Warren Postma

I did enable full disk access on Mac for maschine and for the PA installer.

Now that I have killed the ScanApp during a scan while it was hung on this plugin, it no longer hangs. NOt sure why.

Warren Postma

(This is latest maschine 2.17 software, Komplete 13, reaktor latest version with M1 native compatibility. maschine mk3 controller. Mac OS Monterey, Mac is a Mac Studio, M1 max cpu)

Warren Postma

It seems always the Audio Unit bx_masterdesk not the vst2 or vst3 that hangs it. There's no skip button and Cancel doesn't work at all.

6xes

isnt there a tickbox... where you can disable it?

prefs/plugins/manager

or does it still scan after unticking?? *shrugs

tribepop

If you don’t want the software to scan your plugins on every start there’s a way to prevent that (on windows you have to remove an executable out of the Maschine directory, I’m sure it’s a similar process for Mac).

If you are wanting to disable certain plugins from showing up in the list of available plugins within the software, you can select them one by one in the preferences menu under the plugin manager section.

I recommend doing this in general, as sometimes the list can get bloated especially if you don’t regularly use half of the plugins.

Warren Postma

I do want new plugins I install to show up. I don't want Maschine to RESCAN and fail 10x.

A proper blacklist would automatically write to a file "I am scanning pluginX". then "I am finished scanning plugin X". If the whole app hangs during a scan of a specific plugin, Maschine, if it was coded properly would realize it had died while scanning this plugin last time, and not repeat the mistake. Cubase does this properly. Reason does this properly. Audacity (which is free) does this properly. Bitwig does this properly. MASCHINE does not

The problem is that both at startup and later, if a scan occurs, which it always does, (and no altering and deleting binaries from the installation is not a fair option), there is no way to stop it from hanging.

Here is a workaround that is less than ideal, but does not involve altering the binaries folders installed by NI:

1. Using task manager on windows or activity monitor on Mac os, kill the scan app when it hangs endlessly.
2. remove the offending plugins and rescan, removing (deleting plugins from disk) until Maschine WORKS.

Unfortunately disabling plugins is only a solution if you want to prevent them from showing up in the app. Which is a good solution if you want it to remain installed and in use but not to interfere with the app scanning for other plugins whenever you update them.

This is really seriously SHODDY quality from NI and I do expect them to fix this in future with:

1. A proper blacklist file that will let you specify paths and plugin names that should be never scanned.
2. A timeout system that automatically gives up on a plugin after a 40 second hang.
3. A way to report to NI that items should be considered part of the blacklist.
4. An automatic add to blacklist feature if the scanapp dies, or is killed, or hangs more than 40 seconds.

For an example of a company/product that does blacklisting correctly, see Steinberg Cubase.

They actually actively track incompatible plugins and maintain a list.

A blacklist means "<Brand>This</Brand> <Version>3</Version> <Filename>NameHere</Filename>"

information tracked about incompatible plugins.

Jeremy_NI

@Warren Postma Is it something that is only happening with bx_masterdesk or it also happens with other plug-ins? I'll try to repro that and contact the devs. I've also forwarded your comments about a blocklist as feature request.

Warren Postma

Thank you for forwarding this.

It seems to occur for a series of Plugin Alliance plugins, all from Brainworks, and starting with bx.

I do not own all the brainworks plugins but bx_masterdesk has about 4 variants, a true peak and regular one, and a couple others.

A few other bx mastering plugins are also affected.

I have discovered a weird workaround.

1. start maschine.
2. KILL the scanapp task.
3. rescan and keep killing scanapp until eventually you get other plugins to scan.
4. restart and at last let it scan only bx_masterdesk or the affected plugin.
5. eventually it will scan, after 10x retries.

Jeremy_NI

@Warren Postma That's weird it happens with Brainworx plug-ins and not others. Can you make sure to give the Plugin Alliance installer and Maschine Full Disk Access: How to Enable Full Disk Access on macOS

Warren Postma

I did enable full disk access on Mac for maschine and for the PA installer.

Now that I have killed the ScanApp during a scan while it was hung on this plugin, it no longer hangs. NOt sure why.

Jeremy_NI

Ok, thanks for the information. Keep us posted if the issue re-appears.