Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Please ensure you are running the latest freqport software release before refering to items on this page.


Issue1: Device Unreachable or Finding Hardware

  • Double check the FT-1 is powered on and USB cable is firmly connected to the unit and the other end connected to the Host computer using a dedicated USB port (not through a HUB or converters).

  • On your MAC do not use a mix of freqtube VST3 and freqtube AU instances in same project.  

  • Check your MAC for corrupt MIDI device: https://support.freqport.com/portal/en/kb/articles/macos-setup#MacOS_Corrupt_Audio_MIDI_Setup

  • When opening new project ensure any existing project is closed completely before opening new. Studio One for example requires you "Close All" between changing projects.
    This is to ensure all instances of freqtube are released by the DAW to use in your new project.

  • Please do not load or shutdown the HUB application manually at any time. 
    The DAW controls the opening of the HUB when plugin is loaded and you can open the HUB using "show interface" in the Toolbar.

  • Ensure the HUB application has not been moved from its default installed location (/Applications on MAC and Program Files/freqport on PC).

  • If your DAW has crashed for some reason then make sure the hub (if shown in taskbar) is shutdown before opening the DAW again. 

  • Note: The number of instances of the plugin that can be loaded is related to the number of tubes enabled (either 2,3 or 4). Adding more than the max achievable instances will show no tubes available.

 Issue2: No Audio through the plugin but connects to hardware fine.

  • Please check "Audio MIDI setup" on MAC and "Manage sound devices" on PC, that you do not have freqtube as part of any aggregation device or part of any other shared audio device. 

  • Check that there is no software installed or running in the background that may also use or be assigned to freqtube as an audio device in some way. Examples of this are  Sound flower, Audio Hijack, Sound Siphon, other audio programs or second DAWs etc. Disable or uninstall this software to check if its related to the issue.

    This software can steal audio from freqtube, or reconfigure the core/windows audio in your system and it may become incompatible with freqtube.

  • Playback start. Some DAW's may mute the very start of an track that has freqtube on it due to DAW latency compensation. Please check this by starting the audio playback a bar earlier.

  • Double check the parallel and primary mixer and filters that they are not set with cutoff very high or low such that the audio is completely filtered paying attention to the audio pathing and analog mixer. Turn off both filters to check this.

  • Turn off Voice Isolation on your Mac, click the Audio button (Microphone icon) in the menu bar, then select Standard.

  • Please go through each step in "Device Unreachable or Finding Hardware". On MAC ensure that only one type of plugin is used per project (i.e AU or VST not both).

 Issue3: Audio Glitches during playback.

  • Check article related to your specific DAW (including ensuring freqtube MIDI in and out is disabled in your DAW): https://support.freqport.com/portal/en/kb/freqport/articles

  • Set your DAW audio interface to 512 or 1024 samples. If running v1.5.4 try also increase the DAW process buffer size (otherwise known as Dropout protect, Guard, Block Size or Process buffer). 

  • Change HUB buffersize to 512 and Uncheck the lower latency option in the HUB.

  • RPCheck (Real-time performance check with freqtube bypassed):
    Unlike CPU based plugins, real-time analog hardware (such as freqtube plugins) require real-time performance to operate. Audible artifacts may occur if your project has no headroom to handle real-time playback of your project without any glitches or CPU drop outs at any time.
    Test this by bypassing freqtube plugin and listening or bouncing your project in real-time and checking for any CPU overload moments, or any glitches. This needs to be resolved before using any analog hardware such as freqtube.
    For example if while playback the CPU meter is sitting around 70% or 80% average, it could still jump to 100% or higher momentarily – if this occurs then glitches will occur in your real-time audio. This can be noticeable, or hard to hear.

  • When using Bypass function use freqtube's built in bypass button (bottom of UI), rather than using the bypass that the DAW provides.

  • Double check the USB cable is firmly connected to the unit and the other end connected to the Host computer using a dedicated USB port (not through a HUB or converters).

  • Try a different USB cable in case the one used has been damaged somehow.

  • If on PC ensure your main audio interface has ASIO driver selected (WDM and other drivers are not recommended and can have very poor performance).
    In addition please refer to optimize windows for audio     https://support.freqport.com/portal/en/kb/articles/optimi .

  • Close applications other than your DAW running on the Host computer.