Reference

Troubleshooting

Most questions have a quick answer. If yours isn’t here, write to contact@als-preview.de, with your macOS and Live version.

The plugin

Als Preview isn’t in Live’s plug-in browser.

Turn on Use Audio Units v3 in Live’s Settings › Plug-Ins; it needs Live 11.2 or later. Open Als Preview once so macOS registers the plugin, then click Rescan there, or restart Live. Look under Plug-Ins › Als Preview, or Audio Units › Als Preview in some versions of Live. See Set up the plugin in Live.

The plugin’s window says the set isn’t in my library.

Save the set into one of your library folders, and open Als Preview so it reads it. The window updates within a few seconds. Sets saved elsewhere record and track time anyway; they just aren’t shown in the library.

The window says Live can’t reach Als Preview’s files.

macOS asks whether Live may access data from other apps. Allow it, then open the set again.

The plugin window is locked.

The free trial hasn’t started or is over. The plugin keeps recording and tracking time; start the trial or buy Lifetime in Als Preview. See Free trial and purchase.

Recording and playback

A set has no Recording lane.

Check that the plugin is on the set’s Main track, that the set was saved after adding it, and that the set has played in Live since. The take being recorded appears when you stop. Takes shorter than half a second aren’t kept.

The recording has parts with only one track.

They were recorded while that track was soloed. Install the Remote Script so recording pauses during solos, then play those bars again with all tracks: the new take replaces the soloed one.

The recording is a little early or late against the clips.

Als Preview measures the delay of the devices on your Main track whenever playback starts from a stop, and uses the middle value of all takes. A set with very few takes, all started in the middle of the song, has little to measure: start once from a stop, with music right at the start.

The plugin window shows “dropped”.

Your Mac was so busy that the recorder had to leave out a few blocks of audio rather than make Live stutter. Play that part again for a clean take.

Space doesn’t play.

Space plays when the arrangement is showing; otherwise it opens Quick Look. When the set has nothing to play, it beeps. In Quick Look in Finder, double-click the arrangement instead.

The Recording lane says “No preview”.

The set couldn’t be rendered, and the reason follows:

• Samples in folders Als Preview may not read: add the folders with those samples in Settings › Locations › Sample Folders.
• Nothing the preview can play: the set’s music is in Session View clips, or only on instruments a preview can’t play while the stand-in synth is turned off in Settings › Previews.
• None of its samples could be read: they’re missing, or in folders Als Preview may not read.

A set that couldn’t be rendered isn’t tried again until you restart Als Preview or clear the previews in Settings › Storage. See Approximate previews.

How a set sounds

A set sounds bad: thin, dry, or with the wrong instruments.

Most likely you’re hearing only the approximate preview, because the set has no takes: the plugin isn’t on its Main track, or the set hasn’t played in Live since you added it. You can tell by the Recording lane: its pieces are blue and its header says Preview. Hold the pointer over the header to see what this preview left out.

A preview is rendered from the set without Live. It leaves out effects other than reverbs and delays on return tracks, plays plug-in instruments with a simple stand-in synth, and can’t play samples from Live’s Packs. It lets every set play, but it isn’t your mix.

For the real sound, put the Als Preview plugin on the set’s Main track, save the set, and play it once in Live. The takes replace the preview wherever you played. See Set up the plugin in Live and Closer to the real sound.

Some parts sound worse than the rest.

Those parts are blue: the plugin hasn’t recorded them, so the approximate preview fills in between the takes; see What a preview leaves out. Play those bars in Live with the plugin on the Main track, and the recording replaces the preview.

The recording sounds different from the set.

The recording is what Live played when you recorded it. After you change the set, play the changed parts once and the Recording lane has the new version. Older versions keep their own takes; see Older versions.

The library

Some sets don’t show up.

Als Preview only reads the folders in Settings › Locations. Add the folder, or the one around it. Sets on an external drive show up once the drive is connected; choose File › Rescan Library. Backups are hidden in the lists until you choose View › Show Backups.

Audio clips have no waveforms.

Their samples are outside your library folders, for example in Live’s Packs. Add the folder with the samples in Settings › Locations › Sample Folders.

In Quick Look, a set’s audio clips have waveforms once Als Preview has shown the set or rendered its preview; before that, they’re drawn without.

Samples show as “not checked”.

Als Preview may only look in folders you gave it. Click Allow Access… in the project’s Missing Files card, or add a sample folder.

The key says C Major, but the song is in F Minor.

Live keeps C Major as its default key until you set one. Look at the Detected Key, which comes from the notes you played.

The History draws a set as saved from the wrong one.

Without the plugin, where a set came from is guessed (dashed curve). With the plugin on the set, Save As copies are linked exactly from then on. So are Save As and Save a Copy made while the Remote Script runs, in Live 11.3.25 or later.

I removed a folder by mistake.

Add it again. Its projects come back, but statuses, notes and collections you gave them are gone with the folder.

A view, a collection or Locations is gone from the sidebar.

Removed from the sidebar, a view stays in All Views: Control-click it there and choose Add to Sidebar. A collection stays in All Collections: choose Pin to Sidebar there. A hidden Locations section comes back with Show Locations in the sidebar’s + menu. See Arranging the sidebar.

A status: search finds nothing.

status: finds only the statuses in your list, by their name or its beginning. A status you deleted, or a word that isn’t one, finds nothing. See Your own statuses.

Exports and time

An export says File Not Found.

The file was saved to a folder Als Preview doesn’t look in. Add that folder in Settings › Locations › Export Folders. See Exports.

An export doesn’t show up at all.

The set needs the plugin on its Main track, and the export has to go through the Main track: Rendered Track: Main, Live’s default, does.

No time is tracked.

The Remote Script tracks every set, in Live 11.3.25 or later; without it, only sets with the plugin on their Main track are tracked. A session counts once the set was open for a minute or played; the Remote Script leaves out sets that were never saved.

Time shows as Unknown Set.

It was spent in a set that’s gone, or whose file can’t be told apart from a copy. It still counts for the project.

Momentum

The Make ring stays empty.

Make counts working time, which the Remote Script or the plugin has to track. Until something has, Momentum says Make counts your working time in Live. Install the Remote Script in Settings › Plugin, or put the plugin on a set’s Main track. See Time tracking.

An export doesn’t fill the Finish ring.

Only exports the plugin logged count, so the set needs the plugin on its Main track, and only exports of a minute or longer. Marking a project Finished counts too, on the day you do it. See Momentum.

Projects that were already Finished don’t count.

Als Preview keeps a project’s status but not when it was set. It notes changes from the first time it looks at your library, so earlier ones can’t be counted.

There is no Next Moves section.

It shows up when a project fits one of its three rules, and is left out when none does. Statuses help: Almost There and Ready to Export look at projects in Mixing and Mastering, or in a status of yours that comes after them. See Next Moves.

A status I added doesn’t count as finished.

Momentum counts a status you add like the nearest of the five built-in ones above it in your list. Choose Edit Statuses… and drag it below Finished. See Your own statuses.

Listen says Rendering… and nothing plays.

The project has no export, so Momentum renders a preview of its main set first and plays it when it’s done. With rendering turned off in Settings › Previews, it can’t. A crossed-out play button means there is neither an export nor a main set to play.

Quick Look, Spotlight, Remote Script

Quick Look shows a plain file icon for .als files.

Open Als Preview once, so macOS registers its Quick Look preview. If another app also previews .als files, macOS may use that one.

Projects don’t appear in Spotlight.

Als Preview adds them after scanning the library; give it a moment after the first launch. Check that Als Preview isn’t turned off in System Settings › Spotlight.

AlsPreview isn’t in Live’s Control Surface list.

Restart Live after installing. Make sure you installed into the Remote Scripts folder of the User Library Live uses: it’s shown in Live’s Settings › Library.

The plugin says No solo watch.

Choose AlsPreview in a Control Surface slot in Live’s Settings › Tempo & MIDI, with Input and Output on None. See Set up the Remote Script.

Settings › Plugin says Last Heard from Live: Not yet.

Nothing from the script has arrived. Tracking time needs Live 11.3.25 or later, AlsPreview chosen as a Control Surface, and a restart of Live after installing. The script writes once a saved set has been open for a minute, or as soon as you do something in it.

The Remote Script runs, but its time doesn’t show.

Als Preview reads the time only from a copy it installed itself. If you copied the script by hand, click Install Remote Script… in Settings › Plugin and choose the same folder. Time in sets outside your library folders shows once you add their folder.