Audio stopped after updating OS from 10 to 13

Hello. I just updated my MacPro from OS 10 to OS 13. I've had Hauptwerk version V for the last few years. Occasionally lately, Hauptwerk would crash while practicing. I was hoping that the updated OS might solve this and other minor issues. When starting up Hauptwerk after the OS update, everything appears to work normally except there is no audio output. All settings (rank routing, bus groups, etc) seem to be the same. Indicators show that MIDI is working fine. All diagnostics seem completely normal, yet there is no sound. I am using a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 which has been great for years. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a simple fix? Would updating to HW8 solve this? Thank you. EWS

[mdyde]

Hello EWS,

Hauptwerk v8 uses newer versions of Apple's and Qt's components than earlier Hauptwerk versions, so that it can support macOS 13 better. Hence upgrading to v8 would be recommended in any case, but it might or might not be relevant to the specific problem you're having.

However, if macOS doesn't have enough RAM free for itself, its audio system (and thus also Hauptwerk) won't produce sound. Newer macOS versions tend to need more RAM than older ones, so updating macOS can cause that problem if you were using most of the RAM for Hauptwerk in the older macOS version. Also, once the problem has occurred you would probably need to reboot before macOS' audio system will work again.

Please try:

- Reboot the Mac.

- Log in and wait a minute or so to make sure that everything has had ample time to finish booting.

- Now launch Hauptwerk.

- Load St. Anne's (which doesn't use much memory).

- Using the mouse, turn on some stops and click on some keys.

Do you hear the pipes' sound?

Hello and thank you for your prompt response!

I took your recommendation and opened the St. Anne organ. Interestingly, only the subwoofer was able to play notes from one of the manuals. But it has been quite some time since loading St. Anne's and I don' know if I have the stop routing set up for that.

I then loaded the Caen organ. My MacPro has 32GB of RAM installed. When loading the Caen organ, the RAM available window shows 26.4GB available at the outset and goes down to 4.6GB available just before loading of the organ finishes. This seems consistent with how it was in OS 10. After loading, no notes sounded at all, even on the subwoofer.

I should note that general sounds from the computer still play through the Focusrite interface. I was able to play music from iTunes, etc. Any further ideas are greatly appreciated!

Erik S.

[mdyde]

Thanks, Erik.

The 4 GB 'free' that Hauptwerk shows is only a very rough estimate, and it could easily not be enough for the newer macOS version.

Please try:

- Reboot again, log in, wait, then launch Hauptwerk as before (without loading any organs yet).

- Use "Organ | Load organ, adjusting rank audio memory options", highlight all of the ranks, and change them to load in mono as a test, then OK the screen.

When the organ has finished loading, much more RAM should then be 'free'. Does that allow audio to be produced?

Martin,

Again, thank you for your helpfulness. I followed your instructions and the sound for the Caen organ has returned. I guess that was the problem! Would you advise further action? Or shall I just continue to play this organ (and the Zwolle Schnitger) in mono? I have been thinking up upgrading from Hauptwerk V to VIII. But I don't want to risk using more memory and incurring problems.

Erik S.

[mdyde]

Thanks, Erik. Excellent.

Wet/surround organs usually sound significantly better loaded in stereo than mono, so you might prefer to set them back to stereo and try some of the other per-rank options to reduce those organs' memory consumption (e.g. load ranks in 16-bit compressed if you're currently using 20/24-bit, and/or load just the first loops for some or all ranks).

Hauptwerk v8 shouldn't use significantly more memory than v5 unless you have its "General settings | General preferences | Advanced ... : Reserve RAM in chunks for fastest organ unloading/loading [may use a little more memory]?" setting turned on. (It's on by default, you can very easily turn it off again, so as to minimise memory footprint.)

If you are considering upgrading to v8 (which I'd certainly recommend for best compatibility with macOS 13, and for much improved features, etc.), I would do that first, before spending time on fine-tuning rank memory options.

Martin,

I have taken your advice and upgraded to Hauptwerk VIII. Interestingly, the Caen organ now plays at the highest audio qualities without any paring down of samples or switching from stereo to mono. Upon launching the Zwolle organ, the wizard asked for preferences and I selected the highest quality, mostly to see if there was enough memory. To my delight, when the organ loaded, it too played. However, upon re-launching the Zwolle organ, it will not play. However, the Caen organ continues to play normally after multiple re-loads. What could account for the Zwolle organ playing once and then not again without having changed any settings?

Erik

[mdyde]

Hello Erik,

Thanks very much for upgrading. Hope you like the new version.

What could account for the Zwolle organ playing once and then not again without having changed any settings?

I think it's probably simply that you're on the cusp of over-filling the RAM, so the results might be unpredictable. Free RAM needs are constantly varying a little as the OS and any other processes that might be running do things in the background.

I'd advise rebooting, then reducing some rank settings until Hauptwerk's 'free GB' figure is 2 or 3 GB higher than it is currently. Hopefully that should give you a bit more headroom for the OS to work reliably.

Caen and Zwolle both need around 26 GB at 24 bits or 23 GB at 20 bits, with all samples loaded. If you're loading at 24 bits and right at the edge of memory, I'd test them both at 20 bits. I'm not sure anyone can hear the difference.