michaeljahncke wrote. . . For instance, when my track gets to the end, it automatically jumps back to the beginning and plays again (and again). It does this during playback, record, bounce, etc., making it impossible to complete anything.

If I set the playhead anywhere else in the track, when it reaches the end it jumps back to that location and continues to the end (jumping back again and again).

I did some experiments and verified that the problem occurs on my 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (Early 2008) here in the sound isolation studio, which is running Mac OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan) . . .

The current version of NOTION 6 does something similar in Digital Performer 9.51 (MOTU), but the previous version of NOTION 6 was doing the same thing, and after a while I discovered how to work with it . . .

It's difficult to explain the "workaround" I use, but the high-level version is that it's a combination of (a) setting markers to places where I need to jump, (b) manually positioning the current location in NOTION 6, and (c) recording new NOTION 6 instruments from the start of the song (which is what I do nearly all the time, anyway, so for me it's not a problem) . . .

I don't recall starting to record in a different location in Digital Performer than at the start of the song, so I did a quick experiment, and it works in Digital Performer like I expect it to work; but after I stop recording it jumps back to the measure and beat where I started recording; so that part of the navigation problems is not changed . . .

Making it all the more confusing, sometimes it does the "automatic reposition" thing, but other times it doesn't do it; and in Digital Performer 9.51, there's an additional interaction with markers that causes it to jump to the next marker or somewhere that makes no sense, rather than back to where it thought it was . . .

It's definitely an odd set of navigational behaviors, but for me it's more like a minor annoyance that I manage with a set of "workarounds" that I understand but are not so easy to explain, which basically is a way to say that I have an intuitive strategy but haven't taken the time to reduce it to a specific algorithm or set of procedures . . .

I know where I want to be in the song, and if after pressing the "Stop" button I am somewhere else, then I set the measure and beat in Digital Performer to where I want to be, which works and is fine with me . . .

In fact, when I am working on a phrase--experimenting with different note sequences and so forth--it's actually helpful to jump automagically back to the start of the phrase after I press "Stop", except that it doesn't always do the automagic "jump back" . . .

Regardless, for me it's not a showstopper . . .

LOGIC PRO X

However, I have some songs that I use for testing other DAW applications, and I was able to verify the problem you have encountered . . .

I tried as many options and other stuff as I could find, and none of them worked . . .

There are options for the navigating behaviors in Logic Pro X for the "Play" and "Stop" buttons on the transport; and I tried various combinations, but none of them solved the problem . . .

Wherever you start in Logic Pro X is where it "jumps back", and it does this when you start recording, as well . . .

It doesn't do this in Digital Performer 9.51 . . .

The only "workaround" I have found so far is to set the position in Logic Pro X a few measures before you want to start recording . . .

This works, and depending on what you are recording it might be a usable "workaround" . . .

"WORKAROUND" STRATEGY FOR LPX+N6

(1) It's important to remember that once you have recorded a track of audio for a NOTION 6 instrument, you can stop input-monitoring the NOTION 6 generated audio for that instrument, since after being recorded in Logic Pro X, it's just an audio track . . .

(2) If I change a single note or add some phrases, I always start recording somewhere nearby where the specific instrument is not playing a note. Explained another way, if there are quarter notes for the 1st and 2nd beats of a measure, but I add a third quarter note on the 3rd beat of the measure, then when I do the recording I start somewhere before that measure where nothing is happening. I do this primarily to give the DAW application and NOTION a few beats to get synchronized or whatever. In the example, I would not try to start recording the newly added quarter note on the 3rd beat, and I'm not certain if that would (or should) work. Another thing I always do is to start recording; stop recording after a measure or so; and then do the "keeper" recording. This gives the DAW application and NOTION time to get synchronized and to preload their buffers. Generally, as noted, I have a few empty measures at the start of a song, so that the actual song starts, for example, on the 1st beat of the 5th measure. For recording, I start on the 1st beat of the 4th measure, so that by the time the 5th measure begins, everything is communicating smoothly. The other reason, is that if Digital Performer is the DAW application and the ReWire host controller, then rewinding to the 1st beat of the 1st measure crashes Digital Performer, which has been happening with every version of Digital Performer and NOTION since 2010. The "workaround" is that I never use the "ReWind" buttons in Digital Performer and NOTION. Instead, I use user-defined markers, which is fine with me; and to avoid confusion, this actually is a logical behavior, since in Digital Performer you can rewind before the 1st beat of the 1st measure, which is handy when one is working on a movie score or something. NOTION does not have any measures before the 1st beat of the 1st measure, but Digital Performer allows this; so while the "ReWind" behavior definitely is strange, it's actually logical, albeit badly handled by Digital Performer, since as you know, the rule in the Apple universe is that applications are not supposed to crash, hence when an application crashes, I suggest it's the problem of the application that crashed, and in this instance NOTION does not crash, but it becomes totally confused . . .

(3) If you are recording real instruments or real singing, once you have the NOTION instruments recorded, you can exit NOTION and just work in Logic Pro X; and the problem will not occur . . .

(4) It's also very important that you have a sufficient number of measures in the NOTION score, even if they are empty measures; because once you get to the end of the measures in NOTION, it will stop the recording. When I am adding new measures to a song--either (a) music notation and virtual instruments or (b) real instruments and real singing--then I append a bunch of empty measures to the NOTION score so that when I start recording there are plenty of extra measures to give me time to navigate to the "Stop" button on the DAW application transport . . .

(5) Rather than try to start all over, I would do some experiments to find a "workaround" solution that is not too annoying; and until the problem is corrected, I think the best strategy is to adjust your working habits so the "jump back" behaviors are not a problem. It's a bit of a hassle to devise "workarounds", but it's better than not being able to do all the stuff NOTION makes possible . . .

THOUGHTS

I did a few more experiments, and this problem does not occur when Logic Pro X is the ReWire host controller and Reason 9.5.2 (Propellerhead Software) is the only ReWire slave . . .

The rule in this regard is that since the Propellerheads are responsible for ReWire and determine the official ReWire rules, the way Reason behaves is the gold standard for a ReWire slave application . . .

Since (a) Reason does not crash and (b) Logic Pro X behaves nicely in the scenario where Logic Pro X is the ReWire host controller and Reason is the only ReWire slave application, this suggests to me that the "jump back" behavior is a problem caused by NOTION . . .

SUMMARY

The problem occurs, and I verified it on my Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio. It also occurs when Digital Performer is the ReWire host controller and NOTION is the ReWIre slave application . . .

The problem does not occur when Reason is the only ReWire slave application . . .

Intuitively, i think this might be due to NOTION having additional code that allows it to be a ReWire host controller; and I'm not certain why NOTION ever would need to be a ReWire host controller, especially now that the interactions with Studio One (PreSonus) are so elaborate, advanced, and elegant . . .

My advice is to report the problem to PreSonus and get a "trouble ticket" happening . . .

It's definitely a problem with NOTION . . .

Lots of FUN!

P. S. If the suggested "workaround" does not fit what you are doing, perhaps if you provide some scenarios in a follow-up post to this topic, then I might be able to devise a "workaround", although if you want to be able to add a few notes in the NOTION score and then record just the new notes, that's not something I would do, and I'm not certain it's something that should be possible . . .

There's a lot happening behind the scenes in a ReWire session; and my perspective is that keeping everything as simple as possible is the best strategy when recording NOTION generated audio in a ReWire session, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

P. P. S. If the problem was not occurring with the previous version of NOTION, then the PreSonus folks can get you a link to the previous version, which might be a better solution for a while . . .

I usually save the current version of NOTION before I do an update, so that if necessary I can revert to a previous version, which in some respects is a consequence of having what I call the "pack rat" gene . . .

I have an elaborate backup and archiving strategy, which includes external hard drives; and I clone the primary Mac OS X hard drive every few months and then use the clone, where I rotate a set of hard drives for this purpose; and I use SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) to do the hard drive cloning . . .

SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket)

Lots of FUN!