Project/Patch Settings File Causing Crash (Red Pads of Death)

Bug Description

When loading a previously composed and saved piece, the Play+ will freeze on loading said song, causing the pads to turn red. This seems to occur with projects using the WTFM synth “Lightbulb”.

This has occurred to me in 2 separate songs. After the first experience, thinking it was being caused by files with large names, I truncated the sample names but still had issues loading the project. I also deleted the workspace folder, again with no change in the problem.

I then duplicated the project to test what would happen by deleting individual parts of the project until I found the file(s) that may be causing the issue. After removing samples and patterns, I found that the issue was resolved in the deletion of all, or a combination of, the 0.patch, 1.patch, 2.patch, and settings files within the project folder. I deleted all 4 in the original project and replaced them with copied files from a blank project that I keep on my computer. The project then loaded without issue, albeit my synths had completely reinitialized and had to be built again.

Today, on a completely different song, I ran into the same issue. Again, it was resolved by deleting the .patch and settings files. After looking into both projects, I found that they had each used the WTFM synth “Lightbulb”.

I have attached the folder for one of these projects that still crashes. Unfortunately, I do not have the other as I had already deleted the files in question.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open a new project and fill the tracks with notes
  2. Of the 3 synth tracks, make one WTFM - Lightbulb
  3. Tweak synth tracks to taste using macros per note/track
  4. Once finished, save (ex. Project A), and open another project
  5. Shut down the device
  6. Power it back on sometime later
  7. Open Project A after boot and it should freeze around 1/4-1/2 of the loading bar, causing the grid pads to turn red.

Occurrence / Frequency

Sometimes

Found in Firmware

  • Version: 1.1.0
  • Build: 1708

Attachments

I had a very similar problem. It might be related. If not, I’ll open my own bug report.

Today, I went through all my projects, and when trying to load certain projects, I also encountered the ‘red pads of death.’ After restarting my Play+, I was able to load the project. This has happened to me several times with the new firmware (1.1.0 Build 1708), and I had the feeling it was related to the synths. However, in my case, it was always self-created and quite different patches. But all the problematic projects had either a VAP or WTFM loaded.

Additionally, the problem only seems to occur after I load several projects in relatively quick succession.

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That is interesting. I have also only experienced this using the latest firmware, though I had only had the Play+ for a few months before updating it.

Occasionally, it will let me load the crashed project after a hard reset, but it’s pretty random when that happens. The only sure-fire method Ive come across so far is as stated in the original post.

Hopefully they’re looking at this issue. Short of avoiding certain patches all together, idk what to do about it. It could be worth it to upload a corrupted project for them to look at if you have one.

Hey @Origami_Poltergeist sorry for the delay, but there’s an explanation behind it.

Basically after I loaded your project onto my Play, my Project folder got corrupted, and all of my Projects got lost.

It’s totally possible that something messed up on my system on my end during the transfer, but we’re just approaching this one a bit more delicately.
I’ll find an SD card to format, install current firmware, and then transfer the project over again.

Again sorry if it’s not the best update, but just wanted to be sure that you knew this issue was not being ignored.

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Hi there @Dann no worries at all! I appreciate you reaching out to let me know whats up. That’s wild it completely corrupted your project folder! I havent had any issues with loosing projects, but I also haven’t touched the project pretty much since it crashed. I’m interested to hear what you find out! If there’s anything i can do to help, please let me know!

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I went ahead and created a separate sd card, just to be safe.
Installed the same firmware and added some projects just to make sure i can test whether it does corrupt projects or not.

I can report the following findings:

  • As expected your project “The Dawn” does indeed crash out while loading with all pads turning red
  • My projects are still intact, so corruption of other projects may have been caused by something else @Dann? Did you pull the card while the device was still on? I unplugged it and removed the card afterwards. Seems to have not corrupted anything.
  • I’ve went ahead and replaced the .patch files for your project with some from a test project that used a slightly altered “Lightbulb” patch - still ends up crashing.
  • I then replaced the patches with a set of .patch files from a freshly initialized project - then it loads

So i’m not sure if it’s the Lightbulb patch directly that is causing this issue, or if it’s a combination of patches.

But i would say it’s definitely reproducable thanks to your project file! :heart:

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I’m sure you must have thought of this, but have you checked whether the total length of all your samples is too great? I notice there are two of 30 secs each and some others are much longer than they need to be. The manual suggests 6 mins of samples is typically the storage capacity (it varies).
I made a copy of the project, removed about 4mb of silence and long fadeouts from the samples: couldn’t get the red pads or crashes. (might not have tested it as thoroughly as might have been best but…)

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Hi! @Sandroid thanks for looking into this for me! I had a similar hunch when it happened the second time, so im glad to hear your experience is similar at least. I really love the Lightbulb patch lol

I will have some time off here soon, so I’ll try and do some testing on patch combinations. I might be able to narrow it down a bit. Hopefully it’s an easy fix!

I will eat humble pie about my previous comments - I tried it out again and as soon as I added some WTFM notes on another project and went back to my copy of “The Dawn” I got the red pads. (I did wonder whether the WTFM synth needs a little space in memory for it’s own samples in order to function and if the users samples have already taken all the space, it can’t function - but I’m not a tech person so that’s probably complete rubbish!)

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No worries! Thanks for taking a look at it for me. It never hurts to leave no stone unturned! Thats an interesting observstion about the WTFM synth and sample file space. Hopefully the Devs at polyend can take a closer look at it for us, as I’m not sure if or how the samples from the pool effect the wavetables, either.

I thought the observation might be helpful anyway. I got the memory thing back to front in my head but the principle might be related - if use of a WTFM synth leaves something in memory that might “get in the way” of loading, say a sample heavy preset, but it could be something else. It would keep the problem until that gets cleared by restarting the machine, for example. (On other devices I know that sometimes settings from one preset may not be overwritten or initialised in memory when another preset is loaded causing unexpected results.)
I don’t know how WTFM synths work in detail, I probably wouldn’t understand if someone told me! I just know they have built in samples, how they are used is beyond me.

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