Spectral Layers 11 : Blank Display on Open? Workaround for now - RESOLVED

[James Steele]

Just posting this in case other users of Spectral Layers 11 (this does not apply to 10) on Apple Silicon Macs are having this issue. When you load in a project, you won't see anything in the Window where the spectral display should appear. This is a known issue and Steinberg has said they will fix with a 11.0.40 update shortly.

In the meantime, you could fix it by launching it in Rosetta 2 (but that blows!) so what you need to do is go down to the lower right and right-click the name of the audio file and choose "Zoom to Fit" and the display will return.

spectrallayers11workaround.jpg (88.89 KiB) Viewed 4261 times

I've also found that if you save the project with the timeline fully zoomed out on next open it will be blank and you have to repeat this and then your'e fine again, but if you zoom in just one notch on the timeline and save, when you open it again the display will be there.

[mikehalloran]

Much of Steinberg is not yet AS Native including installers and updaters. I encountered that this morning when the Steinberg Download Assistant kept crashing immediately along with around 20 other apps and installers—even in Safe Mode (I was screen sharing with Apple). With Apple Support's help it was determined that Rosetta II had crashed on my machine and the Rosetta II pop-up wasn't showing.

Here's how to reinstall Rosetta II:

Open Terminal.app, copy the following command, paste it then hit the Enter or Return key:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta

When prompted, type A then hit the Enter or Return key.

I got a few lines of error msgs till this showed up: Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully

I was then able to open Steinberg Download Assistant and update Dorico to 5.1.6

[James Steele]

I also had an issue with Steinberg Download Assistant crashing immediately. For the longest time I had to download directly from the Steinberg website. It turned out the issue was a very old third party font. Restoring fonts fixed it. I’ll need to find the link I found for solution. Sadly, the Steinberg forum was not helpful at all and I can’t remember how I came across the support page, but it was the answer for me.

I’ll post the link in this post later when I find it.

FOUND IT! Here's the link to what worked for me to fix when Steinberg Download Manager would just get stuck with spinning wheel on launch and require a force quit:

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-u ... ning-wheel

[James Steele]

Much of Steinberg is not yet AS Native including installers and updaters.

Fortunately, at least as far as their audio apps and plugins, most everything I have by them is AS native:
• Backbone 1.6.0
• Groove Agent 5.2.10
• Groove Agent SE 5.2.10
• HALion 7.1.0
• HALion Sonic 7.1.0
• Padshop 2.2.0
• Retrologue 2.4.0
• The Grand 3.3.0

Then the apps:
• Cubase (of course)
• Spectral Layers 11.0.30
• Steinberg Activation Manager 1.5.1.1191

Looks like the following apps aren't:
• Steinberg Download Assistant 1.35.0
• Steinberg Library Manager 3.2.50.300

That's just what I own. But it looks like basically their various "helper" and "manager" type apps are lagging behind. I sort of understand that. To the developer, I suppose, as long as they are functional it makes sense to focus on their apps and plugins that actually deal with audio. They probably won't bother updating them until it becomes clear that Apple is about to remove the Rosetta 2 code from a future OS.

[mikehalloran]

I also had an issue with Steinberg Download Assistant crashing immediately. For the longest time I had to download directly from the Steinberg website. It turned out the issue was a very old third party font. Restoring fonts fixed it. I’ll need to find the link I found for solution. Sadly, the Steinberg forum was not helpful at all and I can’t remember how I came across the support page, but it was the answer for me.

I’ll post the link in this post later when I find it.

FOUND IT! Here's the link to what worked for me to fix when Steinberg Download Manager would just get stuck with spinning wheel on launch and require a force quit:

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-u ... ning-wheel

Yes, I had that as well and it took forever to isolate he correct, corrupt font. Daniel Spreadbury was quite helpful but it was annoying as hell.

The Rosetta II crash will not give you the spinning beach ball. You'll see a crash report in a split second. Izotope Product Portal and any other non-Native app or installer will also crash immediately. Band-In-A-Box requires Rosetta II and when it crashed identically, that's when I suspected the true cause. All of Apple's Support docs kept reading that the Rosetta pop-up would always show — that's when I called in and got the solution.

[James Steele]

Steinberg just pushed out Spectral Layers 11.0.40 which fixes that issue, plus contains other fixes and improvements.

Also, Steinberg Download Assistant will self-update.

SpectraLayers 11.0.40
October 28, 2024. We’re happy to announce the availability of the SpectraLayers 11.0.40 maintenance update. This new version introduces many issue resolutions and improvements throughout the application. This is also the first version of SpectraLayers that supports the AAX format and can be loaded as an ARA plug-in in Pro Tools.

Improvements and New Features
• SpectraLayers 11.0.40 can now be used in ARA mode in Pro Tools (version 2024.10 required).
• Additional bitrate options are available for exporting multichannel projects.
• More customizable mouse shortcuts have been added.
• The size of the Module Presets selector has been increased.

Stability and Performance
• SpectraLayers now performs accurate delay compensation when loaded as an ARA extension in Cubase and Studio One.
• When using the Playback tool with a limited frequency range, the playhead now properly mirrors what is being played.
• Using the DeClick module no longer creates audio artifacts at the beginning of a selection.
• Rendering or removing SpectraLayers as an ARA extension and then undoing it now works as expected.

[mikehalloran]

Steinberg just pushed out Spectral Layers 11.0.40 which fixes that issue, plus contains other fixes and improvements.

Also, Steinberg Download Assistant will self-update.

And it did, slowly but without a glitch. This is not something I am used to with Steinberg.