Does anyone know how the auto failover of a PlayAUDIO device works when running a multi-file project?
My understanding of the auto failover is that a plugin runs a constant sine wave to the PlayAUDIO, and when that output is interrupted, it switches over to the redundant computer. I would then guess that loading a new file would presumably interrupt the sine wave, so is this set up feasible - to have failovers happening each song?
I know there’s a setting of how long that interruption needs to be, that could maybe be set to roughly the length of a file load, but would that be so long as to cause a dropout in an actual failover situation? You can also auto switch back to Scene A when the sine wave returns, but I’ve heard that’s not generally a good practice.
Clearly I don’t know much about this, but mainly I’m just curious if anyone’s running this setup. Thanks!
Hey @tinsweep,
That’s currently a limitation of using AbleSet in Multi-File Projects, but I’ve added a new workaround in the latest beta of AbleSet 3 for this. Before loading a new project file, AbleSet will now automatically disarm connected redundant interfaces like the PlayAUDIO ones and arm them again after the new project file has been fully loaded.
That way, the audio interface doesn’t switch to the backup computer every time a project file is being loaded.
You can download the latest beta here: Beta - AbleSet Forum
I hope this helps 
Fantastic, I had a feeling you’d be on it, thanks!
Quick follow-up question on this same topic: When the multi-file project loads a song on both computers, what is the best way to handle different load times?
I was just testing it out, and the songs were just set to autoplay, but one computer was much faster at loading the file, and at worst I saw them get ~6000ms out of sync. Is that B computer just not going to cut it for redundant multi-file if it loads that slowly - or require a +PAUSE, or no autoplay?
Thanks again!
Hey @tinsweep,
That’s a good question! This is a very common thing to run into when testing multi-file projects in a redundant setup.
In short: I wouldn’t recommend using autoplay in this situation, and I also wouldn’t solve this with a +PAUSE.
With autoplay enabled, this may happen. But that doesn’t mean your B computer is “not good enough” or unusable for redundancy. It just means that autoplay removes the wait until both are ready safety net.
My recommended approach in this case would be to disable Autoplay for multi-file redundant rigs, let both computers finish loading the next song, and start playback manually.
Using a +PAUSE flag here usually makes things more fragile rather than safer, because you’re still relying on timing assumptions during file loading.
Hope this helps!
Thanks, that’s all good info - will try some things out!
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