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Category: All FAQ
Track Naming Not Working or Other Odd Things
If you are seeing unexplained odd behavior when MEAP is working, you may have an application running in the background that is interfering with the clipboard process or the key command process.
Symptoms of this could be:
- MEAP is getting the track name but then pasting %t_name% or 1_%t_name% into the Export Audio Dialog
- You have all the MEAP key commands set correctly but the keys don’t seem to be getting to Cubase/Nuendo
- The Stop Track name is ignored
The solution to this is very simple:
Disable your Hotkey application while running MEAP.
Or add an exception so that the Hotkey or Clipboard application does not interfere with MEAP sending key commands to Cubase/Nuendo.
Examples of applications that may interfere with MEAP:
- AutoHotkey
- Nostalgy
- Ditto (No issue with Ditto here but potentially could interfere with clipboard)
- Phrase Express
Further to this, as with many sensitive applications, it is always a good idea to stop any background tasks that may conflict, when you are running MEAP.
If anyone has any other examples of applications that are known to interfere with MEAP, please let me know and I will add to the list.
Thank you.
MEAP & Cubase 9.5 Compatibility
Cubase 9.5 compatibility: MEAP version 7.90.989 has been tested with Cubase 9.5 and is working perfectly well.
Just select Cubase 8.5 / 9 as your audio application Series and you’re good to go.
Please let me know if you come across any issues.
MEAP fails to get track names in Cubase
Having trouble with MEAP getting track names in Cubase 8 (or later versions)? Especially if it has been working fine in earlier Cubase versions?
The symptoms of this could be that you notice the mouse move to the Inspector instead of to the track that is active. Or that you notice MEAP entering odd things instead of the track name.
This is most likely because you have your Inspector open and the Solo button and background in the inspector looks very similar to the Solo button and background on a selected track.
Simple solution – CLOSE THE INSPECTOR when exporting with MEAP using Cubase 8.x (and onwards).
More info:
MEAP gets track names by finding the active Solo button on the selected track and moving the mouse over to get the actual track name.
If MEAP sees something that looks like an active solo button on a selected track it will move to the first image is sees. In Cubase 8 the background in the Inspector has become very similar to the background colour of a selected track.
You can also – Read more about this in the manual.
MEAP does odd things when I use Skip Muted Tracks
Symptoms:
- You have Skip Muted Tracks selected in MEAP’s Project Options area
- All tracks get skipped
- No tracks get exported but MEAP finishes without any error
- Mouse pointer jumps around screen
You can adjust the tolerance in the ini file or use your own graphics and set the tolerance value to 1.
In the ini file:
def_coef_colour_tolerance=0.7 def_coef_freeze_tolerance=0.97 def_coef_skip_tolerance=0.97
The second setting (def_coef_skip_tolerance=0.97) is for finding a the Mute button (or the folder open / close) on a selected track. If this value is set too low, MEAP may think an ordinary Mute button is a match and skip every track..
Note: If you are having trouble with this area (skipping muted tracks, folder tracks or odd behaviour when using frozen tracks) the best way to resolve it would be to get an exact capture of your setup’s Mute Button, Folder Open / Closed and Frozen Solo on a selected track. Then set the values to 1 (exact match). The easiest way to do this is to use the MEAP SHOTS application. If you are unsure how to do this please contact support.
More Info:
The reason it is happening is that a little while ago a new way of recognising the buttons was introduced which is really clever as it allows for a large amount of tolerance. the number 1 trouble users have had over the years with MEAP was that Graphics Not Found error because their screen was not set up exactly the same way as when the MEAP buttons were captured.
Unfortunately, one of the side effects of this is:
MEAP has to scan the entire left side of the screen – on the first export only – to find that first selected Solo track. After that MEAP will only look around the previous track that was exported. But the problem is on the first export, it may find a Mute button even if not selected. This will only happen if the Skip Muted Tracks or Folder Tracks option is selected.
In the latest version of MEAP the tolerance for the Skip Selected area is much higher so it will only find an almost exact match for a selected Mute Button.
Of course the problem may now arise that your Selected Mute/Folder Button looks different from the original and will not be recognised at all. In which case we will nee to make custom graphics as mentioned above.
MEAP does odd things when I use Skip Folder Tracks
Symptoms:
- You have Skip Open Folders or Skip Closed Folders selected in MEAP’s Project Options area
- All tracks get skipped
- No tracks get exported but MEAP finishes without any error
- Mouse pointer jumps around screen
You can adjust the tolerance in the ini file or use your own graphics and set the tolerance value to 1.
In the ini file:
def_coef_colour_tolerance=0.7 def_coef_freeze_tolerance=0.97 def_coef_skip_tolerance=0.97
The second setting (def_coef_skip_tolerance=0.97) is for finding a the Mute button (or the folder open / close) on a selected track. If this value is set too low, MEAP may think an ordinary Mute button is a match and skip every track..
Note: If you are having trouble with this area (skipping muted tracks, folder tracks or odd behaviour when using frozen tracks) the best way to resolve it would be to get an exact capture of your setup’s Mute Button, Folder Open / Closed and Frozen Solo on a selected track. Then set the values to 1 (exact match). The easiest way to do this is to use the MEAP SHOTS application. If you are unsure how to do this please contact support.
More Info:
The reason it is happening is that a little while ago a new way of recognising the buttons was introduced which is really clever as it allows for a large amount of tolerance. the number 1 trouble users have had over the years with MEAP was that Graphics Not Found error because their screen was not set up exactly the same way as when the MEAP buttons were captured.
Unfortunately, one of the side effects of this is:
MEAP has to scan the entire left side of the screen – on the first export only – to find that first selected Solo track. After that MEAP will only look around the previous track that was exported. But the problem is on the first export, it may find a Mute button even if not selected. This will only happen if the Skip Muted Tracks or Folder Tracks option is selected.
In the latest version of MEAP the tolerance for the Skip Selected area is much higher so it will only find an almost exact match for a selected Mute Button.
Of course the problem may now arise that your Selected Mute/Folder Button looks different from the original and will not be recognised at all. In which case we will nee to make custom graphics as mentioned above.
What are the new Key Commands in MEAP Version 7 for?
Many Cubase 6 and 7 users may not be aware that since Version 7.67.141 of MEAP – The Export Button is actually pressed by a Key Command. This was done in order to make sure MEAP does not have to scan your screen for the Export Button on every export, hence saving time.
Some users miss how important setting up the Key Commands is. Everything MEAP does is controlled by a specific set of Key Commands that must be installed into your audio application.
Make sure you save your existing Key Commands (and Macros) by going to Cubase Key Commands dialog and saving them.
It is absolutely vital that you then select the MEAPKeysVx (where x is your audio application version) set of key Commands in the same area.
Obviously if you have any MACRO keys set up – these may interfere with MEAP’s key commands so they should be removed temporarily (this is why we saved everything above).
Once you have set up the MEAP Key Commands, do a small dummy export and see if it works.
The new Key Command for Export Audio is Ctrl+SHIFT+K and it is included in the new MEAPKeys files.
If for some reason it is still failing or you wish to revert to the old method, you can change the way MEAP presses that button:
Go to the meapdefs.ini file and look for the line:
[other_options]
press_67_button=KeyCommand
Change this to
[other_options]
press_67_button=Button
This will force MEAP to use your button graphic instead of the Key Command.
Can MEAP export folder tracks?
MEAP can export folder tracks for you.
To do this simply close all folders you wish to export and select the first folder track that you want to export.
For example, if you want to export 3 folder tracks:
- Make sure the tracks within the folder are routed to your master bus (optional)
- Close the 3 folder tracks.
- Move them so that they are underneath each other
- Set the number of exports to 3 (or use the last folder track name as the Stop Track)
- Proceed as normal.
Note: You may have to adjust the colour of your folder tracks so that MEAP recognises the Solo Button.
See here for more info: https://www.meap.biz/why-does-meap-fail-when-exporting-a-folder-track/
For more information on folder tracks please refer to the MEAP manual.
Does MEAP Work With Cubase 7?
As of version 7.67.049 released on February 06 2013 – MEAP now supports Cubase 7.
This version also adds a new image finding algorithm to drastically reduce (if not completely eliminate) Graphic Not Found Errors.
Current Product Information
Latest MEAP Version: 7.90.989 born on March 21 2018
English, Italian, German, French, Spanish
MEAP is a Windows only application.
MEAP will run on all known current versions of Windows 32 bit and 64 bit.
Making Your Own MEAP Graphics
The most common problem that stops MEAP working is the Graphic Not Found Error.
This happens when MEAP is looking for a particular graphic (for example the Solo button) and because the button may not appear the same on all systems, MEAP may not be able to find it.
This is easy to fix. And as you probably know, if you send a message and Support Zip File to MEAP Support, you will usually receive a custom graphic specifically for your system within a few hours.
However, if you are in a hurry or even just a little interested, you can do it yourself.
So here’s the steps:
Finding What Went Wrong
MEAP has already tried to give us a clue which graphic it could not find, in the error message.
In this case it was the Solo button. It was lit up within Cubase but for some subtle (or sometimes obvious) reason, MEAP didn’t recognise it.
You can access the ZIP file that MEAP has created directly from this message by clicking the ZIP button.
Or if you have already closed the message, you can go to the place that the ZIP file is stored:
Usually this file can be found in the following location:
Windows Vista: Windows 7: C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\zip\
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\zip\
Open the Zip file and you will see a group of files. One of them should be named final.bmp (Note: If the final.bmp does not exist, simply use any screen shot that contains the graphic areas you need).
If you look at this screen shot you should see the button or area that MEAP was looking for. To your eyes it may look OK but sometimes computers can be very picky.
Making Your Own
So now we are going to make our own version of the graphic – So it is exactly matched to your system and MEAP will always see it.
First, make some copies of the final.bmp so that you can rename them correctly before editing. The new graphic must be a Bitmap and stay in the same format that MEAP used.
Locate the MEAP graphic folder. In this case Cubase 6 graphics:
Windows Vista: Windows 7 – C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\graphics\c6gfx\
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\graphics\c6gfx\
Decide which graphic you are going to make and rename one of your final.bmp copies to the same name as that graphic. In this case the name would be c6solo.bmp
Open your favourite photo editing software and load in the final.bmp
We now need to look at the original graphic (c6solo.bmp) and roughly crop a similar graphic from the newly created c6solo.bmp that came from you final.bmp
Zoom in so that you can see how the original graphic was cropped. It is important that the graphic is cropped in the same way, especially for the Path graphics.
Then we can start to crop down the new graphic and zoom in until they look similar.
Finally you should end up with a graphic that looks almost identical to the original. But remember this has been made from your own screen shot so it will match your setup exactly.
Now – Save the file. Do not change the file type or make any adjustments to colour or contrast, brightness etc. This is why we renamed the final.bmp to the button name before we started editing. So you can simply save the new file.
When you have saved the file and repeated this procedure with any other graphics that may have caused errors you can now copy your new graphics over the original. (Don’t worry the originals are all backed up should you ever need to restore them). Copy the new graphics here:
Windows Vista: Windows 7 – C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\graphics\YOUR AUDIO APP\
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Phil Pendlebury\MEAP\graphics\YOUR AUDIO APP\
In this case YOUR AUDIO APP would be c6gfx
You now have a set of graphics that are totally matched to your current system. Keep them safe! If you ever re-install MEAP or install an update, you will need to copy these graphics over the originals again.
Good luck and happy exporting.