Troubleshooting & FAQ
Answers to the questions that come up most: activation and authorization, managing CPU, why an “alive” patch’s voices differ slightly from one another (the character layer, by design), where your presets and themes live on disk, and what to try when something is not behaving.
No sound
Section titled “No sound”Q: I played a note and heard nothing. Where do I start?
Work through this list:
- Is Aconite receiving MIDI? Play a note; the on-screen keyboard along the bottom should light up. If it does not, your DAW’s MIDI routing is not reaching the plugin. Check the instrument track’s MIDI input assignment in your host.
- Is the master gain up? The master level knob is at the top right of the interface. It defaults to 0 dB; if it was pulled down, bring it back up.
- Is the preset using a very long attack? Pads often have attack times of several seconds. Hold the note for a few seconds and see if the sound appears.
- Are all voices in use? If the Voices count is set low and every voice is held, a new note steals the oldest; you might have notes stuck on. Press PANIC (see below) to clear all state and start fresh.
- Is the filter closed? On some patches, Cutoff can be swept down to near silence. Find the filter Cutoff and drag it up while holding a note.
- Is the FX chain muting the signal? If you have a compressor or distortion effect enabled with extreme settings, the signal may be over-attenuated. Try disabling the FX rack effects one at a time.
Plugin not showing up in the DAW
Section titled “Plugin not showing up in the DAW”Q: I installed Aconite but my DAW does not list it. What should I do?
After installation, most DAWs need a plugin rescan before they will find a newly installed instrument. In your DAW’s plugin manager or preferences, run a full rescan. Consult your DAW’s documentation if you cannot find the option; the location varies across hosts.
If after rescanning the plugin still does not appear:
- Make sure you installed the correct format for your host. Aconite ships as VST3 and AU (macOS). Some older DAWs do not support VST3; check which formats your host accepts.
- Confirm the plugin was installed to the correct folder for your system. Re-running the installer should place it correctly; if you installed manually, move the file to the expected location and rescan.
See Installing Aconite for format-specific path guidance.
Authorization and activation
Section titled “Authorization and activation”Q: Aconite is asking for activation. How do I do it?
See Authorization for the complete step-by-step guide. The short version: Aconite needs a one-time online activation per machine. Once activated, the synth works fully offline.
Q: I moved to a new computer and Aconite is locked again. Do I have to buy it again?
No. Deactivate on your old machine (or, if that is no longer possible, use the deactivation option in your account portal), then activate on the new one. See Authorization for details.
Q: Can I use Aconite without an internet connection?
Yes, after the initial activation. Aconite does not phone home during normal use.
High CPU usage
Section titled “High CPU usage”Q: A certain patch is using a lot of CPU. Is something wrong?
Not necessarily; it is most likely the Quality setting. Aconite’s analog modeling, especially the Ladder and Diode filter modes, uses oversampling to stay clean. Higher Quality settings cost more CPU by design, and that expense buys audibly better high-end and resonance behavior.
To reclaim CPU headroom:
- Lower the Quality setting (in the Voice / Play section, or in the plugin header). 2× is the default and a good balance for playing and mixing; 1× (draft) is nearly free, useful for arranging when you care about feel over fidelity.
- Enable Auto HQ on bounce so you can monitor at a lower Quality setting and still render at maximum automatically.
- Reduce the Voices count if the patch uses heavy polyphony and you do not need it.
- Disable FX effects you are not using: reverb and multi-tap delay carry the most cost.
See The Aconite philosophy for a fuller explanation of what oversampling is buying.
MIDI input not working
Section titled “MIDI input not working”Q: I pressed keys on my controller and nothing happened, Aconite shows no activity.
- Confirm your MIDI controller is connected and recognised by your operating system.
- In a DAW: make sure the instrument track’s MIDI input is set to your controller (or All MIDI Inputs).
- In the standalone app: check Aconite’s audio/MIDI preferences (gear icon in the header) and confirm your device is selected as a MIDI input.
If the on-screen keyboard along the bottom of the plugin produces sound but your hardware controller does not, the issue is upstream of Aconite: the DAW or system is not routing MIDI to it.
Hardware knob not moving a parameter
Section titled “Hardware knob not moving a parameter”Q: I turn a knob on my MIDI controller but nothing moves in Aconite.
You need to assign that hardware knob to a parameter using MIDI Learn:
- Right-click the parameter you want to control.
- Choose MIDI Learn from the menu.
- Move the hardware knob or fader; Aconite catches the first incoming CC and binds it.
Once learned, Aconite uses soft takeover (pickup mode): the parameter will not jump when you first grab the hardware control. It starts following only once the incoming value sweeps past the parameter’s current value, so there are no sudden jumps.
To see, edit, or remove all your MIDI assignments, open the MIDI manager (the MIDI button in the header).
See Keyboard & mouse shortcuts for more on the right-click menu, and the Modulation matrix chapter for using hardware controls as mod-matrix sources.
A preset sounds different on another machine
Section titled “A preset sounds different on another machine”Q: I sent a preset to a friend and it sounds noticeably different on their machine. Why?
MIDI-learn mappings (the assignments between your hardware controllers and Aconite’s parameters) are per-machine and are never saved into preset files. This is by design: a preset file carries the sound, not your hardware setup. When your friend loads the preset, any parameters you had mapped to hardware controllers will simply sit at their saved values, not follow their controllers.
If the sound itself is different (not just the hardware response), check:
- Quality setting. If your friend has a different Quality setting, the filtering character may differ subtly, especially on Ladder and Diode patches.
- Plugin version. If you are on different versions, a new preset may have used features not present in the older version. Make sure you are both on the same release.
Stuck / hanging notes
Section titled “Stuck / hanging notes”Q: A note is sustaining forever and won’t stop. What do I do?
Press the red PANIC button in the header. PANIC instantly silences everything: it stops all notes, kills any stuck or hung voices across both scenes, clears held, mono, and arp state, and flushes the effect bus so reverb and delay tails go quiet. It is the emergency stop for a runaway patch.
If stuck notes happen repeatedly with the same patch, check whether the host’s MIDI routing is sending note-off messages. Some older MIDI setups or looped clips can drop note-off events, which leaves voices open indefinitely.
“Why do my voices sound slightly different from one another?”
Section titled ““Why do my voices sound slightly different from one another?””Q: I play a chord and the individual notes seem to have slightly different character. Is Aconite out of tune?
This is the analog character layer; it is working as intended and is a feature, not a bug. Aconite models the personality variation you find in hardware synthesizers where each voice card is slightly different: voices can drift slightly in pitch, cutoff, envelope timing, pulse width, and glide.
The amount of this variation is controlled by four knobs in the Voice / Play section: Voice Detune, Drift, Variance, and the Transient mode. At zero, every voice collapses to identical and the synth is clinically precise. Higher settings model looser, older hardware. A patch that feels “alive” or “shimmering” usually has these set up deliberately.
See The Aconite philosophy for more on why this layer exists.
I cannot find my saved presets
Section titled “I cannot find my saved presets”Q: I saved a preset but I cannot find it in the browser.
User presets appear under the User section in the preset browser menu. Click the name button in the header to open the menu and look under User. If your preset does not appear there, make sure you clicked Save and gave the preset a name; stepping away without saving will discard the changes.
Preset files are stored in your user application data directory. The exact path depends on your operating system; see Installing Aconite for the default location.
Need more help?
Section titled “Need more help?”If you cannot find an answer here, reach out to Alkaloid Audio support with a description of your host, operating system, Aconite version, and what you were doing when the problem occurred.