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Troubleshooting

Find your symptom below. If none of them match — or a fix doesn't fix it — tell us; every note gets read by a human.

The engineer can't hear me

  • Microphone permission. If you ever denied the mic prompt, macOS won't ask again. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and turn Jude on — Settings → Audio has a shortcut button — then start the session again.
  • Right device, right channel. In Settings → Audio, check both the input device and the channel. On a multi-input interface it's easy to be listening to channel 1 while your mic is on channel 3. Ask the engineer "can you hear me?" to check.
  • Interface unplugged or changed? Jude will say your saved routing points at a channel that doesn't exist right now, and opens Settings → Audio for you. Pick a channel on the device you have, or reconnect the old one — your saved choice comes back with it.
  • Gain. The mic gain slider in Settings → Audio feeds everything downstream. If you're coming through quiet, raise it there (or on your interface).

The engineer keeps getting cut off, or answers herself

That's echo: the talkback mic is hearing the engineer's voice out of your speakers. Three fixes, any one of which works:

  • Set Listening on: Speakers in Settings → Audio. The talkback mic then mutes itself while the engineer talks — the header shows "mic muted" — so the mic never hears her voice. The trade is that you can't interrupt her mid-reply. How it works.
  • Use headphones. They keep the mic from picking up the engineer's voice at all, and you keep the ability to interrupt her mid-sentence.
  • Switch to Push to talk and hold your talk key when you speak — Space by default, or any key you choose under Talk key — the mic is closed the rest of the time.

Jude also detects persistent echo itself. When it does, it switches Listening on to Speakers, tells you so on screen and out loud, and offers a shortcut to the Audio settings so you can go back to headphones or turn on push to talk instead. If the echo somehow continues in speaker mode, it switches you to push to talk as a last resort and says so. Either change stays until you set it back in Settings → Audio.

"Hey Jude" isn't answering — or triggers on its own

In wake-word mode, Settings → Audio has a sensitivity threshold for how confidently the detector must hear "Hey Jude" while recording. It cuts both ways: if your call goes unanswered, lower the threshold so quieter calls get through; if your vocal keeps opening the talkback by itself, raise it. Two things to know while tuning: mic gain feeds the detector, so recheck the threshold after changing gain — and if false triggers persist at any setting, push to talk is the dependable mode for vocal takes. And if it's the engineer's own voice over your speakers opening the talkback, set Listening on: Speakers in Settings → Audio — the wake detector then never hears her.

The engineer's voice sounds wrong — too fast, too slow, chipmunked

That's a Bluetooth headset changing audio profiles mid-stream (AirPods and similar do this when they juggle calls or reconnect). Jude detects it and reopens the output once on its own; if it happens again, reselect your output device in Settings → Audio. Starting the headset before the session — or going wired — avoids it entirely.

The DAW light won't go green

  • Launch order. Jude publishes its connections at launch, so Jude first, then the DAW. Started the DAW first? Make it look again — in Logic: Control Surfaces → Rescan All Models…; in Cubase/Nuendo, open Studio → Studio Setup and click Reset All Devices (the unlabeled button at the top of the device list, next to the trash-can icon — it looks like a rewind button), or relaunch the DAW. (Reaper over OSC finds Jude in any order.)
  • Check the wiring for your DAW — each page has the exact settings: Logic Pro, GarageBand, Reaper, Cubase & Nuendo. The classic mistakes: Mackie HUI instead of Mackie Control in Cubase/Nuendo (Jude will tell you), and only one of the two MIDI ports set to the Jude port. In Cubase 15 and Nuendo 15, Set up control surface config in Settings → DAW configures the wiring for you automatically.
  • GarageBand: the accessibility permission must be granted, and your project must be open — Jude connects the moment it is.

Jude lost the DAW connection (the DAW light is off)

The DAW light in Jude's header is off or goes dark, the engineer says the DAW is disconnected or that no DAW is linked, and Jude can't see Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, Reaper or GarageBand any more. It usually happens when Jude was restarted or updated while the DAW stayed open, or when the DAW itself was restarted. How to get it back:

  • Cubase & Nuendo: the Mackie Control devices don't pick Jude's ports back up on their own once Jude restarts while the DAW is open. Either relaunch Cubase or Nuendo (with Jude running), or open Studio → Studio Setup and click Reset All Devices — the unlabeled button at the top of the device list, next to the trash-can icon — it looks like a rewind button. The DAW light turns green within a few seconds. Jude's MIDI Remote script reconnects by itself.
  • Logic Pro: if the light doesn't come back by itself, choose Logic Pro → Control Surfaces → Rescan All Models…, or relaunch Logic with Jude running.
  • Reaper: OSC has no port to lose — Jude finds Reaper again by itself, in any order.
  • GarageBand: Jude reconnects as soon as a project is open and the accessibility permission is granted.

If the light shows not responding rather than going dark, see the next section — that's usually a dialog, not a lost connection.

The DAW shows "not responding"

Nine times out of ten a dialog is open in the DAW — a save or settings window is the classic. DAWs stop talking to control surfaces while a dialog is up; dismiss it and the link recovers by itself. If you gave a command right then, it probably still went through — glance at the DAW before repeating it.

Commands land on the wrong tracks (Logic)

The surface order is wrong. Open Logic Pro → Control Surfaces → Setup and drag the icons so they read Jude MCU 01-08, 09-16, … left to right. Also remember Logic's own rule: one armed track per shared audio input — arming one track can disarm another on the same input.

Some tracks are dark / Jude names a port that isn't being driven

In a multi-surface setup, each Mackie Control device in the DAW must drive its own Jude port — input and output — and no two devices can share one. Jude tells you which port is silent or doubled; fix that device's port assignment in the DAW. In Cubase 15 and Nuendo 15, Set up control surface config in Settings → DAW puts every device on its own port, in the right order, for you. Full wiring steps are on the Cubase & Nuendo page. If the project simply has more tracks than your channel count covers, raise Number of channels in Settings → DAW; Jude then offers to add the matching devices (or add them by hand).

My session ended on its own

  • Thirty quiet minutes. A paused session ends itself after half an hour — the banner says exactly that. Start a new one; nothing is lost.
  • Connection lost. If Jude can't reach heyjude.studio for a few minutes, it ends the session to protect your balance — time is never counted while unverifiable. Check your connection and start again.
  • Time ran out. The engineer says so and signs off properly. See Studio time & plans for what's next — and know that a rolling take always finishes first.

Updates, and "Update required"

Jude checks for updates itself and shows a banner when one's available — click it, the download opens in your browser, and you drag the new version into Applications over the old one. Your settings and sign-in keep.

A full-screen "Update required" notice means your version has a problem serious enough that we've retired it — download the update to keep working. If a session is live when it appears, the End Session button stays available so a take is never orphaned.

Still stuck? Tell a human

  • In the app: the Feedback button (top of the window). Say what's going on, leave your email if you want an answer, and for bugs tick attach the debug log — it carries the technical detail (app and macOS versions, settings, audio devices) that usually holds the answer. Every note is read by a human.
  • By email: support@heyjude.studio — account problems, billing questions, anything.

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