Conquistador.
ZynewaveFor the upcoming 1.97 release I’ve added a couple of features that have been missing in the Podium VST support so far: Full support of the Waves WaveShell feature and support for the setSpeakerArrangement function.
There is a risk that the implementation of setSpeakerArrangement may cause some plugins to fail. I’ve uploaded a beta that you can download from the VIP lounge download topic. If you have the time, I would appreciate if you could check that your plugins still work with this beta. Also check that the revised plugin scanning/import still imports your plugins ok.
This is the 1.97 change log so far:
The “create new project” start page has been extended with two check-box options for scanning mono/stereo and surround sound capable VST plugins. Enabling the surround option also creates audio input and output mappings for surround sound speaker configurations.
Added popup help for the buttons on the “create new project” start page.
Added support for the VST setSpeakerArrangement function. Insert mappings will be created for each supported speaker configuration. Plugin scanning now detects surround configurations and automatically creates surround insert mappings instead of multiple stereo pair mappings.
Implemented full support for the Waves WaveShell plugins. Importing the WaveShell dll no longer pops up the menu for selecting a single Waves plugin. Instead it automatically creates mappings for all installed Waves plugins.
The import of a global plugin with multiple I/O mappings now also creates a default insert mapping for the first I/O pair. The insert mapping is easier to use if you only intend to use a single MIDI channel and single I/O of a multiple channel capable plugin.
Creating a new bus instance will create surround mappings if there are any surround audio output mappings in the project.
Fix: When the bottom track in a track chain was set to have a hidden lane a crash could occur when dragging tracks.
KlempererHappily enough I can report that my QuantumFX2-plugins like the 1.97 beta well. I suspected some problems as a guitar-plugin I own has difficulties with them (Revalver Mk2), but all other hosts including the great Podium load them without difficulty. All plugins I tested work just like in 1.96 for me, so that’s great up to now. Must test the re-scanning/importing, not enough time up to now 🙂
Klemperer…and concerning loading the vsts and vstis everything is quite like with older versions here too. I got a real bunch of effects and synths (with all the freebies) and the only one “in quarantaine” are aliensolo from cloneensemble and a little donation-ware – sampler from Smartelectronix called slifty. So everything seems to be allright, at least here.
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
If you have the time, I would appreciate if you could check that your plugins still work with this beta. Also check that the revised plugin scanning/import still imports your plugins ok.
From an initial test the GMO Kjearhus plug appeared to not work. No red icon in Podium it just did not appear to get a signal. After I set up a loop, started and stopped, it worked perfectly. It may be the plug itself..not sure if it is 100% Vista compatible yet…but it works in 1.97 now.
Scanning and import based on a quick test of all my plugins, seems ok.
The “create new project” start page has been extended with two check-box options for scanning mono/stereo and surround sound capable VST plugins. Enabling the surround option also creates audio input and output mappings for surround sound speaker configurations.
Very nice. I would however suggest using an x instead of the check mark when the option is disabled. Having a check mark for the enabled and disabled state seems a bit odd IMO.
Added popup help for the buttons on the “create new project” start page.
Really good addition. Podium now has easily the best start page of any host I have ever used. Very simple indeed. Nice work.
Added support for the VST setSpeakerArrangement function. Insert mappings will be created for each supported speaker configuration. Plugin scanning now detects surround configurations and automatically creates surround insert mappings instead of multiple stereo pair mappings.
Not essential for me but useful as it is something I plan to use in future.
The import of a global plugin with multiple I/O mappings now also creates a default insert mapping for the first I/O pair. The insert mapping is easier to use if you only intend to use a single MIDI channel and single I/O of a multiple channel capable plugin.
Yes! Thanks.
TechnophobiaI’m afraid the Beta does not like my IK Multimedia ARC plugin. I would presume the Set speaker arrangement function is causing the plugin to fail because the ARC plugin definitely does not support multiple speaker setups as yet.
I have to go back to 1.96 to get it to work.
Is there any way to provide the setSpeakerArrangement function as an option that can be turned off ? Otherwise I will have to stick to 1.96 I guess
Happy New Year, when it arrives…
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
The import of a global plugin with multiple I/O mappings now also creates a default insert mapping for the first I/O pair. The insert mapping is easier to use if you only intend to use a single MIDI channel and single I/O of a multiple channel capable plugin.
Just wondering…
1….since you have made the above change to the way plugins are imported (very welcome of course), could you also add the menu command you suggested to solve the automapping issue please?
“I could add a menu command to the project page that will modify the audio mapping objects to the current interface selection.”
My last post on the automapping thread provides a further detailed suggestion that deals with the import of plugs as well, which is an area you are working on now please have a look at my last post in the Automapping thread as your current import refinements suggest you might be inclined to re visit this area sooner rather than later, as you are already making refinements in that area in 1.97.
Other suggestions for the project start page…now that you are working there…
4. Improved searching. I started a “Relink all files…” thread some time ago and Acousmod made a very interesting comment in that thread…
“I know that I can select several files, but I work generally with a lot of arrangements inside a project and I don’t record audio in Podium but import files from different drives, internal and external.
Since the files are spread on the different arrangements, and often I don’t know if they are in the same folders or not, it takes a lot of work to search for each of them when it is needed.
If Podium could search for the subfolders and apply the paths to all the files that share the same places it would be a great help.
It could be an option in the preferences in the case of people use the same names for different files.”
IMO I think it is a very good idea.
swindusAfter working some time with the new 1.97 beta I noticed this:
No problems with all my plugins at all. They are all recognized as they should.
But from time to time Podium is crashing while working with effect tracks in compact mode. For example when changing the plugin map on an effect rack to another plugin Podium disappears completely without any error message. So far I was not able to reproduce this error but it happens only in compact mode. After switching to expanded mode all is working fine without crashing. So I would assume that there is still a problem in compact mode while changing things on effect tracks, in my case switching the device map to another plugin.
Anyone else encountered this problem?
Zynewave@Technophobia wrote:
I’m afraid the Beta does not like my IK Multimedia ARC plugin. I would presume the Set speaker arrangement function is causing the plugin to fail because the ARC plugin definitely does not support multiple speaker setups as yet.
I have to go back to 1.96 to get it to work.
Is there any way to provide the setSpeakerArrangement function as an option that can be turned off ? Otherwise I will have to stick to 1.96 I guess
Please try this again with the new beta 2. Podium now skips the setSpeakerArrangement calls if the plugin is stereo only. I assume ARC only supports stereo in/out. Let me know if you can use ARC with this beta.
TechnophobiaIt kind of works, I will explain.
If I start up Podium by just clicking straight on to the “E” button on the effect track that ARC is loaded on, then it will open ok. 🙂
If I click on the big green start up Podium button (bottom left) and then on “E” button on the ARC track, it crashes ARC saying that the .dll has performed an illegal operation. 🙁
However, if I mute any of the tracks which have anything to do with ARC it also crashes it. This is not such a biggie because I am very unlikely to want to mute it anyway and more likely to just bypass it which seems to function Ok.
I have only had the chance to try it 4 times so far as I don’t really have too much time available to do music at present.
If you need any other info I will try and oblige as soon as I can.
acousmodFrits,
Please, can you suppress the automatic creation of “secondary” surround mappings ?
I mean all the mappings that have less channels than the plugin ?
For example, when I import PristineSpace with the beta 2, Podium creates 12 mappings from which only the last three ones correpond to something really usable.
Like in nearly all multichannel effects plugins, all the mappings with mono or stereo input that goes to another number of channel have no interest because these plugins do a parallel processing of the channels. Only mappings with equal number of inputs / outputs have an interest.
I understand that you have wanted to do something complete, but we have changed from an extreme (no multichannel mapping) to another (too much mappings).
Can you consider to implement only what is necessary for the users, that is ONLY the mapping that corresponds to the total number of inputs / ouputs of the plugin ?
I know that you don’t care about what is done in other hosts, but they show only one “mapping”… and it is good…
Or, if you really want to create automatically all the possible mappings, do like in OS X where mono Audio Unit plugins are also available in other parallel versions (3 x 3, 4 x 4, 5 x 5 etc…), not the mono or stereo to surround versions.
But I really don’t think that it is necessary, because it is so easy to add other mappings in Podium WHEN we need them, and only these ones.
With the current beta, the result is an unnecessary accumulation of mappings, moreover which can be very confusing because they don’t correspond to the real usage of the plugins.
Anyway, the automatic creation of a multichannel mapping is great 😀
Thank you !
Zynewave@acousmod wrote:
Please, can you suppress the automatic creation of “secondary” surround mappings ?
I mean all the mappings that have less channels than the plugin ?For example, when I import PristineSpace with the beta 2, Podium creates 12 mappings from which only the last three ones correpond to something really usable.
Like in nearly all multichannel effects plugins, all the mappings with mono or stereo input that goes to another number of channel have no interest because these plugins do a parallel processing of the channels. Only mappings with equal number of inputs / outputs have an interest.
I’ve already done some work on this earlier today. Please check out the new beta3.
If the plugin reports that it supports all the speaker arrangements that Podium tries to set, Podium will now assume that the plugin reports “technically” possible configurations, instead of “sensible” configurations. Podium will then create a reduced set of sensible mappings, e.g. 5.0 and 7.1 configurations are discarded.
If you’ve enabled the surround import option, Podium now also creates surround mappings instead of stereo pair mappings for multi-channel effect plugins that does not support the setSpeakerArrangement function. One such plugin is the “Absynth4 Surround.dll” which now is imported as a surround mapping.
acousmodIf the plugin reports that it supports all the speaker arrangements that Podium tries to set, Podium will now assume that the plugin reports “technically” possible configurations, instead of “sensible” configurations. Podium will then create a reduced set of sensible mappings, e.g. 5.0 and 7.1 configurations are discarded.
Very good !
But it seems that some are not well discarded :
– I have yet 9 mappings for PristineSpace, only the 5.0 has disappeared
– Respatializer shows all the mappings like before. But perhaps is this because we can select the speakers arrangements inside the plugin ?
– Bidule VST with 16 or 32 channels shows well the 16/16 or the 32/32 mappings, but also : Mono, Mono/Stereo, Mono/5.1, Stereo, Stereo/5.1, 5.1, and curiously there is no 7.1.
If you’ve enabled the surround import option, Podium now also creates surround mappings instead of stereo pair mappings for multi-channel effect plugins that does not support the setSpeakerArrangement function.
Excellent !
It works now with Upmix, Wizooverb W5 and Reaktor as FX.
But it seems that it doesn’t work yet with some others :
– those exported with older versions of Synthedit and which have more than 8 channels (but it is perfect with all others)
– Toby bear DMO bag with more than 8 channels
– Crusher3 FX (10 channels)
– the Flux bundle
– all ambisonics
– all the Acon 8 channels plugins
Thank you for all your efforts. I suppose that it must not be simple to deal with all the different ways of doing that are used around the VST specs…
Zynewave@swindus wrote:
After working some time with the new 1.97 beta I noticed this:
No problems with all my plugins at all. They are all recognized as they should.
But from time to time Podium is crashing while working with effect tracks in compact mode. For example when changing the plugin map on an effect rack to another plugin Podium disappears completely without any error message. So far I was not able to reproduce this error but it happens only in compact mode. After switching to expanded mode all is working fine without crashing. So I would assume that there is still a problem in compact mode while changing things on effect tracks, in my case switching the device map to another plugin.
Anyone else encountered this problem?
Thanks for the project file you emailed me. This bug is now fixed in the new beta4.
The beta4 zip also includes an updated zPEQ dll that supports up to 32 channel processing. With the new speaker arrangement support in Podium, this single dll can be used both for mono/stereo and surround processing.
I’ve also further trimmed the creation of alternative surround mappings during import. Now only mono, stereo and all-channel mappings are created for plugins that seemingly support all possible speaker arrangements.
swindusI did a quick test and beta 4 is still crashing when I delete the last track in the project I sent you if the inspector is hidden.
acousmodThe beta4 zip also includes an updated zPEQ dll that supports up to 32 channel processing. With the new speaker arrangement support in Podium, this single dll can be used both for mono/stereo and surround processing.
I have dreamed of it, Frits has done it 😛
Marvelous !
I’ve also further trimmed the creation of alternative surround mappings during import. Now only mono, stereo and all-channel mappings are created for plugins that seemingly support all possible speaker arrangements.
I think that it is perfect now.
There is no change for the plugins that are not recognized as multichannel (the list in my previous post).
Is this because you are yet working on it or because it is not possible ?