Per LichtmanMan, things sure have gotten quiet. 🙂
Just wanted to mention that:
1) Zynewave Nucleum has been sounding great.
2) In the current incarnation, the track “The Well” uses Nucluem as the only synth on the track (plus additional drums) and will be appearing later this year on my album “Liquid”.
3) If, by any chance, there is some way to optimize Nucleum to use less CPU, that would be awesome. For “The Well” I had to bounce tracks, one at a time, in order to record them without CPU overload. My CPU is far from bleeding edge, but I’d like to be able to use Nucleum more before I upgrade. 🙂
Per LichtmanWasn’t sure whether this was worth reporting, but I’ve recently found it is fully reproducible in this particular host. In Xlutop Chainer 1.03 I’ve found that when I bypass Nucleum Beta 0.95 while a note is still depressed, that it will stick when it comes back on and stay on even if I use the “All Notes Off” command. Manually playing the note again still turns it off, however.
The behavior does not extend Jeskola Buzz and I will test Sonar 7PE soon. Is anybody experiencing this in other hosts as well?
Per LichtmanI only had a chance to scan through the main page and go back and read about 50% of it but it looks quite good to me. The only thing I am trying to figure out is whether the Mod Warp and Mod Glide parameters would make more sense after the reader read the description of the mod matrix rather than before. In that case, there is of course the issue of continuity, since it all goes from top to bottom, left to right up to that point.
I suppose one solution would be to simply mention to the reader at the start of the Mod Glide and Mod Warp sections that that they might want to read about the modulation matrix before reading the rest of the section.
But really, I’m nitpicking: nice manual with clear screenshots and a good outline of the features. 🙂
Per Lichtman@Zynewave wrote:
@H-man wrote:
Just wondering if that is Nucleum done? I’m pretty sure I saw something about SM 1.1 being released now and the guide looks like a case of first time perfect.
I’ve just uploaded v0.95. This is made with SM 1.1, and hopefully it’s the last beta version before 1.00. Only thing missing are presets for the default bank. Are there anyone besides rinxai, H-man and runagate who is working on presets they want to share?
The File menu in 0.95 is extended with an “Online Resources” submenu with links to the Nucleum guide on the wiki and the Nucleum forum. Since the link to zynewave.com is now in the Nucleum UI, I’ve removed the requirement of forum registration.
One other thing I wanted to raise was, given that it’s such a good SM implentation, are you planning to offer it to the SM Examples site? And, is there any use in sticking the made with SynthMaker logo on it?
I’ll drop them an email when 1.00 is released. I don’t intend to stick a made with SynthMaker logo on the Nucleum UI.
I was working on them, but there’s been a slight delay since the computer I was doing so on seems to be suffering from either a major or heating issue and I’m writing this from one of the others in the graveyard (which is so loud that I need to use insulating headphones just to hear the music…)
Anyway, I’ll get back to contributing more meaningful information and presets once I have a properly configured computer up again… hopefully very soon!
Per Lichtman@Zynewave wrote:
Version 0.93 is uploaded:
CPU optimizations. I was tempted to experiment with assembler optimizations to see how much that could speed things up. I ended up replacing most of the code modules with optimized assembler modules. Depending on how complex the patch is, CPU usage is reduced by up to 30%.
While working on the assembler code I found a design flaw that affected oscillators that were being FM cross modulated. This is now fixed. As a result there may be a slightly different sound to some FM patches in this new version.
This version is built with the latest SM 1.1 RC1. Still not the final version.
Just confirming that with version 0.94, the performance gains were similar to what you mentioned on my P4 3.2GHz. For instance, a complex monophonic lead that was using 16.4-20.2% in version 0.91 used 12.9-15.6% when the same text file was loaded into 0.94.
Per LichtmanFrits, you’ve been doing a wonderful job addressing every issue we’ve brought up quickly and efficiently. For the moment, I haven’t found anything more and I have been able to focus on just making sounds. I will let you know if anything else comes up as I keep working but I mainly wanted to say congratulations on everything so far. 🙂
Per Lichtman@rinxai wrote:
Hey, I like the new knobs! I prefer, very nice!
Dots and triplets please!!!
I have had some instances of buggy behavior, but no crashes yet. In depth report to follow later.
There are a few minor issues with sounds that modulate in some ways when no modulation nor fm is active. Somewhat like an unpredictability in output, which can sometimes add interesting character, and sometimes not. Its quite subtle but is noticeable on certain presets. More details once pinpointed.
rinxai, when you post later on could you mention/provide links to, specific presets that demonstrate the behavior? I’d be happy to verify and see if I could replicate it in other patches on my system.
Per Lichtman@H-man wrote:
Frits, Thanks for the UI change! Same feel, better look IMO.
@Podianer wrote:
I get cpu spikes and audio dropouts each time I change the preset.
Yes, the spikes are still there in 0.91 but only if you use the arrows on the UI. I find that it doesn’t spike though when loading presets from the Track Inspector, with Auto-assign preset on. 😕
No crashes this time though. even after some exhaustive preset browsing. 😀
@Podianer wrote:
I really would encourage you Frits, to put Nucleum in the Podium installer when it’s done. Seems to be a very versatile plugin you put together here.
+1
If you’d like I could furnish the extensive Process Monitor logs to illustrate the point, but the gist is that my findings are the same: v 0.91 does not crash in the same tests for internal preset loading as 0.90. Here is the longer version. Kudos Frits!
With the filters I applied in Process Monitor, I basically ended up using it to keep track of how many times I load a preset before app crashes. With version 0.90, I loaded presets 78 times the first run, 9 times the second run and 24 times the third run before causing a crash. 78 was the highest number I had logged so far. The timing is rather specific so I can’t accurately get it to crash within a certain number of loads with my torture session. With 0.91, however, even loading the preset 128 times did not cause a crash. This took about 6 minutes and got very boring. 🙂 Starting over, I tried again and stopped trying to crash it after 71 loads without issue. Is that sufficient to confirm proper function?
I preferred the old dial design (felt a bit more intuitive to be able to have a knob to grab onto rather than just the edge of a dial) but opinions are a dime a dozen and I’d be hard pressed to provide a concrete argument for one over the other. Besides, there are way more important things afoot. 🙂
Per Lichtman@Zynewave wrote:
@H-man wrote:
Would I be right in guessing that all the parameters are pretty much finalised now?
Yes, unless user feedback convinces me that I have overlooked something.
Unless there is the option of adding dotted durations to the sync times of the effects or LFOs, I think things have gotten pretty balanced. For trance, it is frustrating note having the option of dotted 1/8 notes though. But I can always use external delays. 🙂
As far as the bugs, I will try to test some more very soon but I still have the flu and that slows things down a bit.
Per Lichtman[CONSOLIDATED MULTIPLE POSTS INTO ONE IN ORDER TO SAVE SPACE]
@H-man wrote:
Frits, Per,
I have had this in Podium as well. I didn’t respond right away becuase I thought the issue may have been dealt with in the updates.
It is not occuring frequently however the most recent occured when I was changing presets via the file/load preset action.
I believe that it is related to playback/sustained notes. That is, if I had turned of ‘Monitoring’, turned it back on and loaded the preset, then the hang would not have occured.
The result is a freeze or ‘lock-up’ in Podium and is usually accompanied by a loud buzz. To date I have not been able to recover from this and am left with the CTRL+ALT+Delete & kill in task manager as my only path back to windows.
I should point out here that I almost always have several instances on Nucleum open/activated at the time.
Also, other plugins had produced similar results in Podium. You wa shock is a classic example for me.
Ben
Interesting. I haven’t tried it yet in Podium but I have gotten quite good at getting Nucleum to crash in other apps.
As you mentioned, monitoring is important. I find that timeframe varies a bit (sometimes I have a crash within the first two loads, sometimes it takes many more) but that I could get through well over 30 repeated loads without crashing if I wasn’t playing any notes through Nucleum.
In my own tests, the sessions contained one instance of Nucleum 0.90 and nothing else. Most recently, I have been creating the crash by reloading the same test preset using the internal browser over and over again. I started with my own presets and (after replicating it with multiple files) using the default Kinabula preset. I am currently testing that preset except with voices set to “Mono Hold” as I think that earlier test files may all have been polyphonic…
I was able to recreate the crash with “Mono Hold” as well. I am going to try moving from the internal browser to .FXP files to see if the results are the same.
Has anybody else had Nucleum change its “click” behavior?
During the last few days I have had a couple instances where I would open up Nucleum (either 0.27 or 0.90 as it seems to happen with both) and find that dials and menus exhibited a difference response to mouse clicks.
Normally, I simply click and drag in order to, for instance, change a dial value. In these cases, I would have to click and release or double click in order to change values. I have been willing to chalk it up to a system anomaly but I also recently had it happen in two hosts, both with fresh song loads, consecutively.
Now, unless anyone else has had this happen, my best guess is that some key on my keyboard got stuck and I just didn’t realize it or something similar. This issue has not come up many times, but it did come up multiple times so I wanted to just check with others.
Per LichtmanSo far I have managed to make it crash about 6 times in the last 30 minutes but I haven’t been able to find the common link yet. Simply switching back and forth between presets while sustaining notes doesn’t do it. I thought maybe it was a particular preset text file but I have been able to load it without difficulty at various points in the last 30 minutes as well. *Sigh.*
I will wait to post a while until I have more useful data.
Per LichtmanI also had the error occur in Xlutop Chainer. The sluggish preset issue seems to have disappeared, but the crashes have now been replicated in 3 hosts. I am still trying to find the common link between the crashes.
They don’t happen all the time. It may be related to changing presets while notes are still sustaining in the current preset. I will continue to test.
Per Lichtman@Zynewave wrote:
@Per Lichtman wrote:
My computer is a bit glitchy at the moment (plus I have the flu) so I am going to have to re-check this later but is anybody else experiencing long delays or crashes when changing between presets either using the internal preset loader or by switching .fxp files (or equivalent) in a host? I know that earlier versions .fxp files won’t load in the new one so don’t worry that I am getting that mixed up. 🙂 Not a confirmed issue here but I figured it would help to have others looking for it too… preferably other healthier people. 😉
Which host(s) does this happen in? Have you tried more than one host?
So far I’ve had it happen in Jeskola Buzz and Reaper. I will load it up in Sonar soon and I will be installing Podium (the version that recently came with CM) sometime this weekend.
My system:
P4 3.2gHz
2GB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP 2
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
On a brighter note, I’ve found that Nucleum sounds really nice at 96kHz. 🙂
Per LichtmanMy computer is a bit glitchy at the moment (plus I have the flu) so I am going to have to re-check this later but is anybody else experiencing long delays or crashes when changing between presets either using the internal preset loader or by switching .fxp files (or equivalent) in a host? I know that earlier versions .fxp files won’t load in the new one so don’t worry that I am getting that mixed up. 🙂 Not a confirmed issue here but I figured it would help to have others looking for it too… preferably other healthier people. 😉
Frits, my ears aren’t up to making a good evaluation of the new sound but I can tell you that the changes you made in 0.90 all seem well thought out for the better. Having the chorus on the left is more logical and I’ll listen to the delay but at least you have given it a fighting chance by expanding the user’s control. 🙂 With a little luck, I should be in shape to test things out in-depth tomorrow.
Per LichtmanDownloading 0.90 now. I really liked the changes in 0.27 btw. 🙂