ZynewaveA perfect four-bar part. I copy it (into the clipboard). I want to quickly make 31 copies of it (say it’s drums), each copy appended to the tail end of the one before. Is there a quick way to do this?
I’ve added a ‘Create phantom copies’ menu to the future list. Currently you can only do it manually with the mouse. To avoid doing the clone drag 31 times, you could start by doing 3 of them, select the 4 events and clone drag them to get 8, 12, 16, select the 16 and … you get the picture.
Also, just curious, what is the ETA of the finished documentation (filling in the “To DO” sections)?
Judging from the feedback on this forum, there have been plenty of requests for feature implementation and no requests for the guide so far. So I chose to dedicate my time to coding. I was hoping people would point out specific areas in the guide that they wanted clarified, so that I could make occasional additions to the guide. Any particular page you had in mind?
Frits
ZynewaveA plug-in is able to bring down a host like that?
Yes. To optimize latency and CPU usage, the plugin code is called directly from the audio processing thread in Podium. The plugin thus acts as an extension to the host code, and has access to the same memory and system resources as the host. Podium wraps all calls to the plugin in protective code that will catch basic illegal operations, but it is still possible for the plugin to corrupt the host memory without the host knowing about it.
Calling plugin code directly from the audio thread is the way it is done in all major sequencers to the best of my knowledge. Access to a plugin could theoretically be encapsulated in separate processes, which then would make the host secure, but this would be at the cost of added latency and extra CPU usage.
Edit: You’re fast Duncan 😉 I started this before I saw your response.
ZynewaveWhen I move that volume slider in the mixer -of the group track- audio drops as long as I hold my mousebutton or moving the slider.
This happens because the parameter track is muted when dragging the slider, to avoid that recorded automation overrides the fader movements. The sideeffect is that any audio routing through the parameter track also gets muted. I’ll have to implement another way to bypass recorded automation when dragging the slider. Thanks for pointing this out.
When I want to set the volume of a track group or for any track to a certain percentage it is written in the parameter file as curves/peaks for that moment. but it would be useful if you could also set a global volume >> if you move the volume that it makes that percentage for the whole timeline.
I am not entirely sure I understand what you mean. Could you describe it differently?
I remember using the parameter events a “long” time ago (instead of curve) but I can not find them anymore
You drag parameter objects onto tracks to create parameter events. It may be that the level and pan mixer parameters are not active currently. I will check up on this when I start work on the curve editor improvements.
ZynewaveYes, it seems SIR 1.0.0.5 does not like to be automated. I could not make it crash with the dry parameter only, but once I had tried automating attack level (not recommended 😯 ), a little later a dialog saying ‘SIR GUI: invalid pointer error’ popped up inside SIR, and the plugin editor went dead. The SIR audio processing were still okay, but closing the editor and reopening it again made Podium vanish up in thin air.
Not much I can do about it unfortunately. SIR is a fine plugin otherwise.
Frits
ZynewaveYou can drag objects around and into folders using the project browser. Holding the control key while dragging an object will move it into any object you drop it on. Dropping an object on one of the top tabs will allow you to move an object to a parent folder.
Once the ‘Devices’ folder has been created by the wizard, you can rename it or move it to another folder location. Should you later choose to import more devices, then Podium will search for the location of the devices folder.
You should be careful of moving things around that are placed below a Device Definition object though, as this folder structure is required for presets and parameters to be accessible in the arrangement panels.
ZynewaveAre all updates free with the full purchase?
Yes, all updates are free. I think I better go add that info to the purchase page.
In the future I plan to offer major new features as add-on licenses, but this probably won’t happen until a release 1.5 or 2.0. Read the license discussion in this topic.
Frits
ZynewaveThis could lead to some confusion. If e.g. you’re inside an arrangement editor, then the current viewed folder is the arrangement object (any object can act as a folder for other objects). Opening the wizard in the arrangement editor to import a new plugin, would then misleadingly place the imported objects inside the arrangement object.
ZynewaveBy adding the feaure that the contextual menu reflects the tools in the toolbar I get the X(only) and Y(only) zoom function in the contextual menu (they are in my toolbar) >> but they are not selectable in the contextual menu.
Thanks. Fix will be available in 1.04.
ZynewaveZynewaveZynewaveTraditionally most hardware (and software) mixer faders will allow you to boost the level of a track with up to +6, +10, +12 or +18 dB. This is necessary because on many mixers the faders are the only means to boost a signal on a track. I chose a different approach in Podium by implementing a gain setting for the track and let level automation be an attenuation of this gain setting.
I am pleased with how this split into a gain setting and level automation has turned out. You can adjust the gain setting on audio tracks and avoid creating a level track if you don’t want to automate the level. And for tracks with level automation, you can adjust the gain setting to ‘offset’ the entire level automation on the track.
So if you want to boost an audio track with +6dB at some point, you need to set the gain of the track to +6dB, and then start the level automation at -6dB. I’m going to improve the curve editor soon, so that it will be possible to see dB values for the curve points.
If it turns out to be a huge demand that level automation tracks should be offset with +6dB, one way of supporting this would be to define a new ‘+6dBFS Level’ parameter type in the Parameter properties dialog. Existing projects would then not be affected.
Also, I have been in the habit of making most tracks have audio mixing, so I can adjust the levels all the way through the signal chain. Is there much of a processing leap in doing this, or is the only code added in the form of signal==signal*gain;? (I realise that it increases the graphical overhead too..)
Every track that you audio enable will get an extra sub-mixer at that track. Meaning that there will be a buffer used for collecting the audio of subtracks, to calculate the meter values and to apply pan and level changes (if set differently from defaults). Tracks that have e.g. plugins assigned will already have the sub-mixer created, so audio enabling those tracks to get the gain setting will not add overhead to the audio processing.
Finally… If a track overloads, does Podium clip, or just pass the overloaded signal down the chain to be attenuated later? I’ve noticed that if (for example) I have a snare hit that goes red in it’s channel, the parent track goes less red, and the master channel stays green; and all of them have 0dB gain…
Podium does not apply clipping, until it has to output the floating point audio to fixed point buffers in audio interfaces or recording to fixed point sound files. Some plugins can handle that you put an overloaded signal through them, others will create digital garbage. So generally you should keep the meters out of the red zone before applying effects.
If your track gains are all set to 0dB the signal is routed unaltered up the track hierarchy, unless your audio source is mono and thus is applied the chosen panning law.
That was some tough questions considering you were just strolling around in town 😉
Frits
ZynewaveAnd to repeat a suggestion I gave elsewhere in the forum:
The simplest way to make sound in Podium:
Select ‘New Project’ from the file menu. Import or drag&drop a wave file into Podium. Enter the sound editor for the sound object. Press play. The sound file should be playing on the first pair of audio output channels that you enabled in the interfaces dialog.
ZynewaveYou could email me your project file (.pod). I can then verify that your project is configured correctly.
ZynewaveI have contacted one of the Podium beta testers who uses a Audiophile 2496 card, and asked if he is experiencing any problems. I’ll report back when I know more.
At a guess, “mixer mappings” might mean the Master Stereo and Master Mono device mappings
Yes, the two master outs and the Parameters folder with the level and pan parameters.
In fact, I can’t even explicitly select the Delta at all. The only two choices for audio interface are
and . I’d expect to see the Delta AP listed here
Podium only supports the use of one sound card, so the
I’d expect to see the Delta AP listed here, preferably split into a choice of outputs.
And I have no idea what the starting target channel number in the Audio Configuration box is supposed to represent.
The source and target channel numbers are indeed the channels on your audio interface. If you have selected
I’m intrigued by the “Output buffer skip count: 2” message. What on earth does that mean?
This is the result of the ‘ASIO sample position gaps’. This can happen with some drivers during initialization of the driver. What should be worrying is if these counts increase during normal operation. This could indicate that there is a conflict with digital clock source inputs. Some drivers also ‘jumps’ in the sample position if there is a buffer underrun.
ZynewaveHigh on my list is support for dragging wave files directly onto tracks. Judging from the feedback of several users, one of the biggest obstacles is how to put premade sound files onto tracks. It’s not obvious that you have to import wav files into Podium, open an object list window and drag the sound objects onto tracks. This browser would hopefully improve on the workflow of this.