0.8b3 Release Notes
10/9/99 AudioMulch 0.8b3 Release Notes
AudioMulch version 0.8b3 is now available from the download page.Version 0.8b3 fixes many bugs from version 0.8b2 and adds four new contraptions: RissetTones, RissetFilters, Nebuliser and Arpeggiator. MIDI support has been expanded to allow MIDI controllers to map onto sub-ranges of parameters, it is also possible to specify non-linear MIDI mapping curves. Soundfile support has been enhanced, with the addition of a preview function in the open soundfile dialog box. A number of other minor changes have been made, see below for details.
If you encounter any bugs in this version please let me know about them and I will fix them as soon as possible.
If you're interested in what changed between version 0.8b1 to 0.8b2 then click here to read the 0.8b2 release notes
I would like to thank all beta testers for their contribution to this release, many problems have been addressed thanks to your help.
New Contraptions
The following contraptions have been added and can be found in the Beta category of the New Contraption menu. I intend to fine tune them all to improve overall performance and musicality, however their parameters and basic behavior will not change. Specifically, the levels from RissetFilters and Nebuliser are too low when a high Q factor is used. As a workaround use a Gain contraption after RissetFilters and Nebuliser if necessary.
RissetTones
RissetTones is an implementation of the acoustic illusion known as the Shepard-Risset glissando, originally developed by Roger Shepard and extended by Jean-Claude Risset. The effect is often described by visual analogy: think of a spinning barber's pole with helical stripes painted on it, as it spins the stripes appear to spiral upwards or downwards on the pole depending on the direction of rotation. A Shepard-Risset glissando uses a stack of sine tones spaced at equal intervals instead of stripes on a pole, the tones glide up or down at different speeds depending on the Rate parameter ( positive for up, negative for down ), fading in and then out at the edges of the frequency band selected by the Range parameter. The Spacing parameter determines the interval between each tone in cents. The Max Oscs ( Maximum number of oscillators ) parameter limits the number of oscillators used to prevent overloading the CPU. The number of oscillators required for a complete rendering of the Risset-Shepard tone is indicated next to the Max Oscs number box.
RissetFilters
RissetFilters operates using the same principle as RissetTones ( see above ) except that instead of using a bank of oscillators it utilises a bank of bandpass filters to filter an input signal. It can be used to create effects not dissimilar to a flanger or phaser, except that the filters always appear to sweep in a single direction. In addition to the parameters described for RissetTones, RissetFilters adds a Q parameter for adjusting the bandpass filters' Q factor. Thanks to Steve Adam for the RissetFilters idea.
Nebuliser
Nebuliser is an extended version of DLGranulator capable of granular filtering. Each grain has a separate bandpass filter, the FFreq ( filter frequency ) and FQ ( filter Q factor ) parameters specify ranges across which the values for individual grains are randomly selected. See the help file for an explanation of the DLGranulator. Thanks to Curtis Roads for the granular filtering idea.
Arpeggiator
Arpeggiator is a dual oscillator synthesizer with an integrated arpeggiating sequencer. Arpeggiator does not include any enveloping or filtering capabilities. It is intended that it be used in conjunction with Bassline ( see the Arpeggiator.amh example file ) or the forthcoming filter module to provide enveloping and filtering. Various standard controls are provided for modulating the oscillator section.
The sequencing section allows the specification of a two octave chord using the Pitch Set keyboard. The arpeggiating sequencer cycles through the chord either up, down, up and down or random as specified by the Direction parameter. Base Octave selects the lowest octave in which the chord is played. The chord is arpeggiated in a cycle of Range repetitions, each transposed Cy. Trans ( cycle transposition ) semitones from the previous repetition. Random Skip and Repeat specify the probability that notes will be randomly skipped and repeated to create interesting variations. The Triggers pattern determines at which semiquavers of a two bar pattern the arpeggiator advances to the next step. The Ties pattern specifies which notes will be tied onto the following note. The amount of portamento between tied notes in controlled by the Glide parameter. After every Cycle Length semiquavers the pattern is reset to the first note, this is useful for creating patterns that repeat regularly.
Changes and New Features
- Moved beta contraptions from 0.8b2 into their appropriate categories ( Shaper and DigiGrunge to Effects, *Gain and Invert to Mixers. )
- Added MIDI parameter modulation support to a number previously unsupported parameters ( Matrix4x4, Matrix8x8 matrix switches, LoopPlayer checkboxes, Bassline waveform and mute, Drums mute and channel enables, RingAM switch between RM and AM, TestGen sine/noise switch. )
- Removed length limitation for loadable soundfiles in LoopPlayer and Drums, now any length file can be loaded. Be careful not to load huge files if you havn't got a lot of RAM.
- Revised the popup menu structure in the patcher. Now different popups appear whether you click on a contraption or empty space. The functionality hasn't changed significantly except that you can now open multiple contraption editors at once by shift selecting them and selecting Edit from the Patcher popup menu. The Delete menu item works now too.
- When a contraption editor is opened it is tiled in the properties pane, rather than the previous method of having them all open on top of each other.
- Moved level meters configuration to a dialog box. This can be accessed by right clicking on any of the level meters, or from the View -> Toolbars -> Configure Level Meters... menu item.
- Increased parameter ranges in *Gain and *ParaEQ contraptions.
- Added a new open soundfile dialog. When selecting soundfiles for LoopPlayer, Drums, SoundIn etc, there is an option to preview the sounds before loading them. Information about the selected soundfile is also displayed.
- Added support for 8 bit soundfiles and soundfiles of any sample rate for all contraptions that use soundfiles except SoundOut.
- Added the ability to specify a sync offset in milliseconds for MIDI clock sync. This allows compensation for delays in the soundcard or MIDI drivers. It also allows for compensation for latency when processing MIDI synced audio through AudioMulch.
- Added "Mapping" tab to the Parameter Modulation dialog which includes: Upper and lower limits allowing MIDI controllers to be mapped on to a partial range of a parameter; A smoothing (slew limiting) parameter to limit the speed at which parameters are changed; and a non-linear mapping curve. Click on the mapping curve to add new points, drag points outside the curve editing pane to delete them.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that would cause a crash whenever a Contraption with MIDI modulated parameters was deleted, or a document containing MIDI modulated parameters was unloaded and then more MIDI input arrived.
- Fixed a bug that would cause audio to fail when a document containing feedback was loaded.
- Fixed a number of bugs associated with MIDI clock sync, it should be more reliable now.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused an error when using 'Export as Wave File...'
- Fixed a number of bugs in BubbleBlower and LoopPlayer that resulted in intermittent crashes, sometimes when opening a second file, sometimes files weren't closed properly and became inaccessible to other programs.
- Fixed ties bug in Bassline. Now a pattern with all ties will play forever instead of cutting out.
- Fixed 8x8Matrix, now it works.
- Fixed a bug that caused a crash when using the 'Set Value...' popup item on some of the knobs in the *ParaEQ contraptions.
- Contraptions with no properties such as Busses are no longer listed in the Parameter Modulation dialog as having a Preset Number property.
- It is no longer possible to accidentally cut and paste a second SoundOut contraption.
- Fixed problems with restoring soundfile name parameters in presets with some contraptions (notably SoundIn). You can now store file references in presets and they will recall properly.
- Fixed a bug in loop player that caused a small glitch at the end of each loop cycle, even when 'Stretch' was enabled. Loop player can now loop files perfectly, allowing it to be used for drone notes and other 'critical' looping tasks.
- Fixed bug with numeric edit controls where dragging upwards to increment negative numbers was unreliable.
Known Issues
The following bugs and issues have not yet been resolved:
- An error may occur when trying to use SoundIn with a half-duplex sound card.
- SDelay may produce glitchy output when AudioMulch is syncing to an external MIDI clock and the delay time is specified in semiquavers. A workaround is to specify the delay time in milliseconds.
- AudioMulch cannot access VST Plugins' default or factory preset banks.
- Parameter value hints may not be displayed correctly with some system font settings.
- Wave files generated by AudioMulch may be incompatible with Cubase.
- Some commercial VST plugins may not function properly ( Chopper, Wunderverb, Quadrafuzz )
- Poor performance has been reported with some soundblaster cards.
Planned Additions
Aside from addressing any issues stemming from 0.8b3 I plan to add the long awaited automation and sequencing system. Here is an initial screenshot of the automation editing window. I'm also working to finish some new soundfile playback and Ambisonic spatialisation contraptions.
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