The link is in the sticky thread above and also here:
This is just some small fixes and an update to work with the most recent Aalto / Madronalib changes. Now I'm beginning work on a new generation of the touch tracking software.
NOTE: I recommend that upon installation, you remove your old SoundplaneAppState.txt and then recalibrate with this new version. As always, that file is ~/Library/Application Support/Madrona Labs/SoundplaneAppState.txt.
nice release, already improves touches on the edges for me, and I like the new pressure display. I've emailed you a couple of minor issues, but overall feels really good.
looking forward to seeing and hearing more about the new generation touch tracking :)
my #1 requests would be improved handling of tri-chords, which can be a little hit/miss... but a tough challenge I'm sure, given the 3 notes are quite close.
( though >1 cell apart)
e.g.
X000X
00X00
Is there somewhere I can get the previous version from? (I stupidly overwrote it)
Im getting some issues with 'ghost' touches that I didn't get on the previous version, and I need to 'perform' with the soundplane in a couple of weeks, so much as I prefer the new version ... I cannot risk the ghosts touches :(
also, when I go back, will I have to recalibrate?
(It would be nice I think to have a separate app state for each version, in case you need to rollback/ or use different versions for testing)
Thanks
Mark
Hi Mark, version 1.2 is still at http://madronalabs.com/media/soundplane/Soundplane1.2.zip
That's odd about the ghost touches, because I haven't changed anything to do with touch detection in this version, except make the edges easier to get into... which is actually after touch detection. You can try setting the threshold higher, or the template tolerance lower.
I don't think you should have to recalibrate.
I could see adding different app states. For now you can save a backup of the app state file yourself if you like.
I should also ask you for more information about where and when you are seeing these ghost notes!
thanks.... Im pretty sure I was using 1.1.2 before but I guess same place modified url :)
yeah the ghost touches are odd... they occur in a couple of forms...
a) a random touch, quite far away from where other real touches are... i think these tend to be on on the bottom row
b) if play a tri chord, I get 4 or 5 touches (i.e. 2 extra) quite close to the other 3,
(a) is a pain, as the touch tends to persist, until I hit the recalibrate button (pg 2)
also, If i turn up the view scale, it does indeed look like the SP has a touch in that region.
and it also seems commonly in the same place ... bottom row around column 6 (approx)
but it just suddenly starts... I've not placed a touch close to there, and it might start after 5 mins or 30mins!
(b) bit different, but again fine for quite some time of playing, and then suddenly will start glitching, not all the time, but once its starts seems to be more likely to reoccur.
the above are just 'impressions' rather any serious quantifying/testing... but definitely didn't occur in 1.1.2 (which is I'm pretty sure what I was using before)
I did have a try with the reducing template (its about .300) but didn't appear to help, but will try more 'rigoursly' :) threshold Ive got at the default 0.010, but will try to increase.
(I'll look at the ghost touch pressure value a bit close next time, I assume I can use that to tune thresh)
BTW: an idea for you.
I really like the 'pressure value' display on the grid,
I was wondering if we could have something similar for a musical context....
Im trying to get better with quantise OFF, and I'm ok with single touches, as i can tune to a 'backing track'.
BUT when Im doing multiple touches its very difficult, the issue is, I can hear one of the notes is OFF, but its hard to determine which one...
so I was wondering, if we could display a 'tuning' offset for each touch,
this would be a useful training aid, as I could see which note was off, and tune it by ear.
there could be other representations ... e.g. the touch colour could be different for sharp/flat/in-tune.... this would be cool, as very quick to see.
(Im guess not really interested in how much Im out, just which touch and in which direction, just a clue... to then let my ears do the real work :) )
will get back to about the ghost touches, if I can determine anything more concrete to help.
thanks
Mark
If you are ever getting random touches on the top or bottom, it is likely due to a noisy carrier set being selected. Setting the right carriers is needed to avoid noise from the power supply and any other noise. Unfortunately the frequency of this noise may change any time the power conditions change, such as plugging in a new USB hub, for example. As you probably know, go to the expert page and pick "select carriers" to do this.
Your symptoms about (a) sound very much like this is happening. You can look on the Touches page in calibrated view, and any carrier noise will show up as a particular pair of columns, symmetrical about the center, that are bouncing up more than the rest.
When you select carriers, the max noise for the best carrier set as displayed in the text window on the Expert page should be no more than 0.004. All shipped Soundplanes met this criterion in testing.
The (b) kind of touches sound like limitations of the touch tracker code, frankly. It can be made to do the chords you are looking for with the right combination off playing style and settings. I'm striving to make this much easier in the next version of the touch tracker.
Thanks for the tuning vis. idea. This would be a nice option I agree.
hmmm interesting...
noise results are:
0.0188
0.0075
0.004440096
0.0155
0.0175
0.0176
0.0198
0.0192
so carrier 2 is selected.. which I'm 'fairly' sure is always the one selected.
But whats interesting is I'm pretty sure, there used to be 2 (carried 1 and 2) that were around the same 0.004 level, sometimes it would choose one, others time the other.
now 2 things have changed....
a) Ive moved my gear around a bit, due to getting a new mixer in the studio.
b) Ive put a new (powered MTT ) usb hub in place,
I just noticed, if I plug directly into the mac, that carrier 1, goes back down to 0.0048 levels, from 0.00758 ... so I'm wondering if the new hub is creating a bit more 'noise'.
(the usb cable is, I think, the one supplied, and has a ferrite block on it)
so... a couple of questions...
is there anything i can do, to ensure noise is not an issue, or reduce it?
is there anything I should avoid? ( my SP usually is played in from of the mac)
also, next time I see, the issue, I will do a carrier scan, and see what its says, e.g. has the noise gone up.
(when the issue has occurred, Im pretty sure I've not been doing anything to USB devices, or turning any other devices on ... and my power supply is pretty clean, as I'm off-grid running off of solar power with good quality inverters :))
EDIT: actually scrub the 'new hub' theory, just did a few more scans, and even in the new hub its sometimes at 0.004 levels, seems carrier 1 is a bit 'random' on its noise levels.
Interesting... could be differences in US / UK power responsible. But 0.0044 should be just fine. I like to see
The only thing I have noticed changing the amount of noise here is the USB hub configuration. One customer had an intermittent problem but that turned out to be a very noisy old neon lamp.
PS.
as I'm off-grid running off of solar power with good quality inverters
whaaaat?
Im out of my depth here...so may be talking nonsense :)
UK/US, I assume your referring to mains hum, and the difference between europe using 50hz vs US 60hz... and I guess that implies different carrier frequencies are suitable for europe? Im assuming you have to be careful of harmonics of these frequencies too?
Q. what are the frequencies used by the SP?
Q. are the choices of carriers 'hardwired' in the SP, or could we potentially have different choices in europe?
off gird, I was referring to the fact some mains supply cans be pretty 'dirty', with pretty big voltage changes (dips and peaks) as demand alters... and was wondering if this also might induce different RF interferences (and so implicitly change which carrier signals are better)
but as I live in the mountains and don't have mains, I don't have this issue. my solar system has very stable voltage (+/-0.2v variation according to my metrics, which is tiny compared to mains swings which can typically be +/-5v, and at times by much more than that).
Ive read these voltage changes, can make equipment operate differently (sub optimal), but again... Im only going on what Ive read rather than seen any real evidence of it.. not sure if it affects the 'hum' of not.
(the reference to inverters... these, as you possibly know, take my 48v DC to 230v AC, but not all inverters are 'equal', in terms of voltage/cycle variations and some don't even put out perfect sine cycles... so this is something I was very careful of, when designing my system, as well as ensuring I have good earthing, and no ground-loops :))
saying all this, I've not finished building yet, so I'm in a temporary studio, which has a lack of plug sockets, so quite possible the huge number of power strips I have could be far from ideal :)
I was just curious what sort of place you lived in that was off-grid. It sounds wonderful.
In general, US or UK power (mains) lines shouldn't interfere with the Soundplane carriers. But there's always some device that can cause a problem, like the lamp one customer had, and this might show up in a different frequency in a 50 vs 60 Hz environment.
The carriers are all in the range of 10-30 kHz. This frequency range is a good one for the Soundplane because nearly nothing transmits RF on it, and any transmission attenuates very quickly with distance. The Soundplane picks between all the possible choices at "select carriers" time.
cool...
ah, although I'm from the UK, I now live (~2 years) in southern Spain on an old almond farm in the mountains close to the Sierra Nevada - its very beautiful, especially now as the almond trees are in flower.
but... no supplied infrastructure, so I have solar panels (with backup), my own water supply (treatments/storage), and for heating - solar thermal panels, a biomass incinerator which uses almond shells (a 'waste' from the almond farms), and wood burners (to burn cuttings from our trees)... and fortunately, recently, internet via WiFiMax (used to be satellite)
Its alot of fun, but still very much a 'work in progress' :)
Wow! that really does sound amazing. Is is a dry climate? You have a stream or something?
Maybe you are sick of almonds, but I find almond butter on apples to be a great breakfast.
love almonds :)
dry by european standards, as no rain from June-August, but some rain the rest of the year.
We run off our own well, which is about 20 meters deep.
btw, today had an issue again... i noticed that the carrier i was uisng (2), had jumped to 0.08, and now carrier 1 was better at 0.04 ... so perhaps these changes are why im getting these issues.
just not why sure the noise changes so much ?
Randy,
have you had a chance to look at the multiple OSC issue I reported via email?
(ie. when using osc offsets, so I can have kaivo and aalto running, worked in previous release of SP software)
if not no issue, then I will fork repo, and fix it... but don't want to duplicate effort.
cheers
Mark
p.s. any chance of a tag/branch on the madronalib/soundplane repo for released versions. i.e what makes up 1.2.4
ok the issue is in :
void SoundplaneController::doOSCServicesMenu(int result)
the parameters in resolve passed in incorrect order.
Resolve(getServiceName(result - 1).c_str(), kUDPType, kLocalDotDomain);
should be:
Resolve(kLocalDotDomain,kUDPType,getServiceName(result - 1).c_str());
Thanks, will send a fix ASAP