KVR :: Big Tick » Zen betatesting [View Original Topic]
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Big Tick - Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:36 am

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Ok folks, want to try Zen beta ? it's ready and waiting for you. Here is how to proceed:

- create an account on http://www.bigtickaudio.com. You should have one anyway
- drop me a message. I will send you the demo and a temporary designer key.

Forewarning:
- the demo is PC only for now.
- don't ask if all you want is "see how it looks". You must be genuinely willing to integrate it as a part of your music making process.
- don't ask if you don't own and use any of the following vstis: synth1, ACE, Zebra, Rhino, Sylenth1, Z3ta+, Firebird, Gladiator. I will add more along the way, or let me know if you really want another one and are willing to upload its presets.
- don't ask if you are not willing to contribute to the classification effort - tagging a preset only takes 1 click, but I can't tag them all alone.
- be aware that I am still uploading presets, and that, as I said in another thread, I am stuck for most of the month with a GPRS connection. So don't expect to have 100000 presets at your fingertips just yet !

'Tick

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aMUSEd - Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:39 am

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ooooh

inbeforethenextperson

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rlahalla - Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:48 am

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PM sent..

BTW - you're missing the header image and some social networking images on your website..

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echopark - Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:43 am

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pm sent.

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:48 am

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ok guys, so when you get a message from me, log into your account and go to your profile. You will find:

- a link to the beta
- your designer key

Install the beta, go to the configuration page and enter your designer key. While you're here, activate the synths you would like to use. Then wait a little bit and Zen will start downloading presets, you will see them appearing in the preset list.

Here is a 1-page mini-guide to get you started:

Color codes
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- Grey presets are public presets, uploaded by somebody else.
- Green presets are local presets, imported into Zen (obviously, by you).
- Purple presets are public presets uploaded by you.

Clicking on a preset selects it (and creates the vsti to play it). Double-click it to open the vsti editor window. When you select a preset, the tags associated with it will be highlighted.

Importing presets
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To import a preset, just open the vsti editor window, load your preset through the vsti, and then in Zen, click the "Import" (left arrow) button. The preset will appear in Zen (and will be green since it's a local preset).


To import a bunch of presets, double click the Import button. It will start flashing. Then in your vsti window, browse through all the presets you want to import. Whenever you select a new preset in the vsti, it gets automatically imported into Zen. Don't forget to double-click the Import button again when you are done.

Deleting a preset
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Sometimes, and despite the duplicate detection feature, you might end up with duplicates. If you ever want to delete a local preset, just shift-rightclick on it.

Tagging presets
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Ctrl-click on a tag to apply it to the preset. If the preset is a public preset, because you are registered as a designer, the tag becomes public, so every tagging action that you do will be a useful contribution.

At the moment the list of tags is voluntarily minimal. Please send me your suggestions.

Uploading presets
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To upload a (green) preset, select it and click the "upload" (up arrow) button. The preset will turn purple after a little while.

You can upload all the green presets in the current search result by double-clicking the upload button. This action is a bit sensitive and might not stay in the final release, I recommend to wait until your presets have been uploaded until doing anything else.

Uploading is usually really fast if you have a decent connection (sigh), so feel free to tag and upload any free presets you may have.

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bM3w - Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:34 pm

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PM sent.

Just wondering how the upload/download of presets works in case of commercial banks? How does ZEN checks if I'm the legal owner of preset xyz? Or would it not work if I don't have the original preset?

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:45 pm

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If you receive a commercial preset through Zen, then it will play in demo mode (e.g, dropping notes randomly) until you purchase it. You can either purchase it through Zen, or directly from the designer. In the latter case, you let Zen know by loading the purchased preset into the vsti, and importing it into Zen.


Regarding upload, you can't upload if you are not given designer privileges - and after the beta period, these will only be given to people who are serious about designing presets and sharing (or selling) them through Zen.

'Tick

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:50 pm

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oh and btw, can you make sure you send me emails rather than kvr PM's ? My mailbox is going to explode

Many thanks,
'Tick

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aMUSEd - Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:10 pm

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Would that overwrite any tagging other people have done of that preset?

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rsmus7 - Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:34 pm

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just sent a pm
but I can send an e-mail too

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 3:21 am

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No. When Zen recognizes that (public) preset A is the same than (local) preset B, it keeps preset A, and adds preset B tags to it.

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rsmus7 - Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:08 am

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is zen only for 32 bit?

I installed it in my WIN 7 64bit
and I get a "runtime error" when I try to start it from the desktop icon.

and one question,
is there a way to point it to my usual vsti folder?
that it can load the plugs from that folder?

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rsmus7 - Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:21 am

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ok I located the problem a bit more,
I closed zen,
but the process is still running.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:48 am

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Yes, it sometimes does this, and this is something I need to fix - you need to kill it from the task manager.

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asseca - Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:53 am

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Running Zen WinXP-sp2, i3-530, 4GB RAM.
Zen.exe simply crashes ...
Zen.dll works fine so far.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:05 am

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asseca, just make sure you don't have a leftover zen.exe running in the background, or a host with zen.dll loaded.

One more thing:

You can add your own tags using the "+" buttons. These tags are only local, they are never published, typically they can be used for bookmarking presets or tagging them per project..

The "public" tags are all in the "category" list - as you will see they are multilevel but with no real parent/child relationship (e.g, any level2 tag can be applied, regardless of the level1 tags). In other words, if you have:
- a rhodes sounds tagged as "Piano" + "Electric"
- a strat sound tagged as "Guitar" + "Electric"

The level2 "electric" tag is actually the same tag for both sounds. Searching for "electric" will return both presets.


For the sake of consistency, I will be centralizing requests for new public tags.

'Tick

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asseca - Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:07 am

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Checked with Process Explorer no Zen stuff running ...
[edit]I have just restarted windows, now zen.exe seems to work, but at startup of zen.exe I get the messagebox "Error: The system cannot find the file specified"[/edit]

After tagging 5 to 10 presets in Synth 1, Zen.exe/Zen.dll crashes.

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bM3w - Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:43 am

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Can't run the standalone version as well. Even after a Windows restart it keeps crashing immediately.

Using it as a host inside Cubase 5.5 it doesn't play any sound other then Sylenth1's Arp 303 Saw although I legally own Sylenth1, Ace, Zebra and Firebird. It loads the VSTi GUI, but outputs no sound at all. I tried both methods on ZEN: on an Instrument track and loading it via the VSTi Rack. Any idea?

My setup:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, 4GB RAM
Cubase 5.5 32bit

Besides that ZEN looks really promising, but for the moment I can't test much...

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rsmus7 - Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:20 am

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I tried this, butwas not able to kill it, I needed to restart the system

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:34 am

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bm3w: ok, is this that you don't see any presets other than Arp303Saw, or that you can't hear any sound ?

Regarding presets, indeed I have only published this one sylenth1 preset - I would do more if I wasn't stuck for the month in the middle of nowhere, with only a phone line connection. Bad timing...

This said, you can still import the sylenth1 presets into zen:

- enable autoimport: double-click the left arrow button, it will start flashing.
- import presets: in sylenth1, go through the presets, every time you select a new one it will appear in the Zen list.
- disable autoimport by double-clicking the left arrow again.

Once you have them all in Zen, you can start categorizing them, or even uploading them if you feel like it. To upload a preset, select it and hit the "up" arrow.

'Tick

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:38 am

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oh and guys, please - can you email me your issues instead of posting them here ? not that I mind the world knowing that the program is still buggy, but even browsing kvr is excruciating slow for me.

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bM3w - Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:26 pm

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ok. email sent. and for the curious: I can see other presets, but none for Zebra, ACE or FireBird make a sound.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:29 pm

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Guys,

I have just uploaded a new beta - named 070710. It replaces the exe and dll from the beta you downloaded before (you don't want to reinstall the full package, since it would make you restart from a blank database).

This version should have improved stability (though I still have crashes with, ahem, Rhino mostly). UI refresh should also be less chaotic.

If you can, I will ask you to install tcpmon to keep an eye on the connections that Zen makes to the server. More than 50 simultaneous connections will get your IP backlisted from http://www.bigtickaudio.com ! It should never happen in normal use, but if there are cases where this happens, I want to find them !

Many thanks to all for your involvement. I know the software is still very young, but it's good to feel that others see the same potential than I did when I started it.

'Tick

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Musical Gym - Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:59 pm

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What is Zen and how is it used?

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bM3w - Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:09 pm

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Maybe I'm aleady blacklisted, cause I can't access your website anymore

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:54 am

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Probably. I hate this hosting policy. Can you send me your IP ? I'll ask them to unblock you.

May thanks,
'Tick

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:56 am

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Couple things.. Zen.exe crashes upon start, and a system restart does not make it work. It still crashes every time it attempts to start. Second, Zen.dll loads to a track in Ableton, but I don't find any way to import presets. I enable the synth (Ace for example) and I don't find any way to actually load the plug-in..

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:52 am

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Rlahalla, just wait for Zen to download a few Ace presets- when you have them you can just double-click one to open the ACE window, and from there you can load your own presets and import them into Zen.

I am uploading patch 070810.zip now. It should fix the standalone startup crashes, and also be more conservative about connections usage, making it harder to lock yourself out of the server

'Tick

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:58 am

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This new release won't even load in VSTHost. It just locks it up upon scan. I decided to test on my laptop to see if it would go there, but nope. Standalone still does not work. Loads into the processes, but nothing on screen. Laptop is Win7 32-bit and the desktop is WinXP SP2.

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:59 am

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And your website is down.. I'm assuming you're probably dealing with a high volume of requests right now

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:06 am

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well, I finally got the Zen plug to work in VSTHost, but after enabling the plug-ins I have, it doesn't do anything else. No presets get loaded or anything..

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:42 am

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Just try the latest exe. The top left, windows menu is used to set up the asio/directsound configuration.

A few more hidden (or not) options:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Big Tick\zen is where application files are stored. You will find here:
zen.log => the log file for debugging purposes.
zen.properties => a configuration files with a few more parameters than the ones you can access through zen. You can define the number of displayed items in the default list.


Shift-click on a tag will apply this tag to all the presets in the current search.
Shift-rightclick on a preset will delete it (if it is a local preset).

'Tick

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:00 pm

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Ok, things seem to be working slightly better now than before. I'll report back shortly.

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:29 pm

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I just uploaded version 070910. This one fixes a major bug in the plugin implementation, so hopefully a lot of the stability issues (and things like plugins not sounding in some hosts) should improve.

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rlahalla - Fri Jul 09, 2010 5:31 am

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I'll be testing this out shortly, the previous one fixes loading the exe for me, but no sound, so this next one will hopefully square me away in that department..

It's insanely hot here right now, so my fingers are sticking to the keys of my laptop

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Big Tick - Fri Jul 09, 2010 6:03 pm

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Version 071010 is available - with more fixes, tooltips, fixes irresponsive buttons, display the number of available online presets in the synths list, ...

Because this version also updates the skin data, it is released with an installer - just install it over the previous installation, it won't erase your current database.

'Tick

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rlahalla - Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:40 pm

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Just a heads up, I can't connect to the website. You're displaying a PHP error there..

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rsmus7 - Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:37 am

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the latest build crashed here in my WIN7 64 bit
and I still can't kill it from the taskmanager

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Big Tick - Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:30 am

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Yes my connection died on me in the middle of a site update yesterday, and was out until this morning. I'll never use T-mobile 3G again if I can avoid it !
I'm fixing it now.

rsmus7, I hope this is what caused your crash. If not, can you send me the contents of your zen/ folder (in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Big Tick) ?

'Tick

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Big Tick - Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:45 am

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And... I just uploaded built 071110. This ones adds better multi-selection (with ctrl-click / shift click to select presets), making it easier to tag a bunch of presets with the same tag. It should also fix the problem with stuck downloads, so you should start seeing new presets arriving...

'Tick

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Big Tick - Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:45 pm

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New daily update (071210) is ready !
You can now drag/drop a bunch of fxp files inside the presets list to automatically import them.

I have also replaced the default skin by the one modified by Asseca - with smaller fonts and larger lists, for reduced scrolling around.

'Tick

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rsmus7 - Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:05 pm

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it's getting better, but I still have frequent crashes

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rlahalla - Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:07 pm

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Sorry for the delay, we've been releasing a new product this weekend, but I'll be getting back to testing tonite.

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Big Tick - Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:02 pm

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rsmus7, can you try to disable some of the plugins, to see if any of them is responsible for the crashes ? Rhino definitely doesn't play so nicely with Zen, and will be updated to address these issues.

I am uploading the new daily update (071310):
- global online/offline button on the main page
- shift-click in a tag to search for presets that DON'T have this tag.
- right-click on one of the control sliders to enable "learn mode" - then move a control in the plugin to assign the control to this slider. Zen will remember the assignment for all the future presets of this plugin.

'Tick

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asseca - Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:22 pm

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I have uploaded a little RTF-help file, which is just a summary of all the info 'Tick has supplied in different posts ...

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rsmus7 - Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:44 pm

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it crashes mostly with absynth and rhino and sometimes with the other plugins here in reaper 64 bit

and would it be possible to make zen 64 bit to load 64 bit plugins?

and I would like it to show the 20 presets in the right coloum without scrolling.

and would it be possible to add a midi learn to the control sliders?

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:40 am

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ok, I guess, with no real reproducible sequence of events leading to the crash ?



Yes - though I don't have win64 so it's not my top priority right now. I am considering adding jbridge inside Zen, so that it could load 32/64 bits plugins and be hosted by 32/64 bits hosts.



It would require changing the skin. Maybe I could make the presets smaller, 1 line only, by not showing the plugin name ? Since you can filter out by plugin too...

Otherwise you can change in zen.properties:
presetDatabase.itemsPerPage: 12

You'll only have 12 presets per page, but won't need to scroll.



Yes.

'Tick

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rlahalla - Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:02 am

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Ok, the newest update says "cannot find the file specified" again, and still has no sound at all. I load it inside a host and it loads fine, no sound. I'm able to download presets, load a plug-in, but not actually hear it at all.

I'll test on a few other hosts now.

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:43 am

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rlahalla, the standalone does the same ? no sound ?

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rlahalla - Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:50 am

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Yes, no sound on both the standalone and the plug-in as well. I'm testing it out right now in Ableton to see if it works there, but so far, not outputting sound in VSTHost and standalone.

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:07 pm

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Version 071410 is here. The main new feature is the "Last Import" system tag, automatically applied to all presets in the last import session. And I've activated daHornet and will upload presets for it shortly, so that you can test what happens when a new vsti gets supported.

'Tick

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Big Tick - Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:12 pm

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Ahem - didn't expect to put up a new version so soon, but I found a nasty little bug in 071410 - if using drag/drop to import fxp, somethings the fxp would be corrupt. So before the database gets messed up too much, I'd rather upload a fix - and here you are: version 071510 is online !

If you have imported or published any presets with the fxp drag/drop feature, please let me know.

'Tick

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rsmus7 - Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:34 pm

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[quote="Big Tick"]

yep




for me 1 line would be enough





great

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:24 am

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I've downloaded and installed this version with not so good results. First, when opening the EXE, it states still that the file specified cannot be found, but opens to the Zen window anyways. I own Absynth, Ace, Gladiator and Sylenth and none of them are able to play any sound.

When I load the plug-in version, it loads up fine and when I load sylenth1, it will only play the first "acid 303" or whatever it is that loads on default. Even when I load other presets, it still just plays the same one.

Next, when I load Ace, it will play very few of the notes properly. Most of them will explode into a rage of noise until I close the Zen interface. Once I open the gui again, I can load another sound, but the same thing is likely to occur. After this happens though, when closing out to shut down the computer, it all locked up and shut itself down for me. but still, no sound in the EXE. I'll keep testing..

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:26 am

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I've got it working, but I am hitting limitations of the vst protocol with automation: you can move the slider and record it as midi automation in the host. When playing back, the host sends this automation data to Zen in the midi stream. Zen can then do 2 things with it:
1. pass it over to the plugin, like it does with the rest of the midi data. It will only make sense if the plugin also has the same midi controller assigned to the same control.
2. convert it to vst automation and send it to the plugin. In this case you lose the sample-accurate timing of midi automation.

Obviously, neither solution is acceptable for realtime automation/record. I guess it is ok as a way to tweak the preset to your liking, though.

The sad thing is, there is a kVstParameterType events type in the vst sdk - but it was introduced in v2.3, deprecated in 2.4, and never documented in between. A pity, because this is exactly what would be required: a way to add vst parameter automation inside the midi stream.

'Tick

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:31 am

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Damn. Am I the only one for which the beta is actually usable ?!?

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:48 am

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Another thing to note, when I load a sylenth patch directly after I load an Ace patch, it loads Ace instead of Sylenth. When I click on another sylenth patch, Sylenth does show up.

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asseca - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:59 am

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Rhino presets in Zen does not sound the same as placing Rhino in a host.
Also a preset sounds different if I switch to another Rhino preset and then back.

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:14 am

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Yes, I have a Rhino/RhinoCM update ready that fixes this - just waiting to see if there are any more issues coming up before releasing it.

rlahalla, just send me your zen/ folder and I will have a look at your database.

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asseca - Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:41 am

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Thanks, I shall wait "patiently"

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rlahalla - Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:01 am

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Give me a few and I'll grab it for you..

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:37 am

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ok. Meanwhile... here is version 071610:
- midi learn for user sliders (with the limitations described above). Right-click on a slider to select "learn", then send a midi control or move a control on the vsti window.
- option to disable automatic sorting of tags (in zen.properties)
- support for several skins (in zen.properties)
- latest changes to the default skin by Asseca - looking good !
- support for vsti's that don't use the chunk format (like the FabFilter ones)
- add keyboard support to browse through presets in vsti's windows - this is really nice when using with autoimport: click on the vsti window bar, now the right/left arrows keys can be used to cycle through presets. This only work with vsti's that support the "bank" concept, though.

I'll activate Twin II vsti shortly. Don't use it with previous versions of the beta.

Thank you all for your efforts - it is getting better every day. Now if only I could fix these remaining stability and sound issues...

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 2:21 pm

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Good news rlahalla:
- I have found the problem with the Gladiator crash, it should be fixed in the next update.
- Regarding Sylenth1, I have just contacted Lennard - I used a debug version of Sylenth1 for development, and it seems that presets generated with this version can't be loaded back into the official Sylenth1.

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asseca - Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:43 pm

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When I try to run zen.exe and Rhino2.exe, then I see an error dialog: "The system cannot find the file specified".

I think both EXEs are searching for Avrt.dll which is not available on my WinXPsp2 system. Apparently this file is installed by WMP11, which I would prefer not to install on my system ...

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:11 pm

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I don't think I have WMP11 installed on mine either - using WinXP SP3 here.

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rsmus7 - Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:00 pm

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sorry but the standalone of this version still doesn't give out any sound
and rhino still crashes it
I got a runtime error here in reaper 64 bit I didn't get before

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asseca - Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:20 pm

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According to Sysinternals' File Monitor both EXEs stops on this DLL when it shows the error dialog. Try searching your C-drive to see if Avrt.dll is somewhere on your disk, if it is try renaming it and see if you then also get the error dialog ...

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bM3w - Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:43 am

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Did you try changing the output settings in the Config?

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rsmus7 - Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:15 am

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I did it now,
and I get now sound

but

it sets my ASIO buffer size to 4096 samples

even when I change it in the soundcard controll panel to a different setting it changes it again

my sound card is a m-audio delta 1010lt

I have the latest 64 bit drivers installed

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Big Tick - Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:55 am

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and regarding Rhino crashes, which Rhino version are you using ? even the latest 2.08 acts weird with Zen, so you'd rather wait for 2.09.

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Big Tick - Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:26 pm

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rsmus7, regarding ASIO and the standalone... it is a little quirk that I never got around to fix, mainly because the standalone was mostly used for my own internal tests, and never intended to be released... until users insisted

Anyway, what you need to do is set the latency using one of the directsound drivers. This value will then be used when selecting the ASIO driver.

Version 071710 is now online:
- fixes crashes with Gladiator
- fixes crashes when loading back a song using Zen
- automation: you can now automate the 6 Zen parameters, as well as all the plugin parameters.

Regarding Sylenth1 "silent" issue, it is because the uploaded presets have been created with the beta of the upcoming Sylenth1 version. If you update your Sylenth1 to this version, it should work.

'Tick

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asseca - Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:47 am

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Thanks for the v071710 ...

I have first loaded Synth1 - "A Very Arp-Ik" and found a few problems:

In VstHost when I move e.g. Zen slider #1 in Zen's GUI, then the value changes in VstHost's parameter list, however I cannot change the value in VstHost's parameter list to change the value of slider #1 in Zen's GUI.

Also I don't see any parameter names in VstHost's parameter list.

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Big Tick - Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:17 am

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Yes. The automation problem is easily fixed (I forgot to declare the Zen sliders as automatable).

The controls names issue, though, is more problematic: VstHost queries the plugin for its parameters names only once, right after loading it. At this point Zen doesn't have any plugin loaded yet, so its parameters names list is empty.

Unfortunately this is another shortcoming of the vst protocol, where there is no way for the plugin to notify the host that the list of parameters have changed.

Hosts deal with this in different manners:
- Energy XT queries the parameters names whenever they are needed, so it works very nicely with Zen.
- Reaper defines some extensions to the vst standard, to notify the host that the number of parameters has changed - hopefully Reaper reloads the list when this happens.

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asseca - Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:04 am

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I'll wait for the update to see if changing parameter names will work with asHost, it works with Absynth5, so the VST protocol is not preventing changing names.
But correct, changing parameter names in Absynth does not update VstHost...

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Big Tick - Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:33 pm

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and... v071810 is online now (uploaded at a dizzying rate of 631 b/s, thanks to T-mobile).

This release fixes the issue with the 6 control sliders that couldn't be automated, plus a few fixes for some random crashes (with all hosts) so make sure you get it.

Not much since last version, but I've been really busy convincing Zen to compile on OSX

'Tick

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Big Tick - Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:21 pm

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ok, here is another update (071910), with 2 changes related to Zen state saving:
- current search context is saved when the plugin saves its state (only the tags search for now - the fulltext search will come later).
- add an area displaying the current preset name in a more visible way - since otherwise, there was no way to know what the current preset was after loading a saved state

plus some new GUI changes:
- adds new buttons for next/previous presets.
- add parameters to customize the scrollbars width in the skin file.

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dalor - Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:45 pm

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Can someone make a 1 minute (as shorter as better) video tutorial for youtube on how to

a) load a VSTi (e.g. Zebra..) within Zen
b) create a preset (or load one in the VSTi)
c) create tags for this preset in Zen and then upload it?

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Big Tick - Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:40 pm

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I have a video ready but I can't upload it because of this stupid internet connection.

However I can explain how to do it:

a) You don't load a vsti - you select a preset, and this loads the vsti.
b) The easiest way is to drag&drop a fxp file into the presets list
c) Click on the "last import" tag to find your newly created preset, and select it. Then Ctrl-Click on the tags you want to apply. When you are done click the "upload" (the up arrow with a 'u' inside) button.

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rlahalla - Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:31 am

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I've been trying to work with Zen today, but no bueno here. It loads the audio/midi config panel fine, but as soon as I close the config panel, it states something about not being able to find the file specified again. Zen then loads up and displays presets normally, but the same issues with sylenth only playing one preset still exist. If I load Absynth, it tells me that there is an Effect ID Mismatch: expected 436C6D35, found 4357616D and doesn't load either.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:35 am

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Did you update your sylenth1 with the latest beta from Lennard ?
Which Absynth version are you loading ? I have only activated Absynth5.

'Tick

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rlahalla - Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:44 am

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Ah, I must have missed that. I don't have the new update, and Lennard does not have my new e-mail. Absynth 4 is installed here, so that also explains the issues with Absynth. I'll focus on Ace and Gladiator and see how it works out with them.

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rlahalla - Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:54 am

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Well, I went through and started everything over and tested through Ace, which didn't go so well either.

I loaded Zen, then loaded all the Ace presets, clicked on "Rob Lee" and narrowed it down a bit more with just "lead" sounds, then clicked on one to have it wait like 20 seconds and then the UI appears for Ace and no sound comes out whatsoever.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:07 pm

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Damn. If this is with the standalone, just make sure you have configured the output properties in the window topleft menu.

20 secs is a bit long, but could happen the first time you load a vsti. After this switching presets should be nearly instantaneous. The ACE UI shouldn't be displayed unless you doubleclick on the preset.

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bM3w - Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:51 pm

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Still the same here with ACE und Zebra in hosted mode. In standalone mode sound works fine for me.

Any idea?

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rlahalla - Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:04 pm

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The config panel actually has my MIDI input listed twice, so once I switched it I get sound now with Ace, no problems. I'm going to test out gladiator for a while now.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:34 pm

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Does it load the presets allright ? e.g, if you open the plugin window and select presets in Zen, are they properly sent to the plugin ?

Also, sorry to ask this, but if you open ACE or Zebra directly in another track, they are sounding, right ?

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bM3w - Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:51 pm

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Yes, absolutely. Also switching presets is working fine apart from the plugin GUI losing it's focus and hiding behind the Cubase main program window, but that's another problem.


Yes

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:59 pm

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Hmmm.... which host are you using again ? Do you have the same problem with other hosts ?

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:02 pm

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Also, I just uploaded v072010. The major difference is that Zen now accepts audio input too - on the PC it didn't seem to make much of a difference, but on Mac it would crash u-he plugins. Still, bugs were fixed, so make sure you grab it

'Tick

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bM3w - Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:03 pm

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I'm currently on Cubase 5.5, but haven't tested it with any other host. However I just downloaded the build from today and all the sound issues with ACE and Zebra are gone! Also the problem with multiple instances of a plugin seems to be solved. Fantastic. Great update!

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:06 pm

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Awesome ! now if only this could also fix rlahalla problems

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Benutzername - Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:28 pm

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Great work. Thank you.

Will Zen be able to import or export Cubase .vstpresets at some point? AFAIK these are basically just FXPs and FXBs with an attached XML file.

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:38 pm

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Well, yes, if the format is public. But if you already have the plugins in the vsti, it's just as fast to use autoimport.

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rlahalla - Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:49 pm

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The problem was the midi input in Zen. It displays my midi input twice, but choosing the 2nd one works fine with Ace. I'm going to try it out more with Gladiator, just gotta finish some pressing work stuff before I do.

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rsmus7 - Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:53 pm

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in the latest build 072010 the standalone
doesn't bring up the vsti gui here when dubbleclicking the presets

it is working in the plugin tho

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Big Tick - Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:56 pm

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Yeah. Next update will fix it.
'Tick

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Big Tick - Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:26 pm

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072110 is online !
- added a category for the soundbanks
- added support for Kubik
- added the server-side code for recalling presets (something that I'm going to test with these corrupted Rhino presets that have been published)
- plus many other little fixes

Enjoy !
'Tick

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Big Tick - Sat Jul 24, 2010 5:36 pm

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and here is v072210...
- fixes a bug with the number of displayed presets when synths were disabled
- you can now disable (which means, put globally offline) any preset by shift- right clicking it. If the preset is a local one, it will be deleted. If it is a public one, it will be put offline. Eventually I will limit this function, so that you can only put your own presets offline.

PS. Offline presets are not displayed anywhere, so the only way to put them back online is to ask me

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Big Tick - Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:39 pm

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new version - 072310 !
- 2 new system tags, "mine (public)" and "mine (private)" to easily find the presets that belong to you
- I think / hope that I have finally fixed the nasty bug that caused corrupted presets to be uploaded. It was most noticeable with Rhino, but potentially with others too. Just don't use Rhino with Zen anyway, at least not until I have cleaned up the database.
- I have tested compatibility with OP-X and Mono/Fury - they both work great. I'll enable them too if there's an interest for it.

As usual, feature requests are welcome, either by mail or in the other thread.

'Tick

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Big Tick - Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:48 pm

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Catching up with the dates - here is v072810.
The most noticeable change should be the upload system - Zen now uses an upload queue, so upload should look and feel a little bit more responsive.

Apart from that, it's mostly internal changes, hopefully I killed more bugs than I added

'Tick

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