KVR Audio

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:35 pm

Thought I'd post this here. It is still under construction, but I have to leave it for a little while to do other work. I'd like to know how it works for others (it is fully functional, but designed for Tracktion, and only tested so far in Tracktion and energyXT).

TrackPAD3!
(currently PC only. download alpha6)

This is a very-much-enhanced notepad VST plugin to store information with your projects.

Features:

- multiple pages
- MIDI control over page selection [C0 and higher selects page, B-1 and A-1 move forwards/backwards]

Different page content types

- text (pick a font and size for each page)

- guitar chord diagram (click the finger positions,right-click for 'mute', drag the fret numbering scale)

- image (currently only jpeg images)

Things to know:
- click 'store defaults' to remember the settings for the current page. these settings will be used whenever a new page is created.
- the dots under the content buttons show that there is data present on the page. right-click the button to clear that data.
- you can adjust the divider between the media and text components (this proportion is remembered for each page).
- the images are stored as file references. there is not currently any real checking procedure for if the file is not found, but such things will come, along with the option to automatically collect your images into your project folder.

---

Please let me know what you think. It still has quite a lot of work to be done on it before it is finished, but it is fully functional. Also, any information you save with this version (you can use your host's fxp saving feature) will load up fine in any future versions.

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:44 am

i use trackpad all the time. this rocks!
thank you

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:10 am

Love it, love it, love it.

Greg

maximilians1 · Post by **maximilians1** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:10 am

this looks so cool...thankyou

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:16 am

I want to luv it. I do. But I only get to http://photobucket.com/404.php

Photobucket. Is that where you go to get your jpegs developed?

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:06 am

sorry mandolarian i don't understand!

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:13 am

The internet was having a duh! DNS moment. Some server was sending me to Photobucket.com when I clicked on your link. But now it's ok and I downloaded it. Thanks, haydxn! Can't wait to paint the mando chords over the guitar tab.

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:24 am

Excellent!

Very well executed.

I'm not in a position to try at the moment, but I assume that you managed to get around invoking keyboard short cuts that some hosts execute when you type in the editor window of an effect or instrument.

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:35 am

for now... i have no idea!

this is one of the reasons why i've released an alpha.

that's something that may take some time to address, because some hosts are just greedy about keystrokes. there is a vst spec setting that says "this plugin needs to recieve keystrokes" but it would seem that cubase and live just ignore them. i've been trying to find plugins that DO let you type in them that work in all hosts, but most of the time the bit you type in is a pop-up windows dialog, which forces keyfocus anyway.

i may have to put some windows-specific code in to guarantee that the keyfocus is working (one of the tracker VSTs illustrates this point, because it has something like 3 different keyboard monitoring modes, each requiring a complex chunk of code to get working! :S). For the moment, all the code is platform independant, so a mac version will follow when it's finished and i can pass it on to someone with a mac compiling bent.

i guess i should redownload the demos of other hosts to try them out. it is definitely my plan to get keystrokes working on all hosts. this is the main reason why i've never posted an official KVR news item for it.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:16 pm

It works for Tracktion, which is all I need.

I wonder if Cubase or Live users can just live with typing in all-caps. Their keyboard shortcuts aren't case-sensitive, are they? Make them suffer with their notes shouting at them because their developers have ignored the VST spec.

Greg

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:00 pm

at the very least, users can type notes into notepad and then paste them into the text field. a bit of a crappy workaround i know, but it does the job. if you only need to use images or chord diagrams then the keyboard issue is non-existent. still, the final version will work with all hosts. i really want it to work for everyone!

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:48 pm

well, just tried it in live and it absolutely gets no keyboard input. live completely steals the focus, even if the plugin has focus! it seems to intercept all keystrokes, and for that moment thinks it is the king - you even see it update its knowledge of where the mouse is in relation to its own interface. greedy!

sorry about that, live users. one day i hope to thwart the ableton beast, but for now, i have more pressing issues!

it does work if you wrap it in energyXT, however...

TrackPAD3 alpha6