Latest release/build/beta

[jonahs]

The history feature is great. Not having to worry about crashes is really nice. It's funny to watch it draw in. I remember in grade school I would play with this LOGO turtle drawing program and it sorta reminds me of that.

It seems like I am able to generate unreadable(by a human) information. I think using layers? It's hard to say because those big text files cause hangs.Notepad and Word don't like opening large .pha's.

An interesting thing is that I can load a wav into Photosounder and save a 0kb pha! Okay, it's not perfect, but that's pretty cool! Weirdly these 0kb files also crash Notepad and Word. I'll have to see how it is on osx later. I have some slightly more robust editing programs installed there.

The suspend processing feature is really great too. It removes the annoyance I had with drawing causing redraws. Unless there is a good reason not to have suspend processing turn off when you hit play (and turn on again when it stops?) that would would be good.

Not seeing what semi-tone overlay does. The 4/4 overlay is nice, especially when you zoom in, the blinking out when clicking on menus isn't. Maybe another color would be better too?

I'm not clear on what view current group only does either.

I like linear knob control. 90% of the time it's the right speed. Right click to go slow isn't needed imo, but right click to go faster would be nice. I use a trackball, so it might be different with mouse users.

Overall the whole program feels faster. Very good update.

One nice thing I discovered is that you can drag a file right onto photosounder.exe! It's a Windows feature.

[A_SN]

The history feature is great. Not having to worry about crashes is really nice. It's funny to watch it draw in. I remember in grade school I would play with this LOGO turtle drawing program and it sorta reminds me of that.

It seems like I am able to generate unreadable(by a human) information. I think using layers? It's hard to say because those big text files cause hangs.Notepad and Word don't like opening large .pha's.

An interesting thing is that I can load a wav into Photosounder and save a 0kb pha! Okay, it's not perfect, but that's pretty cool! Weirdly these 0kb files also crash Notepad and Word. I'll have to see how it is on osx later. I have some slightly more robust editing programs installed there.

The suspend processing feature is really great too. It removes the annoyance I had with drawing causing redraws. Unless there is a good reason not to have suspend processing turn off when you hit play (and turn on again when it stops?) that would would be good.

Not seeing what semi-tone overlay does. The 4/4 overlay is nice, especially when you zoom in, the blinking out when clicking on menus isn't. Maybe another color would be better too?

I'm not clear on what view current group only does either.

I like linear knob control. 90% of the time it's the right speed. Right click to go slow isn't needed imo, but right click to go faster would be nice. I use a trackball, so it might be different with mouse users.

Overall the whole program feels faster. Very good update.

One nice thing I discovered is that you can drag a file right onto photosounder.exe! It's a Windows feature.

Is it history.pha that you open? Because it should always be only a few KB. The save feature is misleading, it says you can save to a history file but I haven't implemented that yet I think. So if you use that it should save to a status file and basically be mostly a bunch of raw alphanumerical data. I can always open history.pha with wordpad. The thing about 0 kB files is weird though.

If you open a wav file with the default settings it should save only a few lines of text which describe the analysis parameters and the full location of the file. There is an option in the config.txt file which is initial_pha_size_limit, it's set by default to 0 but if you say it to say 10 then instead of writing those lines it will just write the raw data to file (as in a status PHA file) if the resulting file is going to be less than 10 MB, thus not depending on any external file.

I could turn off suspend processing when hitting play (as I myself sometimes can't remember why it doesn't make any sound) however it would miss the beginning of the sound as it would start to play before that part would be processed. For the semitone overlay you have to zoom in vertically. At first it shows you the pentatonic scale, then if you zoom in further it shows you all semitones with coding for flat and sharp notes. There's no easy way I can make the overlay stay when opening menus so I hope that's not a big problem. What other colour would you have for the overlays?

View current group isn't implemented yet. When it will be it will allow you to only view and hear what's in your current group of layers as if what's outside the separators wasn't there. But right now it's just a menu entry that does nothing.

As for the linear knob thing I was considering making it a few times faster. I'll try that anyway and we'll see how it goes. I didn't have that speed tweaking problem with the circular motion as it's all angular, there's only one possible speed .

And yeah the program feels faster for several reasons. I now use a better compiler on Windows with optimisations (as opposed to no optimisations before) and more importantly I've threaded drawing and the gamma and layer intensity knobs so that they're not blocked by the image processing functions they invoke (now basically when you draw it sends the coordinates of your mouse to a queue which is drawn independently, so you get as many points as possible. If the queue gets full then it only accepts as many points as it can draw which still gives you something quite good). Only the rectangle drawing tool hasn't been made to benefit from that, yet.

And yeah, you can drag and drop on the program icon, you can also open most files with Open With... once you've opened that type of file with Photosounder once. It was supposed to be all the same way on Mac OS but I need to make some document type declarations and associations.

You've pretty much summed up every change I've made except for the part where it remembers the window size from last session and it also remembers the tools size and intensity (I was tired of the defaults when I prefer to have it to 0 px and 100%).

[IanA]

D'oh! That's what it is.
I've just upgraded to the commercial license which resolved it. Thanks!

I've also just gone to the download page but only get the option to download 1.8.2, 1.8.1 and the License file link. It also says I get updates until 3.0
There is no link to any beta versions though?

Is it missing because I bought it through the MU promo deal? Or am I looking in completely the wrong place? I see 1.8.2, 1.8.1 and the link for the license file. It also says only updates until 3.0, but I'm not worried about that.

Oh wait, the MU promo licenses were supposed to be the full commercial ones, right? I think I goofed somewhere when I entered the 200 hundred of those. Anyway that's fixed now.

Anyway, I've implemented linear knob control, it's an option in the Options menu and it's persistent (it remembers when your restart the program). Just tell me if it's too slow or if I should change something about it. I've uploaded the Windows beta already, will do the Mac one in a few minutes.

You have a non-commercial license, correct?

[IanA]

Is the live synthesis mode included in the latest beta release (March 11th build) ?

Here's the latest build of 1.8.3, and here's a video of the latest thing it allows you to do :



It's just a demonstration of the work in progress that is live synthesis, and isn't well blended-in with the workflow of the program, so you can't press the Play button or use the Lossless mode.

Also work in progress, when you do something in this version of the program it saves it as commands in a file named history.pha, and if you open that file (you might wanna change its name first) it'll reproduce what you did (except for a few commands that I haven't implemented yet).

Here's the build : http://photosounder.com/misc/photosound ... 20_win.zip

Also I'd love to hear how much CPU it takes while the mouse cursor is hovering over a sound, and what CPU you have.

[A_SN]

Is the live synthesis mode included in the latest demo release?

No, I've disabled the live synthesis as I have enough to do before I can official release the next version, the live synthesis itself will take me quite some work before it's properly integrated with the program, so that'll be the object of the next release I guess.

[A_SN]

I just put up a new build (both Windows and Mac versions).

I implemented the option to only view/edit/hear the current group of layers (as separated by separators), that is, the group of layers to which the currently selected layer belongs to. For those on Macs who can't see the shortcut it's Shift-V to turn it off and on (as opposed to just V to view only the current layer). If you have both options selected at the same time you'll only see the current layer while only hearing the current group.

I've also added Resume Last Session in the File menu so you can conveniently just click that when starting Photosounder to resume your work (it just opens history.pha for you). Also quite convenient if you want to edit history.pha (say, to delete a couple of actions at the end) while running Photosounder and then reload the result (although as it is you'll need a text editor that can open a file that is already open and that can force-save it. Gvim does the trick for me, maybe I should make it so that it only opens the history file when it has something to write then close it again...).

I've changed the behaviour of the left/right arrow keys. Now they work by holding them and they move at a rate that is fixed on screen, which means it always takes about the same time to make the cursor go from one end of the screen to the other regardless of the length of the sound or of the zoom level. Since the rate changes as you zoom in at certain zoom levels you can pretty much make it stagnate (or more like jitter over the same place) which can give fun glitchy effects. Also if you hold any of those keys and the playback cursor goes off screen then the screen jumps to the area where the cursor is now.

I've speeded up the rate of knob turning in linear mode so that you can pretty much a knob go from one end to the other without having the mouse wrap around. Also if you press play while the processing is suspended it unsuspends it.

And I've pretty much done it all this morning

[A_SN]

New build just uploaded, here's what's new since the last time:

I fixed a bunch of bugs, a crash when trying to duplicate a separator, a bug when opening a PHA file with smaller dimensions than the one currently opened, a bad recording of the Move layer tool thing (if you made a move in one direction only it would erroneously record it in both dimensions). I also fixed how the time scale at the bottom of the image is displayed to round the milliseconds better, so instead of 1"169 you get 1"170 as it should be. There was also a minor bug on it that made it be slightly off at high zoom values as it goes towards the right of the image.

I added support for the high precision slow mouse movement thing (holding the H key to make the mouse move very slowly with sub-pixel precision) to everything so now you can use that for things such as placing the central convolution point or the Move tool or the rectangle tool.

When you've opened a file and that it's recorded in a PHA file, if it can't find the file at the precise path it looks for it in the same directory as the PHA file that calls it. So for example if you open "D:\some folder\track 1.mp3", if you send the file to someone else who naturally doesn't have that file at that precise path then it'll just look for "track 1.mp3" in the same folder as the PHA file, so basically you just have to put the files a PHA file depends on together and don't have to change anything inside the PHA file.

The PHA file parser can now understand several units other than pixels for all commands that might use them. So far I've added support for percents (% of the image width or height), Hertz, seconds, semitones (as a measure of size only, not position) and notes that can be written as simply as "C4" or "C#4+05.231" (the number after the '+' is cents and it doesn't have to be an integer, also if you write C4+400 it's the same as if you wrote E4). It works for everything, you can specify the frequency range to be "Frequency range A0 note - D#9 note" for example, make the document twice taller or specify a duration in seconds using "Dimensions 8.0 sec x 200 %" and of course the best part is you can draw lines at precise frequencies/notes. I also removed the 'End of archive' command as it was more trouble than it was worth.


I'm getting close to the final release, there is little left to be done, mostly on the Windows version. It mostly consists in a proper way to save the history to a separate file and an optional menu to choose which units to use when recording the history (currently it still saves it all in pixels).

[A_SN]

The release candidate is out.

Nothing should change from the release except the manual (it hasn't been updated yet). However there might still be bugs with the new features so I would be very grateful if some could be identified.

Since the last time the big thing is that I've added a hidden menu (can be unhidden in config.txt) that allows you to set which units to use when recording the history. That means that scripts can be written using all kinds of units for everything, and they can even be prototyped that way. Also I've finalised everything about the history/scripting, added a few new commands and wrote the language specification: http://photosounder.com/PHA_spec_v1.1.pdf

I've also changed minor stuff like now if you create a new file/open something on Mac it asks you if you want to save, and now you can save either as a history PHA file or a status PHA file, no more having to copy history.pha. I've also changed the selected layer after a Merge Down command, it now selects the result of the merger and now the layer above. If you need to fix one of your files done with a prior version just add 'Selected layer +1' after 'Merge down layer' commands.

[A_SN]

The final version was just released. Check it out http://photosounder.com/download.php

[A_SN]

New beta for v1.8.4 out. What's to be excited about it is the live synthesis which is already fully functional.

If you turn on Live Synthesis in the Options menu then what you see is directly getting played back without any waiting for processing to happen. That means you can draw a loop and hear what you're drawing (or modifying, like shifting something around or changing the intensity of something) while you're drawing it. This also works for the time resolution knob, you can hear the sound being played back slower or faster WHILE you're turning the knob. It'll take somewhat recent machine though, it might stutter on a old (think 5+ year old) machine (I'm still trying to optimise it).

A much more minor change is the addition of an option (save_to_pcm_24) in the config file to save sound files to PCM 24-bit integer instead of 32-bit IEEE float.

[A_SN]

If you've downloaded v1.8.3 before right now and that you use the Resume Last Session feature you'll want to download it again because there was a bug with how the selected layer was recorded (it would record the old layer index instead of the new one) and that breaks the replaying thing because what's recorded doesn't quite match to what really happened. Sorry about that.

[A_SN]

It's starting to feel lonely in this thread. Anyway, here's another beta out.

The coolest new feature is Save Live Synthesis Output to File in the Options menu. As the name says it saves the output of the live synthesis to a file. This means that you can for example save several iteration of a loop (with the added bonus that loops loop seemlessly and don't click in live synthesis mode) or save whatever comes out of your performance. Even if the sound ever stutters (on a weak machine, generally it either happens on your machine or it does not) what is saved doesn't stutter at all. It only saves samples that are synthesised, so it won't save silence when you're pausing, so unless you mess up you don't need to cut the output. As for how it works it records anything that's played in Live Synthesis mode for as long as it goes, even if you create/open other files. It only stops if you close it, by selecting it in the menu to untick it, or when you close the program (although not in all cases, I'll fix that later).

Live synthesis is roughly 60% faster now, I think it's as optimised as it's gonna get now. Also in live synthesis you can safely set the Time Resolution knob to its lowest position (or any position for that matter), it won't eat any more memory or do anything funny. Note that it will limit the length of the sound to roughly 2 billion samples which by default is over 12 hours (that means you can stretch any sound to play for 12 hours. If anyone is interested in having it extended I'll try to do something about it). Outside of live synthesis it still has the potential to try to take all your memory and ultimately crash the program.

I've changed the way the volume in live synthesis from a naive way to an accurate predictive way. Later I'll add a smoother change to volume depending on the context so that it doesn't click.

Also in the stereo merge function, now the saving file dialog offers only audio file formats, as the Save Live Synthesis Output function does.

[abstractcats]

Having great fun with the demo!

[rexlapin]

Hi Michael,
I'm sorry you are feeling lonely!
I'll have to block out some more time
to work with all the new features of
Photosounder. I appreciate your ongoing
extension of it's capabilities over the
time I have owned it.
Cheers,
Scott

[IanA]

I'm having trouble getting Live Synthesis to work. I've enabled it and it shows as ticked in the menu, but I don't hear anything at all when I draw. I can hear what I've drawn when I invert the mask and press play, but I don't hear anything at all when I'm drawing a selection. My machine is reasonable (Intel Core 2 dual CPU 2GHZ/2GHZ, with 4 GB Ram).

I must be doing something wrong?

New beta for v1.8.4 out. What's to be excited about it is the live synthesis which is already fully functional.

If you turn on Live Synthesis in the Options menu then what you see is directly getting played back without any waiting for processing to happen. That means you can draw a loop and hear what you're drawing (or modifying, like shifting something around or changing the intensity of something) while you're drawing it. This also works for the time resolution knob, you can hear the sound being played back slower or faster WHILE you're turning the knob. It'll take somewhat recent machine though, it might stutter on a old (think 5+ year old) machine (I'm still trying to optimise it).

A much more minor change is the addition of an option (save_to_pcm_24) in the config file to save sound files to PCM 24-bit integer instead of 32-bit IEEE float.