ACE goes V1.1

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BUMP for the little "ACE Module Anatomy" document, available here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/pcp7qvdwf ... natomy.pdf

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cool!
Studio One, OS X 10.0, M-Audio Oxygen 25 keyboard.
Old websites:
http://www.bitwigtutorials.net Free Bitwig Studio tutorials
http://www.macableton.com Free Ableton Live and Mac tutorials.

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Hmm, something went screwy with the ACE 1.1 GUI here.

When I turn a knob, it reaches the maximum graphical position (about "five-o-clock") before the actual value is at its maximum. As I keep turning, the knob wraps visually back to the minimum graphical position (about "seven-o-clock"), and goes a good bit clockwise from there, before stopping at a place where the actual value being adjusted hits its maximum. The values themselves have a linear continuity, so it just seems like the bitmaps for the knob are being shifted in their array.

Anyone else seeing this, and how might I cure it? Although everything functions under the hood, this GUI glitch makes adjusting values rather brain-wrecking :D

Edit: this happens in both Live and Reaper, and definitely seems like a GUI glitch instead of (for example) an automation mishap. It's consistent, and the range of every knob is affected in the same way.

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Eeeek. Sounds like your operating system sorts the image files of the knob animation somewhat differently.

I thought that we did resort them internally, but maybe that hasn't made it into the final release yet...

Will fix in next release too!

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Ok :), good to know you're on the case, thanks!

The strange thing about it is, I'm on regular Windows XP Pro SP3, and the png files seem to sort normally everywhere but inside ACE. (I mean, viewing them in the file manager, also viewing them in an image viewer and advancing from the first to the last, which I presume relies on the OS alphabetical sort order, all results in a progression from 0000 to 0100 like it should.)

I think ACE 1.0 had the same files? It worked normally on this same system.

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GUI issue on MAC Au - if you select MAKE FAVORITE on a sound in a 2 column list in patch browser view the star will always tag the sound in the LEFT column of whichever sound you selected

would love to see some kind of drag and drop capability across all U-HE instruments to sort sounds without having to go into the finder... :)
Urs wrote:Will fix in next release too!
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:( O :lol: S :ud: X :oops: 12.5 -- > + --> :party: VENTURA 13

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Urs: do you have a time estimate for the next ACE release, by the way? I'm not trying to rush you if you're in the middle of something :), I'd just like to know when to expect diving into ACE again (it's workable with the current GUI bug, but at the same time it's quite maddening in a slightly comical way, heh.)

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I havent had much in the way of ACE bugs, just a couple. It screwed up the undo history in Live a couple of times, and occasionally it loads with a filter in the wrong position, but it's been pretty well behaved apart from that.
Studio One, OS X 10.0, M-Audio Oxygen 25 keyboard.
Old websites:
http://www.bitwigtutorials.net Free Bitwig Studio tutorials
http://www.macableton.com Free Ableton Live and Mac tutorials.

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A few more ACE tutorials are up (#8 to #10)


for all other tutorials etc., start here:

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Howard wrote:A few more ACE tutorials are up (#8 to #10)
Great, thanks Howard!

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Is this a bug?

According to the ACE Manual, "LFO 1 is used for pitch modulation by default i.e. vibrato for both oscillators, and the amount is controlled by the modulation wheel (MIDI CC#1)." and the diagram shows LFO 1 hardwired to pitch-modulate both VCOs 1 and 2.

However, this doesn't seem to work in ACE 1.1 (at least on the default initialize patch).

To reproduce:

1. Instantiate ACE 1.1
2. In LFO 1, turn m-wheel knob fully clockwise (100.00) and set level to 50 (or higher)
3. Move Mod Wheel on Keyboard

Expected result: LFO modulates VCO 1 (& 2) to produce vibrato
Actual result: No modulation

Interestingly, it DOES work if you cable a link between LFO 1 and the VCO inputs. It seems it's the default hard-wiring that may have a problem.

On the other hand, maybe I'm just missing something...

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It does work though... on fresh instance

- turn Vibrato fully up
- set LFO1 level to 0.00
- set m-wheel to +100

Now you can control the amount of Vibrato by ModWheel.

Unlike Zebra, ACE has additive LFO amplitude modulation. The ModWheel ads/subtracts to the actual LFO level regardless. It's different in Zebra where the modulation amount is first subtracted from the total LFO level.

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Thanks Urs - that was indeed what I was missing! It's working fine and I now understand the logic!

It was actually the vibrato knob being on the VCO 2 module that confused me the most - I didn't realize it affected VCO 1 as well as VCO 2 (I was working only with VCO 1 to begin with). I hadn't grasped the additive thing either but that does make sense now thanks.

I hope you don't mind a little constructive criticism here: I realize that space can be at a premium with the GUI but it does strike me that the VCO 2 area may not be the most intuitive place to look in the first instance for a control that actually affects both VCOs. I guess it may be too late to change that (and of course you may not agree anyway) but perhaps at least the next revision of the manual could include a full explanation of this as you just described?

Thanks again.

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I know... placing Vibrato in VCO2 was a bit of a mishap. I found however that it isn't all to bad "once you know it". In the end, many controls in the VCO2 section are affected by both oscillators (sync, crossmod...). Hence adding a control that affects both was a less painful decision than breaking the otherwise nicely symmetric layout. The Vibrato knob would have to be squeezed *between* the sections, and that would have created a hole between all pairs of modules.

I also think that little quircks like that add a little character to synths, like the Vibrato slider on the old Korgs that controls PWM rate. Or the transpose keys on late Viruses that act as power buttons (which took me embarrassingly long time till I found it in the manual)

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Yes, I suppose that logically, the vibrato knob should appear alongside the other three knobs below (since all four of them concern both VCOs 1 and 2), but I can also appreciate that that would have broken the symmetry of your layout. It's enough to give me a headache just starting to think about it!

In any case, as you say, it is indeed fine once you know it. To that end it would be great if a clear explanation could be added in the manual describing exactly how the default routing of LFO 1 vibrato works (including the additive interaction between level and modwheel controls on the LFO 1 panel and the vibrato control on the VCO 2 panel). I think this would really help clear up any potential confusion in this area for newcomers.

Thanks again Urs. ACE is ACE!

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