Zen 1.7 update

Official support for: bigtickaudio.com
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This looks like a WAY COOL program and I hope it continues to evolve. Would LOVE to see Kontakt support, as well as other samplers like EXS, etc as I would love a sophisticated tagging system for all my samples.

I have a quick question. I run both a laptop which connects to the internet and a desktop that does not, and both have basically the same synths. Now I know I can either run ZEN offline and not be part of the cloud naming/tagging system, or work online and download these into Zen, which I have done on my laptop. Is it at all possible to now export this library back and forth between my desktop (offline) and my laptop (online)?

Thanks and I cant wait to really put Zen through its paces, but either way its a GREAT concept and thank you for developing it and giving it out for free!! WAY COOL!!!
My progressive rock band - free demos here!! (and if you do listen please let me know what you think!) http://www.aeonsatori.com/news/free-downloads

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aMUSEd wrote:
Big Tick wrote:
audientronic wrote: How do I disable online mode. Do I do that simply by unchecking "check for updates"?
No - online mode is the big round blue button in the lower right. It should say so when you hover over it.
I haven't figured out how to get midi working on the standalone.
Did you find the "I/O settings" link in the settings page ?
I can't get midi to work either (on OSX ML) - I have tried selecting all my inputs but none work.
So in the I/O settings, there's a menu item that reads, "active midi inputs: [my midi controller]"--Mine was listed there so I assumed that meant it was on (i.e. "active"). There's also a little blue circle next to my active midi input that looks like it's an on indicator but is actually a box that needs to be ticked. Some visual language confusion there. Might read more as a checkbox if it were square.

Anyway, that got it going ;).

My online status was off but S1 still can't handle it.

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audientronic wrote:
aMUSEd wrote:
Big Tick wrote:
audientronic wrote: How do I disable online mode. Do I do that simply by unchecking "check for updates"?
No - online mode is the big round blue button in the lower right. It should say so when you hover over it.
I haven't figured out how to get midi working on the standalone.
Did you find the "I/O settings" link in the settings page ?
I can't get midi to work either (on OSX ML) - I have tried selecting all my inputs but none work.
So in the I/O settings, there's a menu item that reads, "active midi inputs: [my midi controller]"--Mine was listed there so I assumed that meant it was on (i.e. "active"). There's also a little blue circle next to my active midi input that looks like it's an on indicator but is actually a box that needs to be ticked. Some visual language confusion there. Might read more as a checkbox if it were square.

Anyway, that got it going ;).

My online status was off but S1 still can't handle it.
No that wasn't the problem, I did have them checked. For some reason it doesn't seem to like several being checked at once on my system. I have found if I just have one checked it now plays.

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LGK_Dude wrote:This looks like a WAY COOL program and I hope it continues to evolve. Would LOVE to see Kontakt support, as well as other samplers like EXS, etc as I would love a sophisticated tagging system for all my samples.

I have a quick question. I run both a laptop which connects to the internet and a desktop that does not, and both have basically the same synths. Now I know I can either run ZEN offline and not be part of the cloud naming/tagging system, or work online and download these into Zen, which I have done on my laptop. Is it at all possible to now export this library back and forth between my desktop (offline) and my laptop (online)?

Thanks and I cant wait to really put Zen through its paces, but either way its a GREAT concept and thank you for developing it and giving it out for free!! WAY COOL!!!

You haven't seen anything yet - there is a lot more to come :)

Regarding your question, you can move your Zen folder onto an external drive, and use symbolic links (or junctions on Windows) to redirect to the new files. Then you can move the external drive back and forth between your 2 systems - no need to copy files around.

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Big Tick wrote:
You haven't seen anything yet - there is a lot more to come :)
AWESOME:!: :party: :harp: :band: :tu:
Big Tick wrote:Regarding your question, you can move your Zen folder onto an external drive, and use symbolic links (or junctions on Windows) to redirect to the new files. Then you can move the external drive back and forth between your 2 systems - no need to copy files around.
I'm on a mac, and please forgive my ignorance, but are you referring to the folder located in my Library -> Application Support -> Big Tick -> Zen folder? If so, how would I go about setting up these symbolic links? I must admit I've never had to do this before, but it sounds like it would be the perfect solution! Is there any walk through on your website? BTW, is there any documentation for Zen at all? Cant seem to find any on my system anywhere - not that its a hard program to figure out. :)

Thanks again and keep up the GREAT work!! If there is anything I can do to help, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand!
My progressive rock band - free demos here!! (and if you do listen please let me know what you think!) http://www.aeonsatori.com/news/free-downloads

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LGK_Dude wrote:I'm on a mac, and please forgive my ignorance, but are you referring to the folder located in my Library -> Application Support -> Big Tick -> Zen folder? If so, how would I go about setting up these symbolic links?
Yes that's the one. Just move it to an external drive, and then create an alias through Finder. Name the aliased folder Zen, and place it in Library -> Application Support -> Big Tick. This way you keep the original structure, but it now points to your external drive.

Obviously, with this setup Zen will only work with the external drive plugged in, and unfortunately you can't plug in a USB device on 2 computers at once. If you want to use Zen on both machines at the same time, you will need to setup a NAS (assuming your desktop does have network access, which I can't believe it doesn't or it would be a nightmare to install updates).
LGK_Dude wrote:BTW, is there any documentation for Zen at all? Cant seem to find any on my system anywhere - not that its a hard program to figure out. :)
Just the quickstart, which is not 100% up to date. The help box at the bottom of the app, on the other hand, should be quite accurate.

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Hey! Great stuff,'Tick! Nice to see the improvements! Have to agree about the docs; they should mention:

- that this install doesn't uninstall the old version
- that both VST and standalone versions are now in the VST folders
- that the databases for 32 & 64 bit version are now unified
- which database is being kept; I have the older two versions on my system.
- what the install option to "Empty Database" means and when it should be used.
- where then audio/midi options have been relocated in the new standalones

One minor cosmetic bug: on both 32/64 bit versions on the PC the MIDI Output dropdown is cut off by the bottom of the window.

I'm trying things out and getting a lot of freezing and crashes from both 32 & 64-bit versions of the Zen standalone, sometimes just selecting a new preset to play after a VSTi is already loaded, or even just scrolling through the presets without calling them up. I'm on W7-64.

Should I zero-out the database I have and re-download everything? And which database location is the one that has been kept for 32/64 bit installations?

Thanks!

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The DB is, as before, in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Big Tick\Rhino\zendb.s3db.

The 'empty database' option means that a new, empty database will be installed. Just don't select this if you already have one.


Now you're ruining my day with these crash reports :) I had tested it extensively and it looked rock-solid... The only think I can think of, I think recently someone managed to upload a couple corrupted presets. I will have to track them down and remove them from the online DB.

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Plug-in scan runs in a different process - no more crashes while scanning.
What plugin scan?

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If you go in the settings there is a scan button. It scans your plugins to find which ones have presets in the global database, so you don't need to activate them manually.

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So there is - so tiny I missed it

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It's throwing up lots of synsopos not found errors for all my elicenser plugins.

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and your dongle is plugged in ?

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Oh yes

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