Xhip v8 Release Candidate

[aciddose]

edit to update: Please note that Xhip 8 has now been officially released and so any information in this thread pertaining to the release-candidate version is out of date. I'm locking this thread now as there is no useful reason to add any further posts about the RC with the release version officially available.

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/xhip-by-aciddose

A thread was posted about the new version here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=485102

I've posted info about the release candidate on the alpha page.

Before you download anything please read the "rules" on the alpha page.

Remember this is a release candidate and I'm looking for help testing it for any issues. This is not yet a release version but it is intended to become one after any remaining and/or unknown issues are fixed.

http://xhip.net/alpha/



"Release candidate 2" isn't too exciting in that I know for certain there are a few more things I need to get done before this could actually be released.

That said, 99% of everything is already done and it already works great as a direct replacement for version 7.

There are some issues with preset import where the result may sound slightly different but a majority of presets will be indistinguishable.

If interested you can also grab the "factory bank" and my percussion bank "synth drums 1" for the "drum mode" feature from the alpha page. To save the init state / bank, hold shift when clicking the menu and select to save to those files.

The things I'm interested in are listed in part on the alpha page. The most important things that I can't easily do myself:

1. Check whether Xhip 8 works correctly in all the various hosts out there that people want to use it in.
2. Check that it actually does work as a Xhip 7 replacement in user's projects.
3. Check that it actually does all the wonderful things users might wish version 7 could do.

If it crashes reliably in certain hosts this is the point I'd like to know about it. If so I will find a way to fix it unless it's due to some host bug or issue I can't do anything about.

One of the most interesting new features may be the GUI zoom/scaling. Right click on the logo "Xhip" to select a size. This will be saved with projects or in the state / init state. Currently the background bitmaps are zoomed with interpolation which results in some blur although improvements are planned.

[nix808]

Thanks AD!
-- and for the heads up.
I keep Xhip installed-
will play it some with my guitar before long.

electronics and tek kicks to ya

[sfxsound3]

Still no backward/forward compatibility? Hm-hm...

[MirkoVanHauten]

Will there be a ui overhaul one day?

[aciddose]

Still no backward/forward compatibility? Hm-hm...

What are you talking about?

[aciddose]

Will there be a ui overhaul one day?

This is a UI overhaul. What are you talking about? Am I supposed to guess?

No, I'm not stuck up on GUIs and I really couldn't care less about them in general. I consider them a huge waste of time, both from the perspective of the programmer as well as the user.

If someone wanted to design a new GUI and all the graphical elements to go with it, they could go ahead and do so. A skinning system is planned (many years in the future, if ever.) Branis did that back in 2007-2008 which is the GUI you see today.

If you're asking whether I'm suddenly going to become a graphics artist obsessed with subjective aesthetics and redesign the layout and graphical elements of the GUI for absolutely no justifiable reason? No, that doesn't seem likely.

I feel the existing GUI does the job fine.

... but I have no idea what you're talking about, so if you wanted to be more specific?

[sfxsound3]

Still no backward/forward compatibility? Hm-hm...

What are you talking about?

You don't get it, do you?

Before you download anything, keep in mind that you should absolutely not under any circumstances even consider saving over old projects using the release candidate. You could very likely be stuck with the result and won't get any further improvements to preset import in future v8 releases since the newly saved presets will have their version set to v8rc0.

What are you talking about? Projects or presets?

[aciddose]

I told you not to over-write your project files with instances of the release candidate.

In other words this is not a release version.

It's 100% "compatible" however you'd define that (assuming you mean v8 will load v8rc0 projects perfectly, yes, absolutely).

You can save projects with the old version of the plug-in and replace it with this release candidate and it will load those projects and presets just fine. Just don't save/over-write them unless you have a backup. The import of v7 presets will be improved and you won't get any benefit if you replace all your v7 presets with v8 presets using v8rc0 now. I'm a perfectionist and rc0 import isn't perfect. It's only 90% or 99% perfect rather than 100%.

The new version will never save anything the old version can load. That doesn't make any sense. How could the old version get the new features? Therefore if you save a project with v8rc0 and then later try to load it using v7 you'll get garbage preset data and all the v8 features (obviously) won't load. The project will load okay, but you'll need to load proper v7 preset data to get your v7 sounds back.

TL;DR The new version can load old files and projects with a few minor issues remaining. Those issues will be fixed soon and are listed on the alpha page.

[donquixote]

thanks man (love everything about this synth)!

[Mutant]

Thanks.

[FrettedSynth]

Thank you love the sound of Xhip will test this evening after work

[tl]

thank you, aciddose...
... for this great synth.
... and yr constant and ambitious work on xhip.

cheers,
tl.

[aciddose]

Nobody has been able to get it to crash or malfunction at all?

What about previous reports it wouldn't load in FLStudio or crashed with the GUI open?

I've been ticking things off the list and I'll probably have that list clear next week some time - keeping in mind it may get re-filled with tons of issues when I test every parameter and every routing configuration - at which point I'll upload RC2 and note some changes I'd like to make that aren't really "bugs".

One issue I've been having is due to the quite long 200ms parameter filter time. If you're using velocity to volume for example and voices are stolen due to recycling being enabled, when those voices are stolen the volume has to glide to the new velocity first which can create weird effects. Most notable is with a long release when you play a note hard, then play that same note softly. The volume rapidly decays which can cancel out most of the intended effect of the envelope.

In these cases the parameter filter is definitely needed although a shorter time might work a little better. For velocity I'm thinking 1ms to 10ms could handle it although the "click" you get from an immediate change might actually be less easily noticed than the fast decay.

This all goes away as a problem by disabling voice recycling of course until the point no free voices are available to play the new note. That might not be entirely obvious to everyone though!

[sugo]

Hi ad,
only for short:
Have allready used your "old" xhip with lots of fun!
Was playing for half an hour with this f------ good sounding synth. There are so much fun with playing with this thing, especially if you don`t really know what you do, like me The Results are --whamm--. Also the Presets!
But my old 2Core PC was working hard, sometimes really hard (unison ) But its ok, no wonder with this strenght.
Loaded with Cubase 8.5 and FL studio 12.4, at Win10, without any problems. GUI changes also no problems.
Love it. Thank you very much for your work

[sugo]

Ok, me again.
I was to fast with my infos.
Reaper and FL Studio no Problems with gui changes, but in Cubase 8.5 pro the synth-gui will get bigger, but the window in which the plug opens doesn`t change with the gui.

And one question: Is it normal, that all the presets doesn`t change (safe?) any global control parameters, include the unison ones?