Latest Builds ACE, Bazille, Diva, Hive (rev. 9033)

[tasmaniandevil]

Hi everyone,

come and get the latest builds before they grow old and get cold.

This time we are very much on the beta side of things with our latest builds for ACE, Bazille, Diva, and Hive.
After months and months of work and testing, more work and testing, and even more of that, we decided it's time to test some new "under the hood" features in the wild wild web.

The main new features introduced are:

* Winstaller improvements
* Full UTF-8 support for installation paths
* Drag & Drop support for preset organization
* Import/Export for favourites

This sounds more boring than it is, really.
I'll explain each topic in a bit more detail below.

But first, a little WARNING:

We tested those features countless hours, but since those are very complex changes, we need some help from the community (that's you ... yes, you), to find all the edge cases and loop holes we might have missed, or did not even think about, yet.

This means that, before installing and starting to test, it's most important to backup any sensible data, like your presets, and also the preset database file.
You can find the database in a PresetDatabase folder inside the data folder of the plugin on Windows.
And in the /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application Support/u-he/ location on Mac.

This is not just important in case of undiscovered bugs, it also helps to explore the new features more bravely, knowing that you can always restore your presets and favourites easily by placing the old files back to where they belong.

So backup, or back out.

Download the new versions, revision 9033, here:

ACE 1.4 latest build 9033 Mac
ACE 1.4 latest build 9033 Win

Bazille 1.1 latest build 9033 Mac please read warning about host automation in known issues
Bazille 1.1 latest build 9033 Win please read warning about host automation in known issues

Diva 1.4.3 latest build 9033 Mac
Diva 1.4.3 latest build 9033 Win

Hive 2.0 latest build 9033 Mac
Hive 2.0 latest build 9033 Win

Sorry, no Linux builds this time. We first want to make sure that all the new things work on Mac and Win, before we go on to check what needs to be done in order to make everything work on Linux as well.

And now, on to the fun part:

UTF-8 support for installation paths

This is mostly concerning Windows users.
In the past, installation into paths containing special characters (smørrebrød, ゴジラ, ...) was problematic.
Even a simple umlaut could cause the plugin to go on strike.
This should be a thing of the past now.
So if you feel adventurous, or always wanted to try a new secret identity, now is your time (to try to install into a path containing all those characters).

Winstaller improvements

In order to minimize the amount of wrong installations, we worked on the Windows installer logic quite a bit.
The installer will check various locations to find hints about already installed plugins, in order to suggest the correct location for each plugin.
We also included more warnings if the user is about to install into locations with possible permission issues.

Additionally, the "missing GUI resources" display should also be history by now, because the plugin will search various locations, in order to find the right data folder.
And should it be unable to find the right location, the plugin will give you the opportunity to manually point it to the right direction.

We hope those improvements will drastically reduce the number of installation related problems on Windows.

Import/Export of favourites (and junk)

Much requested, it's now possible to easily backup or transfer the favourite or junk markings of your presets.
You can either import/export a single favourite (or junk), or all favourites at once.

Just Shift-drag a favourites smart folder out of the browser to create a file containing all the needed info.
You can then simply drag this file onto the favourites area when you want to import it (no Shift key needed for that).
You can even move favourites around inside the browser, e.g. if you want the favourite 1 presets to be favourite 8.
Just Shift-drag the smart folder around in the browser, and you will get the option to replace or merge the favourites.

Note that, when importing favourites to a different computer, they can only be imported if the names and relative locations of the presets in the browser are identical on both computers.

Drag&Drop

And last but in no way least, we got extensive drag&drop support for folders and presets now.
You can simply drag and drop presets or whole folders in and out of the plugin for easier management of your preset library.

Some examples:

You performed a search and want to export all the presets from this search.
Simply drag the search result smart folder out of the plugin onto the desktop or into a Finder/Explorer window to create a folder with copies of all the found presets.
But note that dragging folders with hundreds or thousands of presets might take a while, since they all have to be copied first.

You downloaded and unzipped some new presets.
To get them into the plugin, simply drag them directly from your downloads folder onto the browser.

You want to share your favourite presets with a friend.
Simply drag the favourites smart folder out onto the desktop to create a folder with a copy of all those presets.

On Mac, most operations will instantly update the browser directory and preset lists, whether you are editing things in the browser, or in the Finder.
On some special occasions, like when having multiple instances loaded using different plugin formats (what you hopefully never do), you might need to click onto the GUI of the other instances to make them update the browser content.

On Windows, a manual rescan might be needed more often than on Mac, to refresh the database and update the browser content.

And here is how it all works:

Drag & drop works just like you are used from your file system.
Dragging presets or folders into or out of the browser will move (not copy) the files.
To copy files, rather than to move them, use Option(Alt)-drag on Mac, and Ctrl-drag on Windows.

Note that smart folders (search results, favourites, tags, ...) will always be copied rather than moved.
No need for Option/Ctrl-drag there.

Important:

Please be aware that each operation will update the preset database instantly.
If you move presets out of the browser, they will be removed from the preset list, and they will lose their favourite (or junk) marks.
To save their markings, export the favourites before moving the presets.

Here is an overview of the changes since the last round of latest builds (rev. 8791):

Improvements:

* Winstaller improvements
* UTF-8 support for installation paths
* Browser: drag & drop support
* Browser: new option to import/export favourites
* Browser: new option to find smart folder preset in its real folder
* Bazille: Gearporn skin improved
* Hive: Funtion Generator Attack/Decay times now much longer when being modulated
* "Tag this patch" pane now hiding automatically when preferences are opened

Fixed:

* Bazille: crash when using old competition presets (Bombazille)
* Slower update rate of controls on Windows in rev. 8791
* Browser: issue displaying wrong search results
* Browser: freezing when selecting folder with too long name
* Browser: issue when using apostrophe in folder name
* Browser: rare issue with newly installed presets not appearing
* Browser: rare issue with "create new" and "rename" commands (Win only)
* Browser: it was possible to load presets while dialog windows were active (Win only)
* Random crashes in VST2, AU, AAX when sending MIDI program changes
* Crash in VST3 when sending MIDI program changes while GUI was closed
* Issue with program changes and some special characters

Known Issues:

* Rare DC issue (audio clicks, sound cuts out)
* ACE & Bazille "natural" cable style causing GUI glitches
* Hive "wavetable not found" warning not displayed for missing wave files

Attention: DON'T USE BAZILLE 9033 IN PROJECTS WHICH USE HOST AUTOMATION

We just found a little bug in the rev. 9033 latest build of Bazille.

Somehow a lonely parameter (LFO 2 DepthMod Src1) magically made it onto the list of Bazille's automation parameters between rev. 8791 and 9033.
And for whatever reason it didn't attach itself to the end of the list, but squeezed itself in there next to the DepthMod Dpth parameter.
As a result, projects made with earlier versions, which are reloaded with rev. 9033 will have quite a few parameters shifted by one position in the automation list.
So please don't use Bazille 9033 for any projects where you are using host automation.
We need to remove this parameter from the list. If you'd save projects with rev. 9033 and use host automation, then the automation might be messed up with future versions of Bazille.
Diva, Hive and ACE are not affected by this.

As always, let us know if anything is unclear, doesn't work as expected, or if you find a plain old bug.

Happy testing,
Tas

[Rivanni]

Dragging presets works well. Another handy use case is collecting all presets of the same author.

One thing that I like to see changed in the presets browser for all u-he plugins is the direction of the scroll wheel. Moving the wheel up goes to the end of the list and moving down to the beginning. This is counterintuitive and I can't get used to it.

[Rivanni]

I dragged a preset to the desktop, added two emoticons to the file name and dragged it back to ACE (one by dragging it back in to the preset browser; one by copying through the file explorer outside ACE).
The preset name is different then on the Windows desktop.
Clicking the preset crashes ACE.

ACE.png

Also for example ½ and © and some special characters are not displayed correctly in the preset browser, but at least presets with those names can be loaded without problems.

ACE2.png

[Beachboy]

The known issue from Hive 2 build 8791 "random modulation source not working on effect parameters" still exists but isn´t noted in the build 9033 list anymore.

[EvilDragon]

I dragged a preset to the desktop, added two emoticons to the file name and dragged it back to ACE (one by dragging it back in to the preset browser; one by copying through the file explorer outside ACE).
The preset name is different then on the Windows desktop.
Clicking the preset crashes ACE.
ACE.png

Also for example ½ and © and some special characters are not displayed correctly in the preset browser, but at least presets with those names can be loaded without problems.
ACE2.png

Looks like Vera font doesn't have all the Unicode characters. Not much that can be done there I don't think. But the crash should be fixed, yes.

[tasmaniandevil]

One thing that I like to see changed in the presets browser for all u-he plugins is the direction of the scroll wheel.

A preference for scroll wheel direction is on the improvements list, but I really can't say when we'll find the time to do that.

[tasmaniandevil]

I dragged a preset to the desktop, added two emoticons to the file name and dragged it back to ACE (one by dragging it back in to the preset browser; one by copying through the file explorer outside ACE).
The preset name is different then on the Windows desktop.
Clicking the preset crashes ACE.

The freetype renderer used on Windows doesn't support character substitution.
This means that characters which are not part of the used font won't be replaced by characters from other fonts, and instead will just show a little cube (or some other weird stuff).

It's quite possible that some might cause a crash, because we really did not test every single character and emoji that was ever invented.
We have to check how to prevent those crashes.
Thanks for finding it.

[tasmaniandevil]

The known issue from Hive 2 build 8791 "random modulation source not working on effect parameters" still exists but isn´t noted in the build 9033 list anymore.

It's not forgotten, it's on our list of bug fixes for a regular update.
This latest build wasn't so much about bug fixing, but more about integrating and testing the new features.

[Rivanni]

I dragged a preset to the desktop, added two emoticons to the file name and dragged it back to ACE (one by dragging it back in to the preset browser; one by copying through the file explorer outside ACE).
The preset name is different then on the Windows desktop.
Clicking the preset crashes ACE.

The freetype renderer used on Windows doesn't support character substitution.
This means that characters which are not part of the used font won't be replaced by characters from other fonts, and instead will just show a little cube (or some other weird stuff).

It's quite possible that some might cause a crash, because we really did not test every single character and emoji that was ever invented.
We have to check how to prevent those crashes.
Thanks for finding it.

I understand that you cannot test every emoticon/emoji, but emoticons are are part of the Unicode standard it means that they are essentially text. That they are not rendered properly is somewhat understandable, but they shouldn't crash the plugin.

BTW: Even normal accents (like á ó é ë ä ï ö ê â î ô) are not displayed correctly. Maybe it's time to complement the font. Or better correct it. As you can see, the font CAN show special characters and accents, just not the right ones.

ACE3.png

[tasmaniandevil]

I understand that you cannot test every emoticon/emoji, but emoticons are are part of the Unicode standard it means that they are essentially text. That they are not rendered properly is somewhat understandable, but they shouldn't crash the plugin.

Making character substitution work on Windows is not a trivial thing to do (that's what our developer told me). That's why it wasn't done for this latest build.
But we already have a ticket for this task in our system.

And yup, of course, it should not crash.
But speaking of it, could you maybe post that preset here, or send it to our support?
I tried a couple of emojis, and so far I could not make them crash our plugins.

[Rivanni]

I understand that you cannot test every emoticon/emoji, but emoticons are are part of the Unicode standard it means that they are essentially text. That they are not rendered properly is somewhat understandable, but they shouldn't crash the plugin.

Making character substitution work on Windows is not a trivial thing to do (that's what our developer told me). That's why it wasn't done for this latest build.
But we already have a ticket for this task in our system.

And yup, of course, it should not crash.
But speaking of it, could you maybe post that preset here, or send it to our support?
I tried a couple of emojis, and so far I could not make them crash our plugins.

Here the presets. Two different ones with the same emoticons, so it's clear it's not the preset itself. (Tested with VST2 of Ace in Bitwig on Windows.)

[tasmaniandevil]

Here the presets. Two different ones with the same emoticons.

Great, thanks a lot.

A few more details (because it's still not crashing over here):
Which operating system exactly (Win10, Win 7, 32bit, 64bit), which host, and which plugin format of ACE are you using?

[Rivanni]

Here the presets. Two different ones with the same emoticons.

Great, thanks a lot.

A few more details (because it's still not crashing over here):
Which operating system exactly (Win10, Win 7, 32bit, 64bit), which host, and which plugin format of ACE are you using?

Tested with VST2 of ACE in Bitwig 3 on Windows 10 (1903. The VST3 of ACE does not crash. I did not test other Plugins yet.

[EvilDragon]

64- or 32-bit?

[tasmaniandevil]

Tested with VST2 of ACE in Bitwig 3 on Windows 10 (1903. The VST3 of ACE does not crash. I did not test other Plugins yet.

Super, thx a lot for the quick reply.
I'll test it with Bitwig, got the same Windows version installed over here.