Architect beta for macOS, Windows, and Linux. 0.10.5 now available

[mannymang]

Looks nice, will the loading speed be improving when using many 10's of thousands of events? A feature request along those lines, assuming it would improve loading times, would be a macro to LUA script conversion utility? Thanks!

[colin@loomer]

I did speed things up quite significantly a few releases ago. But if you have a patch that's still loading slowly, let me know about it and I'll dive in with a profiler and find out where the overhead is. I think last time I looked at this I got to the point where most of the loading time on massive presets was actually opening the file from disc, and then parsing the Xml, the latter of which I can probably improve by swapping to one of those uber-quick Xml parsers...

[AZZIN]

The new patch chords looks cool! Great job Colin!

[mannymang]

Thanks I'll have a look at the latest release. Would LUA be faster than using macros? If so, is there a possibility of a macro to LUA tool possible?

[colin@loomer]

Thanks I'll have a look at the latest release. Would LUA be faster than using macros? If so, is there a possibility of a macro to LUA tool possible?

It's hard to give an general answer to which would be faster: there is overhead in running Lua scripts that there isn't in macros; but some things can be expressed in a few lines of Lua code that would take many modules. I hope to tip the favour more towards modules over the next iterations by adding, for example, a generic expression module that would allow complex expression evaluation without needing lots of maths modules nor relying on script.

In theory, macro to Lua would be possible. I've not looked into it, but I did something similar many years and jobs ago with a node-based to VBScript conversion tool, so it would be something I had experience with.

[ThomasHelzle]

My main reason to prefer Lua is getting out of the maddening event-order-insanity.
It seems each time I try to do something in Architect, I spend most of the time fighting with event errors.
So I hardly ever use Architect...
Even my old Midi Mangler is throwing errors now randomly.

Cheers,

Tom

[mannymang]

For me it's the loading time of an Architect patch because of so many events in my bloated creations, and I assume, the drawing of the many cables while being loaded into Architect. The speed is fast enough once the preset is loaded. So I was mainly wondering if a LUA module replacing a macro with a ton of cables would improve the loading time of a preset/patch.

Currently I'm running:
Version 0.10.0
Platform x86 64-bit VST
I'll try the latest which looks like 0.10.2

Thanks for your consideration.

[colin@loomer]

@manymang Let me know how you get on with 0.10.2, and if the slow loading remains, could you send me the offending patch and I'll see where the stall is? Cheers!

[cturner]

EDIT: Looks like [send]/[thru]/[receive] communication is local to the top level of a preset, or local to a macro, when sharing the same label. Is there anything else to be said about this, or global/local visibility in Architect?

Hi Colin-

I'm wondering about the Auxilliary objects [send], [receive] and [thru]. Do their labels have global visibility, or can they be local--for example--when enclosed in a macro?

I have a fragment that uses a "length" value in a few places. Using [send]/[receive] would help with readability, but if I'm using multiple copies if the fragment in a preset, will they all set to the same length?

Thanks, Charles

[colin@loomer]

The labels are local to the layer of the macro that they are on, for exactly the reason you specified. Otherwise you'd need to know the innards of any other macro you'd use for fear of obscure name collisions.

[cturner]

Thanks Colin- I presume that scoping applies to other named objects such as data stores, etc.?

[colin@loomer]

Yes, that's correct: anything that is accessed with a named label will only be visible to things on the same macro layer.

[Hez]

My main reason to prefer Lua is getting out of the maddening event-order-insanity.
It seems each time I try to do something in Architect, I spend most of the time fighting with event errors.
So I hardly ever use Architect...
Even my old Midi Mangler is throwing errors now randomly.

Cheers,

Tom

To be honest I started to feel the same way after a while - I'm still digging into Architect every now and then but trying to do as much as I can in the LUA scripts these days.

It's probably just me doing something wrong but it feels like every time I try to e.g. pack/unpack a tuple I get errors, despite trying to copy the layout of my last properly functioning patch each time

Might just be a case of me needing to dig into the documentation again from the ground up...

[colin@loomer]

No, I do realise the importance of getting good documentation and tutorials in place, which is why it'll be the prime, and indeed only, focus of the next batch of releases.

[bronswerk]

And that's exactly how I feel. To put it blunt, sorry it's not Max in this respect. I don't need all the bells and whistles of Max, but looking at pictures here how objects are connected to make something work makes me gringe. I've spent years in Max, so I'm biased towards it, but I didn't touch Max for 2 years now, writers block so to say. I thought Architect would be a lightweight Max, but as soon as I found out how it was supposed to work I stepped out.