Shortcircuit XT is in Beta!

[GaryG]

Oh ha yeah it moved to the menu in the top right but we didn’t put it elsewhere for an emergency

You will have an xml document called shortcircuirusersettings.xml in documents/surge synth team/shortcircuitxt. Delete it and it will work

Thanks. Unfortunately I don't seem to have this file - the surge synth team folder and shortcircuitxt folder are there but no .xml files

On my UbuntuStudio install it's called ShortcircuitXTUserDefaults.xml in the Documents/ShortcircuitXT folder if that helps...

That was using default install, I didn't specify anything different.

[EvilDragon]

Ahh sorry, yeah, the Appdata folder contains stuff related for standalone...

[baconpaul]

Yeah we should do the trick of rmb anywhere in the header not bound shows the main menu though like we did in surge to avoid this problem!

[herbaltree]

Wondering if I installed correctly? All I did was download the Windows64bit zip folder and copy the .vst3 file to my vst folder. I notice there is also an .exe file on GitHub - should I have installed from that?
Thanks.

[baconpaul]

The exe will also install a clap and standalone and set up paths properly etc but if it scans you did it fine

[Andreya_Autumn]

@audiojunkie continuing from the moss thread: The chances of including a resampler/autosampler in SCXT are pretty low. We've discussed it but currently other things are higher prio, and if we eventually do it we'd likely make it a separate plugin. Within the near future you'd use one of the options discussed in the neighboring threads on the topic.

[audiojunkie]

I understand.

[baconpaul]

I'd really like to understand the workflow you are imagining also

So you open shortcircuit
You set up and model a bunch of samples, effects, routings, midi controls, etc...
It works great. You play it you make music. It sounds how you want. You save it in your DAW or as a file.
Fine. That's the starting point.

Then you want to also save it to some other format so some other synth can play it, and have it sound the same, even though that synth is different, and has different features.

So my three questions are

1. What problem is solved by using the other synth
2. Which synth
3. Does any other audio tool you use provide this for you?

For instance you cant save a surge patch and load it in odin. Nor is that a very reasonable thing to expect.

If your goal is 'rough and ready export the mapping and get something close-ish' thats fine. But I don't understand your goal which seems to be use the shortcircuit editor, tools, features, etc... but not the shortcircuit engine.

[herbaltree]

Wondering if I installed correctly? All I did was download the Windows64bit zip folder and copy the .vst3 file to my vst folder. I notice there is also an .exe file on GitHub - should I have installed from that?
Thanks.

I've now used the .exe to install, so I now have the standalone version. I'm happy to say that this all displays correctly. If I open in my DAW (Tracktion Waveform 13 Pro) I'm still missing the right hand side (browser, and access to zoom and so on).

[baconpaul]

can you share a screenshot?

i wonder if traction is not dealing with resizes properly. Are you at zoom level 100 HDPI level 100?

do you have another daw you can test in also?

[herbaltree]

can you share a screenshot?

i wonder if traction is not dealing with resizes properly. Are you at zoom level 100 HDPI level 100?

do you have another daw you can test in also?

I've just changed 'scale' in laptop display settings to 100%, and Shortcircuit XT displays fine now (both in Tracktion and standalone). I can then increase the display scale within Tracktion to compensate and still view Shortcircuit OK - so that is a work-around. Thanks. But interestingly I haven't experienced display issues with other plugins in Tracktion.

[audiojunkie]

I'd really like to understand the workflow you are imagining also

So you open shortcircuit
You set up and model a bunch of samples, effects, routings, midi controls, etc...
It works great. You play it you make music. It sounds how you want. You save it in your DAW or as a file.
Fine. That's the starting point.

Then you want to also save it to some other format so some other synth can play it, and have it sound the same, even though that synth is different, and has different features.

So my three questions are

1. What problem is solved by using the other synth
2. Which synth
3. Does any other audio tool you use provide this for you?

For instance you cant save a surge patch and load it in odin. Nor is that a very reasonable thing to expect.

If your goal is 'rough and ready export the mapping and get something close-ish' thats fine. But I don't understand your goal which seems to be use the shortcircuit editor, tools, features, etc... but not the shortcircuit engine.

I’ve been here a long time. Twenty three years. The road through history is littered with samplers that have been abandoned or were not future proof or were encrypted and locked to that sampler. Some were partially done before the developer abandoned the project. Some developers went out of business. I can think of probably 30 samplers (many you’ve probably never even heard of) that have become useless and cast aside.

I simply don’t trust any sampler to last. You, yourself nearly gave up on Shortcircuit-XT at one point before it was released. And Shortcircuit itself has its origins as an abandoned sampler. It happens and will continue to happen.

The only thing that truly lasts are the samples. The SFZ format has the best potential for staying power. It is supported (to at least some degree) by almost every sampler that matters. It has the samples available if the format dies. It is the most future proof format there is.

I’ll be honest—I don’t care about synthesis in a sampler. I’ve got U-he products, and others. I’ll soon have Zebra 3 as well. I don’t think many synth engines can beat the sound quality. But what I lack are great, deeply sampled libraries of real instruments. I’d buy the multisamples if I could—if they were available. But they are all tied to encrypted samplers.

So, I have been building my precious library of samples over the years. They have mostly been converted or built as SFZ, SF2, and decent sampler formatted instruments. As I find better sample libraries, I replace lower quantity libraries with higher quality libraries. Slowly but continually improving my library collection. I can never bear to delete the lower quality libraries though. I’ve got about 320GB of samples, but probably only 50GB of high quality, documented legal, royalty free, purchased or open sourced (with licenses) libraries. The rest I’ve just found on the internet from people sharing their collections. In a pinch I’d use some, if I had no other option, but I’d much rather use samples that I know sources for and are cleared and have no copyright problems.

But I digress. The point is that I try treasure my library, want more samples, don’t want to lose what I have, and don’t want to have to rebuild 50 to 100GB of sampled instruments over and over.

In summary: I want the ability to midi control my sampled instruments to make them more alive. I want my instruments in a format that lasts until I die—I don’t want to have to rebuild them over and over as each sampler comes and goes (but I will if I have to). I have chosen SFZ as the most future proof format. My constantly growing library that I have continually built and improved over at least 23 years is precious to me. I seek a way to more easily assemble and build my instruments. Without understanding the design plans, I had originally had high hopes that Shortcircuit-XT would be the solution to my SFZ instrument building problems. Today, the problem still remains.

I hope this post better explains my past responses, my desires and intentions, and what is behind everything that has motivated my behaviors. I appreciate you guys and your desire to understand my thinking. I realize that my reasons are my own, and most people probably don’t feel similarly. I also have no illusions of entitlement. I have no expectations from you guys. You guys are saints for doing all you do for the community. I simply had some hope that our paths and goals might have some similarities and I could benefit from this great work you have been doing. That’s why I have been so vocal about my opinions. But I totally understand and accept your decisions, have no hard feelings, and continue to appreciate all you guys do.

[baconpaul]

Yeah. You want sfz.

Just learn it. It’s super easy. It’s not coding. It’s just a textual representation of the sample set. It solves exactly the problem you have. And sforzando is a complete player for it as are others (and as increasingly is short circuit)

[audiojunkie]

Yeah. You want sfz.

Just learn it. It’s super easy. It’s not coding. It’s just a textual representation of the sample set. It solves exactly the problem you have. And sforzando is a complete player for it as are others (and as increasingly is short circuit)

I know it to some extent, but I don’t understand how to set up the midi cc controls. I don’t care about GUI representation, because that varies from SFZ parser to SFZ parser. I have even tried building a template, but I’m stuck at the midi cc stuff. The documentation is so brief—more like just a reference. Is confusing to me. I’m sure it is for others as well. That’s why I’ve dreamed of an open GUI-based sample builder app. Maybe AI can decipher it all and explain it to me better.

[baconpaul]

Right the short version is an opcode x has a partner opcode x_onCCn which maps the midi control and a curveccN which makes it uni or bipolar

So for instance ampeg_attack=1.3 ampeg_attack_onCC41=0.5 means as you move cc41 from 0…127 the attack moves from 1.3 to 1.8

(Shortcircuit doesn’t support these opcodes today but sforzando and sfizz and others do)

The sfz format team has been doing a good job keeping the documentation improving at sfzformat.com and is very open to questions and suggestions on their GitHub and discord. Here’s the doc for oncc https://sfzformat.com/modulations/midi_ccs/

I have a cunning plan to import all the oncc opcodes into short circuit mod matrix rows too. But I want to do it in a way which refactors and shares the code among formats a smidge more. I started some of that with the fixes in the beta this week