KVR Audio

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Tue May 01, 2018 10:24 am

I'll be using this thread to post news about the ongoing development of Xhip Synthesizer as it goes through the RC testing stage and is finally released.

See the alpha page (linked below) for the latest version(s). Note that the alpha page may contain other software and that for example the newest releases as of this post are xhip_8_windows_xxbit_alpha_r1112.7z (v8.0 alpha r1112)

Please read the Xhip Manual pdf included on the alpha page for details about many non-intuitive features as well as an important "getting started" chapter. I will likely be adding anything that gets asked on a regular basis to the manual.

At the moment the manual still doesn't contain absolutely everything so I'm sure there are plenty of questions to be asked. You are welcome to ask anything and I'll be happy to help answer those questions especially those that aren't yet in the manual. Hearing such questions is extremely helpful to me in figuring out what still needs to be added or improved.

http://xhip.net/alpha/

There are some remaining to-dos but the major new features are:

Preset/bank library accessible to load banks from the menu
Embedded banks (factory + synth drums 1)
Init state is automatically generated so you have presets immediately upon a new install
The factory bank has been tweaked and improved slightly (new synth drums 1 pending)
Most bitmaps have been eliminated and most of the GUI is now drawn directly
New Linux and MacOS versions are available and will be released along with v8.1 (MacOS GUI pending)
More scaling ratios for the GUI
Improved effect GUIs in the "effects" page in the synthesizer
New "round robin" switch allocates voices differently for new pending "route" features like voice pitch randomization and drift
New improved dialog handling, windows still uses native dialogs but these are now threaded
Various minor bug fixes too

Short version:

Embedded banks + Linux and MacOS + Improved GUI. That's why 8.1 and not 9.0.

I'm interested in knowing whether it works correctly or not. It is (should be, if not for unknown bugs) fully compatible with v8.

FrettedSynth · Post by **FrettedSynth** » Tue May 01, 2018 10:46 am

Thank You, Will test this weekend.

AnX · Post by **AnX** » Tue May 01, 2018 11:01 am

Knobs look like the are too close to LEDs in the env/mod section

Good to see a new version tho

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Tue May 01, 2018 11:17 am

The LEDs could be shifted around but it really depends upon which knobs are used. At the moment this represents an in-between version without skinning support.

I've replaced the bitmap knob strips (they were huge, >1mb) with "2d" knobs that the code can draw directly. So they're generated knob strips rather than installed.

These knobs are just slightly bigger... technically they're the same size but most of the size of the widget is taken up directly rather than having extra space for the shadow. So since the "3d" knobs have that shadow that overlaps the LEDs it looks "right", but when the knob body itself overlaps as in this case it looks "wrong".

Unfortunately however since both knobs are the same size (33x33 px at scale=1) if I were to change the LED offset to fit these knobs it would no longer fit correctly with the 3d knobs.

So ultimately this is going to be a feature of the skinning system and perhaps the knobs and switches will have associated data like "text offset" or "LED offset" to allow different widgets to position those sub-elements differently so it always looks best.

Good point though, this is definitely something I'm still working on and the skinning system is a long way from being finished. If the next RC version (8.1) is released with these knobs without changes I will change the default LED offset to match them.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Tue May 01, 2018 12:00 pm

xhip, the skittles edition!

donquixote · Post by **donquixote** » Tue May 01, 2018 1:25 pm

thank you!

Scrubbing Monkeys · Post by **Scrubbing Monkeys** » Tue May 01, 2018 2:34 pm

layzer wrote:xhip, the skittles edition!

Thank you.

And thank you Acid dose. Will test later today on Win 7 Reaper.and Mulab.

Halonmusic · Post by **Halonmusic** » Wed May 02, 2018 9:35 am

Thanks. Will download right away.

Nielzie · Post by **Nielzie** » Wed May 02, 2018 10:05 am

This looks good, thank you!!

fanodu1 · Post by **fanodu1** » Thu May 03, 2018 4:10 am

This is definitely starting to become one of my favorite free synths, keep up the good work.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Thu May 03, 2018 4:56 am

Thank you for your generosity. Xhip sounds very nice.

Is there an empty bank available (or is there a way to make our own) ? I'd like to do some patches and share them.

EDIT: I'm making an empty bank by Menu>Load>Init>Preset but it's coming out looking like this:

Xhip-1.png

EDIT 2: Ok here's an empty bank for Xhip but all the categories are named Init:

Xhip Empty Bank

EDIT 3: I get it now. You have to name the category and the patch. Let me see if I can do an empty bank with all Init patches but with categories named.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Thu May 03, 2018 5:58 am

Sorry for having a running dialog with myself here but since this is an Alpha I'm sure you're interested in feedback.

The background color and size is not remembered (saving a custom state file didn't work) and it's not possible to use capital letters in patch or bank names.

The init.xhipstate file is in App Data>Roaming>xhip>synth but has not been written to since installation.

The Unison settings don't seem to be recalled in a Preset either. I'll work on it further.

This is on Win 10 Pro 64 bit in FL Studio and Reaper 64 bit.

Try this patch. The Unison settings are not recalled. They were set to 7 voices 50 cents. All the other parameters in the patch were recalled but that only included Osc waveforms, Osc B Course and Env A Release.

Unison Test

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Thu May 03, 2018 7:51 am

Just a suggestion : could we have a white on black menu instead of black on white ?

I'm pretty sure that it doesn't matter for all the persons who don't have any visual impairment but it would be much nicer for those like me who have one. So... it would not remove any user but it would certainly add yet others.

Very clever idea, this "round-robin" switch allocating voices differently for new pending "route" features like voice pitch randomization and drift. Excellent !

GaryG · Post by **GaryG** » Thu May 03, 2018 1:49 pm

Sounding and looking good here.

One little bug(?) I've found; the background of the control section is missing but only at a GUI size of 5/4...

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Thu May 03, 2018 6:29 pm

GaryG wrote:One little bug(?) I've found; the background of the control section is missing but only at a GUI size of 5/4...

The way the background is handled is identical to v8, so this is some kind of system-specific bug. I still need to eliminate the bitmaps used there though so once that is done it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Xhip Synthesizer v8.1 (alpha & RC)