Bliss Sampler 3.3

[george]

Audio Processing & Effects:

• Replaced filters with new generation analog modeled ZDF DSP
• Added 4 new automatable parameters for Sample destinations: Pitch Mode, Coarse Tuning, Time Stretch, Fine Tuning
• Added Sample Editor > Effects > Render Pitch Shift feature for offline pitch processing
• Updated Reverb presets with improved quality and optimized numerical stability in interpolation algorithms

Sample Management & Workflow:

• Added Sample Editor > Effects > Batch Crossfade Render functionality for processing multiple samples efficiently
• Changed loop crossfade range to 2-15% for more precise control and better musical results
• Enhanced program-level source file reference system supporting all formats (.zbp, SFZ, EXS, SF2, etc.)
• Resolved boundary condition clicks through improved area calculations, proper bounds checking, and enhanced loop content preservation
• Improved sample loading resilience with better error recovery for corrupted or missing files
• Added comprehensive error logging for missing sample files with specific file paths and zone information
• Fixed "Save Samples In Plugin" state bug preventing proper sample handling when disabled

Interface & Usability:

• Added the MIDI CC number display to the macro editor
• Improved sample editor playback cursor with waveform-aware visualization and smooth 60Hz updates for better user experience
• Comprehensive bubble tooltip system with descriptive help for all interface buttons including zone controls, macro assignments, and effect parameters
• Implemented persistent Sample Editor tab state management with automatic saving and restoration
• Improved Macro Edit Window parameter selection with hierarchical submenus and user-friendly labels
• Enhanced Macro edit remove button behavior
• Added Shift+click navigation through files in Program Selector and fixed Reverb label preventing unwanted preset folder creation
• Consistent and intuitive display format across both the sample editor knobs and macro editor parameter ranges. Improved pitch parameter display and labeling
• Sensitivity parameter descriptions correctly and specifically reference their corresponding base parameters
• Introduced 3D rendered knobs with realistic depth, lighting effects, and enhanced shadows for professional appearance
• Added subtle 3D text effects with top lighting and depth shadows for all UI elements, optimized to keep LCD fonts crisp
• Enhanced Sample Editor tabs with custom rounded bottom corners and improved visual styling
• Streamlined Rename Program and Rename Zone dialogs with cleaner appearance and standardized button layout
• Added rounded corners (8px radius) to all AlertWindow dialogs with proper transparency handling
• Updated progress window transparency and changed sampling dialog title to "Sampling"
• Enhanced memory management with proper cleanup of tab component listeners
• Fixed dialog transparency artifacts and standardized button ordering across all dialog types
• Improved tab switching reliability and enhanced component lifecycle handling

Performance & Technical Improvements:

• Added parallel sample loading with 3-pass approach and enhanced DAW project save/load performance using 24-thread pool for modern multi-core systems
• Implemented adaptive drive detection with automatic parallel/serial loading based on storage type (SSD vs HDD) using 64KB I/O timing tests
• Enhanced memory alignment to 32-byte for AVX2 compatibility and improved bounds checking for phase speed calculations with better stability
• Thread-Safe Time Stretch engine Parameter Management with enhanced stability for reliable multi-threaded processing
• Streamlined ARM NEON performance by replacing individual lane operations with direct memory-to-vector loading and eliminating redundant switch statements
• Location-specific optimization for mixed storage environments with robust error handling and graceful fallback to serial loading
• Enhanced thread-safe implementation with automatic fallback mechanisms and improved memory safety across all SIMD code paths
• Optimized coefficient array initialization with proper alignment for all SIMD instruction sets and enhanced FMA utilization for higher precision
• Remove Lua scripting dependency and implement native format importers for improved performance and reduced complexity

System Stability:

• Fixed non-realtime mode switching to only process actual state changes
• Reduced excessive logging spam in realtime mode through improved state change detection
• Several Stability Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Bliss 3.3 is a free upgrade for all existing 2.x customers and is available as Standalone, AU, VST2, and VST3 versions for Windows (10+), macOS (10.14+), and Linux (Ubuntu 20+) with Universal Binary 2 and native Apple Silicon support.

More details and download information can be found at Bliss page.

[wintoid]

Lots of updates! I've stopped using Bliss due to various issues, but will give it another go as so much seems to be changing.

I just tried the latest version briefly, and even just clicking "check for updates" makes the plugin crash.

[wintoid]

Never mind...

[tumface]

Tried the demo of this. First in Bitwig 6 beta. I dropped a mono clap sample into it. It played back mostly out of the left channel, for some reason. I noticed there's a "Stereo Rot." knob that's set to 46.06 degrees after Bitwig loads the plugin, for some reason. I double clicked it to reset it to center. It read 0.00 degrees. Then the clap played back mostly out of the right channel, which is also wrong.

BitwigPluginHost-X64-AVX2_da7XZpp3I8.png

OK. That seemed wrong. Probably some problem with Bitwig.

So I tried it in FL Studio 2024. The Stereo Rot. knob starts at 0.00 now. And, loading the same sample, there's no problem with the panning. But when I deleted the Bliss plugin channel, FL Studio locked up and I had to kill the process. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. I took a dump of the process and Bliss.vst3 is in the call stack. It might not be Bliss' fault, but so far this isn't looking so great.

devenv_dRvEOWVBuy.png

[george]

Tried the demo of this. First in Bitwig 6 beta. I dropped a mono clap sample into it. It played back mostly out of the left channel, for some reason. I noticed there's a "Stereo Rot." knob that's set to 46.06 degrees after Bitwig loads the plugin, for some reason. I double clicked it to reset it to center. It read 0.00 degrees. Then the clap played back mostly out of the right channel, which is also wrong.

So I tried it in FL Studio 2024. The Stereo Rot. knob starts at 0.00 now. And, loading the same sample, there's no problem with the panning. But when I deleted the Bliss plugin channel, FL Studio locked up and I had to kill the process. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. I took a dump of the process and Bliss.vst3 is in the call stack. It might not be Bliss' fault, but so far this isn't looking so great.

We've identified and resolved the issue.

After recent updates to our file loading system where we ported all LUA scripting to native C++ for better performance, WAV files were incorrectly being processed as program files instead of audio samples.

We've corrected the file categorization logic to ensure audio files are properly identified as samples before checking for preset files and stereo rotation and other effect parameters will now remain unchanged when loading WAV samples into your project.

This fix will be included in version 3.3.6, releasing later today. Thank you for the detailed bug report - it was instrumental in helping us locate and resolve this issue quickly.

[tumface]

Tried the demo of this. First in Bitwig 6 beta. I dropped a mono clap sample into it. It played back mostly out of the left channel, for some reason. I noticed there's a "Stereo Rot." knob that's set to 46.06 degrees after Bitwig loads the plugin, for some reason. I double clicked it to reset it to center. It read 0.00 degrees. Then the clap played back mostly out of the right channel, which is also wrong.

So I tried it in FL Studio 2024. The Stereo Rot. knob starts at 0.00 now. And, loading the same sample, there's no problem with the panning. But when I deleted the Bliss plugin channel, FL Studio locked up and I had to kill the process. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. I took a dump of the process and Bliss.vst3 is in the call stack. It might not be Bliss' fault, but so far this isn't looking so great.

We've identified and resolved the issue.

After recent updates to our file loading system where we ported all LUA scripting to native C++ for better performance, WAV files were incorrectly being processed as program files instead of audio samples.

We've corrected the file categorization logic to ensure audio files are properly identified as samples before checking for preset files and stereo rotation and other effect parameters will now remain unchanged when loading WAV samples into your project.

This fix will be included in version 3.3.6, releasing later today. Thank you for the detailed bug report - it was instrumental in helping us locate and resolve this issue quickly.

Awesome, thanks. Looking forward to trying that version.

[george]

Bliss 3.3.6 is out now.

File Processing Improvements

• Fixed stereo rotation parameter reset issue when loading mono WAV samples
• Improved file parsing logic to prioritize sample file extension checks before format importer checks
• Enhanced file classification system to prevent audio files from being misidentified as program files

https://www.discodsp.com/bliss/

[tumface]

I tried the 3.3.6 demo:

• In Bitwig 5.3 and Bitwig 6 beta 3, the Stereo Rot. and panning problem still exists. Please note that the Stereo Rot. knob is already set to 46.06 as soon as the plugin is instantiated, even before a sample has been loaded. If the Stereo Rot. knob is set to 0 degrees, then the audio will be biased towards the right channel instead of the left channel, for both mono and stereo samples. Some value in the 20 degrees needs to be set to get it roughly in the center, which seems wrong. It's possible that this is a bug in Bitwig, not in Bliss. Bitwig has had some problems with plugin state initialization and duplication in the past.
• In FL Studio 2024, there is no Stereo Rot. or other panning problem, but the DAW still locks up when Bliss is uninstantiated. It seems like it might be deadlocked on a Direct3D resource. This happens even if the plugin GUI is closed at the time Bliss is uninstantiated. It may be related to the fact that FL Studio uses Direct3D for its own UI, as well.
• In REAPER, everything seems to be fine.

If you need more information, feel free to DM me and I will give you my email address.

[george]

I tried the 3.3.6 demo:

• In Bitwig 5.3 and Bitwig 6 beta 3, the Stereo Rot. and panning problem still exists. Please note that the Stereo Rot. knob is already set to 46.06 as soon as the plugin is instantiated, even before a sample has been loaded. If the Stereo Rot. knob is set to 0 degrees, then the audio will be biased towards the right channel instead of the left channel, for both mono and stereo samples. Some value in the 20 degrees needs to be set to get it roughly in the center, which seems wrong. It's possible that this is a bug in Bitwig, not in Bliss. Bitwig has had some problems with plugin state initialization and duplication in the past.
• In FL Studio 2024, there is no Stereo Rot. or other panning problem, but the DAW still locks up when Bliss is uninstantiated. It seems like it might be deadlocked on a Direct3D resource. This happens even if the plugin GUI is closed at the time Bliss is uninstantiated. It may be related to the fact that FL Studio uses Direct3D for its own UI, as well.
• In REAPER, everything seems to be fine.

If you need more information, feel free to DM me and I will give you my email address.

Thanks for the report.

Bitwig Issues (5.3 & 6 beta 3)

The stereo rotation behavior you're describing sounds like a host state initialization problem:

• 46.06° default on instantiation - This suggests Bitwig is either:
  1. Not properly initializing plugin parameters to their defaults
  2. Sending incorrect automation data during plugin startup
  3. Has a bug in how it handles stereo processing plugins
• 0° biasing right instead of center - This indicates the stereo enhancer algorithm expects a different "center" value than what Bitwig is providing.

This is likely a Bitwig bug since REAPER works correctly. Bitwig has indeed had plugin state initialization issues in the past.

Potential workarounds to investigate:

• Check if Bliss is sending the correct default parameter values during initialization
• Verify the parameter range mapping matches what Bitwig expects
• Consider if there's a VST3/VST2 difference in how Bitwig handles the plugin

FL Studio Issue

The D3D deadlock on plugin unload is a known FL Studio problem, especially with plugins that use hardware acceleration or complex UI rendering. Since it happens even with GUI closed, it's likely related to:

• FL Studio's D3D context not properly releasing plugin resources
• Potential conflict between FL's D3D usage and Bliss's rendering
• Threading issues during plugin destruction in FL's D3D environment

This is almost certainly an FL Studio bug rather than a Bliss issue.

The fact that REAPER works perfectly suggests these are host-specific compatibility issues rather than fundamental problems with Bliss itself.

Feel free to contact tech support via https://www.discodsp.com/support/ if you have any additional reports.

[george]

Bliss 3.8.9 is out now.

Format Import Enhancements

• Fixed SF2 (SoundFont) importer with complete parsing of instrument bags and generators
• Added support for velocity layers and key ranges in SF2 files
• Improved sample loading by wrapping raw PCM data in WAV headers for SF2 format
• Changed SF2 import to process instruments instead of presets matching original behavior
• Enhanced generator decoding for keyRange, velRange, sampleID, sampleModes, and overridingRootKey

Enhanced Format Support

• Enhanced AKP (Akai S5000/S6000) importer with RIFF/APRG format parser
• Implemented support for KLOC and ZONE chunks in AKP files
• Added support for 4 velocity zones per keymap in AKP format
• Implemented case-insensitive sample file lookup for AKP files
• Added complete zone property mapping including tuning, pan, volume, and loops for AKP

XRNI (Renoise Instrument) Support

• Enhanced XRNI importer with ZIP archive extraction and XML parsing
• Implemented support for both old (doc_version 13) and new (doc_version 24) XRNI formats
• Enhanced handling of format variations: samples directly under RenoiseInstrument vs under SampleGenerator
• Added sample property extraction for volume, pan, transpose, and loops from XRNI files
• Implemented key/velocity range mapping from both XRNI format variations

NKI (Kontakt) Support

• Added NKI importer for Native Instruments Kontakt files (versions 1-4 only)
• Implemented XML decompression and parsing for NKI format
• Added support for both K2_Container and soundinfo XML formats
• Enhanced sample path resolution with multiple search strategies
• Implemented envelope and zone property extraction from NKI files

User Interface Improvements

• Enhanced file dialogs to remember last opened folder locations
• Load Effect, Load Plugin, and Export MIDI dialogs now use recent file lists
• Added fallback to platform-specific default directories when no recent files exist
• Improved cross-platform file dialog behavior with better default paths

https://www.discodsp.com/bliss/