PREVIOUS UPDATES
SOUND VIEW
- Envelope: Curtail and Edit: Insert Sound
Sound View windows can now output data to the parameter box(es).
- When you Zoom out on the display, the previous display now appears in a box,
so you can tell exactly where you have been.
- Playbox can be moved to left or right in some modes (see mouse instructions on windows).
- Processes which create output of user-specified length (e.g. texture, drunkwalk) and can also use breakpoint files.
The durations of those breakpoint files correspond to the user-specified duration rather than the duration of the input file.
In order to be able to create appropriate breakfiles in the Sound View display
a dummy soundfile is now created (of duration specified in the apprpriate parameter) so that breakpoints can be drawn over it.
- A sequence of times can be created in the Table Editor (TABLE - CREATE) by marking a soundfile in Sound View.
- New EDIT SLICE has been added to the EDIT menu.
- This cuts a file into pieces defined by slice times e.g. a 3 second file with slices at 1 sec and 2 secs, is cut into pieces of 0-1 secs, 1-2 secs and 2-3 secs.
This is simply a version of cut out and keep many but the Sound View facility available via the Make File
button allows you to mark just the slicing times (rather than specifying the start and end times of each segment).
The Sound Loom then creates the appropriate time-segments in the edit-data file.
NEW KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ON WORKSPACE
- Control-W: Toggle between Workspace mode and Chosen Files mode.
- Control-T: Replace Chosen Files by TOP file of workspace.
- Control-A: ADD top file of workspace to Chosen Files list.
- Control-H: add top file of workspace to HEAD of Chosen Files list.
- New Button, below Chosen Files list, to add top workspace file to top of Chosen Files list.
TABLE EDITOR
- TABLE CREATE: create a list of times by marking the Sound View display.
- COLUMNS COMBINE: create a series of columns-of-values (as files) intermediate between 2 given value-columns.
MULTI-USER SYSTEM
Various improvements to the multi-user interface.
- A shared network drive can be specified for systems where the Loom might need to be accessed from several machines.
- Private CDP system files have been made inaccessible from within the Loom.
- Anomalies in the password routine (vis-a-vis case-sensitivity) have been removed.
The Username is case-sensitive. The password is not.
PLATFORM SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENTS
On the MAC:
- Sound View:
- The Sound View window is no longer hidden behind the Sound Loom display
- Playboxes drawn onto the sound-display now behave correctly.
- Extending the play box: command for this has changed (see details in window): now works correctly.
On the PC:
- Rapid Program Abort:
If you download the newly available program process.exe (and place it in the _cdprogs directory)
the Abort button on the Run Page will terminate a CDP process immediately and return you to the
parameters page.
(The "Control-Alt-Del" route is no longer required).
- Halt Play of Analysis Files:
If you download the newly available program process.exe (and place it in the _cdprogs directory)
playing analysis files will display a small window with a STOP button, allowing you to stop play.
- Old Hardware playing Analysis Files:
On some older systems, playing analysis files produces no sound output.
A new option has now been place on the System State Menu.
If used, attempting to 'Play' an Analysis Files presents a
'no-can-do' message.
MUSIC TESTBED (Tied to future CDP release)
- SMOOTH/CORRECT PITCH TEXT DATA
New facility for pitch-data files to be ...
- Viewed as text.
- Auditioned.
- Auditioned in parallel with the sound from which the pitch has been extracted. Sections to hear can be selected with Sound View.
- Smoothed (forced within a range etc.)..
- 'Nudged' (specific areas altered in pitch). Sections to be modified can be selected and auditioned via Sound View.
TEXT EDITING as the DEFAULT MODE
- A display of the values at breakpoints has been aded to the Sound View graphics.
- As you can now graphically enter data from the Text-editing window using Sound View,
this makes the old graphic editor redundant.
Hence editing breakpoint files will default to text-editing mode,
but you will be able access the new graphic mode from the Sound View button at the top of the text-editing page.
- If you prefer to work in the old graphic editing mode, you can reset to this by going to
SYSTEM STATE MENU -- SYSTEM SETTINGS -- BREAKPOINT EDIT STYLE and resetting to (Old) Graphic Mode.
- On the MAC this change will be implemented once the Sound View option functions correctly.
MULTI-USER ENVIRONMENT : STORING SOUNDS ON A DIFFERENT DRIVE
At the suggestion of Ron Berry and Martin Allison, at Durham University, a new facility has been added
to allow multiple users of a networked PC system to store their soundfiles on a separate drive, or networked machine.
When specifying the users on a Multi-User system, the Loom will enquire if you want to do this,
and, if so, allow you to specify that drive before entering the user names.
(The principal user's base directory remains on the directory where the Loom has been installed).
BUG FIXES
- On some systems the Tempo and Duration buttons on the Workspace,
and the Table Editor Tap out A Time facility give output which is incorrect by a factor of 1000.
This has been fixed, but if you have this problem you need to RESET SYSTEM CLOCK from the Workspace
on SYSTEM STATE MENU -- SYSTEM SETTINGS.
- On the parameters page for the Varibank Filter, the new Randomise button
produced an error. This has now been fixed.
- Quit has been replaced with Close on most Loom windows.
- MAC: 'SOUND VIEW' now installs automatically, if you have TK/Tcl on your system.
(No need to specify path names).
Major New Facilities
- 'SOUND VIEW' SOUND VISUALISATION & DATA ENTRY ('SND VIEW' on MAC Buttons)
The snack waveform-display facilities in TK/Tcl have now been incorporated into the CDP.
These give you a graphic display of the sound or its spectrum.
Extra facilities have been added to allow you to
- Zoom in and out of the display, down to the sample level.
- Select a portion of the display to play (or to Zoom into).
- See a frequency scale superimposed on the spectrum.
- Zoom-in, frequencywise, to see detail in the spectrum.
and
- Draw breakpoints, time-marks or frequency marks on the sound graphics, and output these as data to your Sound Loom parameter file or
directly into the parameter value boxes on the Loom.
- Graphically Select (several) portions of the sound for cutting or editing
The Sound View can be called from
- the "Make File" button and the "Edit File" buttons on the parameters page.
- from the Parameters page, replacing the "Src View" buttons.
- the Workspace (Control V).
Special interfaces have been added to simplify data entry to special data files e.g.
- Varibank Filter data files.
- Texture data files.
- Sequencer data files.
You may want to customize your use of the SoundView facilities.
To do this, use the new option on the 'System State' menu.
See the manual for further details.
- DIRECT MIDI ENTRY FROM MIDI KEYBOARD OR OTHER DEVICE
Direct entry of MIDI data from an external MIDI device has now been made possible.
You must have Richard Orton's Tabula Vigilans on your system (in the _cdprogs directory) for this feature to become operational.
Direct MIDI entry is accessible through the buttons that look like tiny piano-type keyboards (these do not appear if you have not installed 'Tabula Vigilans).
Midi-entry buttons are customised to the application you are using e.g.
- with the Varibank Filter, you can place the cursor on a data line, then use the Midi-In button to play notes.
These note-values will then be entered (as MIDI or as Frq, depending on which mode you are running) into the filter data file at the cursor position.
- With the Texture programs' datafiles (parameter 1) there is an additional intelligent interface which asks for each required MIDI data-set in turn, allows you to enter each from a MIDI keyboard, then writes the data to the file in the required format. For example a Texture using 3 input files, with motifs over a harmonic field will ask for....
- The MIDI pitches of the input files.
- The MIDI pitches of the harmonic field.
- The MIDI pitches of the Motifs to be used.
See the manual for further details.
Other New Facilities
- BRKFILE .brk EXTENSION:
The ".brk" extension can now be used for all breakpoint files.
On installing this update you will be asked to confirm (or reject) this option.
(If you decide against using ".brk", breakpoint files will get the standard ".txt" extension).
You can change your mind about this later, from the SYSTEM STATE menu, SYSTEM SETTINGS: "TEXTFILE EXTENSIONS: USER DEFINED?"
- CYCLE PROCESSES:
If you are using a sequence of processes over and over, you can now simply cycle around them from the 'Recent Processes' button (on the Process page).
There is a new 'CYCLE' button at the top of the page.
You can set up a new sequence of processes to cycle around by first using the (new) 'Forget' button (on the same page) which clears the list of previous processes, then running the processes you want.
These processes will accumulate on the 'Recent Processes' list. Once you have completed the set, hitting 'cycle' will cause the sequence of processes to be called cyclically.
No more than 11 processes can be used in a cycle.
- Operational Improvements and Changes
- RETAIN TODAY'S NOTEBOOK ON THE DESKTOP
You can choose to retain a display of the most recent Notebook entry on the desktop while you run your session. This can be set up (or deactivated) from the SYSTEM STATE menu on the Workspace.
- RECYCLE FILE IN BULK MODE
Previously, when previous several files at once, in 'Bulk Process' mode, if you use 'Recycle File' on the PArameters PAge the Loom would switch you back into normal (non-bulk) processing mode,
This has now been modified so that, if you are in 'Bulk Process' mode, 'Recycle Outfile' returns you to the process page STILL in 'Bulk Process' mode.
Also deactivated 'Texture' in 'Bulk Process' mode. As the 'Texture' process can work with one or several input files, using it in 'Bulk Process' mode is ambiguous, as the Loom cannot tell whether you want to process each file independently, or all files at once.
- SOUND INFO: maximum sample
New Button on the "Run" page, converts time (of maximum) in seconds to time in hours, minutes and seconds.
- MAKE FILE: Duration button
The duration button on the text entry page which is accessed from the 'Make File' button on the Parameter Entry pages prints the file duration at the current location of the cursor in the text.
This has now been updated to print the duration in seconds, samples or sample-groups, whichever is appropriate to the process being run.
Bug Fixes
- Vary rare problems in the operating of the hardware, (e.g. failure of the chip battery) can cause the system date-time mechanism to malfunction. This shows up as a problem in the Sound Loom which uses the system timer to date files and logs. An emergency mechanism (to allow dates and times to be directly entered by the user) has been put in place to cover such emergencies. However, the hardware fault should be fixed as quickly as possible.
New Facilities
- Filter Varibank: Randomise:
New Button on the parameters page for Varibank Filter.
Takes the values in a varibank data file currently being used as a parameter,
and creates random fluctuations of pitches (and amplitudes if selected) over time.
- Table Editor: Pitch: Unit & Data Conversion:
Find Phase Vocoder channels corresponding to Frequency or (Midi) values.
Operational Improvements & Changes
- Workspace: Renumber Files:
Up and Down Arrows now increment and decrement the value in the Start Number box.
- Subpatches: Parameter Numbering:
In the subpatch display, the tick boxes are numbered from 1, but the numbering of
parameters in stored patches is from 0. This has been changed so that the internal
patch numbering is also from 1.
If you need to keep the old convention, use the option on the System State Menu.
- Brassage/Sausage: 'No Decelleration' Parameter:
This parameter is not functional, so it has been removed from the parameter display.
- Filter: Bank Frqs: Randomisation:
The filter frequency values displayed as output to this process are always those before any randomisation is applied.
The randomisation parameter was therefore non-functional, and has therefore been removed.
- Table Editor: Order: Numerically Order:
Will now sort lists of strings which contain (one) numeric component, as well as lists of pure numbers.
- PC: Space Design:
Improvements to the interface....
- Default parameters put in place when the window opens.
- A facility to create edges-of-rotation files without having to leave the Space-Design page.
- The Arrow Keys allow movement around the parameter boxes.
- Cleaning Kit: Cleave
Replaced by Cleave + Clean now cuts the source to be cleaned into overlapping segments and, if the file is MONO,
goes directly to the Cleaning Kit.
Bug Fixes
- Batchfile mode problems:
- Programs with formant flags were not handled correctly in bachfile mode. Fixed.
- Brassage, Sausage and Shudder were not working correctly in batchfiling mode,
and the shudder balance channel levels flag was not recognised.
This is due to CDP code bugs which will be fixed in the next release.
This version of the Loom has been upgraded to handle these correctly, once fixed.
- MAC: Process Page: Instrument List: See Button:
When an instrument was viewed twice in succession on the process page, the Loom froze. Fixed.
New Functionality
- Grain: Best Gate Value:
Once grain assess had determined a good gate level for the grain programs,
this was automatically written into the gate-level parameters when any other
grain program was run. But the value was not remembered if it was typed over,
or a different program was run. The Loom now no longer 'forgets' this best-level if a
new program is run, and, additionally, this best-level can now be recalled from the new
BestGate button on the parameters page.
Operational Improvements & Changes
- Run Process With Keyboard Shortcuts:
Control-r or Escape on the keyboard will now launch a process from the Parameters page,
and from the Run-window..
So Two 'Control-r' or 'Escape' strikes will run a process.
- MAC: Last entry in Notebook shown correctly at startup
No more spurious empty pages.
- Quicker Listing Of Deleted Files, at startup:
If, on starting the Loom, it discovers that files have been deleted (outside the CDP),
and you chose to list these files, these are now shown in blocks of 20 files, rather than one at a time as before.
Bug Fixes
- MAC: PVOC:
Error from version 9.9.2 prevented PVOC from launching. Fixed.
- Complete crosscheck of PC and MAC facilities.
New Functionality
- Property Files
- Files from Different Directories
Previously, properties files could only contain soundfiles from the same directory.
This restriction has been removed. If you still have properties files using the old convention,
these will no longer work. However, you can switch between the original and the new convention
on the System State menu on the Workspace.
- A new window for entering soundfiles to an existing property file, or
changing property values in an existing file, is now available. In particular this allows properties
to be copied from a list of the existing values, or from the values associated with a soundfile which
is already in the property-file.
- Cleaning Kit improvements.
- Envelope Dovetailing.
- Recall values of previously used parameters.
- Quick access buttons.
- Workspace Keyboard Shortcuts: Control 'i'
Interleaves copies of a workspace-selected sound between the files already on the chosen files list.
e.g. joining together a long list of sounds with intervening silences,
the sounds can be listed on the Chosen Files list, and the silent soundfile then selected from
the workspace, and interleaved between them.
Operational Improvements & Changes
- Table Editor : Increment(decrement) the numeric part of the output name, using the Up/Down arrow keys.
- Properties File Menu : Better layout.
Bug Fixes
- Qikedit of Mixfiles from GET/MOD menu on Chosen Files List (Workspace)
Window became frozen after operations on mixfile. Fixed.
Qikedit from the Parameters Page (with MIX MIXFILE) still works OK.
- Calculator: Get Param Button : Button caused error message. Fixed.
- Property Files Window: Rearranging Data :
Rearranging columns of data in property files did not reproduce all the lines in the file. Now fixed.
New Functionality
- Suck It and See
To get a feel for the effect of any particular parameter on a CDP process,
you may now enter a star (*) instead of a parameter value (for just one parameter at once).
This will bring up a new window allowing you to specify, simply, a parameter range you want to explore.
The Soundloom will then generate a whole set of output sounds tied to that range of parameters, and allow you to
listen to these, and to keep any sound, parameter value or list of parameter values that interest you.
- It is now possible to play analysis files from the Loom
(in the same way you play a soundfile) if you have the appropriate hardware on your PC/Mac.
- Calculator:
Convert Delay(mS) to Note Value added.
- Workspace Directory-display (RH) panel: 'Destroy' menu:
Mechanism added to delete an empty directory.
Operational Improvements
- Name, Rename a File:
When naming or renaming a file, the Up and Down arrows can be used to increase or decrease any numeric value
in the name. (If there are 2 numeric parts, the one nearest the end will be changed).
- Workspace:
On returning to the workspace when it is not in 'Chose Files' mode,
the chosen files are highlighted on the workspace.
- SYSTEM STATE menu: Editing the list of Back-up Directories:
Directories to be deleted can now be selected as a group (rather than just one at a time, as before).
Operational Improvements on the MAC
- Redesign of disabled buttons:
Buttons which are disabled now show their text, but greyed out (rather than the text disappearing).
(MENU buttons still hide their text when they are disabled).
- FIND DIRECTORY: ANY DIRECTORY:
Upper panel button (to access all drives) modified to use the "/Volumes" facility in Unix.
Bug Fixes
- Qikedit:
If mixtimes were moved onto Timegrid points and then the lines time-Sorted, the time-Sort did not
remember that the lines had been moved to grid-points, and merely sorted the prior values of the mix. Fixed.
- Worksapce: FIND DIRECTORY: ANY DIRECTORY:
Trap to prevent attempts to read from floppy drives, CDROM drives etc. where no disc has been inserted.
New Functionality
- Editable Graphic Display of Filter Data
New buttons on the 'Selected Files of Type' menu.
These work with 'varibank filter' data file, where the filter data does not change over time (i.e. a fixed resonance filter).
Filter bands are displayed and can be edited in various ways, and the resulting edited data reused.
The peak isolating facilities are intended for use with a forthcoming CDP program ('lucier')
which extracts the time-average of the spectrum from a long recording.
- Save Text from Notebook to a textfile
Highlighted text in the Notebook can be saved to a textfile, or a batchfile,
from a new item on the Select File/Line menu on the Notebook page.
- Calculator: Convert between Duration and Kbyte filesize.
- Cleaning Kit
Previously the program spectrace could be used as a noise-reduction tool for removing
relatively constant background noise from a source, but often left low-level high-frequency bubbling artefacts.
The forthcoming CDP programs specnu clean and specnu subtract
avoid these artefacts, while specnu remove attempts to eliminate specific pitches or pitch areas
from a source sound.
These new programs are combined with existing filter and edit programs in a new utility, the Cleaning Kit,
which will appear on your Music Testbed menu once you have the new programs.
Corrections
- Batchfile Syntax
The commandline syntax for env dovetail and env curtail
displayed via the Syntax button in the Create Batchfile window, was incorrect. Fixed.
New Functionality
- QikEditor for Mixfiles
- Better Link to Calculator
New buttons enable times on mixfile lines, and the value in the Value box,
to be sent to the Calculator, so that calculations can be peformed on Mixfile Times.
Results from the Calculator are automatically returned to the "Value" box.
- Better link to the Parameters Page
New buttons allow you to send times from mixfile lines in the display to the parameters page
starttime or endtime parameters.
- New function "Start Of Times To"
allows a group of mixfile lines with different start-times,
to be moved to new times, preserving the time-steps between the lines in the group.
- Free Harmony Workshop: Data Creation
- New Button allows Frq, Amplitude and Partial data to be created
directly from the Page.
- Notebook Clear
- New entry on Notebook menu on Workspace.
The contents of the notebook can be cleared and, if requested, backed up to a specified file,
when (for example) a new project is started.
- Calculator, Metres-->Frq
- New option converts length in metres to frequency.
The length should be thought of as the length, width or height
of a closed room. The output corresponds to the resonant frequency
associated with that dimension.
Tidying Up the Workspace
- Mixfile Refresh has now been superceded by Automatic Mixfile Management,
so the "Mixfile Refresh" button has been removed from the Workspace.
- Tips (which referred to mixfile refresh) has been removed from the Workspace.
- Hilite Chosen button, at top of Workspace, removed.
You can hilight the Chosen Files, simply by clicking on the Enter Chosen Files Mode button twice.
MAC: Problem with QikEdit fixed.
New Functionality:
1) Automatic Notebook Display at Startup: a new option on the System State menu
allows you to choose to automatically display the previous session's notes from the Notebook
at the start of a new session.
2) Are Workspace-Selected File in any mixfiles?: A new item in the Selected Files of Type menu
checks if workspace-selected Soundfiles are in any mixfiles. May be useful to check this before deleting soundfiles.
3) QikEdit Page: new button to Grab the time from an existing mixfile line to the value box.
Bug Fixes:
1) MAC: Quick Button: Incorrect call to "DoView". Fixed.
2) MAC: Instruments: failure to run when the programs directory location has been specified (at set-up)
using the ".\" convention. Fixed.
Better Fix for Information Button on Process page.
Improvements to Space Design page.
Fix for Information Button on Process page.
Gapped Names: Filenames (or directory names) containing spaces.
The Interpolation Workshop now works with gapped names.
Traps have been included for Loom features that will not work with Gapped Names.
MAC bug: Table Editor was not working. Now Fixed.
Other minor improvements to PC and Mac versions include new button on Melody Workshop
permitting displayed motif to be saved directly as frequency data suitable for
use in the Free Harmony Workshop.
Minor Fix to new Reset button in the case where View Sound or Anal File is chosen
from the Selected Files of Type menu. Now functions correctly in this case.
MAC bug: Save As button refusing to work. Fixed.
Incrementing numeric index of a filename, using the Up and Down Arrow keys.
Where a filename in a file-naming box has a numeric index, this can now be incremented or decremented
using the arrow keys.
-
BUG FIX: in both PC and MAC, an incorrectly deleted function caused 9.8.1 to fail. Fixed.
- PVOC analysis: channel count restriction. This has now been modified so that PVOC will accept
up to 16380 channels. Higher values of channel count produce bad header information in the output.
-
Dot notation Bug with Instruments: Recently reported problem where Sound Loom Instruments
fail to run, reporting a bad directory path for the CDP programs.
The directory in which the CDP executables are stored is entered on setting up the Sound Loom.
If the dot slash convention is used to start the directory path, this caused problems with Instruments.
Fixed.
-
Mix Management, anomaly when several sounds and mixfiles deleted at once. Fixed.
For full details, see 'See Updates' on the 'System State' menu on the Workspace
- Automatic Mix Management
..tracks soundfile namechanges (e.g. rename, backing up).
When soundfile names are changed, checks all known mixfiles on your system (not
just mixfiles loaded on the workspace) and if the renamed files are found
in any of those mixfiles, rewrites the mixfiles using the new soundfilenames.
This replaces the 'Mix Refresh' facility.
- Last Mixfile Used
Loom now remembers Last Mixfile used in previous session.
- Workspace
- Quick button on workspace allows any instruction in the Again boxes at top of menus
to be stored, for quick use.
- Get Top File, Add Top File allow file at top of wkspace to be grabbed to
Chosen List without switching that list on and off.
- Sort files by Duration.
- New renaming possibilities.
- Search by Exact name on Directory Listing.
- Music Testbed
- Motif Marker (a melodic contour) may be associated with a soundfile.
- Quantised Pitch Extraction and Melody Workshop
Timed frequency data obtained by pitch-tracking sounnd sources may be converted to (tempered-scale)
quantised midi data, viewed, auditioned, compared to the source, edited etc.
- Partition Soundfiles: New buttons to Play Again, Play Next and Play First sound on list.
- Space Design: More detailed 'Help' information.
- Parameters Page
- ToSecs Button: for data-type conversion, added to each parameter display bars.
Depending on parameter to which it's attached, this will convert...
- Sample count, or Hrs:Mins:Secs, to seconds.
- Note names (e.g. c#0) or Midi values to frequency,
- Note names or Frequency values to Midi.
- Gain to Midi-Gain, or to dB values.
- New buttons, and button functionality, for specific processes.
- Filters: Gain button, 2nd click, transfers gain value to filter gain parameter.
- Revecho, Stadium: Gain button (added) 2nd click transfers gain value to gain parameter.
- Housekeep Topntail: New Cut By button displays how much (if any) of the source has been removed.
- Insert Silence: Button to convert Endtime of Silence to Dur of Silence so you can enter start and end times then generate starttime + dur (required params) by a single button press
- Filter Hilo: 'Toggle' Button offers options to
- Invert filter type (Lopass <> HiPass)
- Shift Pass + Stop bands by + or - 100 Hz
- Shift Pass + Stop bands by + or - 1000 Hz
- Texture: Clicking on Filecnt display transfers file count to 'Last Snd in List' parameter.
- Mix, Qikedit:
- Up/Down Arrows: change levels.
- Right/Left Arrows: move timings.
- Step Between Button: positions sounds in stereo space, at spatial steps between first & last line positions.
- Naming Output Files: Standard Suffixes button adds (or replaces) suffix of a filename.
- Make Textfile: Control-t: convert sample-counts to time in seconds.
- Edit Textfile: Alt-up and Alt-down mutiply (divide) values by 2.
- Batch Files
- Batchfile Run Window: Now scrolls automatically so current command line is in view.
- Batchfile Creation: New batchfile created is highlighted on the workspace.
- Batch Edit Window:
- Reference values button added.
- New option to replace all occurences of a given text.
- New option to replace all values of a parameter (column).
- Table Editor
- Arrow Keys: increment (decrement) the Column Number (to select which table column to work on).
- Control-p: plays any highlighted soundfile.
- Pitch Menu:
- Transpose Frequency values by N semitones.
- Several new options to convert between frq, midi, quantised, vocal-ranged, staccato etc.
- Tables Menu:
- Replace part of a table by part of another table.
- Convert pitch textdata to varibank filter data.
- Notebook
Finding a file from notebook. Workspace now scrolls to make highlighted item visible.
- Bug Fixes
PVOC no longer accepts channel count above 4096 (which doesn't work).