new build 347

[atom]

I sat with the mac for a few hours today and made some fixes just for the MAC. For those of you blessed with this "gr8" platform, give this build a test. Other builds have not been yet updated.

[minimalist]

Nice, I’m glad to test it with the "gr8" platform! But I’m not able to unzip the file, an error is appearing.

[atom]

yeah i noticed it’s sf.net fault the ZIP is ok on the server it’s just not downloading right, i think it takes a moment for sourceforge to distribute it to other mirrors.

i keep a copy of all archives in the forum directory, it’s here releases/Ctrlr_MacOSX_x32.zip

[minimalist]

OK, I’m able to open it. Will test it soon – thanks!

[nrhyan]

god damn. nice work atom. I have had the vst running beautifully for about twenty minutes now in Live. I currently have two panels up in one track and was able to configure paramter controls in the DAW for all of them. CPU spikes are gone, and no crashes yet.

[nrhyan]

this is sooo nice. Cpu usage is at a steady 2-3%, I’ve now got a third panel open to give me a whopping 101 configured controls (4 mods, 4 lfos, seq, arp, gate controls and seq steps), and still no crashes! I always wanted to be able to do this. What’s even better the preset for my ohm64 which by default has 8 banks of 8 controls (=64 controls) has been automatically creating new banks as I add extra controls from another panel. not bad, not bad ” title=”Cool” />

[minimalist]

Yeah atom! 347 is a HUGE Mac update again – it feels 10 times more stable than 342 (also more stable than v4), and seems VERY close to become rock solid! I’ve controlled/automated all versions (VST/AU) in 2 hosts – NI Maschine and Ableton. In ALL versions/combinations the CPU peaks are gone (1-2% constantly!!), no crashes anymore when deleting a plugin or close the hosts – and no problems anymore with disable/enable MIDI ports in the global MIDI device manager! GREAT work! Though there are just a few problems left.

Maschine:
The VST/AU versions seems to be identical in terms of automation and crashes. I managed to automate both versions for many minutes (in build 342 this wasn’t possible), but after 10-30 minutes Maschine crashed. Sometimes it needs longer, sometimes not – but this crash appears VERY rarely!
On the other hand when Maschine is automating the VST/AU and I additional control the automated parameter by the mouse – Maschine needs 2-3 seconds and crash immediately. I know it’s a extremely situation, but maybe this could be interessting/help.

Ableton:
Also here the VST/AU versions behave same in all terms I’ve tested. In both versions I experienced a strange issue which I already experienced in AU build 342. Do you have Ableton? I remember that I’ve read (a long time ago) that you use an other host/DAW. In Ableton there is a red button in the transport field called something like "back to arrangement". If this button is enabled (red) the "arrangement view" is something like disabled and the main focus is on the "session view". Because the most of automations are only available in "arrangement view" you need to do it there.
OK, this I experienced: I’ve recorded an automation in "arrangement view", it works fine. But if I want to play the recorded automation, the red button enables itself when the automation is played. This means that you’re not able to play the automation, because the main focus is always on the "session view"! Looong explanation of a little thing, but for someone who maybe don’t know Ableton it’s not easy to explain.

Summary: It seems for me (as a non programmer) that there are just 2-3 problems left – and Ctrlr v5 is rock solid on the Mac! You can’t imagine how excited I am!
From now on I’m creating my Ctrlr pannels only when it’s hosted.

nrhyan, if I understood you right you didn’t tested the "automation bug" with the current version? Or why you don’t have any problems?

[atom]

In terms of "focus" stuff i wonder what focus you talk about. I changed something that’s called "keyboard focus" for Ctrlr, it’s weird noone noticed before but there were problems with keyboard input to Ctrlr, those should be gone now.

[quote:3smm505e]
On the other hand when Maschine is automating the VST/AU and I additional control the automated parameter by the mouse – Maschine needs 2-3 seconds and crash immediately. I know it’s a extremely situation, but maybe this could be interessting/help.
[/quote:3smm505e]

could you be more specific on that ?

[minimalist]

With the "fucus" stuff it would be helpful to know if you’re experienced in Ableton. Ableton Live offers 2 different ways to produce music – the standard linear way: "arrangement view", and the non-linear way: "session view". You’re only able to play ONE of these methods at the same time per track. If you have have a sequence in the arrangement AND the session (in the SAME track), Ableton need to know which of them has priority and set the "focus" to one of these methods. If the sequence in session view is playing – the button "back to arrangement" (transport field) is enabled, to indicate that the arrangement is disabled and the "focus" (priority) is on session view.
… Because it’s only possible to make automations in the arrangement, of course I did automate Ctrlr v5 there. I don’t know why… but if I playback the track with the automation, Ableton sets the priority ("focus")of this track to session view – and the "focus" button (called "back to arrangement") is enabled. So the automation is disabled, because the arrangement is disabled, too.

The Maschine issue: If I playback the already recorded automation (of course Ctrlr is automated) and tweak/control at the SAME time (via Maschine) this automated parameter with the mouse or Maschine hardware, Maschine is crashing immediately.

Did you get it what I mean? It’s really not easy for me to explain it better (at least for the moment).

[atom]

i’d need the maschine host on my hands to debug it, i have friend who owns this software/device i’ll try to get my hands on it and test it.

in terms of Live i’ll click around a little, never really liked using it i own a copy that i got with my AKAI MPK49 but i was always a FLStudio person, but i’ll take a look
Each host has it’s gotchas i’m afraid especialy in terms of threads, you need to plan for each one. I’ll get back to you on that.

[minimalist]

OK, thanks! I already wrote it, but I like to repeat myself – because I think it could be interessting. The Ableton issue: In build 342 the v5 AU version already behave like I wrote in my last post… BUT the VST version didn’t. In build 347 BOTH versions (AU and VST) set the "focus"/priority to session view. So this priority issue is something like new in the VST version.

[atom]

this is connected to the keyboardFocus i set in the plugin, but this is not something that is optional you either set it ON or OFF at build time, so it will be hard to get around.

[minimalist]

Yeah, I see. Honestly I don’t care a lot about Ableton, because Maschine is my preferred host at the moment (it’s really crazy – I LOVE "hardware" step sequencers)… though Ctrlr would be absolutely mighty if it will run on every imaginable system!

I think you already understood that it seems that there are 2 issues which are crashing Maschine (the rarely crash after a long time of automation, and the immediately crash when you additional tweak the already automated parameter). If you need the crashlogs of this problems: please tell me! Or are the crashlogs not very helpful for you?

[atom]

i think i got it, i’ll be posting new builds in a minute. it’s a thread lock issue, i knew it was to good to be true the way i made it work, it crashes in any host on any OS. There are 3 threads to sync at any given time
the GUI thread, the MIDI thread and the VST-host thread, there are times when all three threads might want to access Ctrlr data and without proper locking it will crash every time. I added some fixes but am not sure if i got it all, i tested it in Reaper on windows, i got the automation curve running, doing some happy mouse dragging on the GUI and sending relevant MIDI at the same time and it did not crash.

[atom]

I uploaded the 350 build for both Windows and MAC (does anyone use the Linux builds, any feedback on how this is behaving?)
there are some fixes i did myself and bugs fixed from the bug tracker, relevant bug reports are closed, check out the TODO link to see what’s changed.

[minimalist]

And again the latest version (I only recognised 348 instead of 350) behaves better than before. I tested all versions on both hosts just for a short time. Btw: in all my tests (now and before) I’ve used a very simple Ctrlr v5 pannel – which contains only 1 slider on 1 MIDI channel… Maschine didn’t crash when I tested both issues which I told before (rarely crashing after long time automation, immediately crash when tweaking the already automated parameter)!! ” title=”Smile” />
But sometimes when I wanted to close Maschine it crashed (like in 342)… But anyway, it’s more stable while music producing like before. Then I opened for the first time a Ctrlr pannel which I created before, and I tried to automate more than 1 parameter (I think it has been 3) at the same time… This crashed Maschine.

In Ableton both versions VST/AU behaving like in 347.

After sleeping soon I’ll do some further testings… I’m sure that v5 will be very stable soon!

[atom]

i’m trying to get my hands on a copy of Maschine, i got only a PC version but it’s always something. Maybe i’ll be able to get the MAC version.

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