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Developer
Posts: 746
  
Location: England | Hello everyone,
I’m pleased to announce the availability of reViSiT v1.4 Pro, comprising several eagerly-awaited features, notably including Sample and Instrument Library screens. These screens are designed to allow you to seamlessly handle file operations (e.g. sample loading) as an integral part of your composing workflow, without having to tackle clunky Windows point-and-click dialogs. As such, the main features of 1.4 are...
- File browsing and previewing...
Before you can lay down any notes, you have to setup an instrument or sample. With reViSiT 1.4, the goal is to make this process easier and quicker. The previous host-supplied open file dialogs have been replaced with dedicated library screens, allowing you to browse and audition samples and instruments on your computer, before loading them into your song. In the library, any selected sample or instrument can be played using the keyboard, with full pitch control – then, if it passes muster, it can be loaded into the current sample or instrument slot, by simply hitting Enter. Other file dialogs (e.g. save) have also been changed to give reViSiT more control over their appearance and windowing behaviour.
- Sample and instrument ripping...
One of the great things about tracking is the amount of tracker files out there, on the Internet, combined with the tradition of sharing tunes and sounds. There are literally thousands of great tracks, featuring great, professional-sounding samples – almost all in open formats. reViSiT 1.4’s libraries allow you to browse inside these tracker songs, preview their samples or instruments, and directly “rip” (extract) them for use in your own piece. It’s a great way to learn and get started – cutting straight to working on the music in the Pattern Editor without having to spend ages preparing instruments or looping and mapping samples – just be careful how you use other people’s works, and respect the effort they have put in! I’d hate to have to code the first tracker with DRM...
- Other innovations, changes and fixes...
reViSiT 1.4 makes it easier for you to copy patterns that you have already written, so that you can subtly vary your song over time. In the Order List (F11), Duplicate Pattern (Ctrl-D) will make a copy of the pattern referenced by the previous list entry, and insert a reference to it, at the cursor. The copy is created in the next available empty pattern, and can be inspected by selecting the newly-inserted entry and pressing the Go To Pattern (g) command. Other changes include a few workflow improvements, better memory and resource handling, and fixes for the odd niggle introduced by previous 1.x features.
Check the release notes for a full list of changes, but otherwise let me know how you get on! Download reViSiT v1.4 Pro from http://www.nashnet.co.uk/experiment/download.asp.
(not registered? Register for free, as part of the reViSiT Experiment) Enjoy!
Chris --------------------------------------------------------
v1.4
[ADD] Sample & Instrument Libraries - integrated file
browsers with audition before loading and ripping
from modules and archives.
[ADD] Order List Duplicate Pattern command (Ctrl-D) -
inserts a copy of the last pattern, in the order.
[MOD] Resizing more forgiving when moving cursor.
[MOD] Editor window no longer hidden for file dialogs.
[MOD] Auditions use mapped MIDI channel (if appropriate)
[MOD] Improved mouse selection dragging in centred view.
[MOD] Wider support for mouse scroll wheel (tree, list).
[MOD] Playback cursor no longer ticks during audition.
[MOD] More economic use of OS graphics objects.
[MOD] Improved memory usage in playback engine.
[FIX] Shift-Delete/Backspace (clear note) not working.
[FIX] Labels on trees not drawn correctly.
[FIX] Minor resource leaks in interface.
[FIX] Blank patterns with lots of host windows open.
[FIX] Halve/Double Selection not working properly.
[FIX] (Silent) hanging notes during audition.
v1.3.4
[MOD] More intuitive mix behaviour for main rows/subrows
[FIX] No manual keyboard input after hiding editor.
v1.3.3
[MOD] New, improved (queue) timing for External MIDI.
[MOD] Help and font files now extracted at setup, to
address UAC issues, in Vista/Windows 7.
[FIX] External MIDI stops working after MIDI reset.
v1.3.2
[MOD] Improved External MIDI timing precision.
[MOD] Clicking selections without dragging now deselects.
[MOD] New reViSiT logo on toolbar (links to website).
[FIX] MIDI Delay not working for External MIDI.
[FIX] Shift- not triggering hanging notes.
[FIX] Interpolate not working with maximum values.
[FIX] Drag outline extends one row too far.
v1.3.1
[ADD] Subrow selections.
[MOD] Swap, double and half now update selections.
[MOD] Alt key menu activation removed.
[FIX] Instability switching instruments to MIDI during playback.
[FIX] Tempo change support accidentally disabled. |
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Expert
Posts: 512
Location: Netherlands | I'm not sure what others think about it, but imho and very sorry to day so, but that new patterncopy thing is without hesitation and without doubt the vaguest solution in the history of vague solutions, to such an extent that I probably won't be using it.
And the vaguest part of is that I really don't see why you've come up with this particular solution. I see two perfect alternatives:
- the reorder method we've discussed during chat (create unique copies of patterns, order list of 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 would become 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7)
- an even simpler block copy method (see picture) -> hold down shift to select a range of patterns, press a key like C, et voila, new copies made into the first empty patterns it sees
I could go in details as for why the current solution is weird, but that has the risk of you fixing/tweaking this current solution while I think you should flush it altogether and do something new. Come on, you can surely do better than this, no? 
And by now I was also somewhat expecting a pattern reorder feature (like the one we chatted about, and like the one in IT2).. :-)
 (rev_mpc.png)
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 rev_mpc.png (2KB - 0 downloads)
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I personally don't use the order list, since I use the trigger patterns by midi method, so all is perfectly set up for me when using my templates. I do however use samples in IT, so I have tested the sample/instrument browsing screens.
And well, they work very good. It's such a bliss to test chords with your keyboard again, aces. Two things were nagging me a little:
-each time I browse a dir for samples, it delays and clicks at the start of samples, mostly on short ones like drumhits. I guess this is because its reading the sample info, because when it has done this, the sample plays without hickups. Any chance on getting around this like automatic reading on the info of all samples when entering a dir (and, if possible, save the info for those which aren't new/altered for a next session)?
-The browser doesn't recognize wav files which are from the broadcast wave file format (looked this up on the net) it seems. Any chance of giving this support in the near future?
For the rest, its all sweet as I said. I - can't - wait - until formats like rx2 and sf2 will be supported! But of course, all in time...
Edited by Reactor Grits 2010-05-11 2:45 PM
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Developer
Posts: 746
Location: England | Reactor Grits:
I had to compromise on the sample caching strategy for the libraries - if you're browsing a module, then reViSiT loads all its samples and instruments into memory, so auditioning is available seamlessly. For directories, it works a little differently: reViSiT won't load the sample until you actually try to audition it. Automatically loading all the samples in a directory is impractical - a single directory might contain gigabytes of sample data and, even for more modest directories, you don't want to have to wait for them all to load before you can see what's in there (you may just be "passing through" that directory anyway). Initially, I did have samples being loaded as they were selected, but that caused similar delays while cursoring through the files in the directory. Thus, it became an on-demand thing.
I don't know why they should glitch (if you can elaborate on what's happening, I'll look into it), but I do eventually hope to move to some kind of background loading, so that a sample is loaded automatically, without tying up the UI in the process. This could take a while, though, as it will require an additional thread in the UI, complicating the plugin's threading model. Such innovations, as well as wider format support will come eventually, however...
CS_TBL:
Hmm, I'm a little vague about how you're using the word "vague" - indeed, if "I could go into details, but I won't" isn't vague, then what is...?
Similarly, your block copy suggestion seems a little ambiguous (viz. vague) as to whether the user thinks they'll be copying an order list entry or the patterns they reference. Such UI considerations, and coding the functionality you describe, take more work than mocking up a screenshot - and such changes weren't the target of this update. The Duplicate Pattern functionality was added because it was easy to code and gives you a faster way to copy existing patterns. As such, it is a stop-gap feature, until I can take a longer look at the Order List - which will likely involve some kind of selection/clipboard functionality. This release was more about the Sample and Instrument Lists.
The "reorder" feature we discussed was (and still is) on the list, but did not make the cut for this release. However, it might have made my life easier if you'd mentioned there was an equivalent IT2 feature - it might have given me an idea of what you were yammering on about in the first place! I still can't find any documentation on it, mind... |
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Expert
Posts: 512
Location: Netherlands | reordering in IT2:
If this is a song:
010
010
144
005
006
003
003
100
101
then after a reorder (alt-r in the order screen iirc) things would look like:
000
000
001
002
003
004
004
005
006
It's been a while, and I'm not 100% sure whether it made a unique copy of a repeating pattern (like above) or not, prolly not. I've barely ever repeated patterns so it's not something which is burnt into my memory.
Edited by CS_TBL 2010-05-11 8:38 PM
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Developer
Posts: 746
Location: England | Hmm, 'can't get it to work in IT 2.14. It's not in the shortcut list, or the manual... |
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Expert
Posts: 512
Location: Netherlands | I have a registered version, I think it's perhaps 2.15 or something, e.g. registered users only. |
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I don't know why they should glitch (if you can elaborate on what's happening, I'll look into it), but I do eventually hope to move to some kind of background loading, so that a sample is loaded automatically, without tying up the UI in the process. This could take a while, though, as it will require an additional thread in the UI, complicating the plugin's threading model. Such innovations, as well as wider format support will come eventually, however...
Of course, it can also be my setp, but its just that I hear a small click when it initializes some samples, but after RV got the sample info they sound alright. So, I click every sample twice now to hear it right. Also, big samples take a very long time to load when auditioning. Yesterday I was loading a sample and had the output to rebus 1, and discovered that other samples being auditioned were all send through rebus 1. When I tried to rerout things (I had effects on rebus 1 and wanted to audition samples without this) ReViSiT crashed. It first put Rebus 1 on standby in Cubase. I don't know what happened there, through which output is ReViSiT normally supposed to audition? Thanks in advance for some clearance on this man. |
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Member
Posts: 7
| Hi Chris! Revisit 1.4 pro is great - I will continue to test it on Reaper.
I only have one question : if you use midi controlled patterns, you cannot trigger two patterns the same time/ or can you?
My idea was to have one pattern with drums, and other with the tune so i could mix them via midi messages....
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Developer
Posts: 746
Location: England | Hi Arpad,
No, you cannot currently trigger more than one pattern at a time, though this is planned for the future. When I introduced the midi-triggered patterns, I coded the sequencing engine in a way that should support more than one pattern playing at once, but there's more work to be done before I can role the feature out. However, this will still be a 1.x feature.
Best,
Chris |
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reViSiT 1.4 Pro now available!
