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HN 2 ... when? I'm frustrated

Posted

Hi

Feeling done in here...

I'm feeding HN to Groove Agent and Pianoteq 2 (and 3) rather than the QT Built In GM synth (on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.5.6, 2 GIG RAM)

I *know* I have HN all routed right .... everything seems to trigger from the set up panes etc. However as soon as I start trying to get a custom Accompaniment going it all goes south ...

I load a phrase into one instrument OK ... but as soon as I load another Phrase into the second instrument the first stops sounding. Sometimes I get both sounding, but after saving the accompaniment (Export/ to the Accompaniment List ... how hidden is that?) and then start trying to play a Pallete , HN just freezes. No crash. Just stops. I have to Force Quit.

Occasionally it will play one software instrument from the Pallete .... and the other will revert to sounding the default QT Synth sound. So I go back to the Edit Accompaniment pane ... check all the assignments(they are correct for the software Instruments.... then HN will lock up as I try to close edit the window! Arghhhhhhh...

The instruments themselves never crash....

I note that HN is very predictable using the Built In QT Synth.It all behaves as expected. But the sounds! Oh, it's awful!

So, will HN 2 come soon please? I don't expect 1.6 to be updated... but maybe things will be a bit more transparent with the new development, especially in regards to using other sound sources.

And some more Phrases ? Pleeeeeeeeese?

I was also playing with the MIDI Sync options to see if I could get Groove Agent to run in sync with HN (ie MIDI Clock). Unfortunately HN crashes whenever the Sync drop down is utilized. I've attached the crash log for that problem.

Phew .... thanks for reading. ;-)

Lee

(Access MIDI Sync Crash.rtf.zip)
access_midi_sync_crashrtf_300.zip


Mon, 2009-03-02 - 13:50 Permalink

Hi Lee,

thanks for your report. We'll investigate the crash with the midi synch. However, I would guess it's already obsolete, as much of that code was already rewritten for the next release.

As for HN2, we want to include some of the improvements that are currently developed for the Synfire product, especially regarding sound management. This will still take some time.

We are aware that linking to plug-ins hosted on a DAW via MIDI only is a challenge. This is because there is no way to access the virtual instrument's current state over a midi connection, let alone a list of sounds it can provide (or the ability to load a particular sound on demand via midi messages. Unfortunately DAWs are ignorant wrt this kind of remote control.

The instrument management of HN is designed to automatically request the sounds it currently needs, avoiding the requirement to manually switch them everytime a different accompaniment pattern is selected. This way HN can access hundreds or thousands of sounds without requiring the user for manual interaction at all. For this to work however, the connected devices must support sound selection via midi commands.

If you want a manual setup for each virtual instrument in a pattern, the consequence is that you must switch sounds on the DAW side manually too.

Andre