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Synfire 2.0.9

Mon, 2022-09-26 - 20:34 Permalink

I'm afraid no. The way the plug-in management deals with VST is per filename (we didn't write the code). There must be a valid reason for this, or others would have changed it long ago.

Mon, 2022-09-26 - 21:30 Permalink

Are you sure? The newly relocated plugin loaded its data in Presonus Studio One ok.
Not a priority for now, but I think it's worth looking into.

EDIT: I see you mentioned Filename above, which is fine. I think Synfire is linking it to the filepath, not just the filename.

Sun, 2022-10-09 - 16:11 Permalink
  • New: Arrangement templates
  • Editing: In hyper-edit mode, other parameters should all be disabled

Great for new users.
I still think "hyper-edit" is an unsuccessful name for that mode, but I admit it's hard to find an alternative ("source-"? "origin-"?). This feature however helps clearing the confusion.

  • Drag/Drop: Improved replacement warning messages
  • Layout: Ability to show/hide Snippets, Structure, both, or neither

Thanks.

Harmony: Tool button for scale selection preferences next to 'Estimate'

Nice; the dialog has no title though, which would be useful, of course.

Catalog: Added more jazz chords for use in palettes (do File/New)

Unless you added like two chords, I'm not seeing a difference in the catalog?
I did File->New palette

 

Factories: IMHO "Runs" should be called "Segments" so one can understand that it refers to segments and that if you put at 0% (like I did multiple times) you will get no output. Users will put at 0% all the things like ornaments and arpeggios and so they will put everything at 0% and then they'll get no output. Is should be somehow emphasized that "Runs" are important.

 

Anyway, Follow Parameter Trace simply stopped working. IIRC it should select the container which is most meaningful at that given point in playback for tracking the currently selected parameter. Which was a feature I requested and I was finally happy to have it. Well, it only works for Figure now, for some reason. 09/10 no idea what happened here, I cannot reproduce again.

Sat, 2022-10-01 - 19:00 Permalink

Still tons of issues not yet fixed from my old bug thread, some quite important, e.g. I'm still getting the audio completely stopping while working with the palette. It happens immediately, and it feels like a conflict between playing the chords when you click them in the palette and/or playing the whole piece and/or clicking/playing the chords in the progression view at the top of the palette. So at some points the system like goes blank due to the conflict.

It's easily solvable in one second by clicking Reset Audio/MIDI System, and it doesn't seem to happen again for the rest of the session or at least for quite a while, but it's unfortunate for new users who will have no idea about what's going on.

I can always reproduce it.

Sat, 2022-10-01 - 22:18 Permalink

After creating a new instrument, it appears that by clicking "Hide" in the export settings, for such instrument, it actually applies the option to ALL instruments, therefore exporting an empty file.

 

Sun, 2022-10-09 - 16:44 Permalink

If Synfire itself estimates that the key of my piece is XYZ, I would expect it to export to XML that particular key in the key armature.

That doesn't happen; examining the resulting .musicxml file the key is a different one.

My bad, confusion with empty containers at the end of the piece.

Mon, 2022-10-03 - 17:10 Permalink

Recording: execution is taking more than X seconds, etc.: "You can open the console from the menu at any time."

No, that's not true, because the software is hanging and so you cannot access the menu with the mouse.

Mon, 2022-10-03 - 17:28 Permalink

In recording, even if you have disabled "Accidentals", you still get them. I'm full of "+" symbols, so I have to manually remove them with the Tranform menu.

 

Mon, 2022-10-03 - 17:37 Permalink

In recording, Shift + click to overdub, doesn't work, it still replaces the original content.

 

Tue, 2022-10-04 - 00:29 Permalink

With 2.0.9, after closing Synfire, an empty dialog centered on the screen appears for two seconds, then Synfire closes, but the audio engine doesn't quit and stays on the traybar.
Context: I was working on a non-embedded library, opened in the panel on the left, in the arrangement window.

Tue, 2022-10-04 - 20:35 Permalink

Even with the grid at 32, it's impossible to place move/resize a container of 5:4 in the middle of 4:4 ones.

(https://users.cognitone.com/files/forum/3689/scheme_alignment.jpg)

Yesterday I was in this same situation and somehow I managed to fix this somehow, but now I can't, despite the grid on the selector being correct.

Update:

ok, it turns out it was about the zoom. I didn't zoom enough to allow the software to have the required precision.

Still, due to the fact that it's been quite an issue for me, and that the required zoom is quite close and nonsensical, I would say that the behavior should be corrected.

Basically, if the pixels allow it, it should snap into place; having to zoom-in is not intuitive.

Tue, 2022-10-04 - 19:08 Permalink

Noticed a few more bugs:

1. The play preview and stop buttons look like they are disabled for MIDI import. When I press the play button, nothing happens.

2. Synfire crashed on me when attempting to make a change with the MIDI Drone. I wanted to change the name of the track in Synfire from the generic name, "Electric Bass", to match the name of the VST loaded in my DAW. To do this, I had to click on the wrench icon and reload the instrument, renaming the track in the process. Synfire didn't like this and would no longer send MIDI data to the VST in my DAW. When I attempted to refresh the plug in menu in Synfire, Synfire crashed. A crash report has been submitted. It would be great if we were able to rename tracks without having to go through the reload procedure. Is this already possible?

3. This is more a minor annoyance than a bug: Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I noticed that in versions of Synfire prior to 2.0.8 any phrases I generated in the Factory tab would automatically show up in the Arrangement window. That is no longer the case. If I want to bring any Factory generated phrases in the Arrangement view, first I have to go the the Arrangment view, then back to the Factory tab and click on a Factory, then back to the Arrangement view. I know this sounds like a small thing, but it's a nusance when working within the flow. Especially considering that in earlier versions of Synfire this kind of workaround wasn't necessary.

Wed, 2022-10-05 - 22:25 Permalink

Container bug:

nested container doesn't pass through the looped phrases of its parent container if positioned past the loop point.

Wed, 2022-10-05 - 22:28 Permalink

Snapshots bug:

snapshot playback not properly playing back all the data within the snapshot. Plays fine when the same data is played back using the transport bar instead. In my case this is when combining phrase data in figure and data in step parameters.

Thu, 2022-10-06 - 14:18 Permalink

nested container doesn't pass through the looped phrases of its parent container if positioned past the loop point.

Can you provide a screenshot of such a container constellation with the loop visible?

Thu, 2022-10-06 - 16:31 Permalink

Is this a display issue, or does it affect music output?

It's the alias not displaying the looped phrases of the parent, correct?

Thu, 2022-10-06 - 16:42 Permalink

Whether it's an alias or not doesn't matter.

if the subcontainer is moved out of the parent container, into the root container and in the same position it work ok

it affects the sound.

Thu, 2022-10-06 - 17:48 Permalink

Unless you added like two chords, I'm not seeing a difference in the catalog?

Layout >> Reset Filter should include them, unless other layout settings exclude them.

"Runs" should be called "Segments"

Terminology is always a challenge. The actual objects that run the system need to be mapped to simplified metaphors. This gets more complicated the more abstract the terms are. Melodic runs consist of segments. Therefore I'd rather rename "Segments" to "Runs" in this case, because it's the melodic runs we are interested in, not what they are made of. Not sure yet 100%, but you definately have a point here.

I'm still getting the audio completely stopping while working with the palette.

Reset is not required. Pressing Stop should also fix it. But yes, this is an issue.

Follow Parameter Trace simply stopped working

Checked with Harmony, Velocity and others. Seems to work as intended.

If Synfire itself estimates that the key of my piece is XYZ, I would expect it to export to XML that particular key

Need to set the "Global Key" option in global export settings. Otherwise it will export they keys as set in each progression.

You can open the console from the menu at any time.

When Synfire takes a long time during import, the console has already opened for you. This hint only mentions the ability to open it at other occasions.

The grid for dropping and moving containers is fixed and scales up with zoom: 1 measure, 1 beat, 1/8, 1/16. Holding Command (Windows: Ctrl) uses a step finer in that order. It doesn't use the toolbar grid, which is for phrases only. 1m is relative to parent container of the dragged container.

I'll double-ckeck if that is actually working as intended.

The play preview and stop buttons look like they are disabled for MIDI import. When I press the play button, nothing happens.

That's when you have lots of pre-roll or empty bars at the beginning. When you preview a single track, this is skipped.

Phrases I generated in the Factory tab would automatically show up in the Arrangement window

Generated phrases go to a pool in the library. They need to be dropped on the arrangement in a second step. AFAIK, it has always been this way. Otherwise you run the risk of unwittingly altering your arrangement while working in the library.

It would be great if we were able to rename tracks without having to go through the reload procedure. Is this already possible?

Yes, just enter a name for the instrument on the parameter inspector tab. 

Thu, 2022-10-06 - 17:58 Permalink

if the subcontainer is moved out of the parent container, into the root container and in the same position it work ok

Difficult to understand from the screenshot alone.

Are you sure the anchors of the segments you expect to see/hear are within the span you expect to be inherited? Loop playback doesn't loop the final MIDI output. It renders new MIDI output from inside the looped span at each turn. Segments with anchors outside that span don't get rendered.

Sun, 2022-10-09 - 16:54 Permalink

Need to set the "Global Key" option in global export settings. Otherwise it will export they keys as set in each progression.

I had to do the exact opposite for my particular case, but yes, correct.

Sat, 2022-10-08 - 11:04 Permalink

@Ruchir

Can you attach a very simple arrangement with only the containers needed to demonstrate the issue? It's hard to assess without seeing all phrases inside.

Sat, 2022-10-08 - 16:25 Permalink

Thanks for the file.

It's because of Step. If you remove Step, things work as expected. I don't yet fully understand this, but obviously a child container (even though empty) interferes with the pre-transformation of the Figure by Step and Skip.

Sat, 2022-10-08 - 21:39 Permalink

I played around with the bug.cognac file. Isn't it also strange, that the parameter trace indicator swaps to the " Strings A" child container, although there is no Figure in that container? And also that the snapshot button is inactive in "Strings A"?

 

Attachments

Sat, 2022-10-08 - 22:13 Permalink

Also Flow does interfere. Only if you remove both, Step and Flow, you are able to do a snapshot of Figure into Container "StringsA".

 

Sun, 2022-10-09 - 14:12 Permalink

Isn't it also strange, that the parameter trace indicator swaps to the " Strings A" child container, although there is no Figure in that container?

Yep. Step Skip and Flow are pre-processing parameters that create a derived Figure (internally) before rendering. It's complex stuff and what we see here are the side effects.

Wed, 2022-10-26 - 13:18 Permalink

>> If I restart Synfire, and then only open this catalog, the major chord there is still called .v1.

> We should probably ditch the write protection.

The Catalog interface meanwhile looks like the name of previously protected chords like the plain major chord can meanwhile be edited. However, if I change the name of the chord, then it is always automatically set back to .v1. Seems like something is fishy here.

Also, some of the chord entries are now coloured red. Is that a new feature, or does it signal something else?

An example catalogue with custom chords showing this issue is attached, together with some screen shots.