I've been demoing 2.0 on my new macbook and for the most part, it works beautifully.
Here are my comments on bugs/issues/suggestions so far:
-Not exactly a bug, but it seems like unlike the patcher and properties window, the automation window and bassline/drum sequencers don't seem to support those useful multitouch touchpad controls. Namely, two finger panning and pinch zooming. These controls would be ideal for editing sequences and automation, so it would be nice if they were supported.
-One other minor usability improvement would be the ability to turn all snapping on and off somehow. Not sure how this would fit into the current paradigm, but I find myself repeatedly turning on snap for each automation lane, which gets kind of cumbersome.
- I've noticed there's a bit more of a pause when instantiating new devices compared to 1.0, but maybe this is unavoidable due to the graphics enhancements in 2.0.
- I've noticed that parameter changes in the text properties window for a VST don't get reflected in the VST GUI unless I close and reopen the GUI.
- On the issue of VST GUI's - maybe I'll get used to this, but I kind of miss the option of having the VST GUI sitting in the properties window. For some of the more well designed VSTs, the interface is part of the instrument, and I like thinking of the properties window as one big instrument control surface. That said, in some cases (where VST GUIs are overly large), I like the text representation.
All in all, it's mulch has really evolved wonderfully, and I'm strongly leaning towards purchasing an upgrade from my 1.0 license. I love the ability to automate various button presses. That combined with the cannonlooper and livelooper really opens up a lot of interesting new options.
One more thing that actually might be a bug - when I automate preset changes in a VST (specifically, I'm using absynth), there's a pause in the audio output. Some audio dropout is unsurprising since resetting the state of a vst like absynth is no trivial task, but the way it does it seems to pause playback (instead of the song continuing while audio from absynth temporarily drops out), which messes up the timing if I'm playing live / with other players.
The main automation window works with panning if you go up to the top time section. I agree though track pad actions are so nice and it would make sense for them to work in the automation section. With the drums and bass where you generally have less tracks instead of panning it might be nice if instead of panning it selected items!
Related to your snap issue, unless I'm missing something you have to turn on automation for every parameter one by one. I really wish it worked more like a classic OS folder system where you could pick and choose multiple parameters in one go or all at once even. Because the automate toggle is in the same place I usually just zone out hit the down arrow and tap to turn a bunch on at once before I start working , but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that with snap.
Thanks for the feedback revo11
Some comments:
> two finger panning and pinch zooming.
panning should work. you're right about pinch zooming though, good idea.
> I've noticed there's a bit more of a pause when instantiating new devices compared to 1.0, but maybe this is unavoidable due to the graphics enhancements in 2.0.
Instantiating contraptions shouldn't be affected by gui delay. Displaying contraption editors might, and i'm working on improving that. Of course, if you're on OSX it might just be the slow clunky OSX gui performance compared to Windows (I notice OSX feels much slower here than Windows XP on the same MacBook).
> I've noticed that parameter changes in the text properties window for a VST don't get reflected in the VST GUI unless I close and reopen the GUI.
This sounds like a problem with specific plugins (and a bug in those plugins) you might want to check if it happens with all plugins or only some.
> On the issue of VST GUI's - maybe I'll get used to this, but I kind of miss the option of having the VST GUI sitting in the properties window.
Yes it's a mess, I agree. The problem is that on OSX VST GUIs can't really be embedded inside other windows like they can on Windows. I hope to make this easier to use in the future.
> One more thing that actually might be a bug - when I automate preset changes in a VST (specifically, I'm using absynth), there's a pause in the audio output.
If the whole audio output pauses then that means Absynth is stalling the audio thread reloading the preset. To me that is an absynth bug (or, put another way: don't switch AM presets in absynth). I have been asked to work on providing a way to automate switching VST program changes, which will probably work around this issue for you.
Ross.
Re plugin GUIs - what about AU plugins? I think in reaper those get embedded in a dialog box, and most mac plugins seem to come in both AU/VST flavors.
Re the absynth thing, I've been playing with other workarounds. One really cool trick is to have the "note always playing" option turned on and automate the tuning/volume parameters to have something an oscillator like testgen/harmonics with the absynth engine behind it. I wish more synths had an option to hold a note automatically - it's incredibly useful for a trivial feature..
Some other suggestions/questions -
1. I've always thought that the keyboard was an underutilized piece of control surface in audiomulch. It would be amazing to have a flexible mapping between the keyboard and AM parameters - with some keys mapping to pitches, other's mapping to mutes/parameter values. Back in the old days, I played around with doing these things in midi-ox and keykit, but having it integrated would be better of course.
2. Do envelopes have some internal smoothing going on with the automation curves? Some fast automation transients for kick/click-type effects always seem to be smoothed out a bit. Sometimes smoothing probably is preferable, so I don't know if there's a perfect solution here.
3. One thing that would be really handy is to extend the drawing tools for automation curves. For example, drawing step-type events is pretty tedious at the moment. More options for curve shapes could be really helpful. Higher-order events like LFOs would be even cooler, but that probably would take a lot more thought/work to get the interface right.
BTW, I highly recommend the pairing of mulch + Geist VST to everyone. It's an extremely powerful combo. Geist nicely fills-in a lot of complex sequencing/sampling functionality, and the ability to route things to Geist's input quickly and efficiently in AM is great. I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of this pairing...
-R
> Re plugin GUIs - what about AU plugins?
Similar issues to VST there. Some AU plugins behave well, others don't. My current approach is kind of "crappy but compatible" an alternative would be to have a blacklist that makes misbehaving ones fall back to the current method and do others properly. I will visit this issue at some stage in the future (after I switch AM to using Cocoa instead of Carbon. not sure when that is yet).
> It would be amazing to have a flexible mapping between the keyboard and AM parameters
This has been requested a lot. One day I hope to get to it. At the moment there are a few keyboard-midi mapping plugins and solutions that can be used to compensate. I'm pretty sure this has been discussed elsewhere on the forums, you may want to do a search.
> 2. Do envelopes have some internal smoothing going on
At the moment they have a timing resolution of approx. 256 samples and some individual parameters have smoothing on top of that. I agree there could be more control/tweak-ability options here.
> extend the drawing tools for automation curves.
Like many things this might happen... but there are no current plans.
Many thanks for your feedback. -- Ross.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, this all makes sense in terms of the general direction.
I used to use midi-ox / rolled some of my own pretty complex computer-keyboard mapping-tools in keykit (complete with live automation loopers, step sequencing, and other stuff ), but a lot of that died with my old laptop. I probably don't have the free time these days to rewrite my entire set of keykit tools if I'm going to get any music done, unfortunately.
I've switched a lot of my work now to mac, do you (or anyone else here) have any suggestions for good mac tools to pull off these computer keyboard-> midi signal mapping tasks? I'm amazed that at this day in age the virtual keyboards are still ridiculously primitive. I poked around on the forums/net but didn't see much other than some fairly crude virtual keyboards.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, this all makes sense in terms of the general direction.
I used to use midi-ox / rolled some of my own pretty complex computer-keyboard mapping-tools in keykit (complete with live automation loopers, step sequencing, and other stuff ), but a lot of that died with my old laptop. I probably don't have the free time these days to rewrite my entire set of keykit tools if I'm going to get any music done, unfortunately.
I've switched a lot of my work now to mac, do you (or anyone else here) have any suggestions for good mac tools to pull off these computer keyboard-> midi signal mapping tasks? I'm amazed that at this day in age the virtual keyboards are still ridiculously primitive. I poked around on the forums/net but didn't see much other than some fairly crude virtual keyboards.
For free maybe Quartz Composer or PD? Without knowing specifics I think with the IAC bus you might be able to accomplish what you want in Five12 Numerology, Logic's environment or even Live via clips and follow actions and route the MIDI to where you want it?