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Thread: Sneak Peek - Introducing Maxwell - A software laser synth (analogish)

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by colouredmirrorball View Post
    Does that mean a laptop is required, or do you guys all have your workstations installed in the loo?
    well, if there is gonna be a typo it may well be a humorous one... and, no my laptop doesn't go with me to the "loo" - but my iPad often does

  2. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by White-Light View Post
    Just one point about ILDA file support - you could reach a much larger user base if planning to sell this.

    Save to wave or live only, and you're limited to LSX / Etherdream users. Save to ILDA, and you can reach everyone as even those programmes that I believe are locked to proprietary file formats for export or to specific DAC's, such as Pangolin, Fiesta etc usually allow ILDA IMPORT.

    I have no axe to grind either way, as graphics aren't really my thing. But the more people who can buy your product, the more money you make! Same with Windows OS support.
    If it can already stream to a DAC, then saving that stream as a wave is trivial.

    Converting a multi-channel wave to ILDA is also trivial and free.

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  3. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by james View Post
    If it can already stream to a DAC, then saving that stream as a wave is trivial.

    Converting a multi-channel wave to ILDA is also trivial and free.

    James.
    I think you may be missing the entire point of this app. It is simply a fun little tool for twiddling knobs and drawing fun mathematical shapes in realtime. It is not meant to be file format interchange / transcoding tool.

    It already supports streaming to ILDA v4 files. From there you can use a plethora of other apps to convert to other formats if desired. I am sure supporting multichannel wave files would be easy, I just don't really see the point.

  4. #44
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    I agree that you should keep it as a real time 'instrument' rather than something that can provide ILDA frames for later use. The MIDI implementation is great, this is going to be a lot of fun!!!
    This really fills a niche and I hope you keep it on track with the way YOU want to do it, amazing job so far!

  5. #45
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    Good news (and not an April fools joke - though diving into the world of Windows DLL development hell almost turned me into a fool)...

    I am looking for a few brave souls to seriously help beta test a Windows version of Maxwell. There is a catch... at the moment, it is only available as a 64bit application - i.e., it will not work on any 32 bit versions of Windows. Will this change in the future? Not quite sure. I currently don'y have an 32 bit versions of Windows, and I would need a 32 bit computer to compile a 32 bit version of Maxwell - because that is how it works with Max.

    I would love feedback on how many of you Windows users out there are still running 32 bit versions of Windows and why have you not upgraded to a 64 bit version yet?

    For the brave few who would like to help beta test this brand new version of Maxwell for Windows, please send me a PM with your email contact info.

    p.s. This version includes native support for the Ether Dream DAC. Support for other DACs is dependent on 64 bit driver support for those DACs.
    Last edited by BlueFang; 04-02-2015 at 20:50.

  6. #46
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    Beta 3 (April version) is here!

    Beta 3 Release Notes / Bug Fixes:

    • Intensity slider now actually controls intensity of both OpenGL output and laser output
    • Mixer cross-fader bug fixed - now accurately crossfades between WaveGen 1 & WaveGen 2
    • OpenGL output has been improved (antialiased and brightened)
    • Sensitivity of knobs has been adjusted
    • Output to ILDA file & Ether Dream has been extended for another month
    • Mac OS version should now default to 64 bit app



    And a special note in case anyone missed it... Windows x64 beta testing has begun. Please PM me for details.

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    I don't know of any 64 bit drivers for any DACs. It would be easy enough to write one for sound card DACs but for everything else you are at the mercy of the manufacturers which have only released 32 bit DAC drivers. As you know, you can't use 32 bit DLLs with 64 bit EXEs. Maybe you could write a 64/32 bit COM wrapper or something like that, though.
    At the moment, access to 32 bit DLLs is not an issue as the only DAC that is currently supported is the Ether Dream DAC and Maxwell comes with its own 64 bit version of the EtherDream library.

    However, as you mentioned if in the future I start supporting other DACs whose manufacturer decides for some reason to only support legacy 32 bit DLLs then it looks like you do have to write/use a surrogate COM wrapper.

    I still believe the benefits of the 64 bit platform far outweigh the inconveniences. I have been on 64 bit Windows for 5 years now.

  8. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    I've been using 64 bit Windows for a long time, too. I don't know if you can even buy a computer with 32 bit Windows on it anymore. It's rare to find a true 64bit Windows application, though. I develop software for a living and I have never actually deployed a 64bit application and the reason for that is always due to 32 bit dependencies. IE There has always been some DLL that we had to use that was 32 bits. Except for one case that has always been just fine. The one exception was when we were hooking up to a DLL with memory leaks and the memory use kept growing and growing. When 32 bit Windows exe use around 1.9GB they crash! Although 4GB of memory is addressable, I think 2Gb is what is actually allowed. We though about figuring a way to convert the main part of our application to 64Bits so that we could exceed that and not crash but we knew it would be a band aid and that the leaking DLL would just keep consuming memory and would eventually use all physical memory and end up being a dog.

    I am curious as to why you can't compile a 32 bit exe on 64bit Windows. What language/compiler are you using?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Hey, just noticed you are in NC, too. Where are you?
    As far as I understand, when running native 32bit apps, they run in an emulation/compatibility mode - so I guess technically, even 32 bit native apps aren't really running "natively" on a 64 bit OS. Also, as I understand, only 2GB is addressable to user processes.

    One thing I have noticed, is that music production apps - things like DAWs (Logic Pro, Ableton Live) and audio plugins are really making the push to native 64 bit apps.

    I am using Max/MSP as my development platform - which sorta falls into the category of music production apps, and likewise has made a large push to get people to move to native 64 bit. The way it works when creating a Max/MSP app is that you have to use the version of Max which you have installed to export an App. You can't cross compile or cross export to other systems. So when I export for Mac OS, I have to do that on Mac OS. When I export for Windows x64, I have to do that on Win x64. I could conceivably export to Win 32, I would just have to also install the 32 bit version of Max, and at the moment I am not sure if having both 32 bit and 64 bit installed simultaneously is possible. So, in short, I can technically create a 32 bit version, it is just too much of a hassle at the moment, as the only dependency I have not controlled by Max is the EtherDream library, and I am compiling that myself.

    With Max, I am using the Max environment to basically create all of the UI, MIDI management, OpenGL vertex rendering, as well as the waveform generators. All of the vertex array stuff is done using Max's own Graphics/Video processing part which they call "Jitter". It is basically just a really powerful set of matrix processing modules. Some of the vertex processing stuff is done in Max's own matrix processing language called "Gen" - which is a C like language.

    For output to Ether Dream and ILDA files, I have created a native plugin for Max - they call these "externals". This part is written in C and relies on a really nice cross-platform API/Library written specifically for Max - for handling things like threads, files, and date/time using a cross-platform API. I am also compiling my own versions of the Ether Dream library for both Mac OS and Windows - and the EtherDream library is also written in C.

    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    Hey, just noticed you are in NC, too. Where are you?
    I live in Raleigh as well - north Raleigh - out near the falls dam.
    Last edited by BlueFang; 04-05-2015 at 16:50.

  9. #49
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    Oh yea! Sorry, I didn't put two and two together. We spoke in PMs awhile back about RC copters but I had forgotten your username.

    The Max/MSP stuff sounds foreign to me but really interesting. If you have the time I wouldn't mind seeing how this stuff works. I'd also be interested in talking to you about the Etherdream. I work only a few miles from the Falls Dam so it shouldn't be too hard to get together if you are up for it.

  10. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    Oh yea! Sorry, I didn't put two and two together. We spoke in PMs awhile back about RC copters but I had forgotten your username.

    The Max/MSP stuff sounds foreign to me but really interesting.
    Oh yeah... the rc heli stuff.. I forgot about that... speaking of which, I need to start getting some simulator time in as the warm weather approaches - the cob-webs are thick - I haven't flown in a long time and without regular practice, you lose your hand-eye coordination pretty quick. I didn't get out flying much last year, but I hope to change that this year.

    I didn't have much Max/MSP experience before starting this little project - but it seemed like a perfect development environment for what I was trying to accomplish. It certainly would not be the ideal environment for a full-fledged desktop app - but I am not trying to make that - I am simply trying to make something equivalent to software synth / abstract generator.

    Coming from a traditional programming background as well, it is kinda hard to get use to "thinking" in modular nodes and matrix processing, but it can greatly speed up certain aspects of development - lets say you have an array (matrix) of rgba values - and you want to adjust the "intensity" of the colors - you simply take the output of the rgba matrix object, connect it to the input of an rgb2hsl object - then multiply the L part of the vector with the output of a UI slider object, and then run that output back into an hsl2rgb object. Boom, adjustable intensity with a slider - and absolutely no code written and no having to try and remember or lookup the constants for the relationship between rgb values and intensity. Pretty cool and powerful.

    Quote Originally Posted by JohnYayas View Post
    If you have the time I wouldn't mind seeing how this stuff works. I'd also be interested in talking to you about the Etherdream. I work only a few miles from the Falls Dam so it shouldn't be too hard to get together if you are up for it.
    Yeah, we should - I am heading out of town for work this week, but should have a fairly open schedule when I get back next week.

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