BTDSys SampleGrid 2.0 beta

[btd]

Edit: latest beta is here. Please read the thread (yeah, all of it) for full details of what's new.

Time for a new beta of SampleGrid. Grab here. I've been working on this for longer than I care to remember, so I desperately need a kick of encouragement from alla y'all to get it finished (and some reminders of what still needs doing in the form of requests and bug reports, since I'm far too disorganised to keep my todo lists up to date).


So what's in, what's out?

• Architecture change: the main code resides in a "core.dat" file, the generator dlls are just stubs. Which means it's far easier for the curious or obsessive user to make his own variants (currently requires hexediting a couple of bytes in the dll, later I might code a little patcher util if ppl want one).
  
• Multi-out still works, using the old output machine. Auxbus support is finally removed.
  
• Peer assignments.
  
• Much improved resampling quality (I did aliasing tests but lost the results, it's far from perfect but much better than sg1 and good enough for my ears).
  
• Virtual channels.
  
• Partial support for overloader wave formats (all stereo formats should be there, if anyone really needs support for 24/32 bit mono waves let me know).
  
• PSI drumkit support (yay, no more PSI drum 2!)
  
• Support for NI Battery's .kit files, in all their velocity layered stereo goodness. Using the lovely ns_kit through this is currently my favourite method of doing drums.
  
• I suppose the framework is there for supporting other drumkit formats... I chose Battery format because it's very simple (bunch of wavs with an xml file tying them together). Larger kits are loaded incrementally from disk as needed (can lead to slight pauses in playback, not much I can do about that really).
  
• Rudimentary, but surprisingly effective, humanisation (i.e. randomisation) features.
  
• New tracker commands (intended to be sg1 and matilde friendly):
  

  Code:

  01 or ED - Note delay   02       - Retrigger (SG1 style, ie argument xy, x=interval, y=no of ticks)   03 or 09 - Offset   04 or E8 - Reverse and offset (equiv to 09 xx E8 01 in MTrk)   05 or 10 - Probability   06 or EC - Note cutoff   07       - Combined delay/cut (not as necessary now that each track has 2 columns of commands)   12       - As 02, but without using virtual channels (consecutive retrigs cut each other off)         E9 - Retrigger (Matilde style, ie only lasts for one tick)         F9 - As E9, but without using virtual channels

  
  
• Almost certainly, more things I've forgotten.
  

... phew! So all that's left is for you to clicky thisy linky and downloady. Please report all bugs that you discover, even if they seem really trivial and obvious to you.

[thOke]

*downloading* ....

EDIT: this is GREAT ... the humanization features are top. A small suggestion after 5 minutes of testing: is it possible to make a finer resolution for the 'human tune' parameter (because even a quarter semitone can be quite huge sometimes) ?

[magmavander]

Is it Christmas today ?

BTD, thanks for improving this GREAT one...

bye

EDIT : PSI drumkit support (yay, no more PSI drum 2!)

Support for NI Battery's .kit files, in all their velocity layered stereo goodness. Using the lovely ns_kit through this is currently my favourite method of doing drums.

I suppose the framework is there for supporting other drumkit formats... I chose Battery format because it's very simple (bunch of wavs with an xml file tying them together). Larger kits are loaded incrementally from disk as needed (can lead to slight pauses in playback, not much I can do about that really).

Rudimentary, but surprisingly effective, humanisation (i.e. randomisation) features.

New tracker commands (intended to be sg1 and matilde friendly):

I didnt really read that before (was so happy) but, woaw, this is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!
_________________
frenchy but chic

[rohka]

Thank you!

Support for Battery kits rocks. The latest Nskit is so big that it was impossible to use the sf2 version with xs-1 or sfz. Now I can use SampleGrid with the greatest drumkit. Yay!

[btd]

[thOke]

that should be perfect ... thanks !
*downloading*

[magmavander]

Woaw! You're so fast...
Amazing

bye
_________________
frenchy but chic

[btd]

Another update: fixed a bug affecting PSI drum kits having more than 33 samples of a particular group (eg Alesis DM5 Bassdrums.drumkit, thanks magmavander).

The way sgrid assigns numbers to samples in a PSI kit is a bit strange atm (waves 1, 7, 13, ... are kicks, waves 2, 8, 14, ... are snares, and so on). So more than 33 kicks was pushing past the maximum sample number of 200. I'll make the numbering a bit more sensible I think, and maybe increase the max a little, but for now a temporary fix is in place.

Edit: Fixed loading/saving of drumkits and other data so that it actually works... d'oh! Thanks again magmavander.

[magmavander]

_________________
frenchy but chic

[mute]

HELL YES I SAID.



_________________
http://www.lazytrap.com/

[mute]

It should also be mentioned, that today.. after a week+1 day of having my ear completely plugged up and being unable to enjoy music or buzz or anything of that kind .. today im goin to the doctor to have a needle popped through my eardrum and my inner ear canal drained.

new beta just in time!

i cant wait


(evil grin)
_________________
http://www.lazytrap.com/

[z_tetha]

Groupie looks very interesting .. and sg2.0 virtual channels have been long awaited ..

does groupie have it's own internal sequencing.. and pattern editor?

[btd]

Ouch mute, that sounds nasty... hope your ear's better soon (though if that pic is a recent self-portrait I'd suggest that's the least of your worries)

[mute]

Groupie is the cows tits yay containers are comming

Most importantly..the ear is ok!
_________________
http://www.lazytrap.com/

[tinga]

The peer assignement make sample grid an other machine!
of course the first assignement i try was for notes and combinations are very exiting!
human params give a second life to the old drumkits!

ps
a snapshot of the famous PAL
(the modular synth i'd posted for a review)



btdsys is eating buzz!

[btd]

[80#080]

Made a pattern for Sgrid beta B8 (via Sgrid outs) which triggers a loop longer than the pattern duration. Each time pattern is called and the loop is triggered again the previous trigger is NOT muted, they keep stacking up to loud mess. Am i missing smth?
_________________
+---repent---+
AMD Phenom 2 X3 + ECHO Mia

[btd]

[btd]

Clickity click for new newness. Added a few things, fixed a few things, broke a few things (like peer assignments --- will be back and better soon, there will be separate assignments for trigger, velocity, tune etc so it will be much nicer).

I've added loop-fit, offset and cut parameters, which make it quite nice for loop slicing. Have a crappy demo. Comments anyone?

[thOke]

[80#080]

When is the final version? I'm kinda using it extensively. Thanks again.
_________________
+---repent---+
AMD Phenom 2 X3 + ECHO Mia

[btd]

[k-bird]

[magmavander]

Hi Ed,

I really like this new version. Bugs are fixed (well it seems) and everything works fine

But I wanted to know one thing : when using a drumkit (I mean a NI drumkit from Battery), in SampleGrid the wavs appears like in the kit, meaning I have first the ten different kick, then all the different snares and so on.

So in SampleGrid it's difficult to write rythms (you use a kick then you have to go ten rows after to find a snare). Is there a way to avoid this and choose the order of the samples ? I know that I can load instead all the wav included in the kit and choose the right samples but if I have no tools to extract the wav...

Anyway, it's a f**king fantastic machine. This humanisation stuff is a miracle

I have done a little "test-song" done saturday afternoon. I created a drum rythm used through all the song. What I like a lot is that, even if it's repetitive, it's never mechanical and still gives the impression that there is variations

Check it here :
http://buzzmusic.wipe-records.org/index.php?id=5&action=download&songid=3594

bye and THANKS !!
_________________
frenchy but chic

[btd]

[k-bird]

One or two things..

When muting and then unmuting the SGrid while it's playing something, it sort of sneezes a bunch of notes at once, presumably notes that were playing while it was muted, making for a large burst of noise. This can be somewhat unkind on the old ears when you're soloing an instrument to work on it then coming back to the main mix.

Also sometimes a triggered sample will keep playing. I don't know what causes this but it does happen sometimes.

Also you've turned off MIDI input triggering for this beta too. I know you've probably got your reasons but i miss it.

Despite this, i do hereby proclaim SGrid2 the sexiest rhythm programming solution ever. Even better than Recycle and Phatmatik Pro as long as you have a neatly maintained library of breakbeats like me.
_________________
is ravenspiral.com, is good

[btd]

[megatron]

I hate to sound like a whining newbie, but it would be nice with a simple regular GUI. Nothing fancy. Just rows with squares or something which you can turn on and off.

The genius part of this would be to connect each row to a row (or two) on the keyboard, so you would turn on and off a square with a key. Just like a regular drum machine.

Of course all the hardcore Buzz-hackers will answer this with a loud sigh, but I think it would be nice.

Cheers!

[k-bird]

[mute]

I dont understand... doesnt it already have a simple gui that you basically just described?
_________________
http://www.lazytrap.com/

[btd]

So megatron, basically what you want is something like the native pattern editor, but with a nicer way of inputting the triggers? Doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Not sure what you mean by "connect[ing] each row to a row (or two) on the keyboard". My keyboard only has four usable rows (not counting the space bar or the Fn keys as usable), and a maximum of 12 or so keys on each row, so that sounds like it would be very cramped.

Maybe you could clarify what you're after a bit? You'll have to bear with me, I'm sometimes pretty slow at figuring out what exactly people are asking for.

---------

Hey k-bird, what did you mean by this:

[majkol]

Hey btd! First of all thx for a great machine - the peer support is a superb feature.

A feature i would find usable is a pseudo-mono mode, where only one stereo sample is allowed to play at a given time (i.e. the opposite of virtual channels - all tracks sharing one channel).

[k-bird]

[btd]

[z_tetha]

Perhaps what megatron was suggesting is something that most drumcomputers have.

Say you programmed a pattern for hihats, then assign this to a midi key. holding down this key will, depending on the machine mode, trigger or mute/unmute this part of the pattern ensemble.

This way within the one pattern, for live usage, several keys could mute/unmute parts of pattern.

i think [ but, uhmm.. i guess setting up cheapo.amp and sgrid outs is a way to do this, quite frankly a centralized place inside the source generator would be far more user friendly ]

[k-bird]

[z_tetha]

group channels or singular channels, that makes sense.

[megatron]

[megatron]

[z_tetha]

makes me think of the life of brian