aum.haa

Greets,

I’ve updated the download links on the right with the b994 release content.  The most significant changes with the new version are Max 6 compatibility, addition of CNTRL:R support for several Codec patches, a new Codec script with additional functionality, and a completely new mod for CNTRL:R (“hex”).  There are many other changes I’ve neglected to note (some of the changes I’ve noted in the readme.txt included with the installer content…honestly, though, I’ve lost track of some of the changes).  Due to multiple computer issues I’ve had over the last month, my working version of these files has been tossed back and forth between machines several times, so please let me know if something has become corrupted or out of date.  I’ve tried to re-test as much of this release as possible, but it’s possible that  some things have gotten by me.

I’ve received reports that the installer is working on all systems, however you may need to select  “Run as administrator” for Live when using the installer on Win7 or Win8 systems, and then browse to the installer patch in Live’s browser in order for it to work.  Also, I’ve heard no reports of succes on Win8 or OSX.8, so I’d appreciate some feedback in this regard.  I’d really like to come up with another installation solution for Windows, but the time commitment is fairly severe for this sort of thing since ultimately it comes down to writing a new external to handle file copying.

I’ve updated some of the documentation on the wiki for the current feature set, including new pages for “hex” and the new Codec controller script.  I’ll attempt to add to these further in the coming week, as well as add some new videos to my YouTube channel for various things (this always takes longer than it should).

First order of business for me is to get all this stuff onto the SVN repo and re-integrate installer support.  I’ve heard that users can’t open the frozen patches on Windows systems, and this at least will allow checkout of all the individual unfrozen files for those that wish to edit some of this stuff.

I have a huge list of new things that will be going into b995, and some additional revisions that you’ll see to individual patches before that.  Some of the additions:

Replacement of Nomeout with a new Python solution.

Monomodular integration of the CNTRL:R surface.

New MonoDeviceComponent for Monomodular.

New Endcoder patch based on the MonoDeviceComponent.

Hex support for Monomodular.

Hex additions for copy/paste of patterns, user customization of mode switching, fixes for FreeWheel mode, and various other improvements based on my experience from continued use of the patch.

As I mentioned before, b995 will probably be the last update for Live 8.  However, I’m hoping that most of the functionality between Live 8 and Live 9 versions of Monomodular will be compatible between both versions;  the jury is still out.

As always, thanks for the support, and let me know if you find anything that’s not working right.  I’ll drop another blog post when I get around to the incremental….if I find any problems, I’ll just update the current package with the updated one and you can re-download and reinstall it.

Happy Blinking!

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Crisis averted:  dev machine is back in action.   Turned out it was bad RAM (even though I tested it and it got no complaints)….after three complete reinstalls and 5 days, I got things working again.

I want to thank a few users out there that donated some cash to me during that episode to get things going.  You can’t imagine how huge that is for me, both in monetary terms as well as spiritual ones!  It almost covered the cost of the fix, and put me in a good mood besides…when I made the comment about donating, I really thought I was going to have to purchase an entire new machine, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have made it.  In any case, it’s nice to know that my work is valuable in a monetary sense 🙂

I’ve been steadily testing out the new release for the last week or more, and making little fixes here and there as I find them.  The most time consuming thing for me has been getting hex debugged, and fixing the new timing engine in the MaxLooper plugin so that it syncs up perfectly.  I think I finally accomplished that last night, so we’re ready to go if things work as well when I get home tonight and test everything again.

I think most of you that were chomping at the bit for b994 already have it in your hands now, but just in case you were left out, you can always drop me some mail and I’ll send you a link to the prerelease.  I’ve heard good reports from most of you.  It seems like the most consistent negative report I’ve gotten is that the installer isn’t finding file locations automatically.  Win7_64 bit seems to be the big culprit here, and unfortunately I don’t have a current installation of this (actually, all my windows installs got scrubbed with the dev machine difficulties I had last week, and I’ve just finally finished getting everything mostly back up and running in that regard).  I did get a copy of Win8, though, so I’m going to see if I can make some time to install that and hopefully come up with a solution for both systems.

I’ve not really heard anything regarding Mountain Lion, but I recently made a VM install of it so I can hopefully do some testing soon.  I probably won’t get to it before the release, though, so if you have any input please let me hear it!

Bottom line:  you’ll see b994 public before the weekend is over, “promise”.  I’ll continue to update b994 as I come up with more bugfixes, an update for the installer to bring back SVN support for those of you that want to edit this stuff and can’t open the frozen files, and possibly some new ports of requested patches if time allows.

—In other news:  big changes/improvements coming with Monomodular and Live9.  If any of you are beta-testing Live9, shoot me some mail.  I’ve gotten things working in a preliminary fashion with a couple of the scripts, so rest assured we won’t get left out in the cold with the new update!  And the good news is that only the backend will need to be changed…the m4l stuff seems to work out of the box.

I probably will make one more revision of Monomodular for Live8, which will be bugfixes and improvements to the existing scripts.  You will see a crossplatform solution for multichannel MIDI in b995 which doesn’t require any externals, as it seems like this situation isn’t going to get addressed with Live9.  This will probably be a replacement for the (clumsy) NomeOut system….I haven’t decided whether to leave lh_midi support in or not, and I’d love to hear some opinions from anyone who is using it.  Personally, I will probably switch over to the new scheme if it works as well as it appears to with initial testing, so unless anyone protests I will most likely remove the old stuff for the sake of simplicity.

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I must have racked up some bad Karma somewhere…..

b994 is pretty much in the bag.  I’m making small adjustments to things here and there, and honestly I would have already made it public by now if it weren’t for the fact that my development laptop took a huge steaming dump all over my life about 4 days ago, just as I was finishing up the last details on the new release.  What first appeared to be simply a broken hard drive is now seeming more like a faulty motherboard.  In any case, it’s making it difficult to get anything done.  I’m on my third reinstallation, and so far everything looks good…..

In any case, you’ll see it any moment now….I just have to get all the stuff in one place so that I can publish it, and some of said stuff is hidden deep in the recesses of a broken operating system at the moment.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, and donations are welcome 😉

Oh, and stay tuned for b995 news….I’ve got some truly fancy hacks that will make life better coming your way!

a

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Ok, all finished.  I have a preview distro out to some testers, and the preliminary feedback looks good.  I’m going to throw everything onto my Live rigs tonight to double-check the individual patches, and should have b994 out to the public tomorrow.  I’m already looking forward to b995, but first you’ll be seeing some new wiki content and some videos!

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If I keep repeating myself (‘almost there, almost there, almost there’), I might start to believe what I’m saying 😉  Unexpected gigs and other commitments kept me from getting as much done as I’d expected this weekend, but I’m still truckin’.

Hex is done for now (at LAST!  It’s been lurking on the borders of my attention for months now).  There is a lot of bug testing that needs to be done with it yet, but as far as I can tell there are only little things that don’t work right.  Polygome style triggering is done, but PressCafe style triggering will have to wait until I can incorporate it into Monomodular proper-like (there’s just no point in doing it with the CNTRL:R’s little 4×4 grid).  You can roughly achieve the same thing as it sits, but it’s not as fun as playing a full PressCafe grid with an 8×8.

I’m really looking forward to getting b995 out (he says;  and he hasn’t even released b994 yet…), as it will reveal a lot of new Monomodular features that I’ve been working on for over six months.  That said, I really want to put the current version behind me, and in everyone elses hands that might be waiting on it, so that I can get on with the real work, the stuff I like:  making new stuff.

What’s left are finishing touches on the new Codec and AumTroll (an alternate CNTRL:R implementation that links to the MonOhm) scripts and then I’ll be able to package everything up.  Mostly busy work remains, and hopefully I can be done with it before the weekend (or next year).

As far as b995 goes, some of the things I imagine I’ll be working on:

Full integration of CNTRL:R with Monodular (I was trying to use the implementation I wrote for Livid up to this point, but I’m finding areas I’d rather just have complete integration instead).

Hidden Monomodular script (so you don’t have to waste a slot on it in your preferences…I’m still not certain this is possible, though.  Some preliminary testing showed that it should be).

Better multichannel support (speculative, I’ve had some new ideas lately).

Direct Hex integration with Monomodular (this is a big deal, as this mod is really becoming the hub of everything I’m working on right now).

Porting some routines over to faster processes (e.g. AumBoids will be moving to Java so I can actually use it in a set without bogging…it’s already half done, actually).  I’ve been experimenting with Gen~ in this regard, and have had good results.  Unfortunately, though, I’ve not had enough time to determine the best approach yet.

Further development of the Looper plugin (which you’ll see some improvements in already, even though I know I’m the only one using it).

Documentation, documentation, documentation.  Ok.  That probably should be my mantra, I guess….

a

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Just a short update:  the new Codec script is largely done at this point, and I’m taking a few days to finish fleshing out the functionality of the new patch I’ve written for CNTRL:R called “Hex”.  It’s turning out quite fantastic 🙂  Imagine the Livid stepprs, TR256, Binary, Polygome, PressCafe, and Endcoders all combined into one (fairly) easy to navigate patch.  Program a rhythm or a step sequence into the patch like you would in the stepprs, then play it in real time like you can with Binary/PressCafe/Polygome.  It will be a while (read:b995) before its ported to Monomodular, but in the meantime I’m having quite a bit of fun with it using the CNTRL:R….the idea is to have compatibility with CNTRL:R/Codec/Monomodular so that you can manipulate different elements of the patch with multiple controllers connected to it simultaneously.  For instance, do all the step programming on the CNTRL:R while triggering sequences you create with a grid controller like the Ohm or a Launchpad.

I’m still looking for a Sunday-ish release of the new b994 installers….be sure and let me know if you’ve been using the alpha_release and found any problems with specific elements in it.  I’ve not had much time to do thorough testing with the older patches, so any help is appreciated.

Cheers,

a

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Hey guys,

Just a short note to let you know where things are at:  Still working on b994, almost finished.  OSX installer is finished, working on Windows.  Currently, the only real work left to do is to finish up the new Codec script, route out some problems in some of the Remote Scripts, and double fix a few problems with settings persistence in some of the patches.  There are quite a few new features I’ve introduced in the CS scripts and the LCD patch, but otherwise things are largely unchanged.  I’m finding that Max6 seems sluggish in comparison to Max5, so I will probably spend a lot of time for b995 trying to speed things up and streamline some of my routines.

I’ve been on vacation for 3 weeks and am just now settling back into my routine, but hopefully I’ll have time to get out a release before the end of the week.

a

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I’ve finished a build of b994 that <appears> to be working well enough.  If you’re interested in testing the alpha build, and have some previous experience using Monomodular, drop me some email and I’ll send you a link to the newest stuff.  I need to be able to keep track of whose using this and what your experience is at this point.

There’s quite a bit of the material I haven’t had time to test, so instead of releasing everything at once, I want to get some feedback from other user’s that know what’s going on so that I can confirm everything is actually working.

I haven’t bundled the material with an installer yet, you’ll have to put the files manually where they go.

If I get some positive reports about this on multiple systems/controllers, I’ll bundle it in the installer and release it shortly.

a

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As always, things are taking longer and longer.   I had to rebuild the connection protocol yet again over the last couple of days, which is ludicrous.  I basically spent 24 hours of coding just to get back to the place I had started.  I tried a bunch of different things to make Live play nice between edit/Live modes, but at this point I’m just over it.  There are flaws with their routines, and it’s not my job to reverse engineer their software in order to fix problems that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

I removed all the ridiculous routines I was using to circumvent m4l’s shortcomings….at least now the codebase is a little more readable, and doesn’t give me a headache every time I need to look for a problem I encounter.

So, yeah, maybe I’m venting a bit.

I’ve got a working version for the upcoming CNTRLR update, which means that Monomodular might get out before the end of the week if I don’t find any further problems.

Cheers,

a

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I’m FINALLY getting a chance to work on b994.  After several months of mixing live sound in the woods at festivals, showering too infrequently, eating the wrong things, not sleeping much, and working every single day, I came up with the time to get everything working in Max6 last night, and besides three hours of wasted time chasing down an esoteric connection bug with Python, everything went pretty smoothly.  I’ve managed to move all of the current Monomodular suite over to Max6 and I’m now testing things to see what else is broken.

I’m afraid that version b994 will not contain any new features to speak of.  There are a lot of ideas that I’m working on currently, and no shortage of new features that I’ve added to some of the scripts since the last release.  Unfortunately, the move over to Max6 has been anything but trivial, and b994 will therefore only contain a straight port of the last version for Max6 compatibility.  The changes that I had to make to get things working right were quite a bit more complex than I’d first hoped they’d be.  Consequently, I want to get this out to everyone as soon as possible, and we can use b994 to iron out all the bugs that will probably pop up from Max6 incompatibilities before I start adding other things that will make everything more complicated.  The other features that I’d mentioned in my earlier posts will have to wait until b995…..but don’t fret, I’m on it!

As soon as I get everything packaged up and make the minor changes  that are left to the rest of the Python scripts, I’ll put a link up for the beta testers and hopefully we can get this cart back on this newly paved road we’ve been given 😉

Cheers,

a

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