Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

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asbak
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by asbak »

Thanks again for the synth dev effort and those FX are also looking real nice.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by stanlea »

I tried it today :
- no gui in Carla
- Couldn't load any bank of presets

Apart from that, I still love this old good Xhip :)
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Update:

Image

I've finally implemented a basic filebrowser dialog in Xhip for Linux. This can be improved (a LOT!) but for now this is purely prototype and the essential "works / does not work" is all I'm really interested in.

The GUI has seen some significant improvements in various areas and now matches the effects more closely.

The crashes when resizing appear to be related to mishandling (or lack of detection of) errors related to the SHM buffer associated with queued xwindows messages. For example if the SHM buffer is released and then freed before it is finished being drawn by the server this generates an xlib exception "MIT-SHM BadValue" which then because of the default handler triggers the abort. I'm honestly not sure how to solve this issue and still not 100% clear on its cause. I'm unable to reliably reproduce this as during the testing I just attempted I resized the GUI about 15 times and it worked fine. (Is it fixed? No idea.)

This new version (r1080 "Begin revolution four") is available from the xhip.net/synth/ page.

Since saving is a more dangerous operation where files could be over-written and I haven't yet implemented confirmation to handle "this file already exists, are you sure you want to over-write it?" the dialog is unused for the "save" elements on the menu. Once everything is working and confirmed for loading and fail-safes are implemented for saving I will test the dialog applied there and release another alpha version including that full functionality.

At the moment my only comment would be: "this dialog is awful!", that said I'd be interested to hear any thoughts and confirmation that it does work as intended!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx6fwfBKCIQ

edit: updated screenshot
Last edited by aciddose on Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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skei
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by skei »

first, thanks (again) for making linux versions of your plugins!
i gave the new xhip a quick test in bitwig (2.3)..
file browser worked, so i could load the preset bank from your site..
nice! ..
then i tried to resize the editor (x2), which seemed to work, but took a second or so..
then i tried to resize again (1.5x?), and it crashed..

btw: are you planning to add mpe functionality to xhip? i seem to vaguely remember that you talked about it in a kvr-thread? or maybe i remember wrong?

- tor-helge

my system: mint 18.3, 64bit, lowlatency kernel, really old & crappy gfx card (system info says: radeon r7 240/340)
aciddose
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Technically speaking Xhip already supports "MPE"-like functionality because it's a fully multi-timbral instrument.

That said, without having the specification for MPE fully available: nobody could implement it.

As well as that I don't see much use to making those sorts of modifications until such time as they become common-place in hosts. So you're aiming at the next several years I'd say before this sort of feature is widely supported.

Xhip will not include MIDI-MPE until the majority of your commercial plug-ins and hosts already do so, and even then it will require justification. At the moment I have no such plans.

re: GUI crashing

Yes it seems to occur only when sizing down the window and only to the smallest size for me in Reaper, but then in Audacity it happens far more frequently: again only when reducing the size but not increasing the size.

I'll have to fix that at some point of course, hopefully it turns out to be something simple I've missed somewhere... The next step I was going to take was to ensure all possible errors are handled, and to test the code without SHM to see if the problem still occurs. At the moment it's a pain because the GUI locks the mouse during the event that triggers the error, so I'll need to redesign the code to avoid that situation because of the way xlib works (the debugger doesn't/can't unlock the cursor.)
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

r1084 available on the site has SHM disabled and the re-sizing crash no longer seems to occur.

I'll have to work to solve the SHM issue as dragging the window is very slow with SHM disabled.

Until then though this is a much more minor issue than crashing, so I've decided to update the release with this much more stable version.

I've discovered a buffer overrun that somehow escapes my bounds checking in debug testing and I suspect this overrun leads to the crashes associated with the 1/2 size ratio.

That said, I doubt it is the only issue because the crashes also occurred when switching between other sizes and never using 1/2 in a few other hosts, even though Reaper only crashed with 1/2 used. Very puzzling issue whatever it is; I hope I can work it out and get everything running smoothly.

For now though more important features: a fully functional file browser dialog followed by embedded preset banks and improvements to the GUI and its configuration (as in the effects.) After those new features are implemented and testing I'll be able to update the release to a non-alpha version 8.1 along with the Windows and MacOS versions.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by stanlea »

Thanks a lot
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by rghvdberg »

Oh sweet. Gonna give it a go soon.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by sysrqer »

Thanks for this. I am not able to resize the GUI at all, unless I'm missing the way to do it, and the browser lists directories in a seemingly random order (including hidden directories) so it gets pretty hard to find anything if you're looking in ~/
Aside from that seems stable and sounds good.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Recommended reading:
http://xhip.net/synth/
http://xhip.net/synth/releases/xhip_8_user_manual.pdf
http://xhip.net/alpha/ ("what is alpha?", to do list, known issues)
"Factory" banks: http://xhip.net/synth/releases/xhip_fac ... k.xhipbank http://xhip.net/synth/releases/synth_drums_1e.xhipbank

Short version:
Right click on the logo for a sizing menu.

Yes the file browser is prototype. It may eventually improve a lot.

The entries are added to the list exactly as <dirent.h> opendir/readdir functions spit them out.
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by asbak »

Fantastic and thanks again for the ongoing support and improvements
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
aciddose
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Re: Xhip (subtractive/hybrid synthesizer)

Post by aciddose »

Updated to r1095 with full load/save functionality.

Work still remains to be completed associated with the file dialog (see the http://xhip.net/synth/ page for details) but it is capable of working fully and correctly already. The further work is simply to cure some remaining minor imperfections.

This version now sorts filenames and hides hidden files by default. Obviously a "show hidden files" option is one of those minor imperfections but it is still possible to navigate to a hidden folder by typing "/home/username/.folder/" in the path edit box. Further improvements like passing the path via the shell (to allow ~/path/) might be implemented in the future, I don't expect it should be wise to handle hard/soft links or similar and such functionality may remain to be handled via a system dialog (in a separately launched process or similar.)

So the Linux version is now capable of doing 100% of the stuff the Windows version can do and all known crashes/flaws have been solved.
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