Fiwe - wireless audio effects

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Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Hello, thanks for your testing endurance ;)

On the UI ergonomy, the following might help:
- You may double-click on the scene to automatically toggle between fully zoomed in/out mode. This may be quicker than the mousewheel...
- Leaving (hovering) your mouse over an effect will show a tooltip with that effect's name. This may help text readability in fully zoomed-out mode.

I've also been giving the UI a small rework today, with:
- Better aliasing on effects' names - you will want to remove the ".local/share/Fiwe/cache" folder...
- Boxes to enter the value directly with the keyboard when placing the mouse over a knob in the central window
- Plus/Minus buttons in the right panel, to avoid the popup when clicking on a parameter
- Fixed the flipUI mess with presets loaded from disk
- Fixed the effect name overlapping with the knobs

Apart from this, a quick test with the Baxandall effect seems to work. Could you send me an F10 bug report with the exact problematic scene?
Thank you ! :)
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
gimmeapill
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

OK, time again for testing:
- You may double-click on the scene to automatically toggle between fully zoomed in/out mode. This may be quicker than the mousewheel...
That works, but double clicking to zoom out then back in doesn't seem to go back to where it was before. It seems to get offset by a good dozen pixels every time.
- Leaving (hovering) your mouse over an effect will show a tooltip with that effect's name. This may help text readability in fully zoomed-out mode.
Works. Nice.
With a help/about note it is great for those who have the right pane closed.
I've also been giving the UI a small rework today, with:
- Better aliasing on effects' names - you will want to remove the ".local/share/Fiwe/cache" folder...
Most effects look way better. Still a few graphical oddities with effects that have a long name but it looks way more polished now.
- Boxes to enter the value directly with the keyboard when placing the mouse over a knob in the central window
Works. Nice to have.
Feature request: Based on what I've seen on other software with knobs (including Guitarix), I think the expected behavior by most users would be to scroll over a knob to change the value. Could we get that as well?
- Plus/Minus buttons in the right panel, to avoid the popup when clicking on a parameter.
That is very welcome, yet still not fast enough to use as the main interface.
Feature request: what about an horizontal slider that responds to mouse wheel and returns to the default value on double click?
- Fixed the flipUI mess with presets loaded from disk
Much better, but still some weird stuff: if you edit a preset, then flip UI, your preset gets closed - and the modified data lost...
I know it's a corner case and a user should never do that. But we all know how it goes ;-)
Also I'm pretty sure to have a seen a speaker Icon moved next to the guitar in some presets, but I cannot remember which one. will search...
- Fixed the effect name overlapping with the knobs
Seems to be ok now.
Apart from this, a quick test with the Baxandall effect seems to work. Could you send me an F10 bug report with the exact problematic scene?
Just did, but I didn't received anything (spam folder included). In case you didn't get it: no crash, but since I can't get any sound from the latest builds I cannot confirm or infirm.

I'd bet the sound issue comes from the "dac=silence" startup flag (input works, at least according to the tuner).

Code: Select all

20/08/2018 20:58:27   WARNING   :0   <Engine>Engine restarted with adc=0; - dac=silence - soundfont=wildmidi/ - networkSrc= - networkDst=
20/08/2018 20:58:27   WARNING   :0   <Engine>Listening on TCP port 55555
20/08/2018 20:58:27   WARNING   :0   <Engine>::1 connected
20/08/2018 20:58:27   WARNING   :0   <Engine>Jack has sampling rate of 48000 Hz and buffer size of 64 samples
20/08/2018 20:58:27   WARNING   :0   <Engine>Engine restarted with adc=5; - dac=silence - soundfont=wildmidi/ - networkSrc= - networkDst=
and one more: CabinetIII is duplicated.

Cheers, and thanks again for the good work ;-)

Byt the way, any update on the project? Kickstarter, source publication, etc...
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Hello gimmeapill !
It's good to see that the fixes go in the right direction :)

Mousewheel over a knob only changes its value if you have the Shift key pressed. The Shift keypress detection was added so that users don't accidentally change a knob value when zooming in/out with the mousewheel...

For the same reason (the user might want to actually scroll), Mousewheel over the right panel might produce unwanted artifacts. Then how about: Shift+Mousewheel over a parameter of the right panel changes its value ?

The reason why you did not receive the debug request is a misspelled email (final 'l' missing). I have resent the debug email to the (presumed) corrected address :)

I have tested your uploaded scene, which works for me (I have sound with the same jack parameters as you). The only thing I can think of is that Baxandall adds a 15dB attenuation but I doubt it's an explanation. I am perplexed...
P.S. dac=silence and only means that the sound output goes to Jack and not to pulse/alsa. Otherwise one would hear a weird delay or chorus with jack as the input/output :)

On the hardware update, we are actually working on the beacons for now, which are basically wireless guitar knobs on steroid: https://fiwe.studio/hardware-details/#beacon
The PCBs are on the way and I am hoping for an internal prototype by end of September. If promising, we'll start a first kickstarter campaign with only the beacon, that would function as a MIDI bluetooth controller. Hopefully for Xmas if all goes well... :)
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
gimmeapill
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

Hello Fiwe,

OK, the audio mystery is solved: it doesn't like jack1.
Switching to jack2 and all is good, baxandall works (I cannot reproduce the crash) - I guess the case can be closed ;-)
Mousewheel over a knob only changes its value if you have the Shift key pressed. The Shift keypress detection was added so that users don't accidentally change a knob value when zooming in/out with the mousewheel...

For the same reason (the user might want to actually scroll), Mousewheel over the right panel might produce unwanted artifacts. Then how about: Shift+Mousewheel over a parameter of the right panel changes its value ?
The Shift + scroll to change a parameter is a pain because it prevents one handed operation, which is the norm when you're playing guitar and tweaking stuff at the same time (or doing other nasty things, who knows).
This really breaks the workflow for me. In comparison, Guitarix works quite well in that regard, so I'm not a fan.
Also the increment value seems too high (of course, just clicking and dragging the knob gets the job done).

Overall, I'd suggest to follow the UI paradigms found in popular software, so that it doesn't feel like an uncanny valley. There shouldn't be any need to reinvent the (mouse)wheel:
like CTRL + scroll for zoom (example: Firefox)
and double click to reset to default (ex: Renoise)
middle click to set stuff to where the cursor is (Ardour)

Most of those questions have already been answered by smarter folks, including a good bunch on this forum - don't take my word alone ;-)
Before sending you on an errand, what I could do is maybe install the MOD Desktop application, see how they do things - this is probably the closest project with a mature UI. I'll be back to you on this one...
The reason why you did not receive the debug request is a misspelled email (final 'l' missing). I have resent the debug email to the (presumed) corrected address :)
Report received, thanks. I was probably getting tired.
I made another test, just in case.

A few more things I found on the way, in no particular order:
- the flip UI button: it closes the preset, and if that tab is the last one, the sound keeps going on.
- emergency mute: completely disconnects from jack. It should ideally be less definitive and stop only internal audio processing - like in Guitarix.
- the tuner is not really usable (display not precise enough)
- feature request: volume meters at the output, visible at all time (maybe on the gain slider?). Just to make sure the output is not overloaded.
- a bypass button for each effect

That's it for today,
& Good to hear your project is chugging along nicely ;-)

Cheers ;-)
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

Before sending you on an errand, what I could do is maybe install the MOD Desktop application, see how they do things - this is probably the closest project with a mature UI. I'll be back to you on this one...
Actually scrap that: the mod desktop application is still in experimental status and has not been touched for the last two years, so that's probably not a very good example. And the Web front end obviously follows web standards: https://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/MOD_Web_GUI_User_Guide
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Ok I've put up a new version with these changes:

- Ctrl+Wheel on the main view zooms in/out whereas Nothing+Wheel turns the knobs

- Nothing+Wheel in the right panel on the params' values does the same as wheeling on the knobs

- Fixed the last-tab-closed bug with sound remaining

- Fixed emergency mute

- Moved the delete button to the upper right corner of the effects, and added a bypass button on the upper left corner

- Vu-meters added on the guitar and speaker icons, but only in zoomed-in mode (performance reasons). In zoomed-out mode however, the icons will flash red to indicate saturation. And flash black to indicate XRUNS incidentally.

I will work on the tuner. I agree that it's not ideal at all... :)
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Small update: I have actually made it a preference of the "gear icon" menu to use the MouseWheel with a Control/Shift/Alt/None keypress.
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

Fiwe wrote:Small update: I have actually made it a preference of the "gear icon" menu to use the MouseWheel with a Control/Shift/Alt/None keypress.
Good idea.
I tested a bit and am still not sure what would make the more sense (I mean, not only for me but for the average guitar player user).
Ctrl+Wheel for zoom does feel less weird than Shift+Wheel, yet this doesn't solve much for one handed operation of the GUI.
Scrolling on the canvas to zoom in/out felt quite natural, but then users would probably expect to do the same over whatever control is under the cursor.

If I take Guitarix as example, it is not exactly modular, but it gets away quite ok with having no modifier key for the mouse wheel: If you scroll on a blank part of the rack it goes up or down, if you scroll over a control it changes the value. Both precise and fast.

I'll play a bit with the option in a few days when I'm back to my music computer...
- Nothing+Wheel in the right panel on the params' values does the same as wheeling on the knobs
I love this one: very convenient and the value change is also precise enough.
Speaking of which: would it be feasible to get the same increment ratio when scrolling over a knob? Currently there are decimals all over the place and it is really hard to hit an exact value. The double click to reset to the default value would be also very handy.
- Vu-meters added on the guitar and speaker icons, but only in zoomed-in mode (performance reasons). In zoomed-out mode however, the icons will flash red to indicate saturation. And flash black to indicate XRUNS incidentally.
Makes sense. The XRUN warning on the guitar seems to works but it stays for the whole session. Could it have a reset / ack by clicking on it like in qjackctl? I need to test more the rest
- Moved the delete button to the upper right corner of the effects, and added a bypass button on the upper left corner
Very useful ,thanks.
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Hello!
Yeah the guitarix thing is probably the most natural but then one must be careful when zooming to not accidently change knobs. It's testeable right now by setting both modifiers (zoom and knob) to None.

I've just put up a new version online with:
- Fixed the mousewheel increment on the knobs
- Implemented the double-click to reset param to default value

I played a bit on the xruns and they actually reset/ack automatically as soon as the black box gets shown. I.e. the guitar icon should normally flicker on xruns. The issuein your tests might be that the xruns keep appearing, so that the guitar icon is constantly black?
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

Hello Fiwe,
Fiwe wrote:Hello!
Yeah the guitarix thing is probably the most natural but then one must be careful when zooming to not accidently change knobs. It's testeable right now by setting both modifiers (zoom and knob) to None.
Yes, that's it! Very comfortable.
I did a full tweaking session without putting the guitar down - no particular issue with accidental knob turning.
Fiwe wrote: I've just put up a new version online with:
- Fixed the mousewheel increment on the knobs
- Implemented the double-click to reset param to default value
Nice additions, thanks
Fiwe wrote:I played a bit on the xruns and they actually reset/ack automatically as soon as the black box gets shown. I.e. the guitar icon should normally flicker on xruns. The issuein your tests might be that the xruns keep appearing, so that the guitar icon is constantly black?
Now it works. Not sure why it would get stuck before, but it's ok now.

BR,

LX
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by ssj71 »

Hi Fiwe:

Some of us devs were discussing Fiwe on IRC. It looks like a cool project, and we appreciate your acknowledgement of our projects in https://fiwe.studio/effects-providers/ but it seems like you've been going for a while, and distrubuted our GPL projects in your binaries without source. Could you please provide the code someplace? I saw the FAQ. I understand your reluctance if its ugly, but really you aren't going to lose any credibility by posting it, if it has any effect I think its more likely to draw collaborators rather than discourage users or devs. If nothing else, a good public repository provides good faith that you really are interested in open software. It's not that we don't want you to use our stuff, it's just we like to keep it open. :)

Thanks!
_ssj71

music: https://soundcloud.com/ssj71
My plugins are Infamous! http://ssj71.github.io/infamousPlugins
I just want to get back to making music!
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Yeah true enough, it's getting overdue... :)
I'll perform some minimal cleaning (e.g. remove a few F words :-p) and publish the code here: https://gitlab.com/Fiwe/studio

However, you may be overestimating the amount to which the binaries are distributed. We are really in need for more testers, so any suggestions/feedback are welcome ;)
In particular, since you guys are developers: one can write their own effects in C++ in the software. The code from the embedded editor is compiled on the fly using Gcc (and faust if applicable), and dynamically-loaded/ran over the incoming audio. Would a few of you be interested in testing this functionality? I'll be writing a blog post on this next week or so...

@falkTX: yeah, we tried to contact every single open-source contributor by email before releasing the binaries, and got really encouraging positive feedback, thanks for that. We hopefully got all emails right but let me get this opportunity to apologize to anyone who might feel like we "stole" their code. Really not our intention, we are nice guys and want to play along :)
Modduo haven't answered our email though, so we did decide to go ahead nonetheless. I will replace their artwork, which is mostly only the knobs. Thanks for the info!

We made a number of wrappers around ladspa/lv2/dssi/vst/faust/disthro/etc indeed. The cool thing about having all these effects hard-compiled into the binary is that we can make them available much more easily outside the linux world. We have binaries for Windows/Mac/Android/etc and are hoping for a WebAssembly version soon. For example, it's now possible to use Guitarix on Windows. Sort of... the support is not complete yet, as we don't have the convolver part (i.e. cabinets/preamps) ported yet :)
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

It's been a while since the last update, is the project still going?
Fiwe
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by Fiwe »

Hello, yes it is. Progress has been slowing down lately, mainly because we lack resources on the hardware side. Here's the current focus:
- Refactoring the code to properly open-source
- Porting the code to bare-metal raspberry pi, because we lack hardware resources for our stm32-based platform
- Firmware of the bluetooth beacon. We have a working prototype but the hardware needs miniaturized because kickstarting and we lack resources :(

So to summarize, the current status is: it works on linux/windows with cables, and we are currently working on the embedded wireless version...
Wireless audio effects - https://fiwe.studio
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Re: Fiwe - wireless audio effects

Post by gimmeapill »

Cool, thanks for the update!
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