Ping-Pong: p droid vs. b rock (new challengers welcome!)

A cheap shot, for sure

No doubt. Consider the time zone difference; you're already a day ahead of me, Dale. Got my day job to contend with now.

First the "****" (what do you think the "B" stands for <g>); now this. A little preliminary delay_ ; then you're on.

Remember, ping-pong is a fast game so no time for a three-part-mini series here…

Hehe. You know, you almost had me there, Dale. Caught me before coffee. I'll concede. Match set; you win. Best of luck with this, though.

You know how easily I get sidetracked. It's off to finish the algorithmic patch generator for Dimension.

First the "****" (what do you think the "B" stands for <g>); now this.

Ahh, **** it. I'm not so proud that I won't play with myself if that's all I'm gonna get… esp. if b ain't gonna scratch the itch…


By now, all the Dimension geeks know that René took MIDI CCs through the roof with the original sfz player, adding CCs numbers above the standard 127 to accommodate in house tricks such as randomisation, keyboard tracking, etc.

You also know that Dimension upped the CC count by including internal CC assigments for the Dimension GUI controls, yeah? Damn nice move, since it allows tweaking of CC assigments without having to delve into automation maps or reach for a hardware controller (especially if you don't own one… not mentioning names!)

Problem is, it's hard to remember what special CC numbers René gave to all those dials on the Dimension front panel. Wouldn't it be nice if you could re-label each of them so that you don't have to remember whether Bit Red is linked to the cc140 or cc141?

Well, have a look in the folder named ‘Resources’ in you Dimension Pro installation directory. Now, locate a file called ‘TextResources.cwres’ and open it up in Notepad (or something more exotic if you're that way inclined.)

You should see 185 lines of definitions for all Dimension's text resources! The syntax is pretty easy to work out if you look close… but as a starter, find this one (on line 72):

IDS_TIP_BITRED, - Bitred:

Now, change that to:

IDS_TIP_BITRED, - Bitred (CC140) :

…(make sure to include a space after the colon) and save!

Now, next time you load up Dim Pro and mouse over Bit Red you'll get a nice reminder that particular GUI control is linked to cc140.

Of course, you could go on and on, re-labelling all the controls to include tips for the CC assignments… or maybe just change the error messages to something a bit less diplomatic e.g. IDS_MULTISAMPLE_NOT_FOUND,Multisample Not Found becomes IDS_MULTISAMPLE_NOT_FOUND,Where's the sample big guy?. You get the picture…

P.S. — Did I tell you to backup TextResources.cwres before you go futzing with it? Well, I shouldn't have to… do it!

Just a simple sfz comments managment tip: it's common practise to use // to insert a comment into an sfz file. This is useful for two major reasons: you can document and annotate your work (I include details about the sources for samples used) and you can temporarily disable an opcode or group of opcodes for testing purposes without having to delete any of your work. Simply slip in // at the start of the line and then pull it back out once you're done isolating the changes.

But wait, seems like sfz comments are always preceded with // but then René goes and comments ‘DefaultRegion.sfz’ using only a single / ! Scandalous!

So…

// delay_hyperbolization=high
/ delay_hyperbolization=high

…are treated as comments while…

delay_hyperbolization=high

…will earn you an error message!

Be sure to be liberal with your sfz comments. Could save you time in tracking down a sample source later on and will sure help the rest of us understand what you trying to do when you share your patches with us!

Update: It's official — a single forward slash ending with a line return delimits a comment. // is just a habit of programming nerds like René.

The 'official' sfz line comment delimiter is a single '/', and it can be used in the middle of a line:

lokey=c3 /this is a comment

I use two in most examples as in C++ just cuz I'm used to.



-René

Maybe this will cheer you up: 'Droids SFZ Tips - Wiki Edition

Okay, everyone's heard the buzz (either the talk surrounding it or the actual resultant sound…) about Dimension being able perform wavetable synthesis using custom samples.

Now, to get Dim in a wavetable kind of mood, simply load up a sound with less than 3000 samples to its name. Dimension will automatically kick into wavetable mode. What about files with more than 3000 samples? No problems, just create an sfz file that looks something like this:

<region>
sample=(name of wavetable bigger than 3000 samples).wav
oscillator=on


That'll force wavetable mode whether your sound is an appropriate single-cycle waveform or not.

Hopefully that's all pretty straight forward…

Now, what if you want to playback a sound smaller than 3000 without it oscillating? Well, my brain thinks that oscillator=off would seem like an intuitive solution. However, I've just discovered that oscillator=off won't turn off wavetable synthesis at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

As it stands both oscillator=on and oscillator=off will put Dim into wavetable mode! Again, my brain is forming the word ‘bug’ here but let's wait and see what René's got to say…

In the meantime, use / to comment out oscillator=on in patches that involve files above 3000 samples if you want to bypass the effect. For files smaller than 3000 samples, make sure you map them in an sfz file instead of loading straight into the Dimension GUI. This ensures that Dim treats them as a regular sample instead of assuming you're intending your tiny files to be wavetable fodder.

Update: Here's the scoop… Dimension simply sees oscillator= and switches wavetable mode. In a future update, opcode=off will act as expected (i.e. leave sample playback as default and act as a placeholder in your sfz mapping.)

So, please feel safe at night knowing that Dimension is ready to divide up time like no other sampl… (err, what's the buzzword again?) instrument has before it. And for the neat freaks, doesn't it feel much better setting your attack to a clean 0.070 rather than a filthy 68.8 ms as Kontakt would have us do?

68.8e-3 will also work, for those Kontakt freaks :)


-René

No, direction=forward will move the sample forward. Also waveguide=pff will turn off the waveguide. That's why I think it'd be better to make oscillator=off work.


-René