Try to build a midi project: problems (project inside)

bullshark · 04-16-2006, 09:53 AM

Edited:
Due to complete lack of interest (11 download only and only 3 download of related mp3), this project was deemed futile and files were pulled from server.

bullshark · 04-16-2006, 12:51 PM

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Justin · 04-16-2006, 12:57 PM

hmm for me having two instances of SFZ in different tracks results in both of them getting some of the same MIDI data or something.. does it work with multiple instances in other hosts?...

edit: ok it seems that SFZ isn't fully SMP capable.. try turning off "render fx in worker threads" in audio prefs, and see if that helps.

-Justin

bullshark · 04-16-2006, 01:01 PM

I didn't get this problem in Reaper. In fact, the two tracks holding SFZ and the one holding Asynth were the last one that I lost playback on.

Some host do have problems with SFZ though...

bullshark · 04-16-2006, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

edit: ok it seems that SFZ isn't fully SMP capable.. try turning off "render fx in worker threads" in audio prefs, and see if that helps.

-Justin

Just tried that, I got playback on the first four track and the send, the fifth track plays halfway trough and the 4 other are silent (no, none are muted or other things like that).

RokkD · 04-16-2006, 02:45 PM

Just been playing around with this a little bit, first thing, you have to pull all the tracks back to the beginning, if you roll a track up to, say the second bar, then you won't hear anything in the last 2 bars of that track.
The sfz bell thingy I didn't have, so I tried some other GM bell sounds nothing seemed to work (crackles) and such, so I swapped it for GTG Sputnik, changed a couple of others too, ASynth and Minimoog I believe, didn't have 'em handy.

The GUI was a bit slow, but I got everything playing back fine, nice drum track btw, did you program it yourself?

I did a save as, and tried to reload the project...crash, 'Unusual termination' or something, reloaded your original, closed it, and tried mine again...crash same thing, I persisted, Reaper finally gave in and opened it..

Art Evans · 04-16-2006, 03:17 PM

Quote:

if you roll a track up to, say the second bar, then you won't hear anything in the last 2 bars of that track....

That sounds like another bug report here - if you rolled it up to the fourth bar you'd probably lose the last four, etc

Quote:

I did a save as, and tried to reload the project...crash, 'Unusual termination' or something, reloaded your original, closed it, and tried mine again...crash same thing, I persisted, Reaper finally gave in and opened it..

And that sounds like the problems I've had with Glaceverb, requiring the FX worker threads to be turned off (interesting what Justin says about SMP compatibility - that sounds likely).

RokkD · 04-16-2006, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Evans

That sounds like another bug report here - if you rolled it up to the fourth bar you'd probably lose the last four, etc

eidenk and myself have reported this in the .943 thread

Quote:

And that sounds like the problems I've had with Glaceverb, requiring the FX worker threads to be turned off (interesting what Justin says about SMP compatibility - that sounds likely).

ooh...forgot to mention, I switched the kjerhaus reverb for Glaceverb....but then, I use Glaceverb in all my projects and never have a problem.

bullshark · 04-16-2006, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

Just been playing around with this a little bit, first thing, you have to pull all the tracks back to the beginning, if you roll a track up to, say the second bar, then you won't hear anything in the last 2 bars of that track.

Ha! First part of the problems solved. I had rolled the midi clips for clarity; just now rolled them back to the start and Houston! we got playback. A bug?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

The sfz bell thingy I didn't have, so I tried some other GM bell sounds nothing seemed to work (crackles) and such, so I swapped it for GTG Sputnik, changed a couple of others too, ASynth and Minimoog I believe, didn't have 'em handy.

If you come up with something interesting, post an mp3 maybe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

The GUI was a bit slow, but I got everything playing back fine, nice drum track btw, did you program it yourself?

Here too I was suffering with slowing down GUI, but I put it down to my computer dating back to the cretaceous Period. And yes, the drums (and everything else) I programmed myself (well, actually for drums I always start by recording the basic beat as played from the keyboard, then I fix the late notes and hand paint the variation).

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

I did a save as, and tried to reload the project...crash, 'Unusual termination' or something, reloaded your original, closed it, and tried mine again...crash same thing, I persisted, Reaper finally gave in and opened it..

I think Reaper might have a little ways to go yet before becoming a full fledged midi sequencer, but it's cool what we can do now in such a short development period.

RokkD · 04-16-2006, 05:38 PM

Well...can't seem to run this project now, it loads, but when I hit play I get the run time error window and 'abnormal termination' or whatever it is..

blitze · 04-16-2006, 10:38 PM

Just a thought for sfz samples, try Dimension Pro. I'm using it with no problems in Reaper ATM and it's a great VST.

Art Evans · 04-17-2006, 02:50 AM

Try soloing a track, playing for a few secs, then unsolo.

bullshark · 04-17-2006, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blitze

Just a thought for sfz samples, try Dimension Pro. I'm using it with no problems in Reaper ATM and it's a great VST.

Don't get me wrong, Dimension is probably a great instrument, but at $359.00 US wouldn't it be like killing a fly with a nuclear bomb? It would kind of defeat the purpose of having a project using only freeware so that anybody can open it and start tweaking...

bullshark · 04-17-2006, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

Well...can't seem to run this project now, it loads, but when I hit play I get the run time error window and 'abnormal termination' or whatever it is..

Sorry to hear this, especially since you seemed to be the only one with any interest in this. Anyway, thanks for the help so far, but I'm running into a few problems of my own with this project so I'll have to put it on ice for the time being, at least untill the next Reaper update.

synth · 04-17-2006, 03:53 PM

I tried to fiddle with the project,but every time when I click on the FX button of the second track,REAPER crashes instantly

RokkD · 04-17-2006, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullshark

Sorry to hear this, especially since you seemed to be the only one with any interest in this. Anyway, thanks for the help so far, but I'm running into a few problems of my own with this project so I'll have to put it on ice for the time being, at least untill the next Reaper update.

Well I still have it, so maybe Ill wait 'til the dust settles a bit, and then take another look at it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art

Try soloing a track, playing for a few secs, then unsolo.

Tried that art.....'ullo...hard freeze up, requiring hard shut down.

I think I might try to recreate a project similar to this one, I really don't see why a project like this should be giving problems.

bullshark · 04-18-2006, 04:55 AM

Ok, found a few of the problems. First was MinimogueVA, Reaper doesn't like it at all (SE synth?), removed it and project was more stable.
Then I changed the sample rate to 44.1 KHz, 16 bit.
I've reedited all the midi files.
Removed one track.
Updated Reaper to .944

Now the project is 100% stable on my system and only uses 38% CPU average on my dinosaur era AthlonXP 2.8 machine, GUI slowdown is also gone. I do get some crackling and pops though, tried changing the ASIO buffer size and it didn't seems to help.

The link at the top is updated so if some of you want to play around with this project, have fun.

Here's the very first MIDI Reaper

Oh, and if some of you finds freeware synth that works well with Reaper, please post them. I used mainly Synth1 in this project because it works without problems, but frankly I hate the sound of that synth; I have like 500 presets for it and I don't like a single one of them.

bullshark · 04-18-2006, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synth

I tried to fiddle with the project,but every time when I click on the FX button of the second track,REAPER crashes instantly

Try the updated project, same link.

Art Evans · 04-18-2006, 06:22 AM

Reaper .944 is seriously broken (it seems) when it comes to VSTi support so I wouldn't use it for the moment.

As for synths that work with Reaper - the following seem ok here and are almost all free (sorry no links, Google will find) - quite a few given that I'm not supposed to be interested in midi...

Rumpelrausch Taips FLP4 (organ) and FLP3 (Strings)
Linplug Alpha
Stringer
Crystal
Delay Lama
EP-Station from Big Tick (not free)
EVM Grand Piano
Mr Ray 73
DMI Flute
GTG Drum Sampler II
GTG JP 7A
LazySnake
GTG Micro Organ II
Mr Tramp
Muon Atom
Steinberg Neon
NuBiLE and Spinner
Organized Trio
Sonic Syndicate Plucked String 2
STS-21-free
Krakli StringZ
daHornet (Wasp emulation - I have the real thing too!)
mda DX10
mda Piano
mda Epiano
RGC Triangle I
RGC SFZ

scum · 04-18-2006, 07:02 AM

works for me:

claw
loopazoid
drumatics
cm-505
dvs guitar

/no problems with any other, but these i use/

synth · 04-18-2006, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullshark

Now the project is 100% stable on my system and only uses 38% CPU average on my dinosaur era AthlonXP 2.8 machine, GUI slowdown is also gone. I do get some crackling and pops though, tried changing the ASIO buffer size and it didn't seems to help.

Dinosaur era machine? Your machine is not bad at all

I use an even "crappier" XP2400+ and it's not weak at all.
I only need more CPU power when using CPU-munching synths like Sytrus or using arpeggio on synths like this.Even a dual Opteron box doesn't help here.

I don't know why many of you use Synth1.I don't like the sound of that synth either.
There are some good presets in the additional banks package,but more than 90% of the sounds are lame.
A small 4MB Soundfont does a better job than Synth1 for me.
And I also like to combine sounds as eidenk does.
For example,I'm better with 3 layers of ZynAddSubFX synth for one track.

fluffy · 04-18-2006, 12:22 PM

You guys got it bad!

I'm still using an AthlonXp 1700+ !!

Still works great for me, although I don't do a lot of work with synths.

scum · 04-18-2006, 02:32 PM

i bought a new one soon, but im still sory for my compaq pIII 550 mhz 224 ram - it was a weapon! the new machines are crap

bullshark · 04-19-2006, 08:59 PM

Athlon 2400? and 1700? and PIII 550? Hey, thanks guys, I feel better already, not so alone. My machine is 5 years old though, never thought I'd have it that long when I first built it, but as long as it's chugging along I shouldn't complain, right?

blitze · 04-20-2006, 12:03 AM

If you guys are looking to upgrade I can recommend an AMD X2 3800+ CPU coupled with the ASRock socket 939 MB and decent ram.

Reaper runs great on this setup and I'm CPU clocked at 2.66Ghz
Hasn't broken a sweat when other hosts would splutter and baulk. Quite a cost effective upgrade option and you'll not have PCI Express issues with the ASRock Motherboards unlike nForce 4 boards.