Spread

Since SynthMaker V1.0 has been released, I revisited the 'spread' synth I'd tried to create before. Here's the result.

The Quest

"Ok, we're nearly there", whispered Luke.
"Are you sure?", said Simon.
"Yeah".
"I mean... is this the right place and all?"
"C'mon, we've been searching for days!"
Luke and Simon ducked into the room. Above the door the words, "The Oracle" were engraved on a brass plaque.
"WELCOME STRANGER", a deep voice intoned.
"Ooo-er!"
"WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?"
"Umm...",
"Go on, ask it!"
"Oh... OK. Hey dude have you seen my car?"
"WHAT?"
"Have you seen my car?"
Long pause...
"Luke... why did you take your shirt off?"
"I dunno... seemed like the right thing to do..."

Doing a tech demo

I need to add the "fire" particle generator inside the fireplace to complete this one... I recently bought a copy of Dark Basic Pro along with Dark Physics. Kinda strange wandering around a room and making boxes fly around...

The artist in me...

It's been a while. I dabbled with raytraying with POVray and had a go at creating an editor to create the scenes with it. I've used 3DS Max and Maya - too expensive and too confusing to use.

After my musical interlude, I came across Bryce again. I've seen it before, but hadn't realised it had changed hands a few times. This time I bought a copy, taking me back to photo-realistic imagery again. Then I descovered Hexagon, a modelling tool, followed by Carrara and Poser.

Here's a scene I created in Poser then rendered in Carrara:


I just love camera effects!

Dark Matter

Something I'm working on in SynthMaker...

MSN should get with the program...

Now I remember why I never use MSN.

Tons of ideas but...

I sit at my PC and I have a lot of ideas but I go blank staring at the screen. "Writers block", programmer style?

Delphi 2006 trial version

So Borland have released a trial version of Delphi 2006 - an Architect trial version that lasts 30 days.

Pity they didn't release a personal version that costs $99 instead.

"Alas poor Borland, I knew him well..."

Saw this on the net.

My reaction to this?

"Do not ask for whom the bells toll, they toll for you".

Maybe it's time to hangup my Delphi T-shirts and start wearing C# ones.

Sigh.

Notes stuck on

You hate it when it happens. Your latest sequencer starts generating stuck notes that never turn off. I had this with the MIDI streaming API but managed to figure that one out. Now I'm working with a MIDI sequencer feeding into a VST sample accurate system. ARGH! No longer are things aligned on a nice neat PPQN boundary. They're all over the shop. And my pad notes are getting stuck on.

With a good ol' trace log, I figured out the stuck note always occured at the same point - when the sample position 'wrapped' around bar - a boundary condition error meant this was never seen - switch 'x < y' to 'x <= y' and stuck notes have gone!

Still, it beats working with databases. Now I can start to compose stuff with uSeq. If only saving worked. Groan...

μSeq

I just don't like the name The Chordinator. Too... naff!

So, how's about μSeq, as in micro-sequencer?

More bells and whistles added to Multi Host...

Delphi who?

It has surprised me how a number of apps I use for music are created in Delphi. ImageLine's FL Studio is one example; Rayzoon's JamStix is another.

I first saw Delphi V1 on the front of a magazine. I tried it, loved it, and have been buying it for personal use ever since.

I skipped Delphi 8 as I wasn't that struck on .NET, despite Microsoft trying to make it the future of development. I bought Delphi 2005, but was disappointed by how bad a release it was. Delphi 2006 is much better, but I can't help feeling Delphi 7 was the last best release.

C++ Builder is Borland's answer for C++ instead of Delphi's Object Pascal. It took until V5 before it became reasonable. Even now I wouldn't use it in preference to Visual Studio C++.

Borland's brief flirtation on Linux with Kylix wasn't a great success. It had potential but seemed to have too many problems. It came free with Delphi 7, but the cross platform library (CLX) has disappeared from Delphi 2006.

So I can see why people think Borland is dead. They haven't done much lately except shoot themselves in the foot. Sad really, but I'm reminded how much being technically superior is no guarantee of success.

Sound of much sawing, hammering, cursing and bruised thumbs...

"It's alive! IT'S ALIVE"

Chordinator with MultiHost merged in.

Oh my god, oh-mi-god!