Early Peek at PXToolkit

Early Peek at PXToolkit
« on: April 04, 2019, 10:18:48 PM »
What follows is an extremely early demo of my work-in-progress sample preparation utility for the Sequential Prophet X.  It's quite limited, with approximately two weeks of evenings and weekends put into it so far.  Still, it's looking extremely promising.  Everything shown actually works as you might expect.  It actually exports working .zip archives that can be installed and used, and there's both a macOS and Windows version up and running.

Ta da!

... but there's also a lot of work still planned and no real fixed timeline for when I'll be able to have something polished ready for broad adoption.  At the moment there's virtually no editing other than adding samples automatically based on metadata in .wav files, and removing them again.  There's no file format conversion, and no sample rate conversion.  Loops can be imported if already present, but cannot be edited or defined.

It's a start.

Shaw

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Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2019, 05:43:21 AM »
What follows is an extremely early demo of my work-in-progress sample preparation utility for the Sequential Prophet X.  It's quite limited, with approximately two weeks of evenings and weekends put into it so far.  Still, it's looking extremely promising.  Everything shown actually works as you might expect.  It actually exports working .zip archives that can be installed and used, and there's both a macOS and Windows version up and running.

Ta da!

... but there's also a lot of work still planned and no real fixed timeline for when I'll be able to have something polished ready for broad adoption.  At the moment there's virtually no editing other than adding samples automatically based on metadata in .wav files, and removing them again.  There's no file format conversion, and no sample rate conversion.  Loops can be imported if already present, but cannot be edited or defined.

It's a start.
Really looking forward to this.  I wouldn’t think that loop editing would even be necessary for a release ready product.  If it can creat sample maps with round robins and velocity switching, your ahead of *ahem* the curve.


Good work!
"Classical musicians go to the conservatories, rock´n roll musicians go to the garages." --- Frank Zappa
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LoboLives

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2019, 07:00:41 AM »
What follows is an extremely early demo of my work-in-progress sample preparation utility for the Sequential Prophet X.  It's quite limited, with approximately two weeks of evenings and weekends put into it so far.  Still, it's looking extremely promising.  Everything shown actually works as you might expect.  It actually exports working .zip archives that can be installed and used, and there's both a macOS and Windows version up and running.

Ta da!

... but there's also a lot of work still planned and no real fixed timeline for when I'll be able to have something polished ready for broad adoption.  At the moment there's virtually no editing other than adding samples automatically based on metadata in .wav files, and removing them again.  There's no file format conversion, and no sample rate conversion.  Loops can be imported if already present, but cannot be edited or defined.

It's a start.
Really looking forward to this.  I wouldn’t think that loop editing would even be necessary for a release ready product.  If it can creat sample maps with round robins and velocity switching, your ahead of *ahem* the curve.


Good work!

Well with 8Dio’s samples some are looped by default. It would be nice to do that for your own samples. That way you don’t have to do it every time manually on the PX when you select that sample.

Btw on the import tool as it is now. When you define a keyboard range for a sample, it only allows you to do a certain amount of you just use one sample. Does this mean it automatically stretches over the rest of the keyboard when you import it?

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2019, 04:35:46 PM »
What follows is an extremely early demo of my work-in-progress sample preparation utility for the Sequential Prophet X.  It's quite limited, with approximately two weeks of evenings and weekends put into it so far.  Still, it's looking extremely promising.  Everything shown actually works as you might expect.  It actually exports working .zip archives that can be installed and used, and there's both a macOS and Windows version up and running.

Ta da!



... but there's also a lot of work still planned and no real fixed timeline for when I'll be able to have something polished ready for broad adoption.  At the moment there's virtually no editing other than adding samples automatically based on metadata in .wav files, and removing them again.  There's no file format conversion, and no sample rate conversion.  Loops can be imported if already present, but cannot be edited or defined.

It's a start.
Really looking forward to this.  I wouldn’t think that loop editing would even be necessary for a release ready product.  If it can creat sample maps with round robins and velocity switching, your ahead of *ahem* the curve.


Good work!

Well with 8Dio’s samples some are looped by default. It would be nice to do that for your own samples. That way you don’t have to do it every time manually on the PX when you select that sample.

Btw on the import tool as it is now. When you define a keyboard range for a sample, it only allows you to do a certain amount of you just use one sample. Does this mean it automatically stretches over the rest of the keyboard when you import it?

This looks very exciting!

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2019, 07:50:54 PM »
Well with 8Dio’s samples some are looped by default. It would be nice to do that for your own samples. That way you don’t have to do it every time manually on the PX when you select that sample.

Oh, it already detects loop metadata in the .wav itself, which I’m sure is what 8Dio does.  So that’s already working.  I tend to agree that selecting loop points is beyond what I expect from the utility.  That would likely be a whole different project.

Quote
Btw on the import tool as it is now. When you define a keyboard range for a sample, it only allows you to do a certain amount if you just use one sample. Does this mean it automatically stretches over the rest of the keyboard when you import it?

I’m currently defaulting to a maximum of an octave up and down but I plan to expose the option to pick as wide a range as you want for a single sample.  The Prophet X seems to do a good job of avoiding aliasing when pitch shifting but when you push it things can get squirrelly (somewhere between an octave and two octaves shifted up I see some telltale signs.)  I haven’t carefully examined the quality of samples played back shifted down.

LoboLives

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2019, 08:50:44 PM »
Well with 8Dio’s samples some are looped by default. It would be nice to do that for your own samples. That way you don’t have to do it every time manually on the PX when you select that sample.

Oh, it already detects loop metadata in the .wav itself, which I’m sure is what 8Dio does.  So that’s already working.  I tend to agree that selecting loop points is beyond what I expect from the utility.  That would likely be a whole different project.

Quote
Btw on the import tool as it is now. When you define a keyboard range for a sample, it only allows you to do a certain amount if you just use one sample. Does this mean it automatically stretches over the rest of the keyboard when you import it?

I’m currently defaulting to a maximum of an octave up and down but I plan to expose the option to pick as wide a range as you want for a single sample.  The Prophet X seems to do a good job of avoiding aliasing when pitch shifting but when you push it things can get squirrelly (somewhere between an octave and two octaves shifted up I see some telltale signs.)  I haven’t carefully examined the quality of samples played back shifted down.

Is there a software (preferably free) that will create the matadata for loops or just create loops in general?

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2019, 10:07:58 PM »
Is there a software (preferably free) that will create the matadata for loops or just create loops in general?

Someone may weigh in with a favorite option that does a decent job.  I’m not aware of any and have been using SampleRobot so far.  It’s not that hard to actually apply the metadata, it’s actually picking the right points that’s the tricky part (or even modifying the sample to create ideal loop transitions.)

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2019, 12:35:56 AM »
fantastic work ... would be willing to pay for that if it comes to a release
PT10/12HD, Logic X, Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro
cMP 5,1 Catalina; MacBook Pro

TheMM

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2019, 03:22:49 AM »
Woah! Good job so far. Add velocity switching and round robins and I would love you forever! :-)
Let me know if you need me for beta-testing.

laurentluigi

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2019, 03:54:51 AM »
That's super super classssss !!!!!

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2019, 10:17:56 PM »
It’s coming along nicely, although working on it has eaten up a lot of hours this week when I’m ostensibly on vacation!  I should be ready to open it up for more early adopters in the next week or so.

... and yes, as showcased briefly in the video you can create velocity layers and round-robin alternative samples.  Most of what I plan to do at this point is usability work, because while a lot of things are possible they’re not always as easy as I’d like.  That, and I suspect the Windows version has a few rough edges that I’ll need to take care of with the help of a patient Windows adopter or two.

Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2019, 12:12:12 AM »
nice to hear
PT10/12HD, Logic X, Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro
cMP 5,1 Catalina; MacBook Pro

Gerry Havinga

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Re: Early Peek at PXToolkit
« Reply #12 on: April 13, 2019, 06:00:25 AM »
It’s coming along nicely, although working on it has eaten up a lot of hours this week when I’m ostensibly on vacation!  I should be ready to open it up for more early adopters in the next week or so.

... and yes, as showcased briefly in the video you can create velocity layers and round-robin alternative samples.  Most of what I plan to do at this point is usability work, because while a lot of things are possible they’re not always as easy as I’d like.  That, and I suspect the Windows version has a few rough edges that I’ll need to take care of with the help of a patient Windows adopter or two.
Count me in please. My Prophet X is on order, expecting it sometime middle of next week. I am a Windoze user.

I love to have some Mellotron samples loaded in the PX. Currently I am using my trusted Blofeld for Mellotron sounds. Works but is quiet painful to get it right and install the samples.
DAW-less and going down the Eurorack rabbit hole.