529

(104 replies, posted in Releases)

And what a joke it was. I'm barely just recovering from the split sides and endorphin rush. Over 9000 endorphins. Something something about feet and coffins.

I think the heart of the problem is the people asking for criticism. It makes no sense to offer a critic to someone who's just starting out with music. What they need is education. You don't expect kids to pick up writing just because they have a picture of the alphabet, let them try to invent words and then criticize that nonsense. You educated them to a point where they can write something intelligible, then you criticize that to help them hone their skills.

Film critics don't write in the papers about some student's project. Music critics don't go touring the garages around the world to review the noise some kids are making with their bargain bin guitars. There's a time to learn, and there's a time to refine. I think people are getting the two confused.

In short, if the intention is to level up the noobs to a point where they stop facerolling melodies the Geneva Convention is supposed to protect us against, then we'd need to have sections on this forum that are dedicated to music, cause there's a grand total of none. None more black.

This one goes to eleven.

531

(104 replies, posted in Releases)

@ stancoolness

God.. close that pointless "website" down already. It serves no purpose except gather up about 0.2% of the links people already can find, better organized, on other more popular websites made by people who know more than you. We get it, the chip music bandwagon recently happened to roll through your hamlet so now you decided to hit the road and join the circus. Your attitude is also shit. So meh...

Personally, even if a CC thread was written in gold letters and every third word was an hyperlink to a picture of Kristen Stewart giving a blowjob, I still wouldn't give half a pink polka dot flying monkey fuck about it. If you need other people's opinion on a track, then either your track isn't finished or you aren't confident enough in your own music to just release the damn thing. In both cases, I'm not interested.

Plus.. people never listen to advice anyways.

That will do just fine. Paint won't ever scratch off.

Volume thingies! So that's how they're called. Damn technical terms. But yeah, a 25% mix should keep the waves balanced and the distortion out in one fix.

Also, about branching. I don't think you'd really have to maintain two projects. Classic klystrack would become pretty dormant. I mean, it's in a very usable state, only very rarely crashes, and is pretty much a complete package as it is. You'd only really need to come back to it if someone discovers a major showstopping bug. Branching off into a Pro version would enable you to not worry about backwards compatibility at all and change entire sections.

As for Klystron... I think the way Klystrack is right now, it's perfectly suited for the game. You probably won't use half of what Klystrack is capable of for the game so why worry about it? Use classic klystrack there, and branch off! smile

BRANCH OFF!

And yes. Sell the software. If LSDJ can be sold to, and used by hundreds of people, I'm sure Klystrack can reach the same goals. Anything between 5 to 10 USD is entirely reasonable and would give direct motivation to spend time on it. Hell most people spend more than that on beer on any given day of the week.

Also.. BRANCH OFF.

smile

535

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Space Travel Device*

536

(49 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I felt love that one time I joined a forum full of jaded sarcastic assholes who all suddenly grew a vagina

kometbomb wrote:
n00bstar wrote:

- Cannot copy the 64th row of a pattern in the buffer

If you use keyboard, just do shift-down when you have selected 0..62, then it selects the last row also. This has worked this way since forever so maybe you have some weird case where it simply doesn't do it. Check it out.

Works fine now, but up to r1219 it didn't work for me for some reasons. I tested on two computers and it was the same on both, strangely.

kometbomb wrote:
n00bstar wrote:

- Waves (loaded or generated) are about 700 times louder than the oscillators, making them almost impossible to mix in. The volume control offered in the wave editor has two presets: way the fuck too loud at 100%, and way the fuck too loud at 25%.

Fixed! Lots of distortion now that the oscillators output at full 16-bit range. Old songs will sound weird due to the distortion and also because wavetable is much quieter.

It is indeed the same volume now, but I am not convinced this was the right way to go however. I made a few quick tests and any two instruments (or two notes of the same instrument) at default volume played at the same time will distort. Using a full volume wave + oscillator in the same instrument will distort. And using just a single oscillator in an instrument with a volume above 80 will also distort, get really noticeable around D0.

It's kind of fun to be able to explore distortion right from the instrument, but in terms of constructing songs it means that for every new channel added you need to edit every instrument's volume down a good notch to avoid distortion, or bring down the master volume of the song. In the end, since that distortion is based solely on sheer volume output, it's not possible to use it as an effect and mix distorted and non distorted sounds together.

The added distortion also changes the nature of the filter a lot. A fully high passed (7FF) noise at default volume (80) for example doesn't "fade" like it should, it enters this noisy weird place where low freqs creep back in the sound because of the distortion. Really noticeable on sweeps.

Overall, I think the best way to go about this would be to bring down the wave volume to what oscillators used to be. Because those waves had all of the aforementioned distortion problems in the first place. It's simply too loud and doesn't sum properly in the mix stage. If you do bring the volume down, I would suggest limiting how loud a wave can be to the same as an oscillator, and do a vertical zoom on the waveform in the editor, otherwise it's much much too small to free hand edit them.

So yeah. I'd revert that change and just tweak the waves instead. hmm


kometbomb wrote:
n00bstar wrote:

- Cannot cycle around in the sequence editor, so if you're on channel 12 and you wanna go back to 1, you have to press left (or shift-tab in my case) 24 times in AHX edit mode.

This was fixed a few nightlies ago! Just move left in channel 0 to go to the last channel.

Woots!

kometbomb wrote:

Bonus: multikey keyjamming, i.e. you can play chords by pressing down multiple keys.

Yay!

kometbomb wrote:

Also, releasing the key triggers instrument release as well. Maybe still buggy and the wavetable view doesn't support this yet.

This should probably be a toggle option IMO. It can be useful in a lot of cases, but for any instrument that doesn't use a release phase, simply a decay. it makes it impossible to properly jam with them and hear what they'd sound like in the song (where they wouldn't be any note-off events) unless you hold every key down.

Personally I'm always for progress. There's always the possibility to download older versions of the software to play old songs.

But, maybe it's time to branch off entirely? Take 1.6 r1219, call it Klystrack Classic, and start working on a semi-new project called Klystrack Pro? That could make a clear cut between the old and the new. Take the best bits of the current code, and drop everything else you feel is holding you back. No concern for backwards compatibility at all. Think your stuff through for future proofing as much as you can and move on. I mean klystrack is what now.. 5 years old? I'm sure you've grown a lot as a coder since you first started it, so if you could pull off klystrack then, imagine what a kind-of-fresh start would mean.

539

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

bryface wrote:

everyone ends up being yes-men to each other, where forgettable music gets a Free Pass

This.

bryface wrote:

people who are seriously invested in the advancement and perfection of their craft

And this.

When i joined, I submitted a few pieces of music (and at the risk of sounding a bit pretentious, I think I make pretty decent quality music). They disappeared from the front page with not even a listen while total pieces of garbage (harsh? yes, but true) got five star two thumbs up FDA-approved intel inside deluxe ninja from hell with tacos made of midgets juggling pure balls of awesome. Then I realized people listen to music here solely based on whether or not their friends or some revered semi-mythical composer made it, then congratulate the everlasting fuck out of each other for having put all of 11 minutes into four and a half bleeps of questionable musical pupose.

So yeah.. I just removed my tracks and realized this was not a community for actual *music* discussion as much as it is a place to share a common interest/appreciation for the art. Threads for musical criticism get barely 2-3 posts. Most of what I see is either "general discussion" type stuff, or threads that are just announcements for finished products like EPs and Albums. It's not a bad thing, don't get me wrong. But I guess I was just expecting something different and that's my probably fault.

540

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Downstate wrote:

i think thats the opposite man, most of the people i know on here - we are all closer or past 30 than to being a teenager. Thats why we hate on the gameboy thangs in jest - because we were alive when atari st's were cutting edge lol
also your name sets you up for abuse so you sort of deserve a fair bit of hassle : P

But I am a noob! I just started making music last week. I can't even tell a piano from a guitar.

541

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

But yeah... I just stay away from the negative threads. Once I see one is going to go to hell, I don't even read it anymore... like that 8 page trainwreck that got closed recently.

542

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I kinda share your opinion. Been a member for a few weeks now and I find the community to be...weird. Very little constructive conversation so far from what I've seen, discussions mostly go one way with everybody agreeing on the same things for 8 pages, or calling others jerks when they express a dissenting opinion. Maybe I just joined at a bad time...dunno. Maybe I'm way the hell too old for a community that seems to be made mostly of late teens and early twenty-somethings. Or yknow.. maybe I'm just an asshole big_smile

Just do like I do... say what you want to say, and have nary a care for what others think of you smile

Critical as in showstopper, no not really.

But there's a lot of little problems with the editing flow and a ton of grievances with the sound. I think part of the problem is the intention to keep Klystrack oldschoolier-than-thou with super low resolution settings, low-impact replay routines and small-size files. IMO it should be thought of as a music software first and not a demoscene utility.

In any case, here's my list of bugs and suggestions:

Bugs/Grievances:
- CTRL-DEL on a pattern while the song plays doesn't just delete the pattern data, it stops the song and places you back at the top of the sequence for no reason.
- Sometimes Loop From Current position just stops working and just plays the last row in a pattern in a loop instead of the whole pattern.
- Cannot copy the 64th row of a pattern in the buffer
- Sometimes the envelopes stop working properly if an instrument plays for too long and you get clicks everywhere instead of smooth fade-to-0
- Metal Sync noise is out of pitch with other oscillators and there's no fine tuning to bring it back in place, making it unusable for melodies.
- Waves (loaded or generated) are about 700 times louder than the oscillators, making them almost impossible to mix in. The volume control offered in the wave editor has two presets: way the fuck too loud at 100%, and way the fuck too loud at 25%.
- No protracker-style delete in the sequence editor constantly shifts your song's structure. (yes I know.. there's another button to do that.. but I don't see the reason why delete should act like that when backspace does pretty much the same)
- Cannot cycle around in the sequence editor, so if you're on channel 12 and you wanna go back to 1, you have to press left (or shift-tab in my case) 24 times in AHX edit mode.
- Cannot use copy/paste across channels either in the pattern or sequence editor. It would be nice to be able to select a nice block that spans more than one channel instead of copy/pasting the same block in each.
- MIDI note off messages trigger the note again so you play each note twice when using a midi controller


Suggestions I think are easy to implement:
- Extended CTR-K/CTRL-U functionalities would be appreciated, like clone all channels, or insert new patterns across all channels.
- Need zap functions to neatly delete unused patterns, or just kill all instruments, or all pattern data etc.
- Make it possible to name, and save/load FX presets
- Put KILL buttons inside the inst/wave editor interfaces instead of having them way the hell up there in the menu
- Independent noise pitch to be able to mix 'thin' noise in bass instrument. At the moment its only possible when mixing it in with a wave and it's not quite possible to get a clear oscillator (except a sine that's too loud) in the wave editor.
- Include all possible oscillator shapes in the wave generator.
- A song timer
- Highlight currently selected instrument in the patterns to quickly locate where an instrument is used.


Suggestions that I know most of the code is already there, but would definitely require more work:
- Dynamic pitch/volume adjustment in the wave editor (select target pitch/volume, and press apply)
- Filter functions in the wave editor to permanently apply filtering to a wave

Suggestions that most likely require a lot of work:
- A Live screen where the you can set up tempo-synced mutes/unmutes, loop/unloop to be able to play around with the tracks in a live environement.
- Wav export channels so people can route different instrument to different channels so you can export stuff independently and mix/master the results in a DAW.
- FM synthesis, something like Genesis-level of FM (4ops I think?) would be enough. No need to go all DX1 there.
- Distortion / Waveshaper unit in the FX section
- At least two more FX bus
- Rework the chorus because it adds a LOT of clicking noise to a sound, also separate depth mod and pitch mod.
- Proper midi support for input and output so I don't get a week of lag with my midi controller, and so people can use KT as sequencer for external machines. Maybe look into ASIO to reduce the buffer to a more usable size.
- Add separate panning positions for every tap in the reverb/delay unit

Essential you-should-listen-to-n00bstar-because-of-reasons stuff:
- Clean the code, comment it, make it run off a single codebase, and make it easier for other coders to come in and participate.
- Make a proper website to showcase the software, with a paypal button, and a community voting system on what needs to be fixed/implemented next.

I know I'm asking for a whole damn lot. But IMO this would take Klystrack out of the weird place it is right now,being mostly unheard of by most chip artists, and place it riiiiight at the top of the list for people who want a serious complete chiptracker that has the perfect balance between having all the functionalities you could want, without having it become yet another stupid semi-daw modular-ish vst-something-or-other software.

And now you know why Kometbomb probably sacrifices a kitten to the dark gods every night in the hope I die a horrible fiery death.

Already suggested that... didn't happen smile

Anybody else here is a decent coder? The whole thing is downloadable and just needs someone to put time in it to clean it up, merge the bits of the framework that are actually used into the main codebase so you don't have to compile 82 things to make it work, and start commenting the code so others can participate. I'd be more than willing to throw money at it if I knew the software was going to be supported on a more regular basis.