> tested on 2.3 and work well on load 600+ projects
Heh, now that is a stress test. What is 2.3?
> Anyway i want to ask to add vertical layout to the player :)
Yes, to come man, I am more concerned about the app logic at the moment. With my app design and framework, once things work fine, I could easily make 5 different layouts if I wanted to. :)
Tested with Jason's CPA Test songs ... all loaded no problems. Tried my 5 songs that crashed the first time, and got the crash again.
I took a look at Jason's files. The longest sequenced one was 140 measures. I took one of mine that was crashing (Passerby), and cut the end off to 140 measures, and it still crashed. I cut it down to 100 and it loaded.
Yup, I have talked to Rej this morning and we are fixing this problem. The next build should handle any files now. Rej is just going to giving a command to get the length of tracks, so even if you have piano roll data, the track length will be the same as what is displayed in Caustic.
BTW, it's not actually the "length" of the track thats crashing, its the number of patterns you have in the whole sequencer. There is a buffer that Rej fills with string data, and if there are more strings(pattern definitions) then that buffer can hold, the app crashes.
So you are removing patterns, you could have a 1 track song 10 minutes long and it would load fine.
Gave it a test drive on my Nexus 7 (2nd gen) and it seems to be working very well.
I loaded Jason's test pack in at first and nothing would play so I loaded in the Demo folder that ships with Caustic and was able to run through all the songs.. I skipped around inside the songs and from song to song successfully. Did so many times without an issue.
(After I played the demo tracks I was able to play Jason's test pack which ended up being buggy, in that if I skipped back to his test pack from one of the other songs loaded from the Demo folder it would start play from that song (the 2nd or 3rd track in the folder for example) not from the start of Jason's pack, but I guess that's just because they are repeats of the same file and probably unimportant)
Same issues with sticking notes as reported by others when skipping forward, i.e. on welcome to caustic the vocoded "welcome to Caustic" would play over and over again... but you've said that you are aware of this issue already, just confirming.
Kewl, thanks for the tests, I have a N72nd so it should work, that is my test device. :)
Before I go crazy with trying to figure out your load stuff, the other day I realized my project serializing was screwed up, I am rewriting some of it. Your issues may be part of that "fuzz".
Do me a favor, Delete the "CausticPlayer" directory on your root that i created with the app, have the app closed when you do this. After delete, restart the app and load Jason's test directory, let me know if you experience the same issue.
I have a duplicates check in there, but there will be more intelligent file management coming soon.
You'll have to explain that like you would to your grandmother. In my file manager I found a folder that is named "Caustic Player"... assuming that's not what you mean?
Yes, that is the directory I created that holds project data. Delete it so the app will start fresh, then try Jason's directory again and see if it loads up the first time, or does what you said it did again.
After deleting, I opened the Player again and the library previously loaded was still intact. I Removed everything and reloaded both the demo folder and Jason's CPA Test. Same issue again.
> After deleting, I opened the Player again and the library previously loaded was still intact.
Hmm, I am confused, if you deleted the CausticPlayer directory containing a 'CausticPlayer/Projects' directory, when you restart the app, the app should be at it's default state with nothing loaded.
Well lets not worry about this until I get a new build out.
To be more helpful this time ... I Downloaded Caustic Player to my junky phone (LG Optimus Exceed; Verizon's version of the LG Lucid) and it works just as well as on my Nexus 7. Still has the same screen issues as everyone else of course but the app functions just fine.
I am almost done with the project serialization rewrite, so I think the next thing I will do is try to make it layout better on the 4"+/- phone, so it's easier for people to test with as I add more features.
Guys, I talked to Rej this morning, he is going to give me OSC commands that Caustic uses natively, so what ever the track lengths in Caustic are, that is what i will be receiving from the core.
This will save a HUGE amount of processing when loading songs.
So to answer the question, the blank pattern will work fine when I implement the new commands.
Did you try installing Jason's .causticpack that I have listed in the main thread for download? It has 4 songs that are guaranteed to play in the player for a test.
The fact it's getting to the loading screen means everything works, it's just bailing on parsing the .caustic files. The Progress is a modal popup, so I don't think the app is freezing, I just have no way of catching a native exception, so the app doesn't know it's hung.
Yes i tried jasons causticpack but even that doesnt work, and the real strange thing is that caustic crashes if i try to import it,i had to extract them manualy. So i realy think its a device specific problem
I think there is something going on in WinCaustic regarding Import, but never really investigated the issue or reported it, as it technically was offered "as is".... and I haven't check if I have the latest Windowz update of that program
Mike is right it crashes caustic on my phone, loading the songs in caustic after extracting them works just fine only importing as causticpack doesnt work. But the player doesnt load anything.
And caustic is installed on the internal memory,in a caustic folder in the root of the internal sd
I added a page on my website for changes/fixes/additions and latest APK info, I will be adding to that as I move forward. Check the original thread here for a bit more info.
It's not the actual uninstall but the actual deleting of the CausticPlayer folder in the install root(where the caustic folder is usually located). I could have done it with the app(delete the folder), but I figured I wouldn't. :)
I managed now to install ver 0.01 (went flawlessly at a third try, I don't know why), but it always hangs when adding a folder to the library, even when I chose just the DEMO folder with only 3 songs in it. It shows Load file operation and a halfway progress indicator and don't do any further, but there is no Android system message that the app is not reacting, as usual when an app crashed. Same with ver 0.02. What am I doing wrong?
The app isn't crashing. :) I need to catch the failed load with a timer or something. There is some OSC message that is not loading correctly and giving a null pointer in the loader loop.
I plan on totally revising that loader code when Rej gets me the new OSC for track lengths.
> Sometimes scanning through a song loses its "position" and cuts off abruptly in the end....
I would like to see what you are talking about but, if more people complain about stuck notes, etc with scrubbing, I might just disable that feature and create a special note pad like Rej did to unlock hidden features.
As I'm new to Android can somebody advise me about uninstalling the app before installing the new version. Do I simply uninstall the app in the normal way or is there more to it than that? Thanks all.
> Have you increased the buffer size on this version?
Damn, no it's still 256, I needed to get an answer from Rej before i changed this. So far in my code I haven't figured out if I can change that during runtime, since the value is passed to the audio stream.
The page above will always have the changes, if the change wasn't significant enough it won't be listed, but things like "Added ability to change buffer size" or "Changed buffer size" WILL be listed, so you will know when I do.
Okay, thanks I will keep a lookout for it on your page.
Personally I think it would be better if the user could choose a buffer size from an options/settings menu if possible as this would be more flexible and enable stutter-free use on a range of devices.
personally i always got confused on buffer size. dealing with fl studio most likely why i had sooo many problems with software preproduction. soooo "won-size buffer fix all" works for me.
The buffer size really is just how many bytes your cpu can handle at a specific moment in time.
The lower the buffer, the faster the exchange but MORE CPU processing for the trade off of speed.
So slower CPUs need a larger amount of bytes at once, because the back and forth costs to much and then you get the crackling.
Really, the buffer is how fast the DSP processing can get the bytes to the audio stream to play. So obviously, the less bytes you send, the faster it can play back on the audio stream.
which for a player app, is largely irrelevant.... Unless you have options to change that..... but then again, since users are able to switch over to other apps or browsers while a playlist is running, you may not want to hog up all the resources, and cook your device in the process
Wow, I am really impressed! A Caustic songfile player that can run in the background, with the screen off, AND with no lags/stutters on my cheap Trio tablet :D! And it can do it at 60 FPS too1 Thanks for this.
EDIT: Hmmm, this song isn't loading correctly in the player:
EDIT2: Well, I apparently can't upload the file atm because I am currently on the aforementioned crappy cheap tablet and whenever I try to attach the file Chrome says it can't do it because it is "low on memory"... I guess I'll just attach it tomorrow when I will be around a computer. :/
heck... even 15 FPS should be way more than suffice, especially if you're running other apps on your phone while listening.... I tried this already, I can even run the playlist with the phone on standby..... very cool...
Goood Work Mike ;)
tested on 2.3 and work well on load 600+ projects
the loading was a bit longer :)
Anyway i want to ask to add vertical layout to the player :)
> tested on 2.3 and work well on load 600+ projects
Heh, now that is a stress test. What is 2.3?
> Anyway i want to ask to add vertical layout to the player :)
Yes, to come man, I am more concerned about the app logic at the moment. With my app design and framework, once things work fine, I could easily make 5 different layouts if I wanted to. :)
Tested with Jason's CPA Test songs ... all loaded no problems. Tried my 5 songs that crashed the first time, and got the crash again.
I took a look at Jason's files. The longest sequenced one was 140 measures. I took one of mine that was crashing (Passerby), and cut the end off to 140 measures, and it still crashed. I cut it down to 100 and it loaded.
Yup, I have talked to Rej this morning and we are fixing this problem. The next build should handle any files now. Rej is just going to giving a command to get the length of tracks, so even if you have piano roll data, the track length will be the same as what is displayed in Caustic.
BTW, it's not actually the "length" of the track thats crashing, its the number of patterns you have in the whole sequencer. There is a buffer that Rej fills with string data, and if there are more strings(pattern definitions) then that buffer can hold, the app crashes.
So you are removing patterns, you could have a 1 track song 10 minutes long and it would load fine.
Anyway, all this will be fixed in the next build.
Hey Mike,
Gave it a test drive on my Nexus 7 (2nd gen) and it seems to be working very well.
I loaded Jason's test pack in at first and nothing would play so I loaded in the Demo folder that ships with Caustic and was able to run through all the songs.. I skipped around inside the songs and from song to song successfully. Did so many times without an issue.
(After I played the demo tracks I was able to play Jason's test pack which ended up being buggy, in that if I skipped back to his test pack from one of the other songs loaded from the Demo folder it would start play from that song (the 2nd or 3rd track in the folder for example) not from the start of Jason's pack, but I guess that's just because they are repeats of the same file and probably unimportant)
Same issues with sticking notes as reported by others when skipping forward, i.e. on welcome to caustic the vocoded "welcome to Caustic" would play over and over again... but you've said that you are aware of this issue already, just confirming.
No problems with the layout on the 7" screen.
This is great!
Kewl, thanks for the tests, I have a N72nd so it should work, that is my test device. :)
Before I go crazy with trying to figure out your load stuff, the other day I realized my project serializing was screwed up, I am rewriting some of it. Your issues may be part of that "fuzz".
Do me a favor, Delete the "CausticPlayer" directory on your root that i created with the app, have the app closed when you do this. After delete, restart the app and load Jason's test directory, let me know if you experience the same issue.
I have a duplicates check in there, but there will be more intelligent file management coming soon.
You'll have to explain that like you would to your grandmother. In my file manager I found a folder that is named "Caustic Player"... assuming that's not what you mean?
Yes, that is the directory I created that holds project data. Delete it so the app will start fresh, then try Jason's directory again and see if it loads up the first time, or does what you said it did again.
Ok, done.
Same issue.
After deleting, I opened the Player again and the library previously loaded was still intact. I Removed everything and reloaded both the demo folder and Jason's CPA Test. Same issue again.
> After deleting, I opened the Player again and the library previously loaded was still intact.
Hmm, I am confused, if you deleted the CausticPlayer directory containing a 'CausticPlayer/Projects' directory, when you restart the app, the app should be at it's default state with nothing loaded.
Well lets not worry about this until I get a new build out.
Yeah, seems like a very small issue in the grand scheme.
FWIW, my test song pack functions 100% on all my devices, including Windows....
I was gonna write "not picking on Jason"... hahhaha.... I'm sure it's just my device.
No worries. I was just setting a standard for testing. I tested these busy tracks full of pattern data, before offering them here....
Mike,
To be more helpful this time
... I Downloaded Caustic Player to my junky phone (LG Optimus Exceed; Verizon's version of the LG Lucid) and it works just as well as on my Nexus 7. Still has the same screen issues as everyone else of course but the app functions just fine.
I am almost done with the project serialization rewrite, so I think the next thing I will do is try to make it layout better on the 4"+/- phone, so it's easier for people to test with as I add more features.
Mike, did you take note of the "empty pattern block bug"?
Jason, could you put a note in your 'empty' pattern and set it to zero velocity. Would it recognise it then?
Guys, I talked to Rej this morning, he is going to give me OSC commands that Caustic uses natively, so what ever the track lengths in Caustic are, that is what i will be receiving from the core.
This will save a HUGE amount of processing when loading songs.
So to answer the question, the blank pattern will work fine when I implement the new commands.
Just to give you a report.
I use a htc one m8 and i cant load any single file. Everytime the process bar appears, the app freezes.
Strange i know
Did you try installing Jason's .causticpack that I have listed in the main thread for download? It has 4 songs that are guaranteed to play in the player for a test.
The fact it's getting to the loading screen means everything works, it's just bailing on parsing the .caustic files. The Progress is a modal popup, so I don't think the app is freezing, I just have no way of catching a native exception, so the app doesn't know it's hung.
Yes i tried jasons causticpack but even that doesnt work, and the real strange thing is that caustic crashes if i try to import it,i had to extract them manualy. So i realy think its a device specific problem
Yes, when he sent me the files last night, I tried importing them in Windows and it crashed Caustic.
But still, if your device won't even load anything, something is weird. Question, where is caustic installed on your device(directory)?
I think there is something going on in WinCaustic regarding Import, but never really investigated the issue or reported it, as it technically was offered "as is".... and I haven't check if I have the latest Windowz update of that program
Yeah but from what I gather, he is saying the causticpack is crashing his Android Caustic.
Mike is right it crashes caustic on my phone, loading the songs in caustic after extracting them works just fine only importing as causticpack doesnt work. But the player doesnt load anything.
And caustic is installed on the internal memory,in a caustic folder in the root of the internal sd
device resource (RAM) allocation or reservation maybe?
I added a page on my website for changes/fixes/additions and latest APK info, I will be adding to that as I move forward. Check the original thread here for a bit more info.
http://www.teotigraphix.com/causticplayer
Update 0.0.2
See; http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/node/8897
I'm on it.
Update: note for Android users... Uninstall 0.0.1 build first before installing and running the newer build
It's not the actual uninstall but the actual deleting of the CausticPlayer folder in the install root(where the caustic folder is usually located). I could have done it with the app(delete the folder), but I figured I wouldn't. :)
Sometimes scanning through a song loses its "position" and cuts off abruptly in the end....
I need to video capture some of this (but only setup in Windows) not android.... I may just stick a camera and do it that way
Hi
I managed now to install ver 0.01 (went flawlessly at a third try, I don't know why), but it always hangs when adding a folder to the library, even when I chose just the DEMO folder with only 3 songs in it. It shows Load file operation and a halfway progress indicator and don't do any further, but there is no Android system message that the app is not reacting, as usual when an app crashed. Same with ver 0.02. What am I doing wrong?
The app isn't crashing. :) I need to catch the failed load with a timer or something. There is some OSC message that is not loading correctly and giving a null pointer in the loader loop.
I plan on totally revising that loader code when Rej gets me the new OSC for track lengths.
Staying glued two how the changes effects others testing. I got popcorn!!!! & rootbeer.
> Sometimes scanning through a song loses its "position" and cuts off abruptly in the end....
I would like to see what you are talking about but, if more people complain about stuck notes, etc with scrubbing, I might just disable that feature and create a special note pad like Rej did to unlock hidden features.
Looking forward to trying this new version.
As I'm new to Android can somebody advise me about uninstalling the app before installing the new version. Do I simply uninstall the app in the normal way or is there more to it than that? Thanks all.
You don't need to uninstall it, just delete the CausticPlayer folder before you run v0.0.2 after you installed 0.0.2. You have a file manager app?
There are plenty of free ones, but deleting the CausticPlayer directory is all that is required. Installing a newer version removes the old one.
I should have just put logic in to delete the folder and re create it. :)
Okay, thanks for clarifying that Mike, I'll give it a try.
Have you increased the buffer size on this version?
> Have you increased the buffer size on this version?
Damn, no it's still 256, I needed to get an answer from Rej before i changed this. So far in my code I haven't figured out if I can change that during runtime, since the value is passed to the audio stream.
http://www.teotigraphix.com/causticplayer
The page above will always have the changes, if the change wasn't significant enough it won't be listed, but things like "Added ability to change buffer size" or "Changed buffer size" WILL be listed, so you will know when I do.
Okay, thanks I will keep a lookout for it on your page.
Personally I think it would be better if the user could choose a buffer size from an options/settings menu if possible as this would be more flexible and enable stutter-free use on a range of devices.
Ok, I fixed it. This package now Imports on all devices inclusing Windows
Mike I sent you a video clip of the playback buggy issue that I observed...
personally i always got confused on buffer size. dealing with fl studio most likely why i had sooo many problems with software preproduction. soooo "won-size buffer fix all" works for me.
The buffer size really is just how many bytes your cpu can handle at a specific moment in time.
The lower the buffer, the faster the exchange but MORE CPU processing for the trade off of speed.
So slower CPUs need a larger amount of bytes at once, because the back and forth costs to much and then you get the crackling.
Really, the buffer is how fast the DSP processing can get the bytes to the audio stream to play. So obviously, the less bytes you send, the faster it can play back on the audio stream.
which for a player app, is largely irrelevant.... Unless you have options to change that..... but then again, since users are able to switch over to other apps or browsers while a playlist is running, you may not want to hog up all the resources, and cook your device in the process
Wow, I am really impressed! A Caustic songfile player that can run in the background, with the screen off, AND with no lags/stutters on my cheap Trio tablet :D! And it can do it at 60 FPS too1 Thanks for this.
EDIT: Hmmm, this song isn't loading correctly in the player:
EDIT2: Well, I apparently can't upload the file atm because I am currently on the aforementioned crappy cheap tablet and whenever I try to attach the file Chrome says it can't do it because it is "low on memory"... I guess I'll just attach it tomorrow when I will be around a computer. :/
I can't fix this(song loading) until I get a couple updates from Rej. Thanks for testing.
Btw, in the new version not released, you can adjust the FPS, this app really only needs 30FPS, so it could save battery and such.
heck... even 15 FPS should be way more than suffice, especially if you're running other apps on your phone while listening.... I tried this already, I can even run the playlist with the phone on standby..... very cool...
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