Composers Desktop Project Forum

Hi,
Thanks for reporting this bug. You're quite right: adding in the "Silence unpitched" option (-r flag) seems to produce an .ana output with an unreadable header. So we'll have to take a look at the program code for this and see what's (not) going on.
Robert F.

I've just found your post. Have you now resolved the issue? It sounded like a folder problem. Let me have further details if the problem is still there.
Robert F.

Hi,
I've simplified the setup process for Soundshaper and you can download a revised .exe file here.

I'm assuming you still have a valid CDP installation, including a Soundshaper6 folder. Just replace the Soundshaper.exe and also remove any existing Soundshaper.cfg file in the Soundshaper6 folder. Please make sure that the CDPR8 folder has no spaces in the path - do not put it in "Program Files", for example.  As a reminder, the correct folder structure is \CDPR8\_cdp\_cdprogs and \CDPR8\Soundshaper6.

I have checked the installation and settings in Windows, including Windows 11. I also ran the previous version and was reasonably satisfied with the setup procedure as it was. However, I'll not upgrade the official package until you've posted that this new one works (and we've resolved any anomalies.

Robert 

Hi Ignatius,
I have gone through the Soundshaper code today and tidied up various things in the setup. I will post a new version tomorrow.

Soundshaper and CDP are supplied with the correct folders in place. Whatever you choose as your CDP base folder (default is C:\CDPR8), there should be a subfolder _cdp and another one called Soundshaper6 on the same level.  Neither of these should be re-positioned.

Robert

Hi,
I'm sorry you've had this problem though it should be easy enough to fix.
 
I'll take a look at it and see if I can see why the CDP programs folder should not be found. The normal setting is for Soundshaper to be within C:\CDPR8 (or whatever), as is the folder _cdp and its subfolder _cdprogs. In other words:  (C:\CDPR8)\_cdp\_cdprogs  and (C:\CDPR8)\ Soundshaper.

The thin window you mention seems to occur when setting up is incomplete for some reason.
Robert F.   

Actually my earlier post was misleading, unfortunately, and I'm trying to automate a workaround that might fix the problems:
1) If Infile 1 is mono and 2 is stereo (for example), both are transposed down an octave and need to be corrected with modify speed x2.
2) If Infile 1 is shorter than Infile 2, the output length is that of Infile 1. So you need to have the longer sound as Infile 1.
3) There's also the possiblity of inverting the Balance value to suit the above.

Not for the faint-hearted...

Quote from: Phoenix cat on October 29, 2025, 07:45:58 PMI try with TOOLS>MIDI TO SEQ and select a .mid file and I got this message "Failed to execute mf2t.exe".

Hi Phoenix,
I think this will be a Windows message because it couldn't find mft2t.exe. Soundshaper currently looks for mf2t in a subfolder of Soundshaper called BIN (although I've changed that for the next release to _cdprogs, because it's also in there along with all the other software). The .txt output of mf2t is put in the same folder as the .mid file itself, as is the converted .seq file. So it might make sense to copy the .mid file first to the Sequencer subfolder of your user folder (i.e. TXT\Sequencer) so that it's easy to load the .seq file.

Before running Sequencer (i.e. CDP EXTEND SEQUENCE2) you should take a look at the .seq file (which is a text file) as it has a header defining a number of input sounds: e.g. 60 60 60 will need three separate input files. You can load or copy these to different rows in Soundshaper. (Even if they sound the same, they'll have different names, so CDP won't object.) Also, the Sequencer program can take a while to run, so be patient. As an alternative, it could be worth getting your MIDI file to 'play' a free sampler program.

Quote from: Phoenix cat on October 29, 2025, 07:45:58 PMI try with TOOLS>MIDI TO SEQ and select a .mid file and I got this message "Failed to execute mf2t.exe".

.

Thanks for reporting this. I'll look into it.

Quote from: dwheelersf on September 24, 2025, 10:43:22 PMdoes this leave sound thread out of the picture

No of course not! For Soundthread, you need the CDP download so you have the CDP program set.

CDP PC INSTALLATION
The PC downloads no longer have an installer exe (since 29th August), as there is really no need for one.

There are two versions of the PC download: CDP8_001_PC.zip and CDP8_001Lite_PC.zip. (The Lite version just omits the offline CDP documentation, which is available online.)

Each zip contains a folder "CDPR8" and some supporting docs. Unzip and place the CDPR8 folder in a location of your choice (but not one that has spaces in the path, e.g. NOT in "Program Files"). You can rename CDPR8 if you wish. That's all.

CDPR8 contains two UIs - Soundloom and Soundshaper. (Soundthread is not included yet, as it's in active development.) The CDP programs are housed in CDPR8\_cdp\_cdprogs. Soundloom expects to find them there; Soundshaper looks there initially, but its settings can support a different location. Soundthread also needs to know where they are. Any use of the command-line processor would also need this path. 

Thanks for pointing out this discrepancy. I can confirm that the upper limit for PVOC points (the -c flag) is indeed 16380. Non-powers-of-two are not precluded, although pow-2 sizes are always the most efficient and fast. We'll look into the possibility of raising the upper limit, at least to 16384 or maybe 32768. In the meantime the online documentation will be corrected. (Offline generally lags behind, as it means changing the distributed packages.) 

Following reports of potential viruses in the PC distribution, the whole CDP program set has been put through an online checker (Jotti.org) which sends files to 13 virus scanners, including all the well-known ones. Only three files caused any problems, with just two scanners: two of those are not user-level programs (just used internally by Soundloom) and the third is a long-standing and unaltered utility. 

We are sure these were false positives; however, we've substituted slightly earlier builds that passed the scanners' tests. So we can say with confidence that all the contents of the _cdprogs folder and all other supplied exes have been passed by 13 virus checkers and have not been found to contain viruses. We will continue to ensure that any further code revisions are similarly virus-checked. However, all software and files are supplied "as is", so users should always satisfy themselves about the integrity of the download.

There were also concerns about the use of an installer exe. For PC, CDP now supplies a plain zip file containing the folder CDPR8, which you simply place in any desired location (with no spaces in the path, so not in "Program Files", for example) and can rename as you wish.  For MAC, the installation has always been via a disk image file (dmg) and this is continuing. 

There are a few small updates to the CDP program set, fixing bugs in the following programs:
• filter: fix for 'fixed' filterbank
• fractal: the correct program)
• spec: fix to "grab" (extract single window) when writing pvx format outfile
• fastconv: change "fconv" to "fastconv" to fix it
• tv (Tabula Vigilans): v 1.5g with working MIDI input. (Mac version still on 1.5f)
• SoundLoom: on MAC, various GUI issues

PC users can download an update file here:
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/cdp8-2025-win32.zip
or here:  https://www.rwdobson.com/cdp8-2025-win32.zip
Unzip the file and copy the replacement programs into your _cdprogs folder (except for SoundLoom, which is placed outside the folder, but within _cdp.)

MAC versions are also available: https://www.rwdobson.com/CDPMac-U1-2025.zip (7.5MB)

We will soon be adding updates to the CDP downloads page, so that small changes like these can be accessed easily.




 

I've just checked both installers (Full and Lite) through my virus checker (Trend Micro) and it found no problems. However, users who are worried about this aspect can download a simple zip file containing the required folder CDPR8 (which you simply copy anywhere or rename as you like).

As mentioned in my last post above the zips (which are the latest updated versions) can be accessed here:
  www.soundshaper.net/dloads.html#CDPZIP
or its mirror site: www.ensemble-software.net/dloads.html#CDPZIP

Just be careful not to have any spaces in the path - so don't put CDPR8 in Program Files, for example.

Trevor Wishart has confirmed that the program fractal.exe should be the one documented as part of Release 8, with the two modes fractal wave and fractal spectrum - not the one currently distributed with CDP (usage: fractal fractal).

You can download the correct program here: https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/fractal.zip
Unzip, then copy fractal.exe to your _cdprogs folder, replacing the current file. If you want to retain the current fractal program, you'll have to rename it first, e.g. to "fractalX.exe". Note that Soundshaper supports the correct program (fractal wave / fractal spectrum), not the other one (fractal fractal).

The PC distribution files will be amended later today; we'll need to clarify which version is in the MAC distribution and amend that as necessary.