Composers Desktop Project Forum

Soundshaper 6.4 has now been re-built and released as version 6.4.1.
Vn. 6.4 was withdrawn due to finding some serious bugs, which have hopefully now been fixed.
An update zip containing the revised Soundshaper.exe and a few documents can be downloaded here:
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/Soundshaper64UD.zip
Users should replace their existing Soundshaper.exe file with the new one.

The new version improves the loading of saved patches, described in a supplied document (see DOCS\Patch_Save+Load.pdf).
The various Patch-Load options can be summarised like this:
 • check "Include Sources" to auto-run the patch as saved
 • uncheck "Include Sources" to run it with different source(s)
 • check PatchPreview to see the patch before running it or choosing different source(s)

Version 6.4.1 also includes revised methods for copying and erasing files, which were introduced last December to accommodate WINE.

Please report any further bugs found, either through this forum or by email (see ensemble-software.net/links). Suggestions for improvement are also very welcome.

** UPDATE 10 JUNE **
Some progress in finding/ curing bugs - but one of these was also in vn6.3. So I've rebuilt 6.3.1 without this bug and now recommend users to download this file (6.3.1.1 June '25) instead, replacing their existing Soundshaper.exe. The links are still as above:
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/Soundshaper6.3Exe.zip
or
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/Soundshaper6.3.1Exe.zip

The bug concerned a soundfile being left open after editing in the graphic editor; it couldn't be erased without first exiting Soundshaper.

The revisions to loading patches, introduced in 6.4, will be revised next, with the fully revised program hopefully available within a week.

Thanks for the video screenshots - very helpful. You're not really doing anything wrong, but I wonder what the Soundshaper version is?

Your PVOC conversion is displaying  channels=1 for stereo files, but is naming the files correctly with channelised extensions (_c1.ana and _c2.ana). Unfortunately the preview hasn't picked this up and is looking for a file names without these extensions (see the error message), so it crashes from there on.   

I tried CROSS in Soundshaper 6.3 and later without problems, after doing explicit PVOC conversions as you have (channels = 2 after conversion). Soundshaper doesn't normally need explicit PVOCs and you could try just going straight to the CROSS process having selected your 2nd file. But clearly there was a bug there and if your version is up-to-date, that may still be another one for me to sort out...   Let me know and I'll look into it.

(How did you do the video, by the way?)

For Varibank, you want a datafile something like this:
0.00  110 -3dB   220 -3dB   330 -3dB   440 -3dB   550 -3dB 660 -3dB
that is:
time Freq1 Amp1  Freq2 Amp2 etc. - all in one line (even if that overspills in your text editor. don't put a carriage-return there)
The notes here are the first 6 harmonics of A1 (just below the bass clef), so those are in just intonation (!): the equal-tempered C# is 554.37, not 550.

This is for Varibank Mode 1 - filter bands as frequency - for Mode 2 (MIDI) the numbers could be:
0.00  45 -3dB   57 -3dB   64 -3dB  69 -3dB   73 -3dB 76 -3dB
which are equal tempered, though you can have fractional MIDI values, e.g. 550Hz is MIDI 72.863.

Each line begins with a time value in seconds, and values are interpolated between each pair of lines. If you don't want pitch glissandi, insert a copy of the previous line with a time value just below your next set of values, like this:
Time
0.00 .... first set
0.0999 ... copy
1.00... second set

In the above, -3dB works quite well, but you need to adjust it as required.

* * * *
Thinking of just intonation again, what value might you give a C#, relative to a C? Would it be the pure-3rd of an A, itself a pure 3rd up from an F (2/3 of C), or maybe a Db (a fifth down from an Ab, a pure-3rd down from the C?)

Hi,
These are CDP error messages. The "shift/respace with formants" (CDP: specfnu modes 13,14 and 19) clearly have some pitch-extraction built in (I didn't know this), so as to be able to shift formants, and CDP is saying it can't find a valid pitch with your particular sound. I tried previews with a speech sound and a violin sound and these 'errors' didn't appear; the processing worked fine.

No need to do an explicit PVOC conversion in Soundshaper - it does it for you behind the scenes. The only exception I would recommend is: if saving a patch that has a spectral file at the end of the process chain, then follow this with a PVOC SYNTH before saving.
   

I think you're referring to CDP's FILTER BANK 6, which tunes filters in equal intervals of so-many semitones. I would expect these to be in equal temperament (though the CDP documentation doesn't clarify this). If they were in just intervals, you could soon end up with some pretty "unjust" tunings: for example 3 equal-tempered thirds coincide with the octave, whereas 3 just 3rds piled up give slightly less (125/64 = 1.953125 instead of 2.0).

If you want to set your own frequencies, check out FILTER VARIBANK, which uses a text table of frequencies (or MIDI notes) and amps. You can easily load a text file of frequencies tuned to whatever you want. This is one of CDP's most powerful tools (in my opinion), and it's time-varying.

Hi,
Yes, the search function in SoundThread (typing in name) is very clever - I haven't a clue how this is done, so I'm afraid it's not in Soundshaper.
* * * * *
Frequency Shift is called Strange Shift in CDP, documented under Spectral. (https://www.composersdesktop.com/docs/html/cstrange.htm#SHIFT)

It's in the Soundshaper Menu: Spectral > Pitch/Frequency > Shift > Shift Frequencies, grouped with the related functions from Specfnu (so Spectral > Pitch/Frequency > Shift > Shift / replace with formants) i.e. specfnu modes 13, 14 and 19. (https://www.composersdesktop.com/docs/html/cspecfnu.htm#FREQSHIFT etc., see mode list on left)

All these functions can unfortunately produce unwanted artefacts (depending on the source and settings). This seems especially true of Specfnu (which was probably geared towards speech). I understand that the wavelet transform is cleaner than PVOC in this respect, but that is not available in CDP.

* * * * *
Process Table:
Thanks for reporting the missing Process Table for 'Data' - I'll fix the link in the next version. I personally never use these tables and wonder if they're used at all. Any thoughts on this from users would be welcome.

Robert     

Hello,
That's correct. You will lose the 6.4 added functionality for a time (until I re-construct it) but hopefully you will not have these patch-loading problems now. But I will be checking all these aspects very carefully, which is why I felt a temporary downgrade was better than attempting a quick fix. The missing functionality is 1) no balance option in Previews 2) some changes to Loading patches, especially when the saved source is not included / or no source has been saved.

Hi,
I tried your patch in Soundshaper 6.4 and 6.3. There were two issues. In 6.4, the patch didn't load all the files, so it didn't have the necessary parameter files (.prm). I may have changed the way these files were copied; I'll need to check the coding here. In 6.3 it loaded fine, but failed on FLTVARI and the 2nd SPEED, because the subfolders A_3 and A_4, which should have contained their .brk files, were empty. Again this may be caused by changes in the the way files were copied. They were altered to accommodate running Soundshaper under WINE and appeared to work at the time, but were probably not fully tested. I'll be looking into this more fully before releasing another version. I'm sorry you've had such a bother with this issue, but you've helped to unearth some bugs and I'm very grateful for this.
Robert

Hi,
Thanks for sharing your patch files. Meanwhile, please note that I have had to withdraw the present version (6.4), as I've discovered a very serious bug in it. See my Announce post today. Whether this will cure the problems you've found remains to be seen, but I'll run your patches and see what I find.

I take your point about the old tutorial patches and will update those soon.
Robert

I have found a fundamental bug in Soundshaper 6.4 and have decided to withdraw this version. Do not use it! The bug affects editing and erasing files under certain circumstances.

Users who still have version 6.3 should use that instead. Others should download version 6.3 here:
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/Soundshaper6.3Exe.zip
The replacement Soundshaper.exe should be copied into users' existing Soundshaper6 folder, replacing the previous Soundshaper.exe file.

A previously unpublished version (6.3.1, Dec. '24) supporting WINE is also available:
https://www.ensemble-software.net/downloads/Soundshaper6.3.1Exe.zip
Unless Soundshaper is being run via WINE, there would be no point in using this version.

It is hoped to release a new version (6.4.1) as soon as possible, once the functionality added from 6.3 to 6.4 has been re-instated and re-tested.

My apologies to all Soundshaper users for this inconvenience.

Some further tests have shown there probably IS a bug in LOAD PATCH. I loaded a sound and did a preview and render, then cleared the patch grid. When I clicked LOAD to load another patch, the "patch not cleared" message came up and the old source was still there in TEMP. The patch ran OK, but with the old source! (I think "Include source" was checked, for the patch.)

I then decided to repeat all this, but the old source wouldn't re-load (because it was still in TEMP) and Windows wouldn't let me delete it manually ("file in use"). To fix this would mean shutting down the program and then deleting the file.

I'll investigate this further and issue a program update when I think it's sorted.
 

Quote from: Vasilakis on June 05, 2025, 10:44:24 AMthere are indeed some weird folders in TMP named "~X_4" and "~X_11". There are also various .bat files like getenv and mixmany.

getenv.bat and mixmany.bat should not have a preceding tilde (~). Don't delete those. ~X_4 and ~X_11 folders are from your previews. I'll check my mechanism for clearing those -- Windows traditionally wanted folders cleared of their contents before you delete the folder, but now there is a more direct way, which I hope the program is using.

About your side note on .brk and text files:
some are supplied empty (delaytimes is a good example, because the program can't predict what times you will want). You have to edit this data yourself. Similarly, many .brk file defaults are just "skeletons" so the graphic editor has something to load. You're quite right to edit these defaults and save the results for your own use. No need to re-load the defaults.

Hi again,

I ran my version of your patch successfully on another PC which has different paths, but that wasn't an issue in this case. You can download it here: https://1drv.ms/f/c/c99eb976df17b95e/Eodc8wmPlrVLuG2WhHRyjAQBNpGpwUficKOGx8EBx0uEFA?e=2vzXbP
 
Unzip PatchJun4.zip somewhere and copy the .ssp file and its associated folder (Vasilakis) to your PATCHES folder - see Settings if you're not sure where that is.

I hope it will run OK on your system. If not, please report back.
Robert

Hi,

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience for your first attempt to load a Soundshaper patch. Thank you for giving such a detailed account of what happened.

The problem was with the message you got that "previous patch files may not all be cleared". The program checks to see if there are files in the TEMP folder that would stop the patch loading properly, and it found something - and the patch failed. (The report window rubbish was CDP's responses and should not be taken too seriously.) I'm puzzled as to why there seemed to be no parameter file (.prm) for REVERB (it would need that, which is why the parameter page didn't work), but that's not the main issue here.

1) Were there actually any temporary files left in the TEMP folder? - these have a tilde (~) as their first character. If Windows fails to delete these (it does occasionally), the workaround is to open the folder and delete them yourself, not through Soundshaper. I suggest you try this check.

2) Or maybe my CheckPatchCleared function (which triggers that messsage) has some faulty logic - I can't see it, but will work on that, anyway. However, the message is only a warning, so I think this was not the problem.

3) I recreated a patch similar to your one (Source-Reverb-Speed-FiltVari-Speed) and it ran OK. I actually tried to crash this patch (and trigger the message) by leaving a different source file (~A_0.wav) in my TEMP folder, but this didn't stop the patch loading correctly, with its own source. Unfortunately I can't share the patch, as it uses paths specific to this machine.


Hope this may help a little.
Robert