Composers Desktop Project Forum

Hi
A lot of thanks for your great and effective support.
- The version is Soundshaper 6.4. Maybe I installed it wrong and some files are missing.

* you could try just going straight to the CROSS process having selected your 2nd file.
- This is the solution, this way it works perfect!

* (How did you do the video, by the way?)
- Yes, of course! The program is licecap from Reapèr:

https://www.cockos.com/licecap/

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.
   

Hello,

Thank you for reply, I've managed to found the process of "Shift" now, and thanks for mentioning that it has additional functions.

At first I've tried just the "shift frequences" process and it was easy to use, however when I switched to "shift/respace with formants" and tried to do a preview after small adjustments, I've got this error:

INFO: Extracting pitch contour.
ERROR: CANNOT ACHIEVE TASK:
ERROR: No valid pitch found.
ERROR: INVALID DATA
ERROR: Can't open file ~X_0.ana to read data.

I need to say that I've replaced the executable file for SoundShaper, so it's version 6.3 again. Did I miss some steps perhaps? Of course, I've did "analyse" conversion before doing "Shift" process.

Hi
What am I doing wrong?
I get this error when I click preview:

Soundshaper CDP Error. Preview Not possible .Ok
ERROR: INVALID DATA
ERROR: Can't open file ~X_-1.wav to read data.
ERROR: INVALID DATA
ERROR: Can't open file ~X_-1.ana to read data.

https://ibb.co/Nds7n75N

Hi Robert!
A lot of thanks for your help and for creating this awesome and creative software.
I don't know what the structure of the text file should look like?

C1 32.70 Hz
C#/Db1 34.65 Hz
D1 36.71 Hz

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.