Composers Desktop Project Forum

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A previously unpublished version (6.3.1, Dec.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.

Hello,

I've downloaded and tried the patch scene you've prepared for me. It works perfectly, both with original "eight" voice source, and after replacing the sound.

That being said, my own save patch scene still has the abeforementioned problems, I mean, deletion of "~X_4" and "~X_11" folders do not have any impact (which, I guess, makes sense, as you say those were used for temporary files during previews). The only difference is that now SoundShaper doesn't talk about "previous patch files may not all be cleared" anymore, but all the other erros and behaviour remains the same (including "no .prm" warning etc.).

In case you would like to investigate my saved patch files if perhaps that way might give additional ideas to the problem, here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fyesv9fftR6hJTS7RTYgzfB2PlJELoX6/view?usp=sharing

From a quick glance, I have an impression that it looks a bit different to yours in the folder's and bat's contents.

EDIT:

While browsing PATCHES folder, I've noticed a text file listing various TUTORIAL patches. I've got interested and downloaded them from website. Interestingly, when I open them, behaviour is similar to my own "broken" patch, as in source file plays but further steps do now work, with more or less similar warning messages.

From what I understand, those tutorial patches were made in 2012-2013, though, intended for an older version of software. Meanwhile my patch was just done a couple of days ago, and of course I use SoundShaper 6.4 version.

That being said, I would like to suggest you update those tutorial patches for the current version of software (as perhaps there are other incompatibility problems with them), if possible - but, of course, after the solution to current situation will be reached.

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.
 

OK, as you were; the two lines in filters0.c (ca Line 241) needed to be moved up to the end of the previous if block (after the for loop). they are needed for the variable filter banks, but not the fixed options. I have updated git with this change. Trevor is "out of the office" for a week, so any revisions to this solution may be a while.
.

Thanks; but NB only partly. The proper solution will very probably be inside the code for filter itself, rather than in the library (in principle, any change there, even if ostensibly benign, would demand a full recompilation; and the hack I have suggested will also have the possible consequence of hiding other bugs that may be out there). For example, I am now wondering if the offending assignment in filters0.c is in fact spurious and can be deleted, as the index name used is cited in the relevant header file as specifically for time-varying filters, which does not apply here.

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.

Hello, thank you for investigating into my case.

I can't try out things at the moment, but I've checked what you mentioned and, well, it looks like there are indeed some weird folders in TMP named "~X_4" and "~X_11". There are also various .bat files like getenv and mixmany.

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

Thanks for the update Richard and for figuring out the issue!