TMP folder causing crashes in Soundshaper

[sleestack]

I have to stop some tasks to even delete temp audio files. It freezes up soundshaper all the time. I dont know what is going on

[sleestack]

TMP meaning Temp file.

[Robert Fraser]

Soundshaper writes a batch file to run a CDP command; if the CDP process hangs (as opposed to generating an error message -- its normal response) there could be an apparent freeze (although there is a workaround for this). Another possible reason would be if you were not running the program as Administrator -- Windows then doesn't seem to allow any files to be written so there would be a hang. You say "crash" and "all the time": can you expand on these at all?  Is the outfile actually being written (as a complete playable file, not an empty shell)?

[sleestack]

I noticed the temp folder is read only.
I will try an recreate the issue, but i suspect it is admin problems. Im a linux user but this is new to me in windows

[Robert Fraser]

It may be a Windows admin issue,  but I notice that the TEMP folder on this computer (Win10, 64-bit) is also marked as Read-Only ("Only applies to files in folder" -- whatever that means!) and Soundshaper works fine on this system (the outfiles are not read-only, incidentally).

I'd recommend some standard checks:
1) Check the SETTINGS, especially the paths for the TEMP folder and the CDP programs folder, and update as necessary.
Make sure there are no spaces in either path.
2) Use a bog-standard 16-bit source wav (there are some .wav varieties that CDP doesn't recognise), and maybe mono, just to be sure.
3) After selecting the source, check that it was copied OK to the TEMP folder and is playable (either in Soundshaper or another program).
4) Run a simple command like VIBRATO (Modify Speed 6), using 'normal' parameter values.
5) If this hangs, did the batch file get written to TEMP OK? (Should be ~A_1.bat if source was ~A_0.wav in row A).
6) Did the outfile get written (~A_1.wav), as a playable file? (CDP first creates a file and then writes to it, so a file of 0 bytes might have been created).
7) If the process runs OK, then Soundshaper/CDP is basically working on your system. We would then need to find a specific instance of a hanging/crashing CDP program, which could indicate a flawed batch script or CDP issues.

[sleestack]

is there a terminal for windows 10 that will spit out all the stuff the program is doing under the hood? So i can put up a text file?

[sleestack]

I was trying to go through your steps, but for now i want to show an error i get a lot

"WARNING: Outputfile C:\cdpr7\TEMP\~A_1.wav not found"

This happens after i make adjustments to the roomreverb process. Sometimes it happens with other processes.

[sleestack]

Im using the count wav file provided by cdp

[Robert Fraser]

Thanks for your replies.  The count sound should be OK. The warning message "<filename> not found" is just Soundshaper's message that the CDP program appears not to have worked. For most processes, a CDP error message will also normally be displayed, provided there is one.  Roomverb is working on my Win10 machine, both with mono and stereo inputs, and it does produce error messages (e.g. for room size= -1).

Have you checked the paths in Settings, as I mentioned above?  -- especially the temp folder and more importantly that the CDP programs folder is correct? Also that you actually have rmverb.exe in there? (note the spelling, not roomverb). [I know these checks sound obvious but they're the cause of most problems that have arisen in the past.]

It is possible to set up a terminal (command window) in Windows to run either single command lines or a batch file, including the one Soundshaper assembles (e.g. ~A_1.bat in your rmverb example; this should be in your TEMP folder.)  For the command line, the Soundshaper batch files currently name the in/outfiles in a non-friendly way (e.g. rmverb  %2_%3.wav  %n%_%o%.wav 1 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 5),  but you can amend this to something more obvious like count.wav (in) and countvb.wav (out). (You can't run these batch files "as is", unfortunately, without knowing the arguments that are being passed to the batch.)

There is more than one way of setting up a CDP terminal, but mine is to copy CMD.exe from the Windows folder to the TEMP file and then write and run a simple batch file (CDP.bat) which I also place in the TEMP folder:

REM cdp.bat for Release 7.0
echo off
PATH E:\CDP\cdpr7\_cdp\_cdprogs
SET CDP_SOUND_EXT=wav
cls
echo ***********************   COMPOSERS   DESKTOP   PROJECT   **********************

The PATH statement should lead to your CDP programs folder; mine is on drive E:, but yours may be somewhere else. In fact this folder can be anywhere unless you're running Soundloom, which expects the directory structure \_cdp\_cdprogs.

To run this, launch the terminal from the taskbar (right-click on the CMD.exe icon and select Pin to Taskbar) and type "CDP" (for "CDP.bat").

Back to your specific issues, I'd still like to know if VIBRATO runs OK or not! Also, I feel you may be better pursuing this directly with me by e-mail (rob@ensemble-software.net). I'll be happy to post the solution here when we find it: there is one!

[sleestack]

It seems to work. I'll keep an eye out for issues and post here when they happen. I cant remember what i did last week  :-/

Here is my Temp folder after applying vibrato

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00949599721306079870

[Robert Fraser]

Sounds good. It's quite possible that the scripting for a particular class of processes has a minor fault -- you'll appreciate that because of the sheer size of CDP, a bug might go undetected in tests.  Another (more likely?) possibility is CDP's own reaction to certain inputs: lengths, levels, number of windows, even frequency ranges. (A simple example is FILTER VARIBANK - a wonderful program if you do the work to ensure no harmonic will crash the Nyquist boundary.) Some comments in this forum about defective documentation have to be seen against this background. 

Anyway, do report any specific malfunction and we can get it sorted.