Amberwolf

So far, it has. I'll letcha know if that changes. I'll test the new ones shortly. EDIT: several hours later, I didn't get that done yet; I was still playing with that test project, which now has it's own thread since it's going to be a real project track for sure now. The first set of 32bit ones (that crash on the main machine) also crash the same way on the spare laptop with a clean setup of SONAR 32 bit. Presumably the same crashdump info, but I can post that if you can use it. Hardware and OS version are the same as the main laptop. Neither has the bloatware usually preinstalled on these, thankfully they came fairly cleanly setup, and on the test laptop I just did the default install for SONAR and the patches (other than making sure it's still in the PF folder rather than PF x86, mostly to make it easier for me to find things as I'm used to looking there, and to ensure compatiblity with the few ancient things I have that don't know about the x86 version of the folder path and don't work with it (which might be why I used the regular PF in the first place--it's been so long I don't remember). The DS_Test version that works on the main one also works on the spare laptop. I'll test the new ones on both, too. A thought: Are there any services that gdiplus.dll depend on? I have a bunch of services set to manual or outright disabled, to greatly speed up the computer and reduce glitches in recording and playback from them doing things I don't need to ever happen.... It doesn't seem to work for me, but I don't recall that feature in the ancient SONAR I have. I only have the freeze option (there aren't any rendering ones, other than exporting a selection to an externally saved audio file). If I drag the audio to a midi track, it just sits there as an audio clip and the track doesn't do anything with it. Would be a great function to have, though, so glad they added it somewhere along the line. I'll see if I can install CbB on the test laptop since it doesn't have anything to break yet, and then see if this can do what I'm after. But I suspect it won't without more extra work, because the synth sounds I am usually using don't always make exactly the same sound, volume, pitch, etc., (even with effects off) with different notes (number or length) being input, which is part of why I use them this way--they don't sound so mechanical. (they do make the same output for the same input data, making them repeatable, just not with different input data). So unless I use a patch that just makes like a sinewave at the same amplitude for whatever velocity input, regardless of any other note input or control info, any audio to midi conversion will give different velocity (and probably pitch) output than what I actually input, even without the internal arp running. I'll have to test to see. FWIW, There is an option in the audiosnap toolbar to create a midi frle from the audio, but it won't convert the pitches, just the timing and velocity. I wish CAL still worked reliably; I could probably figure out how to make or adapt a CAL to do this, but I was never good at it anyway. 😊 While it's a thought, and is worth a try anyway: For me, VVocal tends to crash projects, and doesn't seem to work on anything longer than a second or two (usually because of a crash, sometimes it just doesn't read the clips correctly or completely). It may be able to do this kind of conversion, but it would have to be done (and then checked to make sure it's correct) in lots of very short segments, probably hundreds of them; I'm not sure it would save me much work. Yeah, there are a lot of arp plugs, some of them with synths in them, etc., but... The old SONAR I've got doesn't support VST MIDI *output* stuff AFAICT. (it doesn't appear to even support feeding the onscreen controls from VST that have outputs for those back to the tracks to record automation from...if it's supposed to, then I must be doing it wrong--I wanted to use that function to save the live changes to Nerds.de's DelayLama VST some years back, and found I couldn't, though Nerds said DL supports doing it). If it does support it and I figure out how , then as long as the VST arp will output MIDI to a MIDI track that I can then record (or bounce, etc), to get me the final actual notes that a synth would play from "two arps in series" (functionally how what I am doing works), then that would accomplish my goal of getting a fully editable track full of notes. I'll poke around at it and see what I'm missing to try to get the VST MIDI plug(s) to work, on the spare test laptop setup.

Thanks! This specific piece is one of the ones I'm more proud of than the others; it turned out a lot better than it's original, linked below. https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14566886 But that original abandoned idea did turn out to be usable to make this one from, which is why I save everything I play in, even if it feels like garbage. Sometimes it won't become a song on it's own, but I may borrow bits out of it to complement a song that doesn't have enough to complete it or is missing that one thing somewhere. The cover art, other than the lettering (done in MSpaint), was each a few hours of fighting with google's AI Test Kitchen to get it to do things that vaguely resemble what I was after. None of them are what I really wanted, but it would take me at least a month (if I didn't have a dayjob) to create even one of the ones I did get, doing it myself in GIMP or similar programs. AI doesn't "understand" anything, and the google stuff doesn't do iterative creation where you can tell it to make changes to an existing result and re-generate it. Instead it completely generates a new thing even if you just change one tiny word (or often, none at all), even if you lock the "seed" number in it's settings. (there is an edit function, but all you can do with that is give it a round spot to mark where you want change to happen, then tell it the change, then it really crappily shoves something else that's not what you told it in there, in a much worse editing style than even I had when I first started working with paint programs back in the 90s. But if you try long enough, eventually it can give you something close enough to what you want to be able to use, if you are not picky about details (like having five or six limbs, or three eyes, or instruments with 3 strings or keyboards pointing the wrong way to be able to be played, or cellos being played with drumsticks and vice-versa. 😆 The stuff I used to do myself in paint programs was like this, but I just don't have time for it anymore. (the moon and columns I created in TrueSpace2, and the nebula and exploding star were separate images from Hubblesite, IIRC; all blended together in PaintShopPro4).

Been poking at the test project tonite between involuntary naps, and CSHumanize hasn't crashed it yet; I have it in at least three MIDI tracks running live. I also used it a number of project versions back to destructively live humanize the original synth clip by using LoopBe MIDI loopback to record the output of the track full of that clip to a second track feeding the synth. (then I turned the synth's own up/down arp on to see how it might sound, and it was interesting so I left it in place, too). Then I began editing out notes in various measures of the resulting recorded clip to make it more like a played part than a loop; it's somewhat interesting at this point and will probably become a "real" song. So whatever you did to this plugin, doing it to the others would probably make them work too. 👍 Didn't get the other laptop setup to test yet though. For the curious, this is what this plugin has helped me create so far https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14844484

Thanks! Funny about how you've said it sounds, because the pipe/wind sound is a synth (Rapture), originally starting out as a patch called "Analog Nights", IIRC. I've had to futz around quite a bit with the step sequencers for pitch and amp in each of the E1-3 parts, and generate several separate tracks from it, in order to get those parts as far along as they are. The fancy flute/pipe sounding part starting around five minutes in is mostly just really short notes to play only the inital synth attack. Most of the rest plays most or all of the sequence, some of it has the first part muted and plays the rest. I'm not perfectly happy with the results of all that work, but...for now, it is what it is. There will be a future version that will use MiniDizi's Chinee Winds patch for certain bits, either to replace or to augment, but I haven't done all the work to get that sounding right yet. There are three "drummers"; one is a regular drumkit (built out of the MisfitKit rebussed and panned with various fx on the channels, with some added specific drumsample bits like Moon Tambourine), and the other main drums are from one of DimensionPro's patches. I don't know which specific drums they are, but I think they are one or more of the type such as doumbeks, darbukas, dofs, tars, doiras, bendirs riqs, djembes, etc. There are some sections that also use some taiko; I don't know which of the taiko they are (these are audio clips in a track that I edited for various hits and such, out of four long buildups from a free "cinematic" sample library from somewhere. I have several times more work in the percussion than the rest of it; I'm trying to learn how to build different kinds of "cinematic scenes"; how to evoke different feelings. I'm sure I still have a long way to go....half of it is timing, half of it is tempo (which I am still learning how to use at all, much less effectively, partly because I hate the way the tempo view works), and half of it is which sounds when. There's another patch that I called Electronicalized Banjo in my track but it's actually Z3TA2+ Edgy Baritone XS...depending on where it is in the song, what octave it's played in, and what else is going on, it can sound banjoey or synbassy, etc. It's the picked lead in the various sections, like in the initial "appalachian (?) chase" section and the "middle eastern chase" sections later on. The strings are the Detache patch from SI Strings, minus any patterns SI tries to use with them. The two basslines are different Z3TA2+ patches; don't recall which ones.

Besides, how can a walking carpet shed on itself? 😛

Here's a plugin request that woudl save me days or even weeks of work in a lot of projects. (maybe something like this already exists, but I don't know about it) A "merge" plugin that the user can point to a midi file (or a clip on a track if that's easier) that then takes the notes played in a track that are used to play an arp in a synth (that this same MIDI file was the arp pattern for), and generates the MIDI output that the synth would have "seen" internally. Meaning, if a track just has long whole or quarter notes (etc) of whatever note values (single or chords, etc), then the plugin would play the arp pattern notes loaded into it in those values. So I could put the plugin into the clip FX bin, apply MIDI FX on the clip (or track fx bin and apply to track, etc, though I don't usually do it that way because I want some notes unarped). This is because I want to use, for instance, the Z3TA arp to play it from in the initial inspiration and clip recording stage, but when editing I need access to the individual arped notes to change the note played, or their length, or even position, or even leave some out entirely. Can't do that until I have the arp pattern as clips on the track...but to do that I have to stick the arp pattern on the track, then I have to manually change the pitch of each note in the pattern to match the notes I played, which is very tedious and has few shortcuts available, and takes a long time. Does this sound like anything you've already seen in a plugin, or something you'd be interested in making? If my description is insufficient I can try to come up with a better one. By it's I/O nature, it would also be an arp plugin, and so it could have the other types of controls such a plugin has, perhaps also including an editing screen for the pattern (but I'd be happy enough to do that part in a SONAR track like I already do, then export to a file I can then load in, as I already do). (Yes, ancient SONAR has a per-track arp I can load MIDI files into, but it doesn't (properly, or at all, don't recall which) obey the velocities on the arp patterns loaded, and only uses the static velocity set in it (dunno if that was intended or a bug, but it makes it unable to do what I need). )

THAT worked. No crash yet, been playing with it for 15-20 minutes at least (got lost in music 😊 ). Inserted normally, GUI works. Loaded up the first MIDI file that came up for import, an old arp pattern I'd made for zeta, and played with the GUI more, but cant' hear what's happening so.... inserted Z3TA2+, hit the dice on a patch, turned the arp off in the patch, and routed this track to it. turned the arp clip into a loop and dragged it out a lot of measures. Hit play, and...it sounded kinda cool, so I played with the humanize settings (all the sliders enabled) until it was just on the stiffer side of non-mechanical. inserted the SI drums and clicked the first preset (aggressive) just to have something to hear it against, and it got cooler. Bypassed cshumanize, and could clearly hear the difference, so it's working. So now I guess the question is...why doesn't my SONAR init the gdiplus, while yours does? Any ideas I can test without risk of breaking my setup? (my guess is it has to do with the ancient Win10 version, but that's not something I can fix on this setup). I still have to setup SONAR on the spare laptop and test there, anyway--this should give some sort of comparison. Won't happen tonight, but maybe tomorrow after work. (or more likely after my first nap after work, and after the Schmoo-monster claims her playtime).

A thought related to graphics: My laptop's built in display is too small for me to read (yeah, don't get old), so I use a big external monitor. Because the connectors on the side of the laptop failed years ago, I use an external USB DisplayLink box (by Targus, I think, but the drivers are all by DisplayLink for all of these things). Is there a chance that the display drivers could cause this? If so, I can get SONAR setup on the spare laptop (which has it's built in stuff still working); that has never had the displaylink connected to it so has no dl software. AFAIK it still has the same win10 version this one does; whatever was factory back then.

Unfortunately that didn't fix the crash. The log is attached. But just to confirm, yes, that is the version of gdiplus.dll on my system. I realize your plugins just *look* like the Cakewalk originals in style, and are not coded like them....but my broken brain seems to be trying to tell me something. I can't tell what it is yet, since different parts of my brain sometimes don't talk to each other, but...i'll post it if I figure it out. I think they were coded in MFC rather than VS (I don't really know the difference, if there even is one). SONARPDR.exe.7684.dmp.zip

No change. Here's the dump for CSMIDIModulator, if it's helpful. SONARPDR.exe.5780.dmp.zip In the meantime, while I'm figuring out how to setup the spare laptop to debug stuff, would a procmon system monitoring file be useful, run during the crash? They're likely to be very large; even just a few seconds of just 32bit processes (excluding 64bit) is about 70mb.

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I don't know Holst's The Planets well enough to know if any of the arranging/etc was changed (Variorum will have to answer that part), but if not, then the original was created by Gustav Holst a little over a century ago (before movies with sound existed ). It has been used in some films/videos, however, including a visually well-made BBC series about the solar system. https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/the-planets If it's helpful, this page has more info on the suite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets and this google has links to various orchestrations and performances of it. https://www.google.com/search?q=gustav+holst+mars .

I didn't think to try the originals, but I'll do that now. Space isn't a problem for the spare laptop; ATM it basically just has Windows on it, and a few utility programs. it's windows10 can't be updated either, but in it's case it is because the updates always fail (even starting from a fresh Lenovo factory restore), and it ends up stuck in a loop trying to install, reboot, fail, install, reboot, etc, so I had to disable the ability to update, and because that's only temporary on 10home, I can't trust it to stay connected to a network. So I'll have to do the downloading with the other machine for an "offline install" (if it has that option), then put the install files on the spare machine and let it go. (yeah, nothing is ever easy)

As you expected, the VCredistributable didn't change anything. Is there anywhere to get just the specific debug libraries? According to the MS page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/install-visual-studio?view=vs-2022 individual components can be installed, rather than the whole thing, so if you know which specific component I need to just do the debugging part, I can install those (as long as it isn't something that could break the computer--if it's possible to break something, I'll use the spare laptop instead).

It is almost certainly hot, especially in the bass...I found I accidentally had two instances of VX-64 Vocal Strip in the big giant morphing bass soundtrack (one in the track fx bin, and one in the bass buss fx bin), both set to Bass Blaster preset. 😊 For curiosity, since I don't see any red meter markers or clip indications on the master bus (or any other tracks/busses) from SONAR itself, I setup EAS Inspector on the master bus, and in the default or moderate modes, it doesn't show any clip incidents (says I have 0.1db headroom on both L & R), so the distortion must be before then, and kept from clipping in the later parts of the chain by one of the compressors or limiters after the distortion happens. I usually use the Sonitus Multiband as a limiter by bypassing all the bands and just turning on the limit, then setting the master gain on it for the max output I want a track to have; of the few working limiters I have this process seems to give the best results so far. ** I have to disable one of them and rerender the track and repost it; I'll make a post here when that's done. (it will replace the original version on the Bandcamp page, so you won't be able to A/B them, unfortunately. I don't make new BC pages for each song version because it would fill my site fast that way, and make it hard for people to see what is really there. So I just keep the latest version in each song page, and just add version numbers in the song notes on the page so if someone remembers they listened to it on a certain date and liked it better then than now I can go back to the version that was there then to provide it to them, but so far that has never happened. *** It probably is repetititititve in places; I often have issues with my variations not being sufficiently varied for others to listen to.**** Like most of my tracks, it's still a work-in-progress (though I don't know when I will be able to get back to it, at present I am working on Ookami no Kami no Yume (Wolf's Dream of a Hunt). https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/81204-ookami-no-kari-no-yume-wolfs-dream-of-the-hunt/ **I can't install new VSTs because if I run the VST adapter scan in any mode, (ancient SONAR) it breaks existing working plugins for no reason, and then I have to restore the previous registry entries....if I could find out what the VST IDs were for new plugins, I could probably hack them into the registry manually. I've tried many solutions over the years but nothing works. The only way for me to use new things is to host them outside SONAR and use a virtual audio cable between them.

The files are definitely unzipped from the debug.zip file. If I use the windows context menu (possibly from 7zip?) extract function on the DLL itself it extracts into various files and folders that are parts of the DLL internals, so when they show up as the CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll and CSWaverDS32_D.dll they are as unzipped as they can get and still be used. The command that I run on them using the sendto menu works on anything else that is a registerable (or unregisterable) dll file (not all of them can be), and has worked for other manual registering/etc I have done so far in this process for previous files. (and is how I normally do this for various MFX and DX effect / DXi synth install / uninstall or temporary troubleshooting). So it *should* work on these, as well; the results I get aren't those of a failure of the registration process but rather of a file that can't be registered / doesn't have the parts the regsvr32 program is looking for. 😕 Just in case, I used Windows Powershell in admin mode, and this command line for each debug-version dll: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe CSWaverDS32_D.dll C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll with the same result as previously posted. "The module "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug\CSWaverDS32_D.dll" (or CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll) failed to load. Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files. The specified module could not be found." Same results if I add the .\ to the path that you use in the bat files for the other plugins. C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe .\CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll Same results if I force it to use the 64bit regsvr32 C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe CSWaverDS32_D.dll C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll I also tried editing your install_all.bat file for just these two, by removing the other files from it and leaving just these lines after the START section, also with the same result. regsvr32 .\CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll regsvr32 .\CSWaverDS32_D.dll I redownloaded the debug.zip file and reextracted it, both with the same end results, first using 7zip, then using the windows browser to see the contents of the zipped folder and copying/pasting the files in it to an uncompressed folder, in case it was a download or extraction fault. To be sure the files in the debug.zip are not being corrupted between you posting them and me downloading them, I've attached a new debug.zip file that contains the actual files as extracted on my system, along with my modified install_all.bat file. Anything else will have to wait till tomorrow, I've dozed off a few times typing this up so I hope I didn't miss any info you need. 😊 Faulty Debug.zip

That was my first computer, when I was in grade school, saving hand-typed BASIC programs on a cassette-tape drive. Unfortunately I lost most of my computer collection (and much more important things) in a housefire about 11 and a half years ago, so I don't have it or my Amigas, etc. anymore. I'm not sure you can fit much of a MIDI program (well, *any* program) in the kilobyte or so of ram I think it had (been a really long time, so can't say if that's anywhere near accurate 😊 Win10 64bit version 1511 build 10586.218 Machine is a Lenovo ideapad 300-17isk 64bit CPU Core i5-6200U @2.3ghz/2.4ghz 16gb ram The debug versions won't register using either 64 or 32bit process C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe filename.dll C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe filename.dll (These are in my SendTo folder and work normally with registerable dlls). with the message "The module "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug\CSWaverDS32_D.dll" (or CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll) failed to load. Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files. The specified module could not be found. Registering the previous 32bit version of either, then replacing it with the debug version (renaming the debug version to match the registered one), then starting SONAR and inserting either just gives the Missing Plugin dialog. Is there a different procedure for registering them that I can try?

If you want to experiment and generate a different version, this is the link to the AI test kitchen and the text used to get that output. https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/tools/image-fx/75ei259rog000 "Cartoon Green Zombie with missing teeth and brown hair wearing glasses playing keyboards and synths all wired together on various shelves with monitors showing sequencer software on a spaceship orbiting Mars in a huge viewscreen in the morning" Or I can do it, if you prefer, just tell me what to change in the description.

Ok, i couldn't doze off wihtout at least peeking...but they all crash on insert. Visually the same as the previous crash. Crashdump files in this archive (too big to attach here) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KnF3YCEfO1tg3pbNe-rNKYJS8NTjdJjg/view?usp=sharing Install went normally, though I did alter the install process very slightly. I'd already unregistered all of the previous versions (64 and 32 bit), but I ran the validators to verify none showed up in either one (true). Then before running either bat file, i looked at them to see what they would do, and noticed that the uninstaller's first line after START is regsvr32 /u .\CSAntiOverlap.dll then it has regsvr32 /u .\CSAntiOverlapDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSHumanizeDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSMidiModulatorDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSMultiCompanderDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSTransposeDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSWaverDS32.dll So i removed that first extraneous line as it isn't going to do anything (except maybe generate a not found error), and i removed @ECHO OFF from them and put pause at the end so it would hold the cmd window open for me to see any errors, in both bat files. (I can also copy/paste the output like this, if you need it). Then I ran the thus-modified installer bat file without errors, and the validators show no 64bit (as it should) and these for 32bit (edited down to just the ones relevant to this discussion) ******************** 32 Bit MidiFX ******************** PluginID: {0E1CF1D2-976F-4D42-BAA9-10360D222222} Name: CSMultiCompanderV2 Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSMultiCompanderDS32.dll PluginID: {220F4FF1-EC49-4FB4-8132-44E18105F76D} Name: CSWaver Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSWaverDS32.dll PluginID: {324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} Name: CSHumanize Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSHumanizeDS32.dll PluginID: {478566E2-A387-4310-B2FE-562EC7370349} Name: CSAntiOverlap Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSAntiOverlapDS32.dll PluginID: {7AC4F12E-E608-43F7-83F3-651F723B37E2} Name: CSTranspose Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSTransposeDS32.dll PluginID: {7D21059E-4536-4B98-B9C7-DAE443026565} Name: CSMidiModulator Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSMidiModulatorDS32.dll Opened SONAR, created a new blank file, added a MIDI track and maximized both it and the track view, and saved it as Viramor Test 1.cwp and closed SONAR (so it will be at the top of the MRU in the file menu, even if something goes wrong and SONAR crashes). Then I reopened SONAR and opened the blank project, and inserted the first of these MFX, and got the same (visually) kind of crash as with the original 32bit version of CSHumanize. I proceeded to do this again for each of the new versions of the MFX, as they show in the menu (alphabetically), and each crashed. So the crashdump file linked near the top of the post should have one crash for each one, in that order by date/time. (hopefully I correctly typed this up, I have dozed off several times writing this post)

Thank you. I am too wiped out from work to safely test them tonite; already dozed off a couple times (but I can never stay asleep, sometimes i get on the computer to get my mind out of the hamster wheel to doze off again); hopefully be able to start testing them tomorrow. I think, wihtout rechecking the feature lists, that the ones I would get the most use out of would be Humanize, Antioverlap (since the CALs don't work right past maybe SONAR 3 or 4?; I forget), MIDIEQ, Transpose, and possibly Waver. I'm sure I'll use the others for various things too, but those I have definite uses for. There's a few things the Modulator should be useful for (since drawing repetitive envelopes is kind of a PITA especially just to do a quickie modulation, like for a filter, etc, and envelopes can't be modulated by other envelopes....) BTW...I'll test for this, but can Antioverlap be used to *force* a specific overlap instead (for assorted legato / portamento / etc functions)? There are several patches (mostly on Z3TA2+) that act significantly different when the notes overlap just a bit vs not overlapping or overlapping too much); I used this feature in several places in Neotenous Chordata to cause filtering to occur and greatly change the sound of that part of the track, without having to otherwise do anything special to the patch or the track's contents, automation, etc. (can be done "live" if you can play well enough; I rarely can but a plugin would make that easy and much more fun). EDIT: It may be possible to use TC's MFX to do the specific overlapping after AO has done the unoverlap. have to try that at some point. Secondarily, can anything in AO be modulated externally? (i'm not sure how this would affect the various synths, but I am curious....)

Thanks--I will have to try out VSC. It just about has to be better than the arduino IDE, which has, for instance, several different places you must configure locations of things (and which you have to keep changing depending on the code, project, etc just to get stuff to compile).

Here's some cover art for your track If you don't like it I can remove it, but a whimsy struck me, and google has this AI art thingy (that sorta kinda does what you ask for, in a way), and I had MSPaint and a few sleepless minutes...

I like your hardware collection....(not any specific thing, just that there is so much of it all nice and setup for using).

Thanks for posting that--I googled 8dio, and found something I will have to save up the money for (all their sales seem to have just ended yesterday, of course the day before I found out they existed!); I love making vocal stuff (not necessarily with words) but was provided a useless uncontrollable and mediocre or worse voice by nature (you can hear it in a very few of my projects, post-massive manual adjustments and corrections inside SONAR; I'd name / link them but the rules say we're not supposed to in other people's threads?) ...anyway, these https://soundpaint.com/products/forgotten-voices-cait https://soundpaint.com/products/forgotten-voices-barbary https://soundpaint.com/products/terrie are what I *wish* I sounded like and would create music with. Unfortunately the way the site is setup, it doesn't really let you hear what individual stuff is available in it or how it "works", but the demos, assuming they were created using *only* that sound, indicate it would probably do at least some of what I want. (I've used the Gaelic Voices from LABS and some other free "operatic" samples plus Hunter Rogerson's free Spellsinger from the PianoBook website in one project that's in another thread here*** but none of them are really what I wanted; just what I had. ) I also like texturing instruments like the https://soundpaint.com/products/braahms-horn-generator ***I was just going to link to an existing thread here for it but it shows a huge preview of it; I just wanted to put a tiny unobtrusive link in there.

If only the IDE was designed properly to assist the user, rather than hinder.... Whoever came up with the overall layout / design needs to actualy be forced to use it. (I have a thing about bad UI design / layout / etc...i try not to rant but sometimes I have to fight to keep it in :blush: Few developers are interested in it). But yes, for the very little I have actually gotten to work, it *is* fun. Long ago I used to make scifi props for conventions, with all sorts of blinky lights and sounds...I actually began the concept of the Snuggles wolfy back then, but even the very basics of what I wanted to do were not within the reach of affordable hobbyist robotics. Only fairly recently did it become easily and affordably possible to do this sort of thing (assuming I had a clue with how to code it). My laptop is still a mechanical drive...I tried to upgrade to SSD but I can't get anything to clone it over (don't recall the specific errors; it's been a while), yet no testing (not even Spinrite) shows a problem with the drive or filesystem. (I was going to clone it both for the existing laptop and for the backup identical laptop, and put the mechanical away for an ultimate PnP backup device...so at the moment I have both the SSDs just sitting until I can come up with a solution). Even weirder, the software that comes with (on!) the SSD itself (from Samsung's factory) apparently isn't even designed to test, monitor, or clone anything to the SSD types, just the mechanical ones, and they don't supply anything that can. 😵