Boom Recorder 8.3.0 release candidate

[takev]

I've been quite productive these last few weeks.

Anyway, I have been testing the sample and frame rate changes as best as I could. I had recorded a 24 fps timecode and played it back using my iPhone into my MOTU 828 MkII. This way I could slave it in such a way that I could test a "word clock" rate of 48000 Hz and 48048 Hz (by setting the MOTU to read time code at 23.98).

Then I recorded several files with different sample and frame rate settings and compared the timestamp in the audio file with a separate utility. I've also tested free running at a 48048 sample rate compared to the MOTU free running timecode, after an hour there was no visual deviation.

So now it is up to you, I would love to hear when anyone has been able to test a complete workflow with this version.

Cheers,

Take Vos

[aristotle_kumpis]

Take, is this still only available for OSX Lion?

[takev]

Yes, this is only available for OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. I am using features that were introduced in Lion.

[takev]

Here is a preview of 8.3.0-rc2. It has a playback timeline, where you can click to continue playing from that point in the recording. The vertical ticks are the minutes. This playback timeline only shows during playback.

Boom Recorder is still not a good way to play back audio, but it may add a bit more to the quality of life.

[takev]

I have updated Boom Recorder on my site to 8.3.0-rc2. It has the new playback line from the previous post.

It also has a new monitoring option which only monitors during record.

Another very big change is the removal of the retry counter. The retry counter was there because of filename collisions, this is now solved by appending a date and time when there is a collision. This also means that Boom Recorder will now go in record even if there is a filename collision, so much less aborts.

Oh and for people who have not made the jump to the Boom Recorder 8 series, I've reset the trial so you can test it for 30 days, also if you are already using version 7.

[JBucher]

Thank you for fixing the filename problem, Take!

[Tom Visser]

Is it better to purchase a license off of the Apple app store, or directly from your website? If we purchase on the app store, do we still get the ability to receive updated versions before they officially hit the store or try out beta versions?

[takev]

Hi Tom,

I think it is better to buy it from share-it. With the app-store it is a much longer process to update an app, it takes about a week, so I am much more careful with releasing new version. For example I can't release 8.3.0 on the App Store until a few people have confirmed it works well.

In short; if you want to receive early updates, than you should buy via share-it.

I also believe I made the AppStore version a little bit more expensive; since Apple takes a larger cut than share-it.

Cheers,

Take

[takev]

New day, new version, 8.3.0-rc3 has a new incident-report window. Instead of emailing directly it will create an .zip file containing a lot of interesting files:

- A screenshot of each window of Boom Recorder, even ones that are not visible on the screen.

- Information about the exact version of Boom Recorder.

- The preferences file.

- The log file of the current run of Boom Recorder

- Some notes you may give about the problem.

- A crash file if Boom Recorder crashed (you have to select the file, but you are directed to the location)

- The first 1MB of any file you select, this is useful for corrupt audio files where I only need to see the header, not the audio file itself.

Then you can send the .zip file as an attachment to support@vosgames.nl when you get to a computer that has internet. Which before was difficult since Boom Recorder wanted to send an email.

This is one of the changes that was needed before I could sandbox Boom Recorder, which is a requirement for selling Boom Recorder on the AppStore, and it also increases security slightly. This version is of Boom Recorder is now completely sandboxed, which means you will need to give the location of the audio folders again, since they are reset to the Music/Boom Recorder folder.

Next on my list for doing MIDI, wait for it... control.

[ccsnd]

what are the odds of eucon support? Is there a Eucon converter to midi?

[takev]

MIDI control is difficult enough already, I got the MIDI messages inside Boom Recorder now. Now I need to parse those messages, create a preference panel to assign MIDI messages to controls. And then of course get those messages to control something.

MIDI control is sort of the last things on my list in this burst of productivity, I am planning to go back to work on my game.

[ccsnd]

can I control your game through HUI?

[takev]

I am afraid my game will be controlled with keyboard and mouse, and if you're lucky a joystick.

[Eric Lamontagne]

Boom Recorder is still not a good way to play back audio, but it may add a bit more to the quality of life.

Thanks Take, the timeline is a good workaround!

Eric

[Tom Visser]

I was wondering Take, what was your intention with respect to MIDI control of Boom Recorder? Was it just to provide transport control or are you thinking of adding a mix engine of some sort?

[takev]

Hello Tom,

My plan is in the far future to add a mix-engine of some sort, however I am currently working on just transport controls and maybe a few other features.

However the mix stuff that is currently in Boom Recorder is not yet ready for this, since the attenuation knobs in the patch bay do not smoothly change, so you would hear little ticks in the audio if you change them.

But the patch-bay needs to be changed anyway, since the configuration file of Boom Recorder is now 1 or 2 megabytes, mostly due to storing all those values.

[Tom Visser]

Hi Take,

I just purchased the PRO license, upgrading from version 7.

A couple of notes / requests... The MIDI stuff is intriguing. If for example some day you did add a mixing facility, I could imagine a scenario where I'd have the choice of using a full cart with a hardware mixer in front, like normal, or a possible "light cart" which would consist of a laptop and a simple MIDI controller, like a BCF2000 or the like. If you could also add AUX send controls to that, it would be quite wonderful. Getting back to present day...

1) I would love it if I could control the width of the meters myself, so that when running full screen, I can make the meters physically line up with my board's channel strips. Even being able to spot the position of the status window would be nice, so it could go to the right side instead.

2) For things like stereo ambiences, if the Patch Bay allowed you to gang adjacent channels together into stereo, that would be useful. Record enabling / routing to files would just have single block associated with the stereo channel so I can easily enable or disable the channel with a single click. On the meters, the stereo channel would show up as a single width meter but with two smaller meters inside much like how Pro Tools handles multi-channel tracks including surround... speaking of surround, not that I record surround, but maybe someone else would like to? I mean it's really just an aesthetic change, not really changing the sound engine.

3) Speaking of MIDI control on a more pedestrian level, I would feel that transport control would be the single most useful thing to see first. The next thing would be able to record arm or disarm tracks, I guess even the more limited HUI protocol should be able to handle this fine. It would also be useful to be able to pan between outputs for a confidence monitor. In such a case, I can send a confidence return monitor back to my mixer and be able to dynamically setup up a split ear mix of the different tracks by panning them across the 2 return channels. Even if it was limited to simple LCR panning rather than full panning, that would be fine I think. Panning a stereo channel would be alike a balance control, L solo - Stereo - R solo in an LCR situation.

In the event that you do enable a mix engine in the future, I would need to be able to load and store scene settings, so that I can quickly switch between drastically different setups.

[takev]

There are three important changes that need to be done before I can do all this.

1. A new way of storing mixing information in the preferences, I was shocked that my preferences file was 2 MB in size. This is normally fine, but when someone makes an incident report it is a large file to be send through email. I could store this information much more efficiently. First I thought of storing only the patches, then I thought of storing groups of patches.

2. A new user interface that allows setting of groups of patches, which is nice for stereo/suround sound groups, but imagine being one of my customers who has to manage over 200 channels. Then the groups could be controlled through MIDI control. I would need to make different kind of controls for master volume and panning, stereo width (Mid-Side), solo.

3. Replacing channel mixer in the sound engine. With the new patches it could work slightly more efficiently. Although now you would do live mixing; which requires smoothing out changes you make which will make it less efficiently. Luckily computers have become a bit faster since 7 years ago when this sound engine was developed to be efficient on a iBook G4.

However I have no idea when I will start work on this, after the first MIDI Control work, I think I will take a bit of a break from Boom Recorder to continue work on my game again.

[ccsnd]

The one without HUI control?

[takev]

With basic MIDI I mean being able to: record, stop, play, abort, and toggle record/stop.

The user interface allows you to select "learn" then you press the button on your MIDI device and then you can use that button for that control. If a button causes multiple MIDI messages the user interface allows you to select the correct one.

That is it, nothing more.

[takev]

Guess what? It is... wait for it... done.

MIDI Control is now in Boom Recorder, please check it out from my download site it is 8.3.0-rc4.

I had one customer for who it consistently crashes during startup (not during recording) if this happens to you, please send me a message so I have a better change of debugging the problem.

[takev]

I found the crashing bug, caused by the spectrum analyser channel selection field.

8.3.0-rc5 just fixes that.

[Tom Visser]

I found a relatively minor issue...

I'm running 8.3.0-rc5

If I select my Alesis Firewire interface, shutdown, remove the device, and then start back up, Boom Recorder can't find the Firewire interface, and then launches the Avid CoreAudio Manager (because I'm running PT10 Native), at which point if I try to quit the CoreAudio Manager, (I presume) Boom Recorder opens it back up and gets stuck in a loop that I can't get out of until OS X eventually throws an error message and shuts down Boom Recorder.

Avid CoreAudio Manager doesn't find any supported hardware, so no options to change anything when the app launches.

[Tom Visser]

Might have been a premature bug report... I've been having some other issues with my Pro Tools installation since upgrading from 9 to 10. The other issue has been the software updater crashing and after doing some research, it is something that has plagued other users who upgraded from 9 to 10 without first doing a full uninstall. So I'm doing another install after having done the uninstall first, so will report if this fixes the issue with my Boom Recorder install too.

[Tom Visser]

Ok, sorry to report uninstalling and reinstalling PT 10 did not solve the issue. It did solve the software updater crash that I was having earlier. In fact, during troubleshooting, since I selected the Avid CoreAudio device in the Boom Recorder device preferences, I can't open Boom Recorder anymore without having to force quit it due to the loop described earlier. I think what I need is a quick instruction on how to reset the application preferences for BR so I can run BR. I'll try redownloading / installing BR to see if that does it...