JK's CV Canvas
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Excellent update - many thanks!
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ymerejsasnak
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:08 am
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Steve, thanks for bringing this to my attention.
I completely overlooked the possibility of conflicts between VM's CTRL + [letter] hotkeys and the letter keys I set up.
(There's always something!)
The letter keys for this module aren't even necessary really, I just wanted an alternate quicker option for a bunch of the drawing stuff than having to go through the dropdown menu.
There's at least a few different ways I could address this. I could use a modifier key, say ALT, so that you could press ALT and the letter and thus not interfere with CTRL functions. Or I could just remove them if no one cares...maybe they're not that helpful for the average user and it was just more convenient for me when testing? Or maybe an option somewhere to turn them on/off? Or maybe just remap some to avoid conflicts? Any of the above are easy fixes, but I'd rather fix it in a way that most users would find acceptable.
(Posting this on CA forum and FB group)
JK
I completely overlooked the possibility of conflicts between VM's CTRL + [letter] hotkeys and the letter keys I set up.
(There's always something!)
The letter keys for this module aren't even necessary really, I just wanted an alternate quicker option for a bunch of the drawing stuff than having to go through the dropdown menu.
There's at least a few different ways I could address this. I could use a modifier key, say ALT, so that you could press ALT and the letter and thus not interfere with CTRL functions. Or I could just remove them if no one cares...maybe they're not that helpful for the average user and it was just more convenient for me when testing? Or maybe an option somewhere to turn them on/off? Or maybe just remap some to avoid conflicts? Any of the above are easy fixes, but I'd rather fix it in a way that most users would find acceptable.
(Posting this on CA forum and FB group)
JK
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Thanks for the reply. Though I haven't found the time to explore the new version yet, I think I might use the shortcut keys. When I explored the Canvas last night, the Ctrl+Z issue jumped out at me immediately. In VM, I frequently test things (modules, connections, settings, etc.) and then back out of the changes with Ctrl+Z.
So for me it was only the Z assignment and was wondering if that just that one could be assigned a different key. Apologies if I didn't make that clear yesterday.
Again, I am looking forward to carving out a nice block of time to explore all the new features!
UPDATE: Just played around briefly with the shortcut key and found them handy, so I hope you don't get rid of them. Also, not sure if you can map Ctrl+Z to the canvas lanes' "undo" which currently is mouse only. That would be consistent with Ctrl+Z within VM--when hovering over a canvas lane, it would undo transforms/shapes/generators/free-hand drawings just in that lane. Just a thought because I do find the shortcuts handy!
So for me it was only the Z assignment and was wondering if that just that one could be assigned a different key. Apologies if I didn't make that clear yesterday.
Again, I am looking forward to carving out a nice block of time to explore all the new features!
UPDATE: Just played around briefly with the shortcut key and found them handy, so I hope you don't get rid of them. Also, not sure if you can map Ctrl+Z to the canvas lanes' "undo" which currently is mouse only. That would be consistent with Ctrl+Z within VM--when hovering over a canvas lane, it would undo transforms/shapes/generators/free-hand drawings just in that lane. Just a thought because I do find the shortcuts handy!
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ymerejsasnak
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:08 am
Re: JK's CV Canvas
OK I just submitted a fix, hopefully will be accepted within a couple days or so.
I just decided to go ahead with the Alt key. So the functions will now be Alt + letter. Maybe not quite as convenient, but it won't step on any typical Ctrl operations that everyone expects.
For undo, to be honest, I had trouble getting it to play nicely with VM's undo. I wanted separate undo stacks for each canvas (not sure if this is even helpful for anyone, but it seemed like a decent idea). I don't think I could add it to the VM undo without losing the individual per-canvas undo. But maybe that would be fine because it would just fit with generally expected behavior in most software.
Either way, it is what it is for now, but I'll make a note and see what I can do for the next update.
I just decided to go ahead with the Alt key. So the functions will now be Alt + letter. Maybe not quite as convenient, but it won't step on any typical Ctrl operations that everyone expects.
For undo, to be honest, I had trouble getting it to play nicely with VM's undo. I wanted separate undo stacks for each canvas (not sure if this is even helpful for anyone, but it seemed like a decent idea). I don't think I could add it to the VM undo without losing the individual per-canvas undo. But maybe that would be fine because it would just fit with generally expected behavior in most software.
Either way, it is what it is for now, but I'll make a note and see what I can do for the next update.
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Been busy; thanks for the changes; haven't had a chance to test them, but I was awed by your comment in another thread and decided to try a simple Free-Hand Wave Shaper patch.
From other thread where JK planted the seed for using the Canvas in Phase mode:
- Free-Hand Wave Shaper - 001a-25Percent.png (145.29 KiB) Viewed 9506 times
PS: It also works with transforms and generators. The only thing missing is a text/short-cut control input to trigger changes from a text string of the new short-cuts!!!!Steve W wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 3:31 pmI gotta try this. OK!!! I tried something; not sure its what you had in mind. Basically I have a simple Free-Hand Wave Shaper. Since it is really off-topic here, I will post an image in the module's thread.ymerejsasnak wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:11 pm JK's CV Canvas is more intended for drawing custom control-rate signals, but with its recent update you can put it in "phase mode" and use a saw/ramp-up oscillator as a phasor and use that to read freely drawn shapes.
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ymerejsasnak
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:08 am
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Yeah, there's a lot of different possibilities. I had been meaning to make a video to explain some of the new stuff better, but I haven't had time.
What I meant was similar to what you did in the image, but specifically I had a regular VM Oscillator getting pitch input and routing the upward saw/ramp signal from that to the input of the CV Canvas. Set input amount to 100%, leave the phase offset at 50%, and make sure bipolar is toggled. Then you can basically play your drawing as any other oscillator.
Just to be sure I'm being clear about this: this works because the phase offset is at 50% so the playhead is in the middle. Then, the phase input received runs from -5 to +5 V assuming you're using the saw as I said. This has the effect of shifting the phase(position) from -50% (thus 0%) to +50% (thus 100%)....so we get the shape being read from the beginning to the end and then starting at the beginning again. This occurs at the same frequency as the oscillator so whatever notes you feed to the OSC pitch input will apply to the Canvas shape (well, generally speaking).
I hope that made sense, I'll try to get a video up sooner or later and address various ways to do things. Also, I'm writing this from memory, so hopefully I haven't mixed up something about my own module.
Anyway, just to reiterate, this is mostly just an interesting side effect of having these sorts of options with the module. If playing at audio rate, be prepared for a low resolution waveform with minimal interpolation and obvious aliasing at high frequencies. But still, like I said, I've gotten some pretty gnarly digital sounds out of it - and running those through something more analog sounding (filter, amp, whatever) could help make them more useful.
JK
What I meant was similar to what you did in the image, but specifically I had a regular VM Oscillator getting pitch input and routing the upward saw/ramp signal from that to the input of the CV Canvas. Set input amount to 100%, leave the phase offset at 50%, and make sure bipolar is toggled. Then you can basically play your drawing as any other oscillator.
Just to be sure I'm being clear about this: this works because the phase offset is at 50% so the playhead is in the middle. Then, the phase input received runs from -5 to +5 V assuming you're using the saw as I said. This has the effect of shifting the phase(position) from -50% (thus 0%) to +50% (thus 100%)....so we get the shape being read from the beginning to the end and then starting at the beginning again. This occurs at the same frequency as the oscillator so whatever notes you feed to the OSC pitch input will apply to the Canvas shape (well, generally speaking).
I hope that made sense, I'll try to get a video up sooner or later and address various ways to do things. Also, I'm writing this from memory, so hopefully I haven't mixed up something about my own module.
Anyway, just to reiterate, this is mostly just an interesting side effect of having these sorts of options with the module. If playing at audio rate, be prepared for a low resolution waveform with minimal interpolation and obvious aliasing at high frequencies. But still, like I said, I've gotten some pretty gnarly digital sounds out of it - and running those through something more analog sounding (filter, amp, whatever) could help make them more useful.
JK
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ymerejsasnak
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2020 2:08 am
Re: JK's CV Canvas
So, ColinP (and MRBarton re: Gibbs phenomenon) pointed something out in the original thread that I thought I should mention here.
In my explanation I used the normal VM Oscillator as the driver for the CV Canvas. I should have thought of this at the time, but technically this is an imperfect method. It doesn't give a perfectly straight ramp from -5 V to 5 V (and therefore not a perfectly straight reading of the shape from beginning to end) for various reasons.
There are probably a few options in the store that would provide a mathematically proper ramp (Mr. Barton mentions one of his modules for an example) that can be pitch controlled.
Of course, for experimenting with making weird sounds, this hardly matters that much, but just thought I should mention this for the sake of accuracy.
JK
In my explanation I used the normal VM Oscillator as the driver for the CV Canvas. I should have thought of this at the time, but technically this is an imperfect method. It doesn't give a perfectly straight ramp from -5 V to 5 V (and therefore not a perfectly straight reading of the shape from beginning to end) for various reasons.
There are probably a few options in the store that would provide a mathematically proper ramp (Mr. Barton mentions one of his modules for an example) that can be pitch controlled.
Of course, for experimenting with making weird sounds, this hardly matters that much, but just thought I should mention this for the sake of accuracy.
JK
Re: JK's CV Canvas
Just wanted to add: The tip about using phase mode is golden!!! Thanks for that!
One set of explorations I have been doing with VM is controlling soft synth plug-ins (basically using them as sound sources within VM). For plug-ins that expose large numbers of parameters via VM's Host and Mini Host, I am finding the CV Canvas in phase mode very handy for automating plug-in parameters.
One set of explorations I have been doing with VM is controlling soft synth plug-ins (basically using them as sound sources within VM). For plug-ins that expose large numbers of parameters via VM's Host and Mini Host, I am finding the CV Canvas in phase mode very handy for automating plug-in parameters.