Beiträge von ismism

With the rampant problems encountered with Virus Control, wouldn't it be in Access' interest to provide a solution? Is that even possible? Is it totally a USB hub problem? In all honesty, I didn't even know about Virus Control when I bought myTI2 keyboard and was planning on getting an external audio/MIDI interface. When I found out about it, I was elated not to have to spend a couple hundred bucks on more equipment (already regretting having to retire my ancient MOTU 828 Firewire interface because my 14GB RAM i7 processor notebook doesn't have a F/W port). I'm contemplating reviving my old MacBook Pro so I can use my 828 (dead battery, needs more RAM) and my MOTU MIDI/USB interface.

I suppose it's solely a bus problem on the computer side, but it is suspicious to me that there is such bad latency when using VC for audio. Maybe it's just an unfortunate side-effect of computer makers putting all the USB ports on the same bus in which case maybe Access' hands are tied.

It has also occurred to me that even with an external USB interface, all of that data is going down the same pipe to the evil USB hub, so would that even help?

Yeah, I did that, and all three ports share the same bus. I'm pretty much resigned to dumping VC for an external audio/MIDI interface if and when I ever get an income. Thanks for your help!

Thanks for your interest. Whenever I try to add a Virus track, the plugin comes up but will not connect to the Virus even after the unplug-everything-turn-off-for-30-seconds-hold-ARP-edit-key-down-while-rebooting-plug-in-usb-cable-wait-20-seconds ritual (which I can now do in my sleep). I installed/un-installed PHP, MySQL, and Apache 2.2 (and probably other programs and drivers) in between the time it worked and the time it didn't. I spent most of a day on these rites. I have re-installed Windoze (Home Premium) for the third time and am taking a break from what seems like guaranteed frustration for a day or two. At this point, I'm ready to join the ranks of those who swear by notusing the VSTi, which appears to be the majority, though that could just be because those for whom it works aren't as vocal. I'm leaning heavily towards getting an external MIDI/audio interface. I don't like the idea of having to turn off the audio portion of VC for recording and only recording MIDI, then tuning USB back on and recording the audio. That just seems so lame.

I used to able to get the VSTi working with Albleton Live, but for some reason it stopped working. I've un-installed both the Virus software and Ableton and re-installed them, tried installing the Virus Software first and then Live, tried installing Live first and then the Virus software, all to no avail. I even scrubbed the registry of everything Virus related I could find and re-installed and it just won't work. I can get the Virus Control Center to work, but I have to do a hold the Exit button down and reboot even for that to work.

Any ideas? I know this might be an Ableton issue, but I'm posting over there as well.

I have a USB 3.0 port on my Asus G73J notebook, and Windoze tells me it can't connect after a few seconds of trying.

Speaking of USB, I can no longer connect the VSTi in Ableton Live like I used to be able to. It tells me to do the reboot holding down the ARP Edit key and wait 20 seconds...30 seconds..etc., no connection. I can connect the standalone Virus Control Center, but ONLY if I go through the reboot holding down the Exit button in order to go into USB mode on the TI2. It used to recognize it right away in either Live or the VCC. I uninstalled, reinstalled, changed the order of the uninstall/reinstall (VCC and LIve), spent about 2 hours scrubbing the registry of anything remotely Virus related (being careful not to mess up my virus protection software) ALL to now avail. I'm about ready to try to re-install Windoze or just give up on Total Integration entirely. I don't really need it if I can get my son to give me my old MacBook back and add RAM to get it from 2GB to 4GB, buy a new battery for it, and use my old copy of Digital Performer 6.x, which I HATE.

Yes, this is a BIT of a rant, but I'm so *&*#ing frustrated with Virus Control.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Just kidding! There's a great bunch of folks up here who are very helpful and who graciously tolerate my bad jokes. Welcome!

Zitat von suzzymackenzie

Stay with it, Daniel. It's true that moaning tends not to be very attractive - at least you've realised it! Consider making a personal cult of showering and self-care, seek out opportunities to interact with people however humdrum, and love your virus!

Thank you! I really appreciate that. I'll try to spread some of that Virus love.
Incidentally, I've changed the schema for my little site a bit and since you're the only one who's rated or commented on a patch, I created records in the patch table for you using a backup from my TI2 keyboard. If you go back to the site and have any trouble, please let me know. My guess is that at least some of the patches are going to be different from what's in your keyboard, so you may just want to upload a .vtibackup file to fix it. If that patch you rated is in the same place, then your comment and rating should still be there. Congratulations! You're my new (and only) beta tester!
Cheers, Daniel

Thanks for all of your help, folks!! I'll see what I can do with your advice. Meanwhile, group hug? {crickets chirping} Anyway...
Speaking of advice, more improvements to my little site, in case anyone's interested...

I've given up on trying to maintain a standard set of patches for a TI2 keyboard. I thought I could use at least my ROM banks as a reference, but even those appear to have been mucked with by the previous user. SO, on the advice given here in this forum from I-forget-whom-and-I-don't-really-feel-like-checking ( noct? flabberbob? Marc?),..

• I've made it so that it works by uploading a .vtibackup file from a Virus Control Center backup and the patch names, locations, and categories will be scraped from it. (The file is automatically discarded at the conclusion of the upload script, but I'm considering providing a backup for backups feature.) I changed the database schema so that each user will have their own shiny new 3840 patch records to muck with after uploading a .vtibackup file. I got rid of the ability to browse other users' data.
• I added a Print feature so you can print something out to scribble on, and...
• What was especially fun for me, inline editing. No more form/post paradigm except for filtering/searching. You can double-click on patch names and descriptions and edit them in place. I rolled my own popup menu for changing categories, of which I am especially proud. (jQuery? Who needs it?!) OK, technically, there are some form/post features left, but just for paging, changing the patches-per-page, or viewing only the patches you've rated or commented on.

So, I'm not doing anything fancy like editing patches or talking to the Virus, but I think/hope I'm going to find it useful to help me remember where the patches I really like are located. Since I'm not really in a good position to be making and recording music, this has been a fun and diverting project. Oh, and one other note: The site doesn't work very well if at all with Internet Exploder. That POS has been the bane of web developers for years and since I'm not getting paid, screw that sorry excuse for a browser!
Cheers.

Ah, the software development process. Gotta love it. I'm going back to the drawing board again. I've finally realized that there really isn't a reference configuration of a TI2 other than for ROM-A through ROM-Z, and that only if someone hasn't loaded third-party patches. I did a factory restore expecting RAM-A through RAM-D to be restored, but they were untouched. The only way to offer every user a way to rate and comment on the patches in their particular machine is to provide a way to upload a .vtibackup file made using the Virus Control Center from their machine and rip the patch names and categories from that. Good thing I enjoy doing this stuff so much.
I'll post a notice once I've implemented this, just in case anyone is interested. [sound of crickets is heard in the background]
In the meantime, does anyone know of a way to load .mid files into the Virus? Apparently, Sounddiver isn't available anywhere, to which references are made frequently.

OK, I owe you a latte, my friend! I found the categories right where you said they'd be. All I had to do was build a lookup table for them. I've been able to decipher all of them except for Favorites 2 and 3. Favorites 1 appears to be 14, so my guess is that 2 and 3 are 15 and 16, respectively, since those slots are empty in my lookup table. I've posted my findings below. (I assigned random numbers to Favorites 2 and 3 since none of the patches in my Virus are assigned to them.) One note: The first patch offset and patch length are different in the .mid files and in the .vtibackup file I generated from Virus Control Center. They follow the category data. Thanks again!!!!
idcategory category_name
0 Off
6 Acid
8 Arpeggiator
22 Atomizer
2 Bass
7 Classic
4 Decay
21 Digital
10 Drums
9 EFX
20 FM
12 Input
1 Lead
17 Organ
3 Pad
11 Percussion
18 Piano
5 Pluck
19 String
13 Vocoder
14 "Favorites 1"
126 "Favorites 2"
127 "Favorites 3"

For .mid files:
define('START_OFFSET', 274);
define('PATCH_SIZE', 527);

and .vtibackup files:
define('START_OFFSET', 272);
define('PATCH_SIZE', 512);
(from my PHP code)

Interesting, THANKS! I would be very happy with just the category information. I'll fiddle with that and see what I come up with. If that gets me the categories, I definitely owe you a latte! (Don't know how I'd get it to you, though. hehe) Sorry I didn't read the other thread. I find it very hard to find stuff on this forum. For that matter, I'm also directionally-challenged in 3d and the hardest time finding anything. Thanks again!
Daniel

Yeah, my app/site is basically just so that I can remember where the patches I like are located. I finally got around to munging the .mid files and have so far been able to extract patch names for all of the ROM banks. Now, if only I could find the category information. I'll probably modify a patch's categories, then dump the bank and compare it to the unmodified one.
If any of you folks know what the offsets of the category information are in a patch, I wouldn't mind not having to comb through the diffs.

Hey noct, any idea what the offset of the category information is in the .mid files? I've found the patch names at 274 bytes in and every subsequent 527 bytes, but have been unable to decipher where the category information is. I've been assuming it's an ordinal value from 0 to 22, but I figured it might be the two categories bit-wise OR'd or some other schema. I'll probably end up dumping a bank, changing a patch's categories, and then looking at what changed, but if you or anyone else happens to know where/how the categories are stored, I would be grateful.
Cheers,
Daniel

Wow. It looks like my import is WAY off! But this is good news to me: It gives me something to do. I've been able to extract patch names (every 527 bytes after the 274 byte header), but I was wondering if someone could clue me in as to where the categories are. I'm guessing that they are ordinals from 0 to 27 and am hunting around for those, but if anyone wants to save me a little work, I promise I'll listen this time.

I finally understand what you're talking about, nms. I'm a "little" slow. My impression is that I would need far more programming skills than I possess for what you're talking about and even need to use a lower-level language than PHP, which is primarily for the web. (Don't think it even supports drag-and-drop.) My C++ days are far behind me and I wasn't all that good even when I was using it. PHP has some semi-low-level functionality such as opening files, moving the file pointer around, and altering them. Having little else to do with my time while waiting for my disability claim, I'll probably start munging around with those files just for fun. I might even find some use for all of my fiddling.
Cheers,
Daniel

Hey @suzzymackenzie, I fixed the problem with the backslash appearing in the description. And thanks for your comment!

Cheers,

Daniel

Thank you. Sorry for the whining. Could explain why no one ever calls me. Oops, there I go again. I'm also very self-deprecating and a total smart-ass, which I'm trying to change. I even made up a joke about it:

Sometimes I wish I weren't such a self-deprecating smart-ass. But then I think to myself: "Well, at least one part of you is smart."

Thanks, noct, et al. This is what happens when you have no friends and nothing better to do and are living in a limbo state; homeless, basically, but my son's mother has graciously allowed me to live here while I wait on my disability application. I have severe depression, bi-polar disorder, etc., and I'm pretty sure I smell bad. Thankfully, one gets used to one's own smell. That's too much info, isn't it? Well, anyway, once I figure out what I'm going to do about a sequencer and a computer and resolve my small claim against my former business partners (not kidding, my life is a total mess), I might start putting my energy into music and gather information on my favorite patches in the meantime. One advantage is that I have a better feel for how the TI is laid out.

Thanks again for the info, noct.

Cheers.

Could you point to those .mid files you mentioned? I'd really like to see what I can glean from them.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking about that background image and whether it might cause contrast problems. I've been looking at it so much I can hardly see it any more.

Yes, I went through every non-INIT- patch to get the categories. It was not fun. At all. I searched and searched for patch files in the forums and could only find references to them. If you could point me to them, I would be grateful. It is very possible that I made some mistakes in the two weeks it took me to set the categories and that the previous owner wiped the RAM-D bank.

Thanks Again and Cheers,

Daniel