Issues Reported By L.F.

fundamental commented 8 years ago

Below are issues reported by L.F. This meta issue should be used to manage these issues before breaking into smaller issues as needed.

As far as errors and other things I found so far, here's a list. Working on Windows 7 x64, using Zyn as a VST in Cockos Reaper v5.25/x64, I found:

PART SETTINGS Tab:

[x] 1) In the far-right dropdown menu of the 'Instrument Settings' panel, "Polyphonic" and "Monophonic" have the last letter cut off after being selected. (Thus reading "Polyphoni" and "Monophoni".)
[ ] 2) The description of the aforementioned dropdown menu doesn't recognize "\N" as a line break, writes "\N" instead.
[ ] 3) Buttons "FMA.RCV" and "TR.TYPE" are misplaced or wrongly scaled in comparison to those next to them. [NOTE: DEFERRED]

ADD, GLOBAL Tab:

[x] 4) Buttons "Stereo", "Rnd Grp", "C" and "P" have no description.

ADD, OSC Tab:

[x] 5) Buttons "As Base", "Pre/Post", "Clear All" and "To Sine" have no description. [NOTE: TEST]
[ ] 6) The harmonics magnitude and phase panel displays each set of 32 harmonics as "pages", while the slider allowing to switch between these "pages" suggest one could view any sequence of 32 harmonics the user chose. If the "page" system is kept, I'd recommend replacing the slider with a "next" and a "previous" button. [NOTE: DEFERRED]

ADD, MODULATION Tab:

[ ] 7) The "Amplitude" and "Frequency" envelope tabs at the bottom have no description. [NOTE: Interesting feature, I hadn't thought about adding tooltips there semi-DEFERRED]
[x] 8) Typo in the description of the external oscillator selection of the "VCE OSC" panel, it reads "Oscilator" instead of "Oscillator"
[x] 9) The font of the forementioned external oscillator selection is almost unreadably small, sizing it up is suggested.

SUB, BANDWITH Tab:

[ ] 10) The text of the "Bandwidth" and "Stretch" knobs slightly overlap with each other.
[ ] 11) Not an issue, but it would be useful if one could toggle between displaying the bandwith envelope and the graph of the harmonics tab, in order to see how the different bandwith values affect the harmonics. [NOTE: good feature and relatively quick to implement semi-DEFERRED]

PAD, HARMONIC STRUCTURE Tab:

[ ] 12) Harmonics are not displayed in the upper box until the user moves the "BANDWITH" slider on the right side and presses "APPLY". The reverse applies when switching from another waveform back to a sine: all harmonics are still displayed until the user moves the "BANDWITH" slider and presses "APPLY" again, only then switching back to a single harmonic.

MIDI LEARN Tab:

[x] 13) None of the MIDI learn function seem to work, though this might be an untold limitation of the demo, or the current state of development of Zyn 3. Or me just not understanding how it works and having to RTFM. [NOTE: CRITICAL BUG/ISSUE]

GENERAL:

[x] 14) The "On/Off" symbol used repeatedly throughout the GUI (for toggling the "ADD", "SUB" and "PAD" oscillators on the left-side menu for example) is somewhat confusing, as the teal colour of the "stick and circle" icon suggests the element is already turned on, despite the grey colour of the buttons body. I recommend giving the "stick and circle" icon a grey colour when turned off. [NOTE: Move To a minor-redesign discussion DEFERRED]
[ ] 15) The description of some elements as displayed in the box on top could be clearer and more detailed. The description for ADD the synth reads "ADSynth Enable", which could be confusing for a new user, moreso since the description is used for both the "On/Off" button for the ADD synth as well as the button to display the ADD synth's interface. [TODO: This is a somewhat global issue, in the particular case the sidebar buttons share tooltips (I think) which could be resolved with some tweaking DEFERRED]
[ ] 16) A lot of different font and element sizes are used in the GUI, which is especially egregious in the MODULATION Tab of the ADD Synth, and somewhat distracting for the user. I would recommend limiting the amount of different font/element sizes used in the GUI as a whole to 3 or 4, maximum. Also, as mentioned previously, the font is sometimes almost unreadably small.
[ ] 17) While somewhat justified in the old GUI, this new and spacey GUI could accomodate the name of a lot of buttons, knobs and menus being written out in full, like 'Volume' instead of 'Vol', or 'Bandwith' instead of 'Bw'.

CRASHLOG:

[x] 18) Had a crash after using "CLEAR INSTRUMENT" and switching to the ADD synth menu. I had been using the SUB synth previously. Zyn made no sound after the "CLEAR", despite the ADD synth being switched on by default. As it crashed, a few error messages flew by, but to fast for me to read. Reaper was set on Play during the whole procedure, sending a looping MIDI stream to the VST. The VST's UI wouldn't display anymore afterwards and had to be removed from the track's FX list, then added back in.
[x] 19) VST crashed while using the switching from the PAD synth's "Filter" tab to the "Frequency" tab. As it crashed, a few error messages flew by, but to fast for me to read. The sound hung and stuttered for a second, then disappeared. The VST wouldn't display anymore afterwards and had to be removed from the track's FX list, then added back in. Reaper was set on "PLAY" during the whole procedure sending a looping MIDI stream to the VST.

Here's round 2:

GENERAL ISSUES:

[ ] 20) I've listed some more here, but I'll just make this general note to save time: a lot of descriptions, if they aren't missing, are unclear, contain improper english or are outright confusing. I suggest going through all of them one by one in a work session dedicated to the task, and fix all descriptions that seem problematic. I suggest using Zyn's manual as found on http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/zynaddsubfx_manual as a guide for writing the descriptions.

MAIN GUI:

[x] 21) None of the elements on the bottom aside from the modulation wheel have a description. [NOTE: resume working through issues here...]

SAVE and LOAD Menus (INSTRUMENT, MASTER, MICROTONAL, MIDI BINDINGS):

[x] 22) The textbox on the bottom allowing to type in a file name or a path seems to freeze and subsequently not work when asked to handle certain special characters. (In this case, the textbox is frozen from the get-go, trying to display my user account folder, as my last name contains an "é".)

PART SETTINGS Tab:

[ ] 23) The buttons "MDW.EXP" and "BW.EXP" are differently scaled compared to other buttons.
[x] 24) The "Portamento" button's description is "Undocumented"
[x] 25) The description of the "PROPT." button is unclear. I would suggest rephrasing to "Whether the portamento time is proportional to the size of the interval between two notes." or something similar.
[x] 26) Descriptions of the "RATE" and "DEPTH" knobs next to the "PROPT." are unclear. I can't suggest anything since I'm not even sure what the difference between the two is. However, I think renaming "RATE" to "SCALE" might be clearer.
[x] 27) The "M", "R" and "M" buttons in the "Instrument Settings" panel don't have description. [TODO:TEST FIX]
[x] 28) Parts can currently not be labeled (Linked to the "KIT" tab issue/ a demo limitation?) [TODO: TEST]

MIXER Tab:

[x] 29) The "EDIT" button for each part does nothing. (Demo limitation?) [TODO: TEST]
[ ] 30) The volume slider for each part can easily be confused as being part of the volume meter. [TODO: mention to designer (I personally had the same issue as the color diff was small)]

EFFECTS Tab:

DYNFILTER FX:

[x] 31) Changes to the GAIN knob of a DYNFILTER FX do not display on the graph. (If it's simply not supposed to be a feature, overlook this comment.)
[ ] 32) The description for the "AMT", "FREQ" and "RAND" knobs of the DYNFILTER FX do not explain much of what they do.
[ ] 33) The description of the "SMOOTH" knob of the DYNFILTER FX should be rephrased and maybe more in-depth. It currently reads "How smooth the input amplitude changes the filter." What "smooth" means in this context is not explained.
[ ] 34) The duplicate of the "CLASS" dropdown menu in the middle box of the DYNFILTER FX is not necessary and could be confusing for the user.
[x] 35) In a formant-class filter, the "S.POS" and "VOWEL" sliders, as well as the vowel and formant selectors (the "-/+" selectors next to the "F.FREQ" and "F.Q" sliders) have no description.
[ ] 36) The "SLEW" slider is probably incorrectly named. It probably corresponds to the "Fr.Sl." knob of the old GUI. If anything, it should read "SLOW." or "SLOWNESS"
[ ] 37) The "SLEW" description reads "Rate that formants change".
[x] 38) Changing the "SEQ.SIZE" slider to any value other than 0 causes Zyn to emit a pop once a note is played, then refuses to produce any sound afterwards. (I have reloaded the demo to make sure it wasn't because I had been using it for more than 10 minutes.) [should be fixed]
[x] 39) The "F.Q." slider description reads "Quality Factor". A better description would be "The formant's quality factor, also known as resonance bandwith or "Q" for short."
[x] 40) The description of the "CLARITY" slider is unclear. A description like "How much each vowel is smudged with the next in sequence. A high clarity will avoid smudging."
[x] 41) Most parameters tied to creating vowel sequences do not work properly. The "+/-" switches for selecting vowels and formants go beyond whatever number is currently selected as a maximum, which can be confusing. The "SEQ.SIZE" slider would also work better as a "+/-" selector, since the number of vowels will always be an integer.

DISTORTION FX:

[ ] 42) "P.FILT" button is non-descriptive at which stage the non-linearity comes into play regardless of the filters position in the process pipeline.
[ ] 43) If "Insertion" or "Part Insertion" were previously used, and one goes back to the EFFECTS tab from another one, "Insertion" or "Part Insertion" are displayed but the button for the "System" tab is shown as being the active tab. [NOTE: confirmed on linux]
[ ] 44) In "Part Insertion", the FX are grouped as 'pages' but switching between them is still done via a slider, which only changes pages after a certain treshold. (This is the same issue as for the harmonics magnitude and phase selection panel of the ADDSynth waveform selection screen.) [NOTE: I personally don't have much of a problem with this design choice, but I can ask others about this]

REVERB FX:

[x] 45) The high-pass filters knob is mislabeled "LPF" instead of "HPF".

PHASER FX:

[x] 46) The "HYP." button's description reads "Extern = </SYSEFX0/PHASER/PHYPER>" [NOTE: TEST (should be fixed)]
[x] 47) Seems not to produce the intended phaser effect. [NOTE: TEST]

ALIENWAH FX:

[x] 48) Seems not to produce the intended wah effect. No matter the settings, I only hear a pop at the start of every note. [NOTE: TEST]

KIT Tab:

[x] 49) Kits can currently not be renamed. (Linked to the "PART SETTINGS" tab issue/ a demo limitation?) [NOTE: TEST]

MODULATION Tab:

[ ] 50) For the amplitude envelope, the green marker that's supposed to follow the path of the envelope on the display goes off path after the attack stage.(It seems to be correct on the X axis, but on the Y axis uses values inferior to those of the actual path.)
[ ] 51) During the release stage, the green marker starts at 0 on the X axis.
[ ] 52) For the frequency envelope, the green marker does not appear until the sustain stage. Afterwards, the marker stays stuck in the bottom left corner until the release stage.Then, it disappears again.

RESONANCE Tab:

[ ] 53) The "INTERP" button has no description and doesn't activate when pressed (a limitation of the demo?) [NOTE: TEST - I'm pretty sure it works, it's just a usability issue]
[x] 54) The "ZERO", "SMOOTH" and "RANDOM" buttons have no descriptions.

GENERAL/ USAGE WITHIN COCKOS REAPER:

[ ] 55) GUI is automatically loaded in a separate window from the track FX menu, unlike most FX when used in Reaper.
[x] 56) When switching to a tab for the first time (ex: from the PRESET tab to PART SETTINGS after inserting Zyn), the GUI is sent back in the window order unless pinned in Reaper. (From what I can tell, it seems this is due to the GUI's window being closed and re-loaded by Reaper. A code console can be seen for a split-second.)

CRASHLOG/FREEZES Tab:

[ ] 57) Zyn crashed while switching between "TYPE"s of filter of an Analog-class DYNFILTER FX. I was switching from LP1 to LP2 then to HP1. The graph display didn't change between LP1 and LP2, and the VST crashed once I changed from LP2 to HP1. The message box "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way.[...]" showed up.". After clicking "OK", the audio for the PC as a whole stuck and "flickered" for a few seconds, then came back. Putting Zyn offline then bringing it back online allowed it to restart, but switching from a Formant-class DYNFILTER to a Analog-class made Zyn crash again in the same way. Restarting Cockos Reaper didn't fix the issue either. Giving Zyn a "Clear Master" from the FILE menu prevented it from crashing when switching DYNFILTER classes. Trying to switch to a HP1 filter type caused Zyn to crash again, however. The error didn't occure with any other filter type. [TODO: TEST this. it seems specific enough that there might be a consistent logic bug]
[ ] 58) After setting up some settings (ADDSynth with pulse waveform and a sine FM modulation, and a Dynfilter with a formant-class filter as a part insert followed by a distortion), then reloading Zyn (putting it offline then back online), visiting the "EFFECTS" tab and going to "PART INSERTION" caused Zyn to crash. For a moment, an analog-class filter was displayed, so I suppose trying to display the formant-class filter is what caused Zyn to crash.
[ ] 59) While using the PAD synth, I tried to switch to a different type of filter. First, the display switched from displaying the filter's envelope to displaying the filter itself. A few seconds later, Zyn crashed and provided a "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library"-type error messagebox. I managed to reproduce the crash after switching to a "ST.VAR."-class filter, turning the "CUTOFF", "Q" and "F.TRACK" knobs then switching back to an "ANALOG"-class filter. But it seems to be random, as after trying to reproduce the crash again, it didn't work.
[x] 60) Zyn crashed while trying to open a path in the "SAVE INSTRUMENT" menu. I had previously opened a folder from the path displayed by default, but all the selectable elements in the browser after that were blank, with no "." or ".." to even move back up a level. A few seconds later, the sound froze and stuttered for a few seconds, then Zyn crashed. [TODO: Test this, I've had multiple reports of this particular crash and I suspect I know how to fix it]

fundamental commented 8 years ago

Per item 22, it's a locale issue, so it looks like as long as codecvt is used on the zyn end it should be possible to get the correct utf8 strings delivered to the UI. At least I'm pretty sure that's the problem with the output of readdir and env.

fundamental commented 8 years ago

Per item 26 there should be a follow up visualization if possible

fundamental commented 7 years ago

One User over on kvr confirmed that the filter crash was related to an assert in transforming filter poles/zeros into the frequency response. I'm not sure why the function is receiving invalid data, but a workaround can be added to avoid the crash now that it's known to be the source of some of these issues.

fundamental commented 7 years ago

For 3.0.1 the issue addressed was 54 (hopefully a few more should be ready for the patch)

zynaddsubfx / zyn-fusion-issues

Issues Reported By L.F. #2