GNU Classpath

[NOTE: This article talks about commercial products and contains links to them, I do not receive any money if you buy those tools, nor I work for or I am affiliated to any of those companies. The opinion expressed here are mine and the review is ... [More] subjective] This is my attempt at a review of Spitfire Audio BT Phobos. Before diving into the review, and since I know I will be critic particularly on some aspects, I think it’s fair to assess the plugin right away: BT Phobos is an awesome tool, make no mistakes. BT Phobos is a “polyconvolution” synthesiser. It is, in fact, the first “standalone” plugin produced by Spitfire Audio, which is one of the companies I respect the most when it comes to music production and sample based instruments. The term polyconvolution is used by the Spitfire Audio team to indicate the simultaneous use of three convolvers for four primary audio paths: you can send any amount of each of those four primary sources (numbered 1 to 4) outputs to each of the three convolution engines (named W, X and Y). Source material controls There is lot of flexibility in the mixing capabilities; there are, of course, separate dry/wet signal knobs that send a specific portion of the unprocessed source material to the “amplifier” module, control how much of the signal goes to the convolution circuits, and finally how much of each of the convolution engines applies to each of the source sound. This last bit is achieved by means of an interesting nabla shaped X/Y pad: by positioning the icon that represents the source module closer to a corner it’s possible activate just the convolution engine that represents that corner; for example, top left is the W engine, top right the X and bottom the Y. Manually moving the icon gradually introduces contributions from the other engines, and double clicking on the icon makes all convolvers contribute equally to the wet sound, by positioning them to the center of the nabla. The convolution mixer Finally, each convolver has a control that allows to change the output level of the convolution engine before it reaches its envelope shaper. Spitfire Audio has released a very interesting flow diagram that shows the signal path in detail, which is linked below for reference. BT Phobos signal path In addition to the controls just described, the main GUI has basic controls to tweak the source material with an ADSR envelope which is directly accessible below each of the main sound sources as well as the convolutions modules, but it’s possible to have access to more advanced settings by clicking on the number or the letter that identifies the module name. The advanced controls interface An example of such controls is the Hold parameter, which let the user adjust the time the sound is held at full level before entering the Decay phase of its envelope; another useful tool is the sampling and IR offset controls, which allow to tweak parameters like the starting point of the material or the quantisation and its Speed (the playback speed for the samples, and is a function of the host tempo); there is also a control to influence the general pitch of the sound; finally a simple but effective section is dedicated to filtering – although a proper EQ is missing – as well as panning and level adjustments. All those parameters are particularly important settings when using loops, but also contribute to shaping the sound with the pitched material, and can be randomised for interesting effects and artefacts generated from the entropy (you can just randomise the material selection only as opposed to all the parameters). Modulation is also present, of course, with various LFOs of various kind that can be used to modulate basically everything. You can access them either by clicking on the mappings toggle below the ADSR envelope of each section, or by using the advanced settings pages. The amount of tweaks that can be made to the material in both the source and the convolution engines is probably the most important aspect of BT Phobos, since it gives an excellent amount of freedom to create new sounds from what’s available, which is already a massive amount of content, and allows to build wildly different patches with a bit of work, but it’s definitely not straightforward and needs time to understand the combined effects that each setting has on the whole. Since the material is polyphonic, the Impulse Responses for the convolution are created on the fly, and in fact, one interesting characteristic of BT Phobos is that there is no difference between a material for the convolution engines and one for the source module,  both draw from the same pool of sounds. BT Phobos beautiful GUI There is a difference on the type of material though, where loop based samples are, well, looped (and tempo sync’ed), and their pitch does not change based on the key that triggers them (although you can still affect the general pitch of the sound with the advanced controls), “tonal” material are pitched and change following the midi notes. One note about the LFOs: the mappings are “per module”. In other words, it is possible to modulate almost every parameter inside a single module, be it one of the four input sources or one of the three convolution engines, but there seem to be no way to define a global mapping of some kind. For example, I found a very nice patch from Mr. Christian Henson (which incidentally made, at least in my opinion, the best and most balanced overall presets), and I noticed I could make it even more interesting by using the modulation wheel. I wanted to modulate the CC1 message with an LFO (in fact, ideally it would be even better to have access to a custom envelope, but BT Phobos doesn’t have any for modulation use), but I could not find a way to do that other than using Logic’s own Midi FX. I understand that MIDI signals are generated outside the scope of the plugin, but it would be fantastic to have the option of tweaking and modulate everything from within the synth itself. All the sources and convolvers can be assigned to separate parts of the keyboard by tweaking the mapper at the bottom of the GUI. It is not possible to map a sound to start from an offset in the keyboard controls – for example to play C1 on the keyboard but trigger C2, or any other note – but of course you can change the global pitch so this has effectively the same result, and as said before it can also be modulated with an LFO or via DAW automation, for more interesting effects. Keyboard mapping tool Indeed, the flexibility of the tool, and the number of options at disposal for tweaking the sounds are very impressive. Most patches are very nice and ready to be used as they are, and blend nicely with lots of disparate styles. Some patches are very specific though, and pose a challenge to be used. Generally, I would consider these as starting points for exploration, rather than “final”. When reading about BT Phobos in the weeks before its release many people asked whether you could add your own sound to it or not. It’s not possible, unfortunately. At first, I thought that wasn’t a limitation or a deal breaker. I still think it’s not a deal breaker, but I see the value added that BT Phobos has even just as a standalone synth, as opposed to recreate the same kind of signal path manually with external tools, to give your own content the “Phobos treatment”, which is something that is entirely possible of course, for example just with Alchemy and Space Designer (which are both included in MainStage, so you can get them for a staggering 30 euros if you are a Mac user, even if you don’t use Logic Pro X!), but of course, we would be trading away the immediacy that BT Phobos delivers. That, maybe, is my main criticism to this synth, and I hope Spitfire Audio turns BT Phobos into a fully fledged tool for sound design over time, maybe enabling access to spectral shaping in some form or another, so we can literally paint over (or paint away!) portions of the sound, which is something you can do with iZotope Iris or Alchemy and is a very powerful way to shape a sound and do sound design in general. Another thing that is missing is a sound effect module, although I don’t know how important that is, given that there are thousands of outstanding plugins that do all sort of effects from delay to chorus etc… And, in fact, many patches benefit for added reverb (I use Eventide Blackhole and found that works extremely well with BT Phobos, since it’s also prominently used for weird sound effects). But it may be interesting to play by putting some effects (including a more proper EQ section) in various places in the signal path, although it’s all too easy to generate total chaos from such experimentation, so it’s possible the Spitfire Audio simply thought to leave this option for another time and instead focus on a better overall experience. And there’s no arpeggiator! Really! The number of polyphonic voices can be altered. Spitfire Audio states that the synth tweaks the number of voices at startup to match the characteristics of your computer, but I can’t confirm that, since every change I do seems to remain, even if I occasionally hear some pop and cracks at higher settings. Nevertheless, the CPU usage is pretty decent unless you go absolutely crazy with the polyphony count. I also noted that the numbers effect the clarity of the sound. This is understandable since an higher count means more notes can be generated at the same time, which means more things are competing for the same spectrum, and things can become very confusing very quickly. On the other end, a lower polyphony count has a bad impact on how the notes are generated. I feel sometime that things just stop generating sound, which is counter intuitive and very disturbing, especially since it’s very easy to have a high polyphony count with all those sources and convolvers. Also to note is that, by nature, some patches have very wild difference in their envelopes and level settings, which means it’s all to easy to move from a quiet to a very loud patch just by clicking “next” (which is possible in Logic at least with the next/prev patch buttons on top of the plugin main frame). The synth does not stop the sound, nor does any attempt to fade from one sound to the next, instead, the convolutions simply keep working on the next sample in queue with the new settings! I still have to decide if this is cool or not, perhaps it’s not intentional, but I can see how this could be used to automate patch changes in some clever way during playback! And indeed, a was able to create a couple of interesting side effects just by changing between patches at the right time. More on the sounds. The amount of content is really staggering, and simply cycling through the patches does not make justice to this synth, at all! What BT Phobos wants is a user that spends time tweaking the patches and play with the source material to get the most out it, however it’s easy to see how limiting this may feel at the same time, particularly with the more esoteric and atonal sounds, and there’s certainly a limit on how good a wood stick convolved with an aluminium thin can may sound, so indeed some patches do feel repetitive at times, as the source material does. There are quite a few very similar drum loops for example, or various pitches “wind blowing into a pipe” kind of things. This is a problem common to other synths based on the idea of tweaking sounds from the environment, though. For example, I have the amazing Geosonics from Soniccouture, which is an almost unusable library that, once tweaked, is capable of amazing awesomeness. Clearly, the authors of both synths – but this is especially valid for BT Phobos I think – are looking at an audience that is capable of listening through the detuned and dissonant sound waves and shape a new form of music. This is probably the reason why so many of the pre assembled patches dive the user full speed into total sound design territory; however, and this is another important point of criticism, this is sound design that has already been done for you… A lot of the BT patches, in particular, are clearly BT patches, using them as they are means you are simply redoing something that has already been done before, and, despite with a very experimental feeling still strongly present, it’s not totally unheard or new. For example, I also happen to have Break Tweaker and Stutter Edit (tools that also originally come from BT), and I could not resist to the temptation to play something that resembles BT work on “This Binary Universe” or “_” (fantastic albums)! While this seems exciting – BT in a box! And you can also see the democratising aspect of BT Phobos, I can do that in half hour instead of six months of manual CSound programming! – it’s an unfortunate and artificial limitation on a tool that is otherwise a very powerful enabler, capable of bringing complex sound design one step closer to the general public. Having the ability to process your own sounds would mitigate this aspect I think. I do see how this is useful for a composer in need of a quick solution for an approaching deadline even with the most experimental tones, though: those patches can resolve a deadlock or take you out of an impasse in a second. The potential for BT Phobos to become a must have tool for sound design are all there, especially if Spitfire Audio keeps adding content, perhaps more varied (and even better, allow to load your own content). The ability to shape the existing sounds already make it very usable. I don’t think it’s a general tool at this stage, though, and definitely it should not be the first synth or sound shaping processor in your arsenal, especially if you are starting out now. But it’s not just a one trick pony either, it does offer you quite a lot of possibilities, and the more you work on that, the more addictive it becomes, and I can see Spitfire Audio offering soon this synth within a collection comprising of some of their more experimental stuff like LCO and Enigma, which would be very nice, indeed. It’s unfortunate that Spitfire Audio does not offer an evaluation period: contrary to most of their offering, BT Phobos needs time to be fully grasped and it’s all but immediate (well, unless you are happy with the default patches or you really just need to “get out of troubles” quickly, but be careful with that because the tax is on the originality), but it can, and does, evolve, as its convolutions do, over time and it can absolutely deliver total awesomeness if used correctly. Most patches are also usable out of the box, and especially by adding some reverb or doing some post processing with other tools, it’s possible to squeeze even more life out of them. Overall, I do recommend BT Phobos, is a wonderful, very addictive synthesiser. [Less]

I don’t usually post photos of my family, especially my kids, but this is a very special occasion, that needs celebration. On the 29th, at 7:31 in the morning (and what a long night!), my second child, Luca, was born in Hamburg. I guess this makes ... [More] him an official “hamburger” now 🤣 Luca was named after his uncle, one of the most eclectic and interesting person I ever met, and it was a great honour for us. I don’t have much words really, being a father is amazing, and I’m very proud, and very in love, with my kids. Very, very in love. Welcome Luca, son of Hamburg, and citizen of the World! Luca and Fiorenza P.S. I just realised that it’s a lot over one year I don’t post anything, I will try to change that, I already have a few things that will be probably very interesting share! [Less]

Last week we had a work week at Mozilla’s Toronto office for a bunch of different projects including Quantum DOM, Quantum Flow (performance), etc. It was great to have people from a variety of teams participate in discussions and solidify (and ... [More] change!) plans for upcoming Firefox releases. There were lots of sessions going on in parallel and I wasn’t able to attend them all but some of the results were written up by the inimitable Ehsan in his fourth Quantum Flow newsletter. Near the end of the week, Ehsan gave an impromptu walkthrough of the Gecko profiler. I’m planning on taking some of the tips he gave and that were discussed and put them onto the documentation for the profiler. If you’re interested in helping, please let me know! The photo above is of us going curling at the High Park Curling Club. It was a lot of fun and I was happy that only one other person had ever curled before so it was a unique experience for almost everyone! [Less]

As previously reported, the JSR 269 annotation processing APIs in the javax.lang.model and javax.annotation.processing packages are undergoing maintenance review as part of Java SE 9. All the planned changes to the JSR 269 API are in JDK 9 build ... [More] 164, downloadable as an early access binary. Of note new in build 164 is the annotation type javax.annotation.processing.Generated, meant to be a drop-in replacement for javax.annotation.Generated since the latter is not in a convenient module. Please try out your existing annotation processors -- compiling them, running them, etc. -- on JDK 9 and report your experiences, good or bad, to [email protected]. [Less]

As previously reported, the JSR 269 annotation processing APIs in the javax.lang.model and javax.annotation.processing packages are undergoing maintenance review as part of Java SE 9.All the planned changes to the JSR 269 API are in JDK 9 build 164 ... [More] , downloadable as an early access binary. Of note new in build 164 is the annotation type javax.annotation.processing.Generated, meant to be a drop-in replacement for javax.annotation.Generated since the latter is not in a convenient module.Please try out your existing annotation processors -- compiling them, running them, etc. -- on JDK 9 and report your experiences, good or bad, to [email protected]. [Less]

As has been done previously during Java SE 7 and Java SE 8, the JSR 269 annotation processing API is undergoing a maintenance review (MR) as part of Java SE 9.Most of the API changes are in support of adding modules to the platform, both as a ... [More] language structure in javax.lang.model.* as well as another interaction point in javax.annotation.processing in the Filer and elsewhere. A small API change was also done to better support repeating annotations. A more detailed summary of the API changes is included in the MR material.The API changes are intended to be largely compatible with the sources of existing processors, their binary linkage, as well as their runtime behavior. However, it would be helpful to verify that your existing processors work as expected when run under JDK 9. JDK 9 early access binaries are available for download. Please report experiences running processors under JDK 9 as comments here or to me as email. Feedback on the API changes can be sent to [email protected]. [Less]

As has been done previously during Java SE 7 and Java SE 8, the JSR 269 annotation processing API is undergoing a maintenance review (MR) as part of Java SE 9. Most of the API changes are in support of adding modules to the platform, both as a ... [More] language structure in javax.lang.model.* as well as another interaction point in javax.annotation.processing in the Filer and elsewhere. A small API change was also done to better support repeating annotations. A more detailed summary of the API changes is included in the MR material. The API changes are intended to be largely compatible with the sources of existing processors, their binary linkage, as well as their runtime behavior. However, it would be helpful to verify that your existing processors work as expected when run under JDK 9. JDK 9 early access binaries are available for download. Please report experiences running processors under JDK 9 as comments here or to me as email. Feedback on the API changes can be sent to [email protected]. [Less]

Note: this article is also available in German. What is Conversations? Conversations is an app for Android Smartphones for sending each other messages, pictures, etc, much like WhatsApp. However, there are a number of important differences to ... [More] WhatsApp: Conversations does not use your phone number for identification, and doesn’t read your address book to find contacts. It uses an ID that looks much like an email address (the so-called Jabber-ID), and you can find contacts by exchanging Jabber-IDs with people, just like you do with email addresses, phone numbers, etc. Conversations uses an open protocol called XMPP, that is used by many other programs on a wide range of systems, for example on desktop PCs. Converations is Open Source, i.e. everybody can inspect the source code, check it for security issues, see what the program actually does, or even modify and distribute it. XMPP builds on a decentralized infrastructure. This means that not one company is in control of it, but instead there are many providers, or you can even run your own server if you want. Conversations does not collect and sell any information from you or your contacts. There are more differences, but I don’t want to go into detail here, others have already done it, and better (German). Install Conversations From Google Play Conversations is easily installed from Google Play. However, it currently costs 2,39€. I’d recommend everybody who can to buy the it, it supports development of this really good app. Alternative: From F-Droid For all those who cannot or don’t want to spend the money, there is another way to get it for free. It is available in the F-Droid. It is an alternative app store, that only distributes Open Source software. In order to do that, you first need to install F-Droid. Then you can start F-Droid and search for Conversations and install it. Set-up Jabber account Next step is to set up a Jabber account. You need two things: an ID, and a provider. The first part, the ID, you can choose freely, e.g. a fantasy name or something like firstname.surname, but this is really up to you. In order to find a provider, I recommend this list https://gultsch.de/compliance_ranked.html. The providers at the top of the list have best support for the XMPP features that are relevant for smartphone users. I’d recommend trashserver.net because this supports in-band registration (directly from Conversations) and is very well maintained. If you want to further support the developer of Conversations, I’d recommend an account on conversations.im, this currently costs 8€/year. I think it is worth it, but you have the choice. If you choose, for example, the ID ‘joe.example’ on the provider ‘provider.org’, then your Jabber-ID is [email protected]. When you’re decided on a Jabber-ID, you can easily register an account by starting Conversations, entering the Jabber-ID in the set-up screen, check the box ‘register new account on server’, enter your preferred password 2x and confirm it. Adding contacts Adding contacts is different than WhatsApp. You have to manually add contacts to your roster. Tap on the ‘+’ symbol next to the little people icon, enter your contact’s Jabber-ID and confirm it. Now you’re ready to start chatting. Have fun! [Less]

Note: this article is also available in German. What is Conversations? Conversations is an app for Android Smartphones for sending each other messages, pictures, etc, much like WhatsApp. However, there are a number of important differences to ... [More] WhatsApp: Conversations does not use your phone number for identification, and doesn’t read your address book to find contacts. It uses an ID that looks much like an email address (the so-called Jabber-ID), and you can find contacts by exchanging Jabber-IDs with people, just like you do with email addresses, phone numbers, etc. Conversations uses an open protocol called XMPP, that is used by many other programs on a wide range of systems, for example on desktop PCs. Converations is Open Source, i.e. everybody can inspect the source code, check it for security issues, see what the program actually does, or even modify and distribute it. XMPP builds on a decentralized infrastructure. This means that not one company is in control of it, but instead there are many providers, or you can even run your own server if you want. Conversations does not collect and sell any information from you or your contacts. There are more differences, but I don’t want to go into detail here, others have already done it, and better (German). Install Conversations From Google Play Conversations is easily installed from Google Play. However, it currently costs 2,39€. I’d recommend everybody who can to buy the it, it supports development of this really good app. Alternative: From F-Droid For all those who cannot or don’t want to spend the money, there is another way to get it for free. It is available in the F-Droid. It is an alternative app store, that only distributes Open Source software. In order to do that, you first need to install F-Droid. Then you can start F-Droid and search for Conversations and install it. Set-up Jabber account Next step is to set up a Jabber account. You need two things: an ID, and a provider. The first part, the ID, you can choose freely, e.g. a fantasy name or something like firstname.surname, but this is really up to you. In order to find a provider, I recommend this list https://gultsch.de/compliance_ranked.html. The providers at the top of the list have best support for the XMPP features that are relevant for smartphone users. I’d recommend trashserver.net because this supports in-band registration (directly from Conversations) and is very well maintained. If you want to further support the developer of Conversations, I’d recommend an account on conversations.im, this currently costs 8€/year. I think it is worth it, but you have the choice. If you choose, for example, the ID ‘joe.example’ on the provider ‘provider.org’, then your Jabber-ID is [email protected]. When you’re decided on a Jabber-ID, you can easily register an account by starting Conversations, entering the Jabber-ID in the set-up screen, check the box ‘register new account on server’, enter your preferred password 2x and confirm it. Adding contacts Adding contacts is different than WhatsApp. You have to manually add contacts to your roster. Tap on the ‘+’ symbol next to the little people icon, enter your contact’s Jabber-ID and confirm it. Now you’re ready to start chatting. Have fun! [Less]

Diesen Artikel gibt es auch in Englisch. Was ist Conversations? Conversations ist eine App für Android Smartphones, mit der man sich gegenseitig Nachrichten, Bilder, etc schicken kann, sehr ähnlich wie WhatsApp. Es gibt allerdings ein paar wichtige ... [More] Unterschiede zu WhatsApp: Conversations verwendet nicht Deine Telefon-Nummer zur Identifikation, und nicht Dein Adressbuch um Kontakte zu finden. Deine ID sieht aus wie eine Email-Adresse (Deine sogenannte Jabber-ID), und Kontakte findest Du indem Du Deine Jabber-ID mit Bekannten austauschst, genau wie bei Email-Adressen oder Telefonnummern auch. Conversations benutzt ein offenes Protokoll, genannt XMPP, das von vielen anderen Programmen auf vielen verschiedenen Systemen genutzt werden kann, z.B. auch auf Desktop PCs. Conversations ist Open Source, d.h. jeder kann den Quellcode einsehen, und z.B. auf Sicherheitsprobleme überprüfen, oder sich vergewissern was das Programm eigentlich macht, oder es ändern, etc. XMPP baut auf eine dezentrale Infrastruktur, das bedeutet daß nicht ein Unternehmen alles kontrolliert, sondern daß es viele verschiedene Anbieter gibt, oder man z.B. selbst entsprechende Server betreiben kann, wenn man möchte. Conversations sammelt und verkauft keinerlei Informationen über Dich und Deine Kontakte. Es gibt noch einige andere Unterschiede, aber ich will hier nicht im Detail darauf eingehen, das haben andere schon viel besser getan. Conversations installieren Von Google Play Conversations lässt sich ganz einfach von Google Play installieren. Es kostet dort allerdings momentan 2,39€. Ich möchte allen, die die Möglichkeit haben empfehlen, die App zu kaufen, ihr unterstützt damit die Entwicklung dieser wirklich guten App. Alternative: Von F-Droid Allen, die Google Play nicht nutzen können, oder die aus welchen Gründen auch immer nicht 2,39€ dafür zahlen können oder möchten, sei die Installation über F-Droid ans Herz gelegt. F-Droid ist ein alternativer App Store, der aussschliesslich Open Source Software bereitstellt. Dazu muss man sich zunächst F-Droid installieren. Dann kann man in der F-Droid App nach ‘Conversations’ suchen, und dort installieren. Das ist kostenlos und legal. Jabber-Account einrichten Als nächstes musst Du einen Jabber Account einrichten. Dazu benötigst Du zwei Dinge: eine ID, und einen Anbieter. Den ersten Teil, die ID, kannst Du selbst wählen, z.B. einen Phantasienamen, oder etwas wie vorname.nachname, aber das ist wirklich Dir überlassen. Um einen Anbieter zu finden, empfehle ich diese Liste: https://gultsch.de/compliance_ranked.html. Die Anbieter ganz oben unterstützen die meisten Features die für Smartphone-Nutzer wichtig sind. Ich kann trashserver.net empfehlen, da dieser Server die Registrierung direkt aus der Conversations-App heraus unterstützt, und auch sonst sehr gut gewartet wird. Wenn Du dem Entwickler von Conversations zusätzlich Unterstützung zukommen lassen möchtest, dann ist ein Account auf conversations.im empfehlenswert, dies kostet aber momentan 8 Euro im Jahr. Ich finde, das ist es wert, aber das muss jeder selbst entscheiden. Wenn Du z.B. die ID ‘max.mustermann’ auf dem Anbieter ‘anbieter.de’ aussuchst, ist Deine Jabber-ID: [email protected] . Wenn Du Dich für eine ID und einen Anbieter entschieden hast, dann kannst Du ganz einfach einen Account einrichten, indem Du Conversations startest und im Einrichtungs-Bildschirm die gewünschte Jabber-ID eingibst, das Häkchen bei ‘Neues Konto auf Server erstellen’ aktivierst, Dein gewünschtest Passwort 2x eingibst und dann auf ‘Weiter’ tippst. Kontakte hinzufügen Anders als in WhatsApp musst Du in Conversations Deine Kontakte selbst hinzufügen. Dazu einfach auf das Symbol mit dem ‘+’ neben Männchen tippen, die Jabber-ID des Kontaktes eingeben, fertig. Und dann kannst Du loschatten! Viel Spaß! [Less]