CoolEdit Nostalgia visualizer

[sveakul]

1.  What CoolEdit files did you use from the zip?
3,5

2.  What do you mean by "Then I click on the tab that has different custom layout"?  Can you supply a screenshot?
Different tab can have different custom layouts (rightclick tab>use custom layout)

"3,5" is the version number;  I mean the actual files from inside the zipped folder--did you put all 6 in?  if so, try removing the 4 D2D related ones and restarting.

I still don't know what tab you're talking about so you're going to have to post a screenshot of that.

[aktor]

All files were copied and removing those suggested didn't help.
TABS
https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Tabs

[sveakul]

All files were copied and removing those suggested didn't help.
TABS
https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Tabs

Frankly I had completely overlooked the ability of MusicBee to "stack" panels.  And all this time I could have been stacking both the Classic Spectrum Analyzer and the Spectrogram on the bottom panel 

Yes the error you indicated does sound like an ini file "collision."  When you said "If I put in the top pannel works fine," did you mean tabbing between different layouts of CoolEdit DOES work there?  It would seem to me it could only use one version of the docked ini unless it's smart enough to rename a second instead of trying to overwrite the first, which is what may be causing the RGB out-of-bounds error.

BTW, did you notice any visual improvements when including the D2D files?

[aktor]

The only way i can make it work is if I put a cooledit (floating) in every tab's panel configuration. If i put docking it doesn't work it asks me every time to set size and restart MB.

[kamen]

Interesting stuff...

- The tabs were the least thing I was thinking about, but here is my understanding: Because MusicBee disposes and initializes again the tab's content when switching between them, it seems clear to me to get asked every time about size and restart from CEN. Technically speaking MusicBee saves the size of the plugin to MusicBee3Settings.ini, but it does not for the layout files when using tabs (if otherwise, please let me know how). This is how the entry should look like for the layout:

<SystemPlugin>
 <State>
  <Id>\MusicBee\Plugins\mb_CoolEditNostalgia.dll</Id>
  <Name>CoolEdit Nostalgia (docking)</Name>
  <Description>Visualization inspired by CoolEdit Frequency Analysis</Description>
  <Enabled>true</Enabled>
  <PanelHeight>235</PanelHeight>
 </State>
</SystemPlugin>

- I never used the classic analyzer, but I see your point - to have a gradient of color hues between the two colors for fill and contour, so if you select red and blue, you'll get a rainbow. It might come in as an extra option in the near future.

-The logarithmic scale and labels are as good as possible at the moment. I'm currently working on something that catches on all scales, and will have to rethink the logarithmic a bit too. If I see the possibility I'll improve on that too.

aktor and sveakul, thank you for your feedback!

[aktor]

For me I have  <PanelHeader /> at the bottom between  <state>.
<State>
  <Id>C:\Users\xr\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee\Plugins\mb_CoolEditNostalgia.dll</Id>
  <Name>CoolEdit Nostalgia (docking)</Name>
  <Description>Visualization inspired by CoolEdit Frequency Analysis</Description>
  <Enabled>true</Enabled>
  <PanelHeight>235</PanelHeight>
  <PanelHeader />
 </State>

[kamen]

For the next version there will be a bettering for the tabs issue. At least the asking for MusicBee restart will be gone for all use cases (inclusive tab layouts). Although the ask height dialog might still remain.

[sveakul]

- I never used the classic analyzer, but I see your point - to have a gradient of color hues between the two colors for fill and contour, so if you select red and blue, you'll get a rainbow. It might come in as an extra option in the near future.

I'm sorry, I mistakenly thought you had re-coded the latest Classic Spectrum Analyzer instead of Raul!  Most of the "in-use" screenshots of it show a single-color gradient, below is a snip of the multi-color gradient bars like the "Properties" page showed I posted for you a few posts back:

While capable of amazing stuff its major drawback is the fact that neither the X or Y axis have any labels at all no matter what the scale is chosen.

[aktor]

For the next version there will be a bettering for the tabs issue. At least the asking for MusicBee restart will be gone for all use cases (inclusive tab layouts). Although the ask height dialog might still remain.

So basically ditch the docked cooledit as floating one works without setting manually the size number.
Suggestions for improvements:
- do triple and quadruple column size options
- horizontal (left-right) flow of spectrometer printer
- modification of average to display left and right channel separately with the option to hide columns so it would be a kind of a vu meter, that could be achieved with gradient-less option and manually select color the same as background.  Maybe instead of displaying average it wound display maximum. This is to say i would really fancy using cooledit as a vumeter.

[TF3RDL]

I wonder it is possible to implement the IIR filter bank mode (alternative transform algorithm for frequency bars display mode), which has logarithmic frequency resolution and it doesn't use FFT at all into this plugin or not? Something like this:


BTW, this plugin is basically the equivalent of Enhanced Spectrum analyzer (foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer) for MusicBee and also, when not cascaded, the spectrum looks more like WMP Bars + VLC Spectrum hybrid

[kamen]

I'm sorry, I mistakenly thought you had re-coded the latest Classic Spectrum Analyzer instead of Raul!  Most of the "in-use" screenshots of it show a single-color gradient, below is a snip of the multi-color gradient bars like the "Properties" page showed I posted for you a few posts back:

This kind of gradient will be possible in the next version.

[kamen]

- do triple and quadruple column size options

That will wait for the future when (I suppose) those settings get generalised with some parameters.

- horizontal (left-right) flow of spectrometer printer

That breaks the idea of using the frequency scale from the upper half with the printer data below.

- modification of average to display left and right channel separately with the option to hide columns so it would be a kind of a vu meter, that could be achieved with gradient-less option and manually select color the same as background.  Maybe instead of displaying average it wound display maximum. This is to say i would really fancy using cooledit as a vumeter.

I'll implement a RMS filter option to the Filter menu, that will modify the signal to a constant line at RMS level. This way both channels will be visible at wish and the min, max and average will still be applicable. That's what looks to me acceptable, without bending the other features into something they are not.

[kamen]

I wonder it is possible to implement the IIR filter bank mode (alternative transform algorithm for frequency bars display mode), which has logarithmic frequency resolution and it doesn't use FFT at all into this plugin or not? Something like this:

Thank you for providing some knowledge from the foobar2000 community.
Me personally am only aware of the filter bank anlyzers through this. However I found your samples at CodePen intriguing, especially the SWIFT.
MusicBee does not provide the raw audio samples, but only a preprocessed FFT. I think what you ask is still possible, but the plugin's API has to be extended.

BTW, this plugin is basically the equivalent of Enhanced Spectrum analyzer (foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer) for MusicBee and also, when not cascaded, the spectrum looks more like WMP Bars + VLC Spectrum hybrid

Sure that. It's like using different sunglasses when looking at the sun. From what I saw the Enhanced Analyzer has it's own philosophy and some very interesting insights.

[TF3RDL]

I wonder it is possible to implement the IIR filter bank mode (alternative transform algorithm for frequency bars display mode), which has logarithmic frequency resolution and it doesn't use FFT at all into this plugin or not? Something like this:

Thank you for providing some knowledge from the foobar2000 community.
Me personally am only aware of the filter bank anlyzers through this. However I found your samples at CodePen intriguing, especially the SWIFT.
MusicBee does not provide the raw audio samples, but only a preprocessed FFT. I think what you ask is still possible, but the plugin's API has to be extended.

Ah yes, a perfect time to include this last paragraph (where MB doesn't provide raw audio samples necessary for proper calculation of IIR filter bank analyzer and some audio analysis algorithms used for other analysis-oriented visualizations something like Loudness Peakmeter for foobar2000) to the wiki in which there is some limits to which extent the analysis-oriented visualizations like this to be made into MB and not just foobar2000 and/or VST plugins

Of course, if the IIR filter bank mode is impossible to implement as MusicBee plugin for this audio spectrum analyzer, you can try other methods like reassignment method (which improves frequency resolution without actually having to increase the FFT size) and Brown-Puckette CQT/VQT algorithm as outlined in the CodePen project "Frequency bands spectrum analyzer using either FFT or CQT", which uses frequency kernel to sharpen time resolution on higher frequencies while having much higher FFT size like 32768 or even 65536 samples (if possible)

BTW, is it still possible to add a Mid/Side mode (M = (L+R)/2 and S = (L-R)/2) to this plugin despite the fact MB only provides FFT data (and not raw waveform data as in foobar2000)?

[kamen]

I wonder it is possible to implement the IIR filter bank mode (alternative transform algorithm for frequency bars display mode), which has logarithmic frequency resolution and it doesn't use FFT at all into this plugin or not? Something like this:

Thank you for providing some knowledge from the foobar2000 community.
Me personally am only aware of the filter bank anlyzers through this. However I found your samples at CodePen intriguing, especially the SWIFT.
MusicBee does not provide the raw audio samples, but only a preprocessed FFT. I think what you ask is still possible, but the plugin's API has to be extended.

Ah yes, a perfect time to include this last paragraph (where MB doesn't provide raw audio samples necessary for proper calculation of IIR filter bank analyzer and some audio analysis algorithms used for other analysis-oriented visualizations something like Loudness Peakmeter for foobar2000) to the wiki in which there is some limits to which extent the analysis-oriented visualizations like this to be made into MB and not just foobar2000 and/or VST plugins

Of course, if the IIR filter bank mode is impossible to implement as MusicBee plugin for this audio spectrum analyzer, you can try other methods like reassignment method (which improves frequency resolution without actually having to increase the FFT size) and Brown-Puckette CQT/VQT algorithm as outlined in the CodePen project "Frequency bands spectrum analyzer using either FFT or CQT", which uses frequency kernel to sharpen time resolution on higher frequencies while having much higher FFT size like 32768 or even 65536 samples (if possible)

BTW, is it still possible to add a Mid/Side mode (M = (L+R)/2 and S = (L-R)/2) to this plugin despite the fact MB only provides FFT data (and not raw waveform data as in foobar2000)?

In the mean time you've seen already my topic for an API extension. On the other side foobar2000 has a very extensive api for delivering the audio chunks, and designing one for MusicBee could be a big time investment. The BASS library supports delivering the raw samples, the same way it delivers the FFT ones. I guess, we'll see what could be done in the future.

For the Mid/Side, there is already a "Combined" channel option which is actually Middle. Side can also be added for the next version, but isn't it useful only for recorded unprocessed audio?