Any EWQL PLAY users?

Christofori · December 18, 2011, 03:50:17

It bares noting publicly that after installing the latest PLAY 3 update (published Dec 8th 2011), I have yet to crash OMPT when using PLAY as a VST. This however is not something I have tested extensively, yet. Funny thing is, the samples seem to load faster in the VST version of PLAY than in the standalone version.. so I might try switching my composing of tracks back to the VST version and see how it goes.

I should also state that I'm currently using the latest testing version of OMPT as of the date of this posting (1.20.00.57) and PLAY is 3.0.30 and all virtual instruments I use are also patched to their latest/greatest versions.

It might be a bit soon to celebrate; but it makes me wonder...: why couldn't they have released PLAY 3 back in May..? Oh well..!

Saga Musix · December 18, 2011, 13:18:14

Good to hear.

Quote from: christofori on December 18, 2011, 03:50:17Funny thing is, the samples seem to load faster in the VST version of PLAY than in the standalone version.

If you did that comparison without an extended break between the two tests, this has probably not much to say because the samples would most likely still be placed in the disk cache then.

KrazyKatz · December 18, 2011, 15:09:25

QuoteIt bares noting publicly that after installing the latest PLAY 3 update (published Dec 8th 2011), I have yet to crash OMPT when using PLAY as a VST. This however is not something I have tested extensively, yet.

Thanks for reporting. Please keep us posted if any problems crop up.

Christofori · December 19, 2011, 02:03:28

Quote from: KrazyKatz on December 18, 2011, 15:09:25
Thanks for reporting. Please keep us posted if any problems crop up.

The performance of the v3.0.30 PLAY VST in a song i'm currently composing (so far just using some drums and a LOT of the Bösendorfer 290 Master, a BIG sample set from Pianos Gold) is a bit laggy, causing some sound artifacts as some of the samples are loaded/reloaded. This doesn't occur when using PLAY as a stand-alone ap and interfacing to it as previously described some months ago (ie: using VST2MID to send MIDI data from the tracker to control the stand-alone iteration of PLAY). i attribute this to my using the Bösendorfer 290 samples (they, as mentioned some time ago, are 'friggin HUGE'). Also, i must note that if you keep the VST window OPEN while playback occurs, the performance is FAR better than if you close it and let it run 'in the background' for some reason.

HOWEVER, all that said -- still there have been 0 crashes.

Given the results, i'll likely still (for the time being) continue tracking with the stand-alone version of PLAY. Still, it's nice to see that they seem to have (finally) addressed the issue(s) causing incompatibility..!

Quote from: Jojo on December 18, 2011, 13:18:14
If you did that comparison without an extended break between the two tests, this has probably not much to say because the samples would most likely still be placed in the disk cache then.

My goodness, you think of everything, don't you? (That's why we love you!)

You're quite correct... earlier loading the samples took just as long as normal. And this "earlier" of which I now 'speak,' was after a fresh boot of the system. Prior testing had been AFTER running PLAY in stand-alone mode... doubt there would have even been a minute or so even, between the time I closed stand-alone PLAY and opened VST PLAY. Good catch.

Saga Musix · December 20, 2011, 17:56:11

Quote from: christofori on December 19, 2011, 02:03:28My goodness, you think of everything, don't you?

If that was the case, there would be no regressions in every new OpenMPT version.

It was just a quite obvious pattern for me.

corlenbelspar · January 06, 2012, 13:18:41

I don't believe play would work with OMPT with the way it's designed. I use play myself but don't have it right now as my computer that has the EastWest libraries on it is in another country from where I am.

Saga Musix · January 06, 2012, 13:31:09

Quote from: corlenbelspar on January 06, 2012, 13:18:41
I don't believe play would work with OMPT with the way it's designed.

And what is this magical way in which it (OpenMPT? PLAY?) is designed? As I understand PLAY is just a normal VSTi which should work more or less directly in any VST host (modulo unimplemented features or wrong assumpations made by the plugin or host authors).

corlenbelspar · January 06, 2012, 17:15:38

I can't remember what I read that said it was designed weird but from what I remember the thing I read said it should only work when used in a program like Cubase or whatever.

Saga Musix · January 06, 2012, 18:45:58

They say that because they don't want to spend money on user support for "lesser" DAWs. PLAY may work just fine in many hosts they do not officially support, but you won't get any help from them if you use such a DAW and apparently they do not intend to fix their plugin for those programs, too.

corlenbelspar · January 07, 2012, 16:35:06

I think that attitude from them is utter bullcrap. Module music is definitely a major music format and they're ruining it for themselves if they refuse to support it.

Saga Musix · January 07, 2012, 16:55:12

Well, I guess supporting more hosts means spending more money on development for them - and who knows how aged and bad their code is so that a rewrite of half the code is necessary to make it work with more hosts. But as reported by Chris above, things seem to have improved, so there's hope...