kronos.factory 1.0 Release

[Derek Cook]

Hi, all

I am pleased to (finally!) release kronos.factory 1.0, which is now available on my x.factory Librarians Products Page.

During the month of March, there is a 25% discount launch offer if you enter the code KRONOS in the coupon box and then press UPDATE COUPON

This has been a very long journey due to limited spare time to devote to programming (and a very fine summer last year cut it down even more!) and the flexibility (read complexity) of the Kronos file format to have any permutation of banks in it.

kronos.factory can be downloaded on the following links:

• Windows Installer
• OS X Installer and any Java system
• Linux Installer

Instructions on how to install are here http://xfactory-librarians.co.uk/installation.html, and if you do not already have Java on your system, then follow the guide here http://xfactory-librarians.co.uk/java.html

Finally, a public thanks for Galf2, who has been assisting me in the beta test process and who has provided invaluable support and ideas.

=== Known issues

• The screen resolution issue if working on a device with a hi definition monitor (I will sort as part of a later java migration)
• The software (and all my librarians) is NOT compatible with Java 9 and above. Java 9 introduces a major change to Java which broke several libraries that I was using. I have now migrated away from those and was making good progress with making my applications Java 9 compatible until I discovered a major bug in Java 9 MIDI Port Naming on Windows (OS X is fine!) that corrupts port names, which needs fixing by Oracle (Java vendor) before I can complete the migration
• Copy referenced objects requires suitable free data spaces, and currently fails silently if non are available. I will add error reporting in a later release and also the options to create data banks if space is available. I will also add some menu items to allow you to query a selection and see how much space is required for referenced items (e..g a Set List is using XXX Combis, which are using YYY HD-1 Programs and ZZZ EXi programs, which are using NNN Wave Sequences, Drum Kits, etc.)

Feedback and comments are welcome.

=== It's been a long, long time....

Why, the heck has it taking so long to produce this software, as I started working on it in May 2017!!, and then why are some operations lengthy? It's because of all the permutations and things to check, and the fact that the PCG format does not contain a fixed set of items - for example, you may have no program banks, you may have some in any permutation or you may have them all!

In a PCG file, there are"

• 20 Program (Voice) banks (x 128 Programs) that may or may not be there in any combination...
• But after Bank I-F there are the preset GM banks (9 of them!) before the other User banks carry on from U-A onwards
• And Program banks can be either HD-1 (ROMPLER) or EXi (Virtual Instrument) banks
• There are 14 Combi Banks that may or may not be there in any combination...
• There are 15 Wave Sequence banks that may or may not be there in any combination, and the first bank has 150 Wave Sequences, the rest 32 (so lots of fun if you move a 32 element bank to the first one and vice versa)
• There are 15 Drum Kit banks that may or may not be there in any combination, and the first bank has 50 Drum Kits, the rest 16 (so lots of fun if you move a 16 element bank to the first one and vice versa)
• Drum Pattern Tracks are totally free form, there may be up to 1,000 of them and they do not have to be sequentially numbered....
• The only thing fixed is Set Lists where there are 128 of them with 128 entries

I think you can see from that there is a fair bit to work through and ensure it is all working, and it then gets interesting if you are trying to keep references linked when you move things, or you wish to copy referenced objects when you copy data to another file (e.g. copy a program and have the programs copied as well). For example if you move a wave sequence and want to update Program references to the Wave Sequences

• Is a Program Bank a HD-1 Bank?
• Yes, are any of the 128 Programs in a Program Bank a Normal Voice or a Drum Voice?
• Normal Voice, check oscillator 1 always and only oscillator 2 if it is a double oscillator voice
• For each of the 8 trigger zones in an oscillator, is it off, a sample or a wave sequence?
• If Wave Sequence then has it been affected by the move?
• If so then remap the Wave Sequence reference to take account of the change (and just to make life interesting you need to convert between a single index in the trigger zone and the Wave Sequence Bank/Wave Sequence Number (with the first bank being 150 elements in length and the rest 32

and of course the "move" within a file can be

• A wave sequence move inside a bank
• A wave sequence move to another bank
• A reordering of the banks
• A renumbering of a bank!

So, this is the most complex synth I have ever worked through in terms of writing a patch librarian for!

[thiagotgc]

Very good.

I'm buying.

[psionic311]

Gratz Derek on finally releasing this! I know it's been a long time coming and a labor of love. I'll be buying this soon as well.

[Poseidon]

I have just downloaded and installed kronos.factory to see what it does and how.
Unfortunately I could not do much because the boot drive is only recognised ( I have 4 internal)
I am running macOS 10.11.6 and Java 8 Update 201 (buid 1.8.0_201-b09)
Is it a feature or bug ?

[Derek Cook]

I have just downloaded and installed kronos.factory to see what it does and how.
Unfortunately I could not do much because the boot drive is only recognised ( I have 4 internal)
I am running macOS 10.11.6 and Java 8 Update 201 (buid 1.8.0_201-b09)
Is it a feature or bug ?

Hi, I assume that you mean that if you are trying to access a file through the open file dialog, that you can only see your boot drive in the list of available drives?

I develop on OS X myself, but only have a single drive in my computer. So, I have just plugged in an external backup drive and verified that I get the same behaviour, which would be a "Java feature", as it affects all of my applications, and the same Java file access calls on Windows returns all available drives.

All is not lost, however, and you should be able to access the extra volumes via Java. If in the file dialog you navigate up the chain to the root of your boot drive, and then scroll down, there is a File Path called "Volumes". I found my external drive under there and could browse to a folder where I dropped some PCG files and opened them, so I assume this would work for your internal drives. I could also access shared network drives from other computers via this Volumes folder.

HTH.

[Galf2]

Hi Derek

It's very good. The kronos.factory has a lot of potential.

Derek, congratulations on the release of the kronos.factory!

[Derek Cook]

Hi,

thiagotgc has reported the first issue in kronos.factory. It is inevitable in software development for users to find issues not found by developers, as users will have different ideas and needs for how to use the software.

Given the complexity of what is in the Kronos file format, I was assuming that some would come back quickly, although maybe not quite that quickly!

The issue that I need to look into is that there is probably a fixed memory size for Drum Patterns and it is easy to pile loads of drum patterns into kronos.factory, save the file and when you load it in the Kronos, you will get a "not enough memory error". So I will need to establish what the Kronos limit is and ensure that it is not exceeded in kronos.factory.

On the kronos.factory Trello Board there is a bug list that I am now running along with a feature request list. It is easier to maintain the status of bugs via this list based format, than trying to track them via forum posts.

I am of course committed to solving reported problems, and details of how to report problems can be found on my Support Page. Any reported problems will go onto the Trello Board. Equally any requests for enhancements will be listed there as well.

[robbie50]

Great! I buy one too….
Thanks……….


Greetings,


robbie

[Derek Cook]

Hi, all

I'm still looking into the reported problem with drum patterns, and trying to understand how they are built a little better to try and understand the issue.

Until I know what is causing the reported problem, I would avoid adding drum patterns in kronos.factory.

One of the challenges with Drum Patterns is that their structure is very different to other elements in the PCG structure, and are a little more “free form”.

[LewTheKeyboardGuy]

Have purchased with many thanks. as soon as new host arrives, it will be installed and ready to go. A great many thanks. Keep up the good work.

[Derek Cook]

Thanks for the purchase and feedback

[midiman]

Just bought, can’t wait to try it out. I remember you from the EX5 days. I may have to pull mine out of storage . Though I’ve changed emails a few times since purchasing ex.factory, so my license is in the wind .

Thanks for your work on this!

[Derek Cook]

Just bought, can’t wait to try it out. I remember you from the EX5 days. I may have to pull mine out of storage . Though I’ve changed emails a few times since purchasing ex.factory, so my license is in the wind .

Thanks for your work on this!

Thanks. If you can give me an idea of what you old email addresses were, I’ll look out your old ex.factory license and sort out a new license. Either PM or or send am email to the support email details you can find on my website.