FFTW DLL oddity + Midi control enhancement suggestion

[soft_modular]

Jan
Thanks for Wren : some odd Wren behaviour with the FFTW DLL - details at
https://bluehell.nl/blogje/forums.html/2025/04/10/new-release-20254100/comments/#comment260210-193044

Also a suggestion to extend support for Midi controllers beyond the current Absolute CC as follows:-
1. Soft takeover option for Absolute CC Midi (to prevent a parameter jump)
2. Support relative modes for endless rotary controllers e.g.
Relative 1: CC value of 127 decreases the parameter value by one, CC value of 0 increases the parameter value by one.
Relative 2: CC value of 63 decreases the parameter value by one, CC value of 65 increases the parameter value by one.
Relative 3: CC value of 65 decreases the parameter value by one, CC value of 0 increases the parameter value by one.

[blue hell]

Ah, good you mention it here too .. i might not have noticed soon ..

The FFTW issue ..

It may be a path issue .. it used to be the case that DLL's would be found in the EXE directory .. but this does not always seem to be the case nowadays.

If this is the issue it can be fixed by manually adding Wren's exe folder to the path. There is an individual path and one for all users - which one to use should not matter.

For setting the path this page may be helpful.

I've seen this issue in windows 11 too btw, so .. maybe it occurs in all windows versions.

I'll put this on the blog too, later on.

I'll keep the MIDI ideas in mind

[soft_modular]

Thanks. Adding the same path as wren.exe makes no difference to the errors logged or displayed.

Can one tell if the wave player or related modules is actually fully functional or just partially functional by using it in a particular way or with particular wav files?

[blue hell]

Oh, yuck - this is odd indeed

The wave player module should list the loaded file in it's user interface; if so it will probably play and if not it will probably not play.

To check if it actually works .. just connect it to an ouput module, the wave should be played ..[maybe not on all wave players .. but at least on most].

Re. the DLL's r8bsrc.dll is used for sample rate conversions, so at least that aspect may not work .. this would affect the play rate and pitch .. when the module is not set to do automatic rate conversions it .. may .. still work .. not sure there.

Also, it is possible that the DLL warnings are partially incorrect .. so anyway .. this should be tested as described.

And then .. there may be another way with the DLL's .. you can try and copy them to the windows folder.

[soft_modular]

Here's what I did to investigate

1. Created 4 off 3 second .wav files (with same sound content) at 22500, 44100, 48000 and 96000 Hz sample rates using Audacity
2. Created a new empty patch
3. Created a wave player module
4. Created an audio output module
5. Connected them together
6. Saved the patch

7. Reopened the patch : got the warning popup and log file messages
8. On "run" the patch played the audio sample fine
9. Selected each of the 4 .wav files in turn : every one played audibly OK
10. Selected and deselected resampling on the audio output module for each one: every one played audibly OK. The pitch was OK

The only thing I noticed was the wave player module displayed the audio file duration in seconds incorrectly for samples that did not match the ASIO output sample rate.
i.e. showing
1.5 seconds for 22500 (wrong)
3 seconds for 44100 (correct - same as ASIO output)
3.265 seconds for 48000 (wrong)
6.531 seconds for 96000 (wrong)

Conclusion
- It's usable as a creative audio tool
- Looks like the popup and log file messages may be spurious?
- Unless the odd display of sample length points to something deeper with resampling inside the wave player module?

[blue hell]

Ok, it then looks like the sample rate conversion may not be working .. still if you then use samples at the same rate as wren's sample rate it vshould then play correct ..

that is what I conclude from your tests then.

Unfortunately.. or luckily ;) .. my old windows pc gave up a couple of months ago .. so I do not have anything pre windows 11 any more .. ow 10 too on a retired laptop .. I do not want to change that ... so I can not really test this.

btw .. FFTW is being used for the vocoder, the smear, the pad synth and the spectrum viewer.

[soft_modular]

Jan
Thank you for the details on the modules potentially affected. The FFTW DLL error is indeed fixed by explicitly setting the Wren path as suggested : I saw this fixed it for Wren user "Le DJ Abstrait", so kept looking, and then realised I had a typo error in my path setting. So it works now

In my test patch the Wave Player module still displays the wrong sample duration when the sample rate differs from the output : but the log error is fixed.

[blue hell]

Ah ok .. thanks for getting back on that to clear things up :)

And re. the wrong duration, did you turn on the automatic sample rate conversion - that one is off by default, to keep compatibility with older patches that did not have that feature.

[soft_modular]

When the sample rate conversion is switched on, the Wave Player display updates correctly for the changed sample rate.

However the sample rate duration displayed in seconds is always incorrect for samples loaded when they have a different rate to Wren's output sample rate (ref post #5 above)

[blue hell]

Ok thanks, I can reproduce it - at least :)