December 6, 2004
big update
So let's see, stuff that I've gotten done recently:
+ Ported Jesusonic to OS X. This involved mostly spending time
retargeting the internal script compiler for PPC instead of x86.
It wouldn't have been hard, except for stupid mistakes
(particularly pertaining to loading 32 bit immediate values to
registers, and not taking into account that addi treats values
as signed (doh!)). What made it really frustrating is that _some_
pointers would be loaded right, and others wrong. Took a bit to
figure that one out. Doing the UI was a breeze, since it just uses
ncurses, and Core Audio support was pretty easy too, just read the
PDF and boom it worked. Supporting multiple simulaneous devices,
however, looks like it will be a pain in the ass. Some notes:
on my old 667mhz G4 powerbook, it works decent, a little bit
better than an 800mhz Via C3. The latency when using a firewire
MOTU 896HD with it, was great. 8ms or so, I think. Feels really
nice when playing the guitar through it, even with effects that
add latency (such as high speed convolution amp modeling). The
main remaining issue left is that pageup/down don't work, since
the Terminal app hijacks them for the scrollback buffer (any way
to turn this off perhaps?). Anyway, I think we'll be releasing
the mac version along with the windows one by christmas. at least
in some beta/preview form.
+ Been building the Jesusonic packaging app. This little bugger
lets you package up effects/presets/data files, and resolves
dependencies for you. Once they are packaged up, you can decide if
you want to upload to jesusonic.com, etc. The other side of the app
is one that lets you install packages, and choose which elements to
install, handle if you already have some on your system, and whatnot.
I want to make it very easy to both make packages and install them.
This tool will probably be Windows only initially, but have no fear
the format is just .ZIP so you can create/install these packages on
pretty much any OS.
+ Added OGG Vorbis support to Jesusonic. Which means you can store
whatever audio you want, and have effects stream it back as needed.
Decoding OGG from disk is extremely simple from script -- it's
transparent. Whenever you open a file that ends in .ogg, it tries
to use it as a decompressor.
+ Upgrading my pre-prototype hand-made Jesusonic box to a new CPU and
motherboard. Went from a 800mhz Via C3 to a 1.6ghz Pentium M. I have to
say, I am extremely impressed with the Pentium M. Amazingly fast, the
HSF is tiny and quiet, and it doesn't even get that hot. Now if only the
price would come down. With the new board, I really have to try hard to
max the CPU out (i.e. getting 20 effects in there at a time), and I can
even crank the latency down a bit more.
+ Managed to order a Geode NX eval board from Arrow Electronics. In 6 short
weeks I should be able to see if those will work well, too. They are a bit
too expensive, too, though.
So I guess I've been only really doing shit with the Jesusonic lately. I
guess that's ok, too.
Oh yes, actually last night I watched the director's cut of JFK last night.
So relevant to today. Argh.
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