New SpinCAD Designer release with major usability improvements

Simulator display? Is that the ASM sidebar?

Even with the ASM sidebar unopened, several blocks still only allow their Control Panels to be opened once.
 
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It's when you go into the Simulator menu and click on "enable display", then you get the waveform on top when you run the simulator. In any case, I think that's resolved, just cramming some more features in here, will update in a bit.
 
Here's version 1066, "Bayeux" Battle of Hastings and all that. Has a new feature "Scope Probe" under "Special" menu where the feedback loop used to live, under "Loop" well it's still there. When the scope probe is in the layout, optimization is disabled for simulation. It will still optimize if you save to SPN, Clipboard, or HEX.

Connect any pins to the scope probe then you can see them on the scope display. Really handy for looking at control signals.

Pin muting should work now. Have a startup check for Java 8.

Obviously I'm going at warp speed here and the automated testing really only covers file loading and simulation basics, so whatever problems you can come up with are quite helpful.

Thanks,

DL
 

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Ran thru a bunch of stuff and no more Control Panel issues. Everything else I touched seems to work fine too.
In the Simulator Options dialog box, it would be nice to see the "Enable Display" option read as "Enable Scope Display". I had no idea what "Display" was till I opened it. 🫣

More tomorrow when I'm not so tired. Thanks DL!

Oh yea . . . . .
Pixels_Patches.png
 
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Ran thru a bunch of stuff and no more Control Panel issues. Everything else I touched seems to work fine too.
In the Simulator Options dialog box, it would be nice to see the "Enable Display" option read as "Enable Scope Display". I had no idea what "Display" was till I opened it. 🫣

More tomorrow when I'm not so tired. Thanks DL!

Oh yea . . . . .
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Haha my boss just sent me a Slack message with this guy last week. I hadn't really known who he was prior.

This guy Claude I been hanging out with has been a great help. I asked him to make an SPCD(J now) file based on a verbal description and he actually did it. Is it worth $20-$100 a month (for Claude)? Probably not to me personally but as a software engineer (I now do this for a living in between making Mary Halvorson patches) I am flabbergasted by its capabilities. Stuff that had been sitting there for years due to lack of time, skill, and interest just blew away in the past two weeks.

I cleaned up a few more control panels (e.g. Smoother still has a problem in that last version I think). Due to the way SpinCAD evolved, some of the earliest blocks were hand written and inconsistent in implementation. Never mind that I learned Java in order to create SpinCAD and developed all sorts of bad habits.

I may spend another few weeks at it but I spent all Saturday in front of the computer which is not exactly how I want to spend my life!

Let me know if you find anything else!

DL
 
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I let Mary know that she's just gonna have to hold her horses for a bit.


Here's yet another new release, with some rather cool new blocks.
  • 4-Phase Sample/Hold block — Enabled in Controls menu. Uses sine LFO zero-crossing detection to sample input at 4 phase points (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees), producing 4 independent S/H outputs
  • Pattern Generator — 8-step triggered sequencer with range control
  • Scope Probe block — New block for simulator signal inspection

4-phase sample and hold puts out 4 separate S/H waveforms from a single input using a built in SIN LFO. The points where the S/H takes place are evenly spaced along the cycle. I haven't done much more than test it but I bet you can get some weird combinations of gain (tremolo) and filter or modulation effects with this. The last pin on the bottom is the sine wave out, I think I'll remove that. You can always use an "LFO Value" block if you want to use that somewhere else.

4-phase sample and hold.png

Next one is a 3-to-12 step pattern generator. This lends itself to ZVex "Seek Wah" type applications. If you connect a pot or signal to the 2nd pin (Range) it allows you to shorten the sequence. This one has a threshold as well as a setting for slope. If you're using either positive or negative slope only, then the triggering will be evenly spaced and follow the frequency of the input signal (e.g. sine). If you trigger on both, then by changing the threshold you can get asymmetrical swing type effects and the frequency will double.

pattern generator.png

I also added another metric ****-ton of automated testing, including adding each module and making sure its control panel will show up 3 times in a row.

I know these blocks take a lot of instructions but with a filter or two you might be able to get some wild sounds. I hope this one works well for everybody but let me know if there's some other issue.

Thanks,

DL
 
OK, here's another release with some exciting new goodies in there.

I am trying to get access to my Gitbook site back, I don't know how it happened but when I log in I don't see anything. Once I do that it will speed up documenting stuff. In the meantime I am just dropping hints and hope you can find things. I am marking this a pre-release as I am interested in getting feedback on the Reverb Designer. Shimmer mode doesn't work to my ear so I'm still looking into that.


Release Notes: SpinCAD Designer 0.99-1068

New Blocks


- Reverb Designer (Reverb Menu) — Algorithmic reverb with stereo I/O, input gain, pre-delay control pin, LFO modulation, and auto-detection of stereo output
- Gated CV (Dynamics menu) — Envelope-driven reverb time modulation for gated reverb effects - connect CV to Reverb Time input
- Arpeggiator (Pitch Menu) — Pattern generator combined with pitch shifter
- Adjustable Smoother (Control menu) — Pot-controlled smoothing speed

Improvements

- Optimizer hardened with SKP protection, shuttle-register generalization, and safety checks
- Ring FDN instruction count optimized; simulator display latency reduced
- Shimmer Verb updated
- Window persistence and UI improvements (LFO sliders, control panel positioning)

Bug Fixes

- Fix application icon (reverted to correct DSP logo)

Testing

- Optimizer simulation test added
- Tone burst test WAV for scope/audio latency testing
 
DL - you're a wildman! Dig the new blocks and excited to take 'em for a Spin.
Thanks for your enthusiasm and support. It's been fun checking out these amazing new tools but I'm fortunately running out of ideas and have to get off the $100/month Claude plan. I almost felt young again! I'll keep at it at a slower pace.

DL
 
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