bugs + known issues
this list never gets shorter...
- DO NOT: close or save a file while portions of it are concurrently being pasted into another document!
- Sometimes supercollider boot fails with a message saying "RegisterProcess failed (error = xyz)"; this bug occurs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) with fixed port numbers. Simply press "Boot" once more.
- switching the blending time unit between samples and milliseconds will not automatically translate the value.
- undoing an edit will not free the corresponding temp file space (not even when the redo-list is overwritten); the fix requires some changes to the internal track list representation and clipboard management, so it may take a while. just remember that your temp files will grow constantly. the temp files will be purged when the file is saved.
- markers are only read and written for aiff and wave files at the moment! when you choose save-as and switch to a sound file format other than these two, they are silently lost. at least ircam supports regions, there should be at least a warning message in a next version.
- there is no "protection" against making many many tiny short edits which fragment the playlist. it's unlikely but possible that you create a fragmented playlist that cannot be played back click-free. (imagine cutting out all even-numbered samples ;--)
- changing the sound file rate in the header info will not be immediately recognized by a running transport
- eisenkraut does not track free disk space, i.e. you have to check yourself that the partition holding the temporary folder is big enough and that there is enough disk space to save a document
- fscape->needlehole : for center clipping, the delay compensation is a bit wrong and will produce a comb filter effect when used with the subtract-dry option
- [FIXED?] audio file names and directories must not contain umlauts (any ascii >127). this will be fixed in a future version of NetUtil (requires UTF-8 encoding for OSC strings).
- scsynth sometimes crashes when switching solo/mute buttons ("scsynth terminated (138)" . this is a bug in SuperCollider.
- scsynth and or eisenkraut are likely to crash when opening or playing back floating point sound files that contain illegal samples (socalled NaN values and infinity values). you can get NaNs for example when recording from within the SuperCollider application and some UGens go nuts (e.g. divisions by zero). to fix these files, convert them into an integer format using fscape, for example.
- scsynth cannot play back certain AIFF files which contain markers (or it plays back noise bursts). this is a bug libsndfile up to version 1.0.17. when this problem occurs, a solution is to save a copy of your file in WAVE format. experienced users can build SuperCollider with a prerelease version of libsndfile 1.0.18.
- scsynth crashes when soundfiles with more than 16 channels are played back. this is a bug in SuperCollider, and it is still unclear when it will be fixed. in the meantime, you may try to edit multiple mono versions of your files.
- playback is corrupted or loops when AIFF files greater than 2 GB in size are used. this is a general problem of the AIFF format but also maybe of libsndfile. make the soundfile smaller by splitting channels or the timeline. also using au/snd format should avoid the problem.
- [FIXED?] after opening a lot of files, out-of-memory exceptions get thrown. i found and fixed some memory leaks, but it's possible there are more of them. in this case, you have to quit and restart the application.
- scsynth may crash if hitting play and the harddisk yet has to spin up for a few seconds.
"ERROR: CGContextGetPixelAccess returns NULL in syncToJavaPixels!"
messages appear the console. this is a bug of the apple VM. it's harmless.
- a
"java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException"
message appears when connecting a second screen display. this is a bug of the apple VM. it's harmless.
- the SuperCollider server is shutdown after the computer is woken up from sleep. you will need to re-boot it from within eisenkraut (boot-button).
- scsynth is irresponsive for a few seconds when plugging-in or out headphones in the built-in soundcard (Mac OS X). A lot of "Server.status : java.nio.channels.ClosedChannelException" messages are printed. This is a problem in scsynth which might be addressed in a future JCollider version. You will need to kill scsynth from the terminal (
killall scsynth
), and re-boot it from within eisenkraut.
- in multi-mono file mode, markers are only read from and written to the first file. if you feel this is an issue and you have a clever suggestion, let me know.
- trying to quit application while server is booting may result in ChannelsNotYetConnected exception (you will have to force-quit eisenkraut). hopefully fixed soon.
- [FIXED?] way too wide tool buttons with gnome look-and-feel. why?
- when scsynth is used in TCP mode, with fixed port number, sometimes when rebooting the socket doesn't get properly freed, resulting in an "Exception in World_OpenTCP: unable to bind tcp socket". the only way to get scsynth running again in this case is to change the port preferences setting. It is recommended to use port
0
in which case Eisenkraut picks an arbitrary free port each time the server it booted.
- when inserting a live recording, the recorded sound is pasted into the document, requiring twice as much harddisk space! all temporary files are 32bit, so to record one hour of stereo sound at 44.1 kHz, be sure to have free harddisk space >2.4 GB! the duplication when pasting the final recording should be avoided in a future version.
- FSc Needhole w/ Min Phase filter produces a few clicks in the very beginning
See also the sf.net bug tracker.
future plans
- more manual pages, tutorial, index
- realtime supercollider plug-ins
- fscape as a plug-in.
- region support
- optional fast waveform display mode for slow computers
- show/hide tracks
- workspace windows onto which settings can be dragged+dropped
- possibility to split the view of a document
- possibility to collapse multichannel files into a single channel display
- management of multiple scratch disk and automatic detection of full or unavailable scratch disks
- synchronizable video display OSC client
- storage of "session data" (such as channel panorama and gain) in xml files belonging to audio files
- alternative panorama modes (such as discrete channel map or binaural filters)
- splitted undo/redo trees with "snapshots" similar to sonicworx
- pre/post settings for meters
- synchronizable transports and/or views across documents
- possibility to drop markers during recording
- option to use apple help viewer
- add missing pencil tool
See also the sf.net feature request tracker.