Morgana Summer Bug Sale

[dj!]

Even though Morgana appears to cause few problems for most users--Computer Music even called it "stable and responsive enough to work well in live performance"--it appears that there are still some problems on certain setups, notably on OS X.  Unfortunately I cannot for the life of me reproduce any of those on my own test machines, and it's kind of difficult to fix something without knowing where it's broken.

Which is why I'm introducing the Summer Bug Sale on Morgana. 

Here's the deal: you install the Morgana demo on your system.  If you encounter any problems with the demo in any host, report those problems to me, and are willing to spend a little time to cooperate on a bug hunt--meaning you'd have to provide crash reports, download test builds and see whether they cure the problem--in return I'm offering a 25% percent discount per serious bug that we manage to fix this way.  For smaller bugs that don't affect the ability to work with Morgana (such as graphical glitches) I'm offering a 10% discount, again per bug fixed.  If I have to give up on 'your' bug (which would be a first, but still) you still earn the discount.

This will allow me to make Morgana an even stabler product, and you to get it at a sizeable discount--even for free if you manage to discover four serious bugs!  If you're interested simply post a reply here in the forum and we'll get started on those critters!

Take care & thanks in advance,

-- dj!

[peodepitte]

Will gladly help you on this one. I sent you a private mess here.

Best

Peo

[dj!]

Thanks so much, email sent!

-- dj!

[jammie]

yes i will help with bug fixing reports

i would love to make comparisons and give pointers as own a some of the best  of the old analog samplers

mirage / emax se hd / emulator 3 /korg dss1 /korg dsm1

[dj!]

Thanks jammie!  Comparisons with older hardware samplers are more than welcome--I'm always in for improving Morgana and getting inspiration for future plugins.  I'm all ears!

-- dj!

[synchro]

Is the Bug Sale still on?

If not, that's okay. I've made a little report of my experience so far with Morgana v1.2.3:

I'm running demo Morgana 1.2.3 on a PowerMac G5 2.7 GHz | 8GB RAM | 500GB Startup Drive | RME HDSP 9632 sound card | OS X 10.4.11 Tiger |

The host is Digital Performer v5.1.3

When using Morgana for any length of time in Digital Performer 5.13, the program will "unexpectedly quit". This is especially true when running more than one instance of Morgana in Digital Performer 5.13.

When loading Morgana as a new instrument in DP, there is a huge spike to both the sound card and G5 CPUs. While this is normal for most plug-ins, Morgana sustains the amount of CPU use while idle more than most plug-ins I've used.

When playing any note on the keyboard via MIDI, Morgana spikes the CPU usage wildly.
Let's say my sound card CPU levels (audio performance meter in Digital Performer) were described in physical length. That would make the total length of the sound card CPU meter around 4 centimeters.  When playing any note as described above, the level spikes to about 2 centimeters which is about half of the overall CPU level! Not even BFD2 with a massive kit and tons of effects uses that much CPU power on this system! Yikes! Also, if you play more than 5 notes at a time or play numerous keys in fast succession on a patch like Deex - Clean, the CPU spikes and sustains to about 90% CPU usage! Double Yikes!

While playing a note that contains a sample the sound card CPU usage is slightly higher than a note that has no sample assigned to it. Why would there be a load on the CPU when no sound is loaded?

Closing the GUI for Morgana has no effect on how much CPU it uses.

Graphical bug:

When opening a file in DP 5.13 that had a Morgana track/instrument previously loaded, you cannot click on the GUI for Morgana. It is as if Morgana is not there at all but you can play any sounds that were loaded from before. You must close the entire Instrument Track (which contains the GUI) for Morgana completely and then open it back up to be able to click on and use Morgana again.

Also, if you click on another area or window in Digital Performer and then try to click back on Morgana it will not come to the forefront. You must either close the Morgana instrument track and reopen it, or choose Morgana from the Windows menu in Digital Performer. The same bug occurs when opening multiple instances of Morgana.

I do hope these problems can be addressed. Morgana shows great promise.

BTW, the display Morgana uses reminds me a lot of my old Roland S-50 sampler. Maybe you could come out with 'skins' for Morgana so that the display could be blue like the S-50/S-550 was.

[dj!]

The sale is still on, in the sense that the discount for assisting in fixing bugs still applies.  (With the current weather it seemed silly to continue a Summer sale.)  In fact I might make it a permanent "feature" of both Morgana and upcoming 112dB plugins.

Thanks for your very detailed problem reports, I'm on it.  Will let you know when I either fix any of those or need more information/something for you to test.

Take care,

-- dj!

[dennyweston]

Hey dj,
Sent you an email...figured my forum username issue... my bad...  The other bugs remain.  Crashing ProTools 7.4. and the sampler inputs. Any thoughts? Thanks. Denny

[dj!]

Sent you an email reply!

For the benefit of others: the audio inputs in the RTAS version are accidentally labeled "VST Inputs" (oops!).  Apart from the label they work fine for recording the PT audio inputs into Morgana though.

-- dj!

[DJ Ray]

Not a bug, but some suggestions. In the right hand side browser window, its hard to keep track of which sample is selected especially when using one's own samples. How about highlighting the currently selected sample (the way it is in the left hand side window). That way one can scroll down the list of samples. Did I make sense? 

Also, Drag and Drop. The manual on page 15 says you can drag a sample file over the zone editor and drop it over the zone to load it into the current zone. Drag from where and drop where?  I don't get this. Too much beer maybe...

I dropped a Morgana sample onto another slot in Live, but is it possible to do the reverse? In other words, freely drag and drop samples into Morgana from within Live (or any other sequencer for example). This can of course be done using record/Samplink etc but it's a cool way to quickly capture ideas into Morgana.

Also, I vote for a mono mode with portamento.

Ok, I am gonna play with Morgana now.

[mpayne0]

Hi DJ,

It's been awhile since we emailed, but you were going to send me a demo version to work with, as the one I had from Computer Music Magazine has expired. I had sent a list of bugs via email, and I was wondering if those had been ironed out. I am very anxious to use this software!

I'm glad I was sent the email reminder to confirm registration, as it looks like this is the last day to take advantage if discount. Hope it doesn't make me look opportunistic 

Mark

[dj!]

Hi Mark,

it's been a while so I had to look up your email but yes, I was able to reproduce everything you reported and all of it shd work correctly in the latest build.  And if not--or in case any new bugs rear their ugly heads--I'll fix whatever you care to report as soon as humanly possible. 

Take care & thanks for your inquiry,

-- dj!

[dj!]

Not a bug, but some suggestions. In the right hand side browser window, its hard to keep track of which sample is selected especially when using one's own samples. How about highlighting the currently selected sample (the way it is in the left hand side window). That way one can scroll down the list of samples. Did I make sense? 

Yup, a lot of sense in fact.  Good suggestion, I'll definitely add this soon.

Also, Drag and Drop. The manual on page 15 says you can drag a sample file over the zone editor and drop it over the zone to load it into the current zone. Drag from where and drop where?  I don't get this. Too much beer maybe...

Drag and drop, as in "drag and drop".   A sample file from somewhere on your file system, or a region from your audio host.  Drag over the Morgana GUI and release either on the keyboard or over a specific zone--those orange rectangles directly above the keyboard--and Morgana will load it.

I dropped a Morgana sample onto another slot in Live, but is it possible to do the reverse? In other words, freely drag and drop samples into Morgana from within Live (or any other sequencer for example). This can of course be done using record/Samplink etc but it's a cool way to quickly capture ideas into Morgana.

I would love to but unfortunately no, this isn't possible because Live uses a proprietary drag/drop interface and doesn't support "standard" drag/drop.  So it's not just Morgana, this won't work for any plugin or instruments not made by Ableton themselves.  I contacted them about it some time ago and they are planning to support this in some future version, but couldn't say when.  The only advice I can give is to contact them and let them know their users want this feature.

Also, I vote for a mono mode with portamento.

Noted.   

-- dj!

[madrevolver]

Hi,
been testing the morgana demo, and i must say it sounds fantastic!

however it has quite some bugs (in Cubase 3) with sample rates that differs from the host's.  If im set at 44Khz, and load a 48Khz sample in morgana, the pitch will be detuned (just like opening the 48khz file without resampling) that would be acceptable, but the graphical display also get weird, cause it displays the waveform like it would be in 44khz size, but the sound is faster at 48khz, so you cant really set the sample start/end, just by listening and guessing.
It's the same if youre in 48khz and load up a different samplerate file.

Also i sampled Morgana's own output in 48Khz mode, and the pitch again wasnt correct.

Bug 2.
If i drag the sample from the big sample view to itself it crashes the hell out of the host.

Anyway, really good stuff you got there.

[dj!]

Thanks much for the bug reports, I'll check into it.  Thought all sample rate problems had been solved but apparently not.

-- dj!