Sound 2 Light version 2

[remco_k]

Announcement

Its been a while (5 years, to be more precise) since I last changed something to the S2L app.
A new S2L v2 app is coming to the surface soon.

You all might know the current Sound 2 Light application that works with FreeStyler:
Version 1:


It is getting old. The world moves on. And so should old applications. Especially if they are used by so many users around the world, having newer operating systems with better functions.
I'm currently running tests against the new S2L v2, and when things all look good, I'll start deploying a public beta version.

I'm not gonna tell all changes yet. But here is the biggest change in functionality, since that is requested most frequently:
Audio output loopback support. No need for 'Stereo-mix' or 'What you hear' driver support. S2L v2 supports 'monitoring' the output of every audio device in your system, out of the box. Just select the output you want to get your beat triggers from. (that is, where your audio playout is running). S2L will do the rest. Of course selecting any input device will still work just as good.

I'll be changing my website as well post it here whenever I make the beta public.

All I ask you, the users, to have it a go. Play with it. Let it trigger your lights and interest. Test the Audio loopback support. Test all other stuff that have been ported from v1. Even if you don't intent to use it ever. Just do it. I and every future user will thank you for it.

Whenever you find a bug (which should be next to impossible ), please report it to me or better yet: do a bug report, containing steps to reproduce, a screenshot (if needed) and whatever you'd expected it to do, and what it didn't.

By doing so, you will help me to bring S2L v2 to a stable release level so that all FreeStyler users can benefit from that, soon.

If you want to keep updated about this beta and/or release, you can use the 'Subscribe to this topic' function of this topic, and you'll get an e-mail notification whenever something new happens here.

[remco_k]

Version 2.0.0.0 public beta is out: https://www.digiplay.nl/fs
A bug report can be done at FreeStyler Mantis bugtracker


Screenshots



Top new features in v2

• New skin.
  It looks neat and fresh.

• Internal audio engine completely rewritten.
  Removed all old MME (Windows Multimedia Extensions) code.
  As a result, the name of the audio device is now fully shown, instead of (what may have happened in v1) partly. And more new fun things are now possible:

• Audio output loopback support.
  No need for 'Stereo-mix' or 'What you hear' driver support. S2L v2 supports 'monitoring' the output of every audio device in your system, out of the box. Just select the output you want to get your beat triggers from. (that is, where your audio playout is running). S2L will do the rest. Of course selecting any input device will still work just as good.

• Config is shown in a seperate window for better user experience.
  When you click the Config button, a config window appears where you can configure your audio source, sequence restarter and beat flash buttons. You can optionally leave the config window open and drag it aside so you can control both the S2L main window and the config window. For easy and fast access, sequence restarter and beat flash buttons are now lists instead of pull down boxes.

Other new features in v2

• Settings (sl.xml) is saved into the generic windows program data path.
  This is to comply with Microsoft Windows rules for saving system wide program settings and prevent errors like 'Access denied' when trying to write the settings.

• Support new Windows common controls.

• The beat multiplayer/divider is moved from config to the main window.
  For easy accessibility.
  You can switch operating mode by pressing one of the tabs "Multiply" and "Divide".

• Information about audio format.
  E.g. "Audio format: 44,1 kHz / 2 ch / 32 bit" is shown in the config window, below the audio source, for informational purposes.

[pjp]

The new interface is awesome!! Thank you. Finally works right with my ASUS ROG laptop that always had errors with it on closing. Looks very sleek and seems to work very well with the automatic gain and other settings on auto. THANKS AGAIN!

[remco_k]

^^ You're welcome!

[djSupport]

Welcome back remco_k

[remco_k]

^^ Thx. That was a long time ago. Probably because I'm not an active user of FreeStyler anymore, and was/am busy with other things consuming my time.

A small bug was found in the installer. I just uploaded a new installer to my website.

2018-04-20 - Sound 2 Light (2.0.0.0) Public beta release

• Fixed a small typo in the installer. It could install in C:\FreeSyler instead of C:\FreeStyler (missing the 't'). (Issue: 1470) The version number of the S2L application itself remained unchanged.

[FabioeM]

I downloaded it yesterday. Started it, and couldnt trigger anything, beacuse cannot received the sound (very noizy place, disco, wedding). But maybe some settings issue.
Today it doesn't starts saying:
"Cannot convert variable of type (OleStr) into (Double)".
Now i try to uninstall the v2, and get back the old version if i can.

EDIT for the ones who also want to downgrade (not sure all steps and mandatory (eg. first) but i did them, and worked for me
1. You need to delete SL.exe and SL.xml from Freestyler folder.
2. Setup https://www.digiplay.nl/fs/downloads/?d ... download=1 (1.0.1.11. version) to a total new (blank) directory.
3. Open the new directory you installed S2L 1. You can see (I saw) 3 files.
4. Copy and overwrite these files to the original FreeStyler directory. (I only renamed the install.log, so i have the old one, too)
5. Open FreeStyler, and S2L works again!

[remco_k]

Please create a bug report here: https://www.freestylersupport.com/bugs/

When submitting the report, attach the SL.xml for version 2 that is still on your system, I suspect it contains some invalid value somewhere.
You can find SL.xml for version 2 in the programdata path. It should still exist and be untouched, as version 1 doesn't know about this path.
Most of the time you can copy/type: %programdata%\Digiplay\SL in the address bar of your file explorer to get there, otherwise the path is similar to: C:\ProgramData\Digiplay\SL

If you're capable of finding a way how you can reproduce this problem, please describe the steps to do that.

Once submitted, I will investigate the problem.

[remco_k]

Someone else reported a (very) similar problem by e-mail. There is a problem with the SL.xml configuration file.
I logged it into Mantis under Issue #1483.
https://www.freestylersupport.com/bugs/view.php?id=1483
If you have additional information about this problem, please add it there in the comments.

A solution will be available soon.

[remco_k]

The problem described above is fixed in public beta v2.0.0.1

2018-06-11 - Sound 2 Light (2.0.0.1) Public beta release

• Added some extra read/write configuration file error handling and information.

• Fixed startup error "Could not convert variant of type (OleStr) into type (Double)" which was caused by certain locale settings in Windows. (Issue: 1483)

You can download that version from my website: https://www.digiplay.nl/fs

[remco_k]

Happy new year!

Today I have come to a point its time to make S2L version 2 a stable release.
So, here it is then. Version 2.0.0.2 has a tiny change:

2019-01-03 - Sound 2 Light (2.0.0.2) Release

• Added some extra information in the error dialog when a microphone device is reporting "Access Denied". This is due to a Windows 10 update problem (version 1803 and 1809), where some users report the microphone is disabled for apps in Windows 10 privacy settings. The extra information in the error dialog informs users to check their microphone privacy settings.

You can download this release from my website: https://www.digiplay.nl/fs

[remco_k]

After more than 2 years a problem arised. When you have a large audio latency after a recent Windows update, please install version 2.0.0.3, which fixes this problem:

2021-03-19 - Sound 2 Light (2.0.0.3) Release

• Upgraded development environment to Embarcadero C++ Builder CX 10.3.3

• Fixed an issue with long latency times (>1 second) after a recent Windows 10 update.

You can download this release from my website: https://www.digiplay.nl/fs