Surge: Surge GUI modulation 2019 coloring makes modulation difficult to see, and pitch slider ends vanish

[esaruoho]

one for @itsmedavep and @baconpaul maybe?

[sense-amr]

modulation colouring also makes modulated sliders.. very difficult to see as a dark blue on a dark grey background.. the slider that is modulated almost dissapears from normal view..
at the very ,most i would think when you are checking lets say the LFO that has modulated that slider.. that it turn blue and show its .. modulation routings with regard ot that LFO .. but it should NOT stay blue when not choosing the thing that modulated it.. i say it should return to its normal light grey/white colour unless touched with the operator / LFO thats modualting it

[itsmedavep]

I think this is fixable in the skin file. I’m curious though, what did this look like in the previous version?

Or rather, is this a new issue or one that previously existed?

Regardless, I’ll dig into it. I’m just curious if I’m trying to make it like the previous version or improve on it.

[sense-amr]

I find it hard to say if it existed before or .. it's something i JUST noticed now .. when i was trying to make a patch.. i tend to think it didnt exist the same way it looks NOW .. than it did before when i made patches.. i only noticed it since building and using the latest master build.

[itsmedavep]

I’m on a phone right now but on my computer I’m making a bunch of changes to the skin.

I’ll look into what this was like previously then figure out how to fix.

If anyone has 1.5 installed it would be interesting to see what these states look like there.

It’s a problem that should be addressed. I’m just trying to understand how.

Nice catch BTW.

[baconpaul]

I’m not sure what part is the problem but except for the green blink that’s all in the skins

[itsmedavep]

I have a this now.

https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/surge/pull/437

Could you take a look before sweeping? @baconpaul @sense-amr

Cheers!

Screen shot just in case

[itsmedavep]

Thoughts on the animated sliders?

[baconpaul]

I haven’t quite followed the slider stuff so will leave that to you esa and sense.

But in this screenshot I do notice

• the “X” in the oscillator routing between 1/2 and 2/3 is still pixelated
• The drawn filters in the filter configuration graphic are not vectorized
• the arrows where they enter the “+” in a circle in the effects routine section seem to have some bitmap and stuff and extra lines.
• the corners of the VU meter are vectorized not round (although that may be the code not the graphics)
• The mute and solo buttons are still pixeled not vectored

Don’t know if you know that or if those are separate issues but figured I’d mention it.

I tried to get lato loading from the bundle on mac tonight. I failed. I’ll try and take another approach this weekend. I may fail again. But hey. We’ll see!

[baconpaul]

Oh and: it looks great. I should have added that 👍

[sense-amr]

Thats definitely a lot easier to see @itsmedavep

[baconpaul]

Also the orange background on the Scene buttons (for ‘split’ or whatever and ‘a’ ‘b’) have bitmapped not vectored corners.

[baconpaul]

And it looks like the orange you use in the LFO drawing section is not exactly the original orange,since the LFO waveshape is a slightly different background. The color in the code is #FF9000

And that’s it, I promise!

[itsmedavep]

Thank you for capturing these comments! Ill endeavor to fix them all today.

FWIW I don't believe I control the VU meter stuff in the skin file. Is the VU in question the Master Volume?

@baconpaul I was aware of all of those things. I will fix.
@sense-amr I may ask your opinion again here pretty soon. The single slider that bugs me still is the automated waveshaper slider. I think it could still be better WRT the contrast on that control. Ill update and add some screen shots to get your opinion.

If were down to just 6 things with this its _much amaze super happy time!_ Thank you everyone!

[baconpaul]

Ok I will look at Vu this weekend
I agree this is awessome and super close! Great stuff!

[sense-amr]

@itsmedavep this ?

[itsmedavep]

@itsmedavep this ?

Nice! Thank you. This seriously helps. A copy of 1.5.x would help too. lol. Im kind of flying blind over here WRT that.

What would be really amazing, (and probably easiest) is if you could animate some of the vertical and horizontal sliders on all the various backgrounds.

Like so:

Then take a screen shot with the GUI zoomed up as high as you can get it. Add it here or send to me on Slack. Ive been contemplating adding something like that to the assets master directory. For posterity's (and my own sanity) sake. That would _really really_ help me!

Only time and inclination permitting, of course. Not trying to put you to work.

Im getting started with all this now. Cheers!

[esaruoho]

@itsmedavep i've sent you a video that Zvenx made, showing how Surge 1.52 works when it comes to showing "active modulation" and "latent modulation". hope it helps!

[itsmedavep]

And it looks like the orange you use in the LFO drawing section is not exactly the original orange,since the LFO waveshape is a slightly different background. The color in the code is #FF9000

And that’s it, I promise!

Bummer. This one is a head scratcher right now. Ill revisit once I knock off more of the other issues.

So the non color managed part of this may be the issue. My expectation would be that I would not see drift in a rendered file. Thats a visual artifact of not mapping to my display's color management (P3
or whatever is in use).

Im just not sure how that would happen if the color value I'm using in the sketch file is the same as the one in the code. I eye dropper the the color value from the 1.5.2 bitmaps to use when setting up the source file.

Anyone smarter than about this have an idea? Otherwise, spelunking I go!

Leaving here for posterity.

[itsmedavep]

The bitmaps from 1.5.2 use sRGB 2.1 color space. Changing sources document to that color space from unmanaged yielded no change. Colors still different somehow.

Still testing.

[baconpaul]

So I don't know anything about any of this color space stuff. Never bothered to figure it out.

But I do know that the LFO drawing code does "set color #ff9000; fill"

So can't you just set the color to #ff9000 and be OK?

This question may be hopelessly naive.

Oh I see you did that.
I'm hopelessly naive.

[itsmedavep]

So I don't know anything about any of this color space stuff. Never bothered to figure it out.

But I do know that the LFO drawing code does "set color #ff9000; fill"

So can't you just set the color to #ff9000 and be OK?

This question may be hopelessly naive.

Oh I see you did that.
I'm hopelessly naive.

Could you point me to where that code is being drawn?

I have a couple of thoughts but nothing too concrete. Plus if I know the dims that are being drawn... I can put a border around it (ducks and leaves room). LOL.

[baconpaul]

line 65 or so of CLFOGui.cpp

but that code is ... hairy. Not obvious how the pixels are laid out. I'm actually looking at that for #354 right now.

[baconpaul]

You know I could also make it transparent.

[baconpaul]

Hmm transparent doesn't work sorry no.

[itsmedavep]

When I was doing a bit drawing in code for macOS I would specify the color space that I was using.

[NSColor colorWithCalibratedRed: 0 green: 0 blue: 0 alpha: 1] or similar.

Im curious about the draw code to see if there is something similar in the C++ that is drawing this stuff. Maybe thats off base, just my line of thinking.

[itsmedavep]

@sense-amr @baconpaul I updated the PR #437 now. I believe I have addressed all of the items brought up so far in this thread (with the exception of the orange LFO issue).

Please review at your convenience!

[sense-amr]

@itsmedavep @esaruoho @baconpaul
SCREEN 1 shows All parameters modulated by single SLFO 1 ..

Screen 2 shows .. SLFO2 modulating SLFO 1 envelope and parameters

Largest screen cap i can manage here..

Slider above Pan slider dissapeared..

Reverb ..
All unavailable for modulation .. even via SLFO ..

• ROOM SIZE
• ROOM SHAPE
• PRE DELAY

Also Uni Count .. not able to be modulated.
note for another issue i guess..

[sense-amr]

Additionally a video showing animation of on off sates for automated paramaters..

Sorry i should state this is VST2 BITWIG 2.43 and Windows 10 ..
Surge Latest_routingviewON_OFF.zip

[sense-amr]

Also are we aware of this ?

• Global Pan WIDTH is gone

[esaruoho]

@sense-amr If you check the Preset Bass->Mellow, the Pan Width appears. Not all presets utilize Pan Width. It is not gone, just disabled when the patch in Surge does not specifically ask for it.

[esaruoho]

@sense-amr as per the manual at https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/manual/

Width – the amount of stereo spread 
(only present for the wide & stereo filterblock configurations)

[esaruoho]

as illustrated by this GIF

[esaruoho]

SCREEN 1 shows All parameters modulated by single SLFO 1 ..
Reverb ..
All unavailable for modulation .. even via SLFO ..

• ROOM SIZE
• ROOM SHAPE
• PRE DELAY
  Also Uni Count .. not able to be modulated.
  note for another issue i guess..

this has been isolated into a separate case. #449 "Future Feature: Make Reverb: Pre-Delay,Room Shape,Size modulation with SLFO possible". there are also separate, related cases for future features. #316 , #233, #354, and #367.

[baconpaul]

Hey guys - just checking I think Dave got all these things fixed right? Can we close this ticket and leave it to the other ones referenced in here? Or is there still something in the book of work?

Thanks!

[itsmedavep]

@baconpaul

I’m not aware of any further work needing to be done. It would be great if we could close this.

[baconpaul]

OK I'll close it!

If others disagree, lets either reopen it or open a new issue.

Thanks @itsmedavep !!!

[itsmedavep]

@baconpaul
Thanks!