DIGITSTER.COM

 

 

THE JAF COLLECTION & MODEL ONE
VERSION HISTORY

 

1.0 (initial release)

we worked hard for several months to release the JAF MODEL ONE and the JAF Collection.


1.1
(first maintenance update)

this is our first update after the initial release and applies mainly 'cosmetic' (user interface) corrections and usability fixes.

A. we changed the touchscreen behavior to be much more intuitive and obvious.

- resetting the view with double tapping requires now 2 fingers (previously 1).
it was too easy to accidentally reset the view, when doing fast tapping - causing confusion to the users.

- moving the view now works as expected with 1 finger (previously 3 fingers were required),
if no control is touched, the view will be ready to be moved freely, but touching controls will lock the moving automatically. this behavior is entirely much more "intelligent" and natural.

- pinch 2 zoom works as before, but we optimized the performance with all the moving and zooming.

- for performance reasons we disabled any easing animations (eye candy :: versus app and audio performance)

B. the background color layer was not resized correctly, when the audio units were loaded into several hosting apps.
- we changed this behavior but we are still not sure, whether this will work with all possible hosting apps. please report!

note: our audio unit views are self resizing. additionally you can zoom and move the internal views inside the container view freely to get the controls you want. we certainly cannot test all available audio unit host apps, to check this behavior everywhere. if a view seems to be disappeared suddenly, so please use double tapping with 2 fingers to reset the view to default state. this should center and size-fit the view to its defaults (fitting view to current screen).

C. the maximum view width for zooming is now limited to 2048p, minimum is 128p.
- larger scaling does not improve the usage and has a deep impact on the graphics performance and also it is obviously merely confusing to the user.

note: view positions are no longer saved as user defaults. we discovered that loading the audio units in to different host apps, produces massive problems with the saved view positions. all possible hosts have different view sizes and container 'window' behavior, that may conflict with any such saved user defaults.

D. re-enabled the bluetooth publishing with the JAF Collection and JAF MODEL ONE.
- we switched this feature temporarily off, because of some problems and unacceptable delays with the app store review process. the (additional, optional) feature was carefully tested by us and works without any problems.

E. the emphasized color for the last filter type (pass thru) was grey. we changed this to green,
because the control positions were not easy to recognize the other way.

F. the contrast of some knobs was slightly changed.

G. the auto-scaling of the parameter changes was changed, especially the filter type selector.
- parameter change speed is now more intelligently connected to the current zoom value, that means,
the smaller the view is, the faster the controls will change and vice versa. this may be handy with parameter automation and live performances, where users may optimize the access to selected controls.

H. the contrast button was placed more on top of the screen to not to conflict so much with the user interface.

I. the documentation and the website resources were reworked. an official email support link is now available.

J. New modulation destination was added (exchanged) on both JAF versions (paid and free version).
instead of an amp modulation (which basically was a modified form of ring modulation), now a (Bode-alike) frequency shifter was added. this complete new effect can be used without the filter in "pass thru" mode as some of the other modulation destinations and the saturation unit, which are connected serial prior the final brick-wall limiter.

K: the frequency labels of the cutoff wheel did show wrong values, we corrected this.

next update will concentrate more to the sound (hopefully). we highly encourage you to contact us, if you've found any issues.

1.2
(second maintenance update)

this update fixes mainly functional issues with the Audio Unit application programming interface.

A. exposing AU parameters

we implemented an extra function to (additionally) expose main parameters to the hosts.
note: there are unclear issues reported with some host apps, not exposing our audio unit parameters at all.
this is quite strange due to the fact, that any audio unit per default implements a so-called 'parameter tree', that can
( and actually * must * ) be iterated by any host app to receive all that parameters of a designated audio unit.

our units did and * still do * implement this parameter tree, of course. the distribution app even uses this internally,
because this app is basically a minimal Audio Unit host, nothing more and nothing less, working with ... guessing what? ...
well the ominous parameter tree.

So basically, we do not understand, why some hosts are not able to just expose our published audio unit parameters.
however, we now use an additional interface function to expose the main parameter(s) to the host application with this release.

AUM for instance exposes this published "main parameter" of the unit successfully, but on the other side, it FAILS to list
our parameter tree !? that is absolutely un-logical and must be an issue in those host apps.

B. AU parameter automation (which by the way, depends heavily on the bespoken parameter tree above)

our JAX and JAF series were initially planned to behave and be used like classic external hardware devices,
so we concentrated to MIDI implementation but ...

parameter automation should now be possible. there was a missing link, that prevented our units to pass thru parameters
from the host inside the rendering block. such usually happens, if the hosts do so-called "parameter automation".

Although, many different host applications do implement this feature obviously differently and as long this is the case,
we cannot guarantee the functionality of our plugins with these hosts right now. so try, before you buy!

The simple fact, that our units can receive MIDI messages and translate these to parameter changes in realtime proved,
that the parameters actually can be automated with the internal mechanisms successfully and out of the box.

and now: we tested the parameter automation with Cubasis very successfully. all parameters were recorded and also shown with their correct names from the ,,, parameter tree!
play back with parameter automation actually was moving (remoting) the designated controls visually as expected!

C: UI corrections and extensions

The push buttons are somewhat bigger now but not much. we felt, it tends to become very ugly if these buttons are much bigger. the button labels are also somewhat lighter now. (but wait, for what the heck, did we actually implement pinch2zoom&move for you ???) if you can't read it, just zoom it!

the 'modal 'boxes' (which by the way, are vector graphic overlays and not modal 'views') will now automatically disappear, if the user does not use a control inside them actively. So there is no need to click the button again to make this (dis)happen.
but these will now also disappear, if a user accidentally passes to hit a controls area inside these boxes correctly, which now may produce just new confusion...

we will definitively not implement any popup menus or similar for the model selector slide button as seen so often in other audio apps. theses mechanisms will lock the screen and the access to the u! that is an unacceptable behavior while working with plugin- and audio interfaces in general. if you want this, so please look for such things anywhere. there are loads of apps that implement such (dis)functionality.

but ...

D: introducing: the W.T.F! button

the new W.T.F! button is the 'on demand' control for everyone who is choleric (as we are).
if activated, the device also generates theta brain waves that brings you back all the lost love in seconds.
be careful with that, it can trigger spontaneous orgasms. this is available in the JAF Collection (sold version) only, of course.

E: the integrated web browser (product page)

some users reported issues with the integrated web browser of our distribution apps (the 'help' button).
please note, that any external links (as opening an email client) or any popup links inside the pages are not allowed to open within the app. this may give the the wrong impression, that these links are defect. no, it is an internal restriction that is required for other reasons. users always can go to our product pages with any external web browser like Safari.

F: so please, now let us concentrate to the sound...

our impression is, that many users do not see the advantages of our 'pinch 2 zoom & move" paradigm,
that all our audio units implement. The focus of the reviews is generally too much on the user interface,
as we cannot concentrate to DSP programming that way, if continuously only new UI changes are discussed and demanded.

1.3
(third maintenance update)

A: new descriptor names

the Audio Unit and distribution host app descriptors were changed. the naming of the audio units caused much confusion, as some users were not able to find our plugins after installation.

the naming convention of formerly "Filter Model One" and "Filter Collection" are now
- "DGST: JAF Model One (AU)" and
- "DGST: JAF Collection (AU)"
the "DGST:" prefix always marks ALL of our audio units with the unique company identifier.

IMPORTANT NOTE : we highly recommend to deinstall the previous versions and do a new install therefore! existing projects possibly must be updated with the new instances.

B: parameters in AUM

especially for AUM, we implemented the "exotic" but ("required") flag for exposing the parameters. AUM will not publish any parameters, that are not flagged with a special "kAudioUnitParameterFlag_IsWritable" flag. This is somewhat "willful', because other hosts actually listed our parameter tree for automation correctly.

( we do not want to be 'picky' here, but we think that the parameter tree of all audio units is of such fundamental importance, that it should not rely on special flags. depending on such flags also does not make any sense, if the parameters can (and should!) be iterated by everyone, just ignoring such flags. we don't even understand the deeper sense of that special flag at all. the only flag that would make any sense, is the negation of this flag, i.e. "kAudioUnitParameterFlag_Is_NOT_Writable", if there were such one. and if a parameter should not be written, then we would not make it a 'parameter' at all, we rather would just ignore all attempts to write it internally. )

C: UI fixes

the new model selector menu, that came with update 1.2 introduced some new UI discontinuities. sometimes the selector was still (silently) active but visually disappeared. we fixed that.

D: toggling the contrast control overlay

the contrast button and the adjustor slider can be temporarily toggled with a long press gesture, making it disappearing/appearing again. we hope the new feature will improve user experience.

E: the 'pinch2zoom&move' can be locked now

we implemented a new button along with the contrast feature, that temporarily disables zooming and moving the interface. this button will also appear/disappear with the long press gesture.

F: there was a (possible) problem, using multiple instances with differing zoom adjustments. we fixed that.

G: gesture recognizer slightly changed

the previous implementations required to touch exactly inside the visible user interface area to be recognized. now all gestures are recognized in the entire window area of the audio unit's interface, which is much more logical and intuitive.

H. audio engine update delayed

some audio issues (like hot signals, loudness adjusting, additional comb effects) will come with the next update.

1.4.
(fourth maintenance update)

A. moveable modal boxes

we have made the 'modal boxes' for the modulator, oscillator and saturator modules moveable now. the boxes will be ready to be moved freely inside the plugins effective area, if no internal control is hit. the positions are remembered for the current session only, as it would create problems while loading with different host apps due to different window sizes and handling.
there can only be one modal box opened at same time for certain reasons, but the positions are individually remembered for each type of dialog while working with the plugin. the global zoom feature affects everything, not merely individual boxes. The move feature can be globally locked with the freeze button. the freeze button will be invoked or hidden by a long press gesture. to close a box, one must tap outside the visible area of the box. the double tap with 2 fingers will reset everything to default positions.

B. zooming behavior

the model selector (exposed via [ menu ] button) will not disappear anymore by tapping outside, to support zooming while it is open. The menu button must be tapped explicitly to close the menu. this affects JAF Collection only.
if you want to zoom into open modal boxes, you must ensure to pinch inside their areas to make not disappear these automatically. a tap outside will automatically hide any open modal box. this was a requested user feature and we won't change it again.

C. improved contrast behavior

modal boxes now also support the contrast feature with their own semi-transparent background. we also improved the entire contrast to get really more visual difference. it is done by just inverting the main color in relation to the background color. this should optimize usage with extreme lighting and give entirely more contrast. this also affects all the main labels.

D: labels made bigger

all the labels of the user interface were made 1 point larger for better readability. this is maximum as it already looks quite clumsy now. ^^

E: removed Bluetooth MIDI connectivity

we decided to remove MIDI connectivity features from our releases completely. the reason is, that we always have to provide videos for the app store staff with each update release to demonstrate this basic iOS system feature with our distribution apps. we have not the time to endlessly capture videos of basic iOS system features, as these system functions are merely invoked by the app, not coded. that means, it is not our code, nor do we even have influence to these mechanisms, so we do not see the logic in the demands of the app store review staff, notoriously asking for demonstrating sub features of our apps, that are in fact features of the OS. So Bluetooth MIDI cannot be established any longer with our distribution apps. it is also not a requirement for the operation of the audio units, b.t.w.

F. audio improvements and extension delayed again

some audio issues (like hot signals, loudness adjusting, additional comb effects) will come with the next update, as far there is even any interest for that.