Yoshimi 2.3.3 out now!

[Folderol]

Configuration control has been improved - using start-up options no longer modifies the stored settings, but if you change a setting while running, just that configuration change is stored.

There has been further work on GUI themes management, along with unification and consolidation of some background colours. Added to this, there are improvements for those wanting to edit themes. Most notably, if you edit a theme currently being used, Yoshimi will automatically update the display as you make the changes. To avoid unnecessary processor use, this is only done while the themes window is open.

A new 'Monochrome' control has been added to themes that converts all window colours to grey scale values. This is to help theme creators ensure that the display will work well for colourblind users. It revealed that the default theme we've used for years behaves rather poorly, and work is under way to develop a high contrast alternative.

The range of keyboard shortcuts has been extended (for the current window with focus).

There are new instruments added to the supplied banks with particular attention the drum sounds.

We've updated the built-in user guide and also made general documentation improvements.

Some long-standing display issues have been resolved, in particular relating to graphs.

There has been a major effort updating all the underlying code structure in keeping with modern memory-safe practices. In the process a few rather obscure bugs have been identifed and squashed.

Yoshimi source code is available from either:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/yoshimi
Or:
https://github.com/Yoshimi/yoshimi

Full build instructions are in 'INSTALL'.

Our list archive is at:
https://www.freelists.org/archive/yoshimi
To post, email to:
yoshimi@freelists.org

[Eddy Deegan]

Nice work Will

I take it this version is safe to install on a Yoshimi PI?

[Folderol]

Nice work Will

I take it this version is safe to install on a Yoshimi PI?

Yes. I tested it on the two I still have here.

It's quite a major upgrade and on a first attempt it might seem to fail to build (lack of memory during compiling) but a second run should sort that out.

[Eddy Deegan]

Nice work Will

I take it this version is safe to install on a Yoshimi PI?

Yes. I tested it on the two I still have here.

It's quite a major upgrade and on a first attempt it might seem to fail to build (lack of memory during compiling) but a second run should sort that out.

Good to know, thank you. I'll give it a go later then

[Folderol]

And already we have a bugfix release. There were three of them.

The first was a failure to test a headless *build* and there was a detail we'd forgotten.

The second was not accounting for some less common build environments.

The third was a total surprise. It was a bug in effects that goes back at least 6 years and probably further, but only became obvious with the latest EQ display improvements we had made.

The new version is 2.3.3.1

[Martin Walker]

Well spotted Will, and also well done not only for quickly resolving these issues, but also for being so open and honest about them

[Eddy Deegan]

I managed to compile Yoshimi from source on a Raspberry Pi 5

It turned out that some of the requirements named in the Dependencies readme file were not quite the same as the package they represent and I think I had to comment out one line in the CMakeLists file (although not sure if that was actually needed in the end).

Anyway, happy to report it works fine. On the Raspberry Pi 5 I had 32 notes, each playing a 3-engine patch, playing through a cheap-as-it-gets USB-to-headphone socket adaptor, no breakups, sounded great and only consumed about 6% of the CPU time (the CPU is a 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76).

[BJG145]

Cool, good to know. I'm interested in trying a headless RPi5 setup for embedded audio.

RPi5 VST host

[Folderol]

Thanks for the update Eddy - good to know I'm assuming you're running RaspberryPi OS, so it's possible they are using bespoke variations of the libraries. When you've time can you let us know the actual ones you needed so we cam make a note of it in the write-ups?

[Eddy Deegan]

Thanks for the update Eddy - good to know I'm assuming you're running RaspberryPi OS, so it's possible they are using bespoke variations of the libraries. When you've time can you let us know the actual ones you needed so we cam make a note of it in the write-ups?

I am using Raspberry Pi OS, yes. I'll compare my installed packages against the Dependencies document and put together a few notes for you!

[Folderol]

Thanks for the update Eddy - good to know I'm assuming you're running RaspberryPi OS, so it's possible they are using bespoke variations of the libraries. When you've time can you let us know the actual ones you needed so we cam make a note of it in the write-ups?

I am using Raspberry Pi OS, yes. I'll compare my installed packages against the Dependencies document and put together a few notes for you!

Thanks a lot Eddy. That would be very helpful.

[Eddy Deegan]

Thanks for the update Eddy - good to know I'm assuming you're running RaspberryPi OS, so it's possible they are using bespoke variations of the libraries. When you've time can you let us know the actual ones you needed so we cam make a note of it in the write-ups?

I am using Raspberry Pi OS, yes. I'll compare my installed packages against the Dependencies document and put together a few notes for you!

Thanks a lot Eddy. That would be very helpful.

As I'd already been through the process I wasn't easily able to tell what I'd needed to update after the fact but as my original Pi5 was intended for development work I took delivery of a second Pi5 today, along with an IQaudioIO DAC Pro audio HAT and a suitable case.

I'm going to set this up as a dedicated little Linux audio box as well as use it for experimenting with my own audio-related development.

Sitting down to go through the installation process from scratch again on a fresh OS card I downloaded the latest Yoshimi source ZIP and I see that you've already updated the Dependencies file with the right package names

For info, the packages that need to be manually installed with Raspian OS are:

• automake
• cmake
• cmake-curses-gui
• fluid
• libcairo2-dev
• libfftw3-dev
• libfltk1.3 (already installed)
• libglu1-mesa-dev (already installed)
• libjack-jackd2-dev
• libasound2-dev
• libmxml-dev
• libncurses-dev
• libreadline-dev
• libxft-dev
• libxml2-dev
• pkgconfig (already installed)
• xutils-dev
• zlib1g-dev (already installed)
• lv2-dev

After "sudo apt-get install"-ing these, the build process runs perfectly as described and it's now up and running

[Eddy Deegan]

Oh, I note I'm running 2.3.2 as that was the latest version available from https://yoshimi.sourceforge.io/downloads.html at the time of writing. I'll update it to 2.3.3 from Github later or tomorrow.

Edit: Done, now running 2.3.3.1

[Folderol]

Thanks for letting me know Eddy. All good to know, and that's quite a chunky box you've got there.

With that audio unit you should be able to go down to a buffer size of 64 frames @ 48kHz without hitting Xruns. 96kHz might be pushing your luck!

I'd be interested to know how well it performs running the Arram_Koth_Finale demo in the /doc/examples directory. If you have the Reports Console visible (4th item of Yoshimi menu) you'll see that there quite a lot going on. As well as MIDI program changes while playing, it's also shuffling banks.

[Eddy Deegan]

I'd be interested to know how well it performs running the Arram_Koth_Finale demo in the /doc/examples directory. If you have the Reports Console visible (4th item of Yoshimi menu) you'll see that there quite a lot going on. As well as MIDI program changes while playing, it's also shuffling banks.

After setting the buffer size to 64 and restarting Yoshimi, it played through no problem and never used more than 6% of the CPU according to the task manager. Most of the time it was using 3 or 4%

Out of curiousity I tried a buffer size of 32 and that worked fine also, with the CPU touching 7%. Finally, a buffer size of 16 worked fine too (yes I'm restarting Yoshimi to apply the changes!), and this pushed the CPU to 8% but sounded absolutely fine.

Setting the sample rate to 96kHz at a buffer size of 16, it plays fine and pushes the CPU to a max of 17% (most of the time it's 14-15%).

Then I thought I'd get silly and set the sample rate to 192Khz at a buffer size of 16. That plays fine up until the choir comes in and then starts breaking up though the CPU peaks at 25%, so I tried again with a buffer size of 32. That worked fine right up until nearly the end when it started to break up slightly in the last 5 seconds, CPU peak was 24%.

192kHz with a buffer size of 64, similar result, sounded fine all the way through apart from a tiny bit of breakup right near the end, CPU peak 21%.

192kHz with a buffer size of 128 seems to be the sweet spot for that demo, playing through with no breakup and pushing the CPU to 19%.

I think for normal use I'll be running at 48kHz with a buffer size of 64.

[Folderol]

Thanks for that Eddy. It's very impressive, I wouldn't have expected such results from the Pi. It puts us in the same bracket as some quite high end synths. I've heard of similar behaviour at 192k with these as well. I think it's down to how much (even highly optimised) code can be run it such a short time frame.

[Folderol]

... and we're now up to Yoshimi version 2.3.3.2
This comprehensively fixes the timeout problem. Those interested, read on

The problem was principally due to creating/loading the bank structure. This is affected by the processor speed, the file system load and save time, and the number of bank entries to be examined. This takes longer if the banks have been changed, and much longer on a first time start.

Previously this was done during Yoshimi's startup. Now it is done after defining the various sections, but before actually populating and running various processes.

[Eddy Deegan]

... and we're now up to Yoshimi version 2.3.3.2
This comprehensively fixes the timeout problem.

Worked like a charm here, well done to the Yoshimi team

[BJG145]

And so it begins...

Hope I don't regret this!

[Martin Walker]

Somehow I doubt that you will

[Folderol]

I don't know about the Pi5, but the Pi4 can run Yoshimi quite hard without needing any heatsink at all.

I think Raspbian carries the latest release version (I know debian does), but if you don't mind self building, you'll get the latest minor improvements.

P.S. I'll very soon be putting out the latest version of the Advanced Reference Manual (PDF). It's absolutely recommended for bedtime reading