Only 2 modules in this patch are VCO sine wave out to Befaco Stereo Strip Left input, Stereo Strip Left output to MM output 1. The result is an extremely high pitched sine wave that dies out after about 3 seconds but the patch doesn’t crash. When I connect the sine output direct to the MM output it works fine.
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Has anyone else had problems with the stereo strip?
I just tried this as well, added CVMix to control the level CV and also mapped the in level, out level and mute switch as well to try as many settings as possible. I didn’t even get the high pitched tone, just nothing. @danngreen, you may want to try this to see if we’re doing something wrong (I don’t think so as the patch works in VCV) or figure out what’s causing this.
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Hmm, just tried it here and it’s working. What firmware version are you on?
I just did this (all from within the MM):
- New patch
- Add module EvenVCO
- Add module Stereo Strip
- Add cable from EvenVCO sine to StereoStrip left in
- Add panel cable from Stereo Strip left out to Out 1
- Adjust Gain to 50%
- Flip Mute to Off
And I can hear the EvenVCO a sine wave.
Can you try following those steps and see if that works for you?
Also if you can share a yml file I can try loading it.
I wish I could but rn I’m decorating my studio snd the PC is in storage, but I get exactly how Bobh describes it.
Oh and at the time of first post I was on latest fw and latest plugins, and it didnt matter if it was dev or stable. Hope this helps 
@danngreen, I was running v1.6.7 and had used the plain vanilla VCV oscillator. After your post I saw that I somehow missed an update so I’ve loaded up 1.6.8. and have now built the same patch as you’ve described, but added some panel controls for frequency, gain & mute, files for vcv & MM are below. I’m still getting the same result. BTW, I did first build this in MM, then in VCV for comparison.
Forgot to mention that I’ve also connected the oscillator output directly to out 2 for comparison.
Last edit: Discovered that it does behave exactly as constantG described when I powered the unit off and then on again, quick burst of sound then nothing.
StereoStrip Test.vcv (1.9 KB)
StereoStrip Test.yml (2.1 KB)
OK, I found something, but I’m not sure it’s the bug you found.
Using the .yml file in your last post, I can get it to not make sound if I patch a cable into Out 2, then unpatch it, and then patch into Out 1. I believe that’s a bug where the unpatching of Out 2 sends an “unpatch event” to StereoStrip Left In (since EvenVCO output goes to both Out 2 and SS Left In), but really the MM engine should not send this since there is still a cable connected to the SS Left In jack.
But – if I delete this panel cable (Even VCO → Out 2) then it always works no matter how much I patch, unpatch, restart, or reload.
There’s a firmware update on the main branch (v1.6.9), which we haven’t announced yet, so you could try that:
https://github.com/4ms/metamodule/releases/download/firmware-v1.6.9/metamodule-firmware-v1.6.9-firmware-assets.zip
It fixes an issue with MIDI mappings so I’m not hopeful that will fix it, but worth trying.
Wish i had my gear set up to test 
anyhow, thanks for the work you put in.
I remember though that it didn’t make any difference whether I built the patch on the MM or in rack 
Dan, I tried one more time in MM using v1.6.8 exactly as outlined, still nothing. I did just load up the new firmware listed above and repeated the patch, again, still nothing. I would be great if others could try this as well so we could get a better feel if this is affecting everyone or just a few of us.
So to be clear, does the patch always not work? Or does any amount of patching, unpatching various jacks and loading/reloading make it work at least sometimes?
And, does the StereoStrip ever work in any patch for you?
I have one thing in mind I could check for but it would only make sense if it sometimes worked.
Currently I’ve only ever heard a sound one time when working with the patch I posted. I’ve never heard anything when building the patch as discussed in these posts. However, I had never messed with the module before the question came up, so I really can’t answer the second question. As it’s getting late for me today it will have to wait until tomorrow, but I’ll try to come up with some other patches and see what happens. I’ll let you know what happens.
@danngreen, here’s a patch built entirely on the MM using the Fundamental (VCV) VCOs and VCFs into both channels of the Stereo Strip. As before, when the mute is turned off, no sound, period. The same patch built exactly the same way in VCV of course works. I still have the v1.6.9 referenced above installed. At this point I don’t believe trying other patches is worth the time as I’ve tried a few other sound sources as well with the same results.
StereoStripTest2.yml (2.8 KB)
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OK, this goes into the bucket of WTF! I realized I hadn’t tried feeding an external source into Stereo Strip, so I did and it worked! This is after I had power cycled many times in trying to get the module to work before. So I added the EvenVCO instead, and now that works. Then I loaded the example patch I first posted here with the exception of deleting the sine out connection to out 2, and that now works. I’ve seen some weird behavior in other modules before, but not like this.
I also just reloaded the last patch I posted in my last message, and it now works as well. Is there any reason that restarting the module would change the behavior like that? I’ll keep messing with this, but right now I’m baffled.
Quick edit add: I have also noticed that the CPU usage jumped to about 31% for the original patch whereas before it was running at about 17% IIRC.
Another edit today, the 22nd, since I’m not allowed to do another new post after 3: @danngreen & @constantG, I think I figured out what was causing the issue. I recalled this morning that I had checked my prefs and they were set to a sample rate of 24000 and IIRC a block size of 256. I think I had changed them to be able to play one of the more challenging patches posted a few weeks ago. I changed them back to the defaults of 48000 and 64, but it didn’t work when I went back to the simple patch, and probably figured that wasn’t the problem and kept trying other things before actually rebooting one more time.
After I remembered that this morning I went into the prefs again a set them back to the settings mentioned above and sure enough, it would no longer work, even after setting them back to the defaults. It was only after rebooting that it worked again. My suspicion is that constantG had/has similar settings that are causing the problem.
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Aha!
You found it! And I can reproduce this as well: StereoStrip breaks if you set it to 24k samplerate – high pitch sine wave that dies out in a few seconds. You have to load a different patch then re-load the StereoStrip patch to get it to work again.
Also, it spikes CPU when you set block size to 256 or 512 at 48k, or to 512 at 32k. The CPU spike is due to an error message being printed to console. Edit: not sure what’s causing the CPU spike.
I think we can fix this easily!
OK, on further tests – the StereoStrip also breaks at 24kHz on Rack. If you switch from 48kHz to 24kHz (using the Engine > Sample rate menu, but not by using sample rate selection on the Audio output module) when a patch is already running then the Stereo Strip outputs some high-freq whining. In this case it doesn’t fade out after a few seconds, but I can sorta hear the expected audio in the background of the whine.
@hemmer have you encountered this?
Can reproduce, and it seems to be the highshelf (at 12kHz, i.e. Nyquist at 24kHz) that is the issue. I guess we can make it a bit lower on the MM version? I suppose I should fix for Rack too (maybe min(0.4 * sampleRate, 12000) Hz for both Rack and MM)? I’ve not come across people using Rack at 24kHz before to be fair!
Fwiw remembering back, I’m sure this also happens with the bandit when i initially used that module, but when I raised this issue, I tried to replicate it with the bandit and couldn’t. Unfortunately, my studio is still boxed up for redecoration so cant confirm any of this.
That makes sense, thanks. Yeah using 24kHz in Rack is weird corner-case (I was surprised to even see that options down to even 11kHz).
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I’ll fix in the upcoming update to Befaco (5 new modules coming to Rack and MM), unless it’s more pressing than that?
Bandit shelf is 3800 Hz so I’d be surprised if it’s the same cause, but let me know!
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