I replied to Zodius's email, instead of posting feedback here, so i'll post my sent-emails here aswell
First email:
Hello Zodius,
Okay after like, 1 / 1,5 hours of testing i got 2 things that i think would need some of your attention.
But before that, i would like to really compliment you for doing such a good job, makes my ambx experience a lot better (especially for music), and it's also nice to just be able to have the lights go with just about anything you do, like browsing, msn, etc. Not just games & movies.
Okay these are the 2 things that i noticed that could be improved:
1. I noticed that when the volume is lower, the lights respond less good. And yes my stereo mix is my default thingie. Microphone is disabled. (i'm on vista btw). It doesn't matter if i turn the whole windows volume down, turn the speaker volume down, the stereo mix volume down, or my media player volume down. When the volume is lower, the lights respond less good and less bright. Should't it be normal that on whatever volume you are, the lights will respond like they would when on a good volume? (It's the same thing when you're on a visualiser, it doesn't matter what volume you are on, the visualisation stays the same)
2. I noticed a small delay between the music and the lights responding to it. It's just like 0,3 seconds or something, but you do notice it a little bit. I don't know if it's possible to decrease delay time?
But also without these 2 things fixed it works great! Hope you can improve the program a bit with my critics
Keep on the good work!
Reinaud
Respons on first email:
Hi Reinaud,
Thanks for taking the time to thoroughly test the program, its greatly appreciated!
1. Generally a visualisation has access to the raw music before any volume control is applied. I do not have that luxury, so I made the decision to base it on the volume (easier to compute). I don't know on Vista but on my XP when I run the program the Stereo-Mix volume is independent on the computers Master-Volume (is this not the case under Vista?). So yes I admit that when the volume is changed in a media player the lights dim but I have volume controls on my keyboard (or just use speaker volume and have everything maxed out). If your saying that whatever volume control you use causes the lights to get dimmer then I can only presume that Vista operates differently and that you have the amBX speaker system which controls the PC's master volume rather than its own independent volume.
I am reluctant to change how the system works now as some of the effects are based on the volume of the music, so a quiet classical piece will give dim light effects. If I was to adjust it like you suggest then these will be as bright and intense as some of the best hardcore tracks. I will investigate whether there is a better approach but for now I'm not inclined to change the method unless more people complain (in which case I may add two modes).
2. I've tried to reduce the delay as much as possible but to be honest the system I'm using to process the sound doesn't give me much choice. If everybody used a specific set of sound drivers (ASIO) and the program was set specifically for ASIO, then there would be no delay as this is the only thing that synchronises recording (of the stereo-mix) and playback (for processing). For all other drivers there has to be a slight delay between recording and playback to prevent playback from jumping in front of the recording. Again, I'll investigate further but I doubt I can improve it.
Its great to have such informative feedback, so thanks! When you get chance I'd appreciate your feedback on the other two modes, particularly if you are running them under vista (as this is meant to lag rather badly).
-Zodius
Second email:
Hi,
Yes i understand that classic music shouldn't produce as much light as hardcore, but the point is: My music has to be very loud before i can actually see the visualisations. It's not that i think they're too bright. They just don't activate till my music volume is really high up. That's okay for during the day, but i can't NEARLY put the volume up that loud in the evening, because of neighbours etc. So basically i have to turn up the volume till club/disco like volumes before the lights act like they should.
I would like to try to fix it myself, but so far as i've tried with sound settings etc, i can't get it to work on low volume(good).
I don't know if it's an easy adjustment to NOT let it base on volume? If it's a 10-minutes job, maybe you could make a version that works just like a visualisation as you explained, and i can test that for you under vista. If not, i hope you can find out if you can do something else about it! I'm just suggesting things, don't feel pushed! * BY THE WAY, I forgot to mention, but i run 64-bit vista, maybe that makes a difference?*
Uhm so okay, about the other modes.
1: Aurora mode.
So far, it works like a charm. It adjusts to the screen with almost NO delay, it's barely noticable, only if you really pay attention to it. It works when i watch movies, also in windows media player. When i chat, when i do some music producing, i mean just everything. Really no complains so far, it works for everything so far. Big +!
2: Aurora Synesthesia Mode
Okay, i don't know what it is supposed to do. I'm guessing that it you want it to both have the screen-to-light AND the music-to-light effect working together. Well when i turn this mode on, it does give me the screen-to-light effect, but no music-to-light effect. No matter how loud the volume is, so that's not the problem. So basically it works just like the Aurora mode. But then again i don't understand what you want this mode to do exactly, but it doesn't work yet!
Hope this helps a bit.
Reinaud
So this is just for you guys, to see what my feedback is, if any one is interested
Time to go to bed, Good night (yeah i live in holland)
