Ask Justin Frankel

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Ask Justin Frankel
No reasonable question unanswered since 2009!

Suggested topics: programming, music, sleep, coffee, etc.

Note: please do not ask questions about REAPER features, bugs or scheduling, use the forums instead.

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Question: Can I preview the width of a string will use when displayed with LICE_CachedFont?
Asked by frenchos (141.11.254.x) on January 18 2011, 9:35am
Reply on January 19 2011, 7:21pm:

Yes, you use DrawText with DT_CALCSIZE. Comment...

Question: What don't you like about your current setup that would make you do things differently ?
Asked by Chuck (150.101.96.x) on January 18 2011, 2:00am
Reply on January 19 2011, 7:20pm:

Only when the power goes out for the building it is in for more than an hour, or a transformer a block away blows up taking out our fiber for 2 days... Comment...

Question: Do you have a really good memory for new things you learn? (syntax, DSP algorithms, etc) or do you have to go over stuff alot?
Asked by Will (70.173.150.x) on January 17 2011, 5:41pm
Reply on January 17 2011, 7:52pm:

No, but keeping copies of things you've done is good to refresh your memory. Comment...

Question: With all the things happening in cockos; is it hard or time consuming to host your own servers?
Asked by gio (62.103.65.x) on January 16 2011, 7:33pm
Reply on January 17 2011, 7:51pm:

Nah, but it's just maintenance at this point; if I were starting fresh I'd probably do it differently. Comment...

Question: I have audio samples and want to use WDL FFT library to analyse those samples. wht r steps?
Asked by ruchira (202.129.234.x) on January 13 2011, 9:32pm
Reply on January 14 2011, 12:44pm:

first, call WDL_fft_init(). Then create a buffer of WDL_FFT_COMPLEX, populate its real components with some audio, the imaginary with 0s, then optionally apply a windowing function, then call WDL_fft(), then you can access the results using WDL_fft_permute() to get the correct indices. Comment...

Question: If you could ask Dave Cutler one question, what would it be?
Asked by Will (24.234.128.x) on January 13 2011, 11:08am
Reply on January 14 2011, 12:45pm:

Hmm, I dunno, maybe if there was any way to make a workaround to prevent kernel drivers from keeping things locked too long, wreaking havoc on low latency audio... Comment...

Question: how winamp dsp dee enhance bass? using octave down method?
Asked by ruchira (202.129.235.x) on January 13 2011, 6:09am
Reply on January 14 2011, 12:45pm:

Dunno, I never used any enhancement. Comment...

Question: what is the best buffer size if I use waveout api? coz i hear random spikes...
Asked by ruchira (202.129.234.x) on January 12 2011, 5:19am
Reply on January 14 2011, 12:46pm:

If you want low latency, then you best experiment. Otherwise use a larger size. I can safely do around 4 buffers of 512 samples here, on most built in hardware. For low latency ASIO tends to work better... Comment...

Question: that picture that Will drew of you makes you look like Jesus! That is all.
Asked by Poop (67.88.171.x) on January 11 2011, 1:48pm
Reply on January 14 2011, 12:46pm:

I thought it was of Jesus, not me. Comment...

Question: Which platform/OS you personally prefer and use (everyday work/fun etc.)?
Asked by Alex (92.241.137.x) on January 11 2011, 4:18am
Reply on January 11 2011, 11:15am:

I prefer to use Windows 7/x64. Especially on a quad core with a lot of RAM, mmm. I do also use OS X 10.5 or 10.6 regularly, but it usually annoys me. Comment...

Question: When are you going to come and talk about your work?
Asked by Verde Valley Sch (12.44.144.x) on January 7 2011, 6:51pm
Reply on January 8 2011, 2:08pm:

Comment...

Question: Drew this for you years ago. Use it however you'd like (if at all). stashbox.org/1052386/jesusonic.jpg
Asked by Will (24.234.128.x) on January 7 2011, 3:29pm
Reply on January 8 2011, 2:08pm:

That is awesome! Comment...

Question: So given compiler technology in 2011, is it not as worthwhile to know the guts of CPUs (cache intricacies) as much as the 90s?
Asked by Will (24.234.128.x) on January 5 2011, 12:06pm
Reply on January 6 2011, 6:49am:

I think you're less likely to be writing things that use more than 90% of the CPU power available at once, which makes it harder to test those sort of optimizations -- getting a result of "this took less time than before" vs "this can actually run fast enough to watch" is less satisfying, and more time might be spent making things run in multiple threads for bigger improvements, rather than say, optimization for cache line size, etc.
CPUs are a lot more complex, so it is a lot harder to know their intricacies than it was. Back in the day, we could write assembly code Pentiums with paired instructions for U and V pipelines, we knew approximately how big the caches were and what the cache line size was, and it was a pretty simple target. These days, if you write assembly, you're targeting many different generations of CPUs, which have a wide variety of characteristics, can schedule instructions out of order, etc, so it's really harder to know how a change will affect code, and often hard to test that.

Comment...

Question: any filter code to remove spikes in audio samples at realtime?
Asked by ruchira (202.129.233.x) on January 3 2011, 6:59pm
Reply on January 3 2011, 8:02pm:

Hmm nothing off the top of my head, it's not a trivial task. Comment...

Question: Hey have you seen this clip of Tame Impala? bit.ly/eBpgpT I wish they did that part for 3+ minutes it sounds great!
Asked by AnalSeducer (71.204.133.x) on January 3 2011, 3:07pm
Reply on January 3 2011, 8:02pm:

Awesome. They did something similar when I saw them, so great. Comment...

Question: When was the time you last used your Pouet.net account? (Or thought about making a 256 byte intro again, for that matter.) :P
Asked by Gargaj (81.183.89.x) on January 3 2011, 11:27am
Reply on January 3 2011, 8:02pm:

It's been a while. Comment...

Question: By what scalefactor is CPU cache faster than memory running at modern bus speeds?
Asked by Will (24.234.128.x) on January 3 2011, 11:00am
Reply on January 3 2011, 8:04pm:

If I had to guess, the latency on memory in cache would be 1 cycle (for L1, I'm not sure how it works these days with the various caches, but the others may be close to that), and for going across the memory controller to DDR, probably something like 10-50x that. I'm pulling those number out of my ass, though. Comment...

Question: Hey just curious. What made you start to learn Perl? Was it for work or for play? Hey got new pics of NY you might upload?
Asked by AnalSeducer (71.204.133.x) on January 3 2011, 10:48am
Reply on January 3 2011, 8:04pm:

Convenience, mostly, since OS X comes with, and msysgit does too... whereas PHP I need to install on win32... Comment...

Question: Does smaller really matter now? Multi TB drives: check. 15mbps internet: check. 16gb flash drive: check. etc.
Asked by Will (70.173.150.x) on January 2 2011, 8:00pm
Reply on January 3 2011, 9:23am:

Hmm yes but CPUs only have a few megabytes of cache, still... and if we increased our download size by 10x, we'd use a lot more bandwidth. Comment...

Question: Why is reaper so small? Others are 100times bigger (but not necessarily better)?
Asked by mopsi007 (194.48.133.x) on January 2 2011, 5:38am
Reply on January 2 2011, 5:33pm:

To be fair other software usually includes a bunch of samples, etc -- but having said that I think we are generally a lot smaller (maybe around 5x or so?), just because we strive to be. Comment...

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