News (Archives)

Hi RPG-SoundMixer community!

A long time passed by since the last news entry, but I hope that you visited the homepage as time goes by. Unfortunately, the RPG-SoundMixer V2 development diary on our board is not translated into English, so many notes and news are lost for our English community members. However, there was a RPG-SoundMixer V2 preview version. It still has not much functionality, but I was surprised that it could be used for RPG sessions already. In addition, I was surprised that there is still the necessity to improve the user interface. Thanks to the numerous testers.

Furthermore, I note that the RPG-SoundMixer is more than an insider application now. Over many months it has becoma a well-known game master tool. I get often mails from people and RPG magazines which have written articels, have their own ideas or even want to realize projects in relation to the RPG-SoundMixer. How do you like the idea of a glowing dice, which occupies your RPG room in a green jungle light automatically, while the RPG-SoundMixer accompanies the scenario with drums of aboriginals? Or if you ride through a bad storm in a dark night, and the dice emits lightnings in the rythm of the thunder...

Personally, after a one month break (too much stress) I hope that I can continue the work on RPG-SoundMixer V2 soon. Now, I have layout work, which I have to do on my own, and many feature enhancement to do. However, I have to figure out, if I can spare the time to do it in the next months. In few hours I have to fly to Canada, where a new chapter in my life is waiting for me...

Cross your fingers, and see you soon!

Almost six months have passed without a sign and you are certainly very disappointed that there are no real news. Having private difficulties and a job that steals my days, weekends and nerves, unfortunately I was not able to concentrate on my work on the RPG-SoundMixer. So I was not able to keep up my plans, too. But after a heated discussion on our board, I am happy that nevertheless almost everyone is still behind the project. If you have wishes, please post them. E.g. if you want a (technical) developer journal on the board to follow my work, or if you want more details about the new version and what presumably will change.

All I want to do now is to continue my work on the RPG-SoundMixer. All of you can recognize, that the work on the RPG-SoundMixer homepage has totally stopped during the long wait. And before the work on the next RPG-SoundMixer has not finished, I will hardly have time for updates, which is double bitter. And there is only one way for me out of this dilemma: grit my teeth and get on with it! Unfortunately this means more waiting for you, the faithful RPG-SoundMixer fans.

Finally I can tell you only this: I am making new attempt and took up work again.

But not everyone was as good as our little RPG-SoundMixer community and gets praise. There's also anevildoer who let me down twice this year already. I almost asked Father Christmas to take him away in his sack. I'mtalking about my computer which deserted me again about two months ago. Because of that and some personal problemsthere weren't any news up here in the last several weeks. I'm also sorry that work on the RPG-SoundMixer has stopped almost completely.

But things start looking bright again and I was very proud when some days ago my brand new sound engine (orlet's say the RPG-SoundMixer 2) was kicking sound effects like nuts. In 3D, of course! So while the heroes are hearing the raging ogre behind them and notice how he closes the gap between them, they manage after a few successful dice rolls to lose him. All made possible by the sound path of the ogre, which you can dynamically change during play.

But free definable paths in a room thanks to a multi speaker system is just one new feature among manyothers. And although I'm sad when looking back on my todo-list, because I managed so far just half of it, it meanson the other hand that I just have to do the other half.

As much of the RPG-SoundMixer centers on sound effects, I would like to turn your attention to a very important topic on the board. Fridi has taken the honourable but difficult task of sorting and extending the official RPG-SoundMixer sounds for version 2. And it is important that all RPG-SoundMixer users use the same sound effects, so you can share your work easily among yourselves. So if you have ideas or wishes, please take a look at the topic.

I know that I promised you some screenshots of the new version, as the few design studies on the boad don't really count because they don't show much. But I have to keep up the promise for some more time.

Translation by bluemagician

"Please wait for the next version, the feature will be in there!" - This was my standard reply on the board I used so often these days. To be honest: I don't likehearing it myself already! But there are many feature requests, improvement suggestions and bugs which need attention. The number of wishes increases twice as fast as I can implement them. I had to workfaster in the last month and therefore missed my vacation and neglected my sleep. But after all I am very pleasedwith the results and I want to tell you how things are going. I invite you to this (old) thread where you can find some fresh informations.

"When will it be done?" - A sentence I had to read even more oftenthen the one above. Admittedly he is quite legitimate! I already told you about my planshalf a year ago but didn't go into any details. I think I can pinpoint the time span from "quite long" to around three or four months. This is a realistic approximation and I will try my best! I should add that this wont be the release date for the final version but for the alpha who needs someextensive testing after that. Longer and more detailed than any before of course...

The RPG-Soundmixer evolved for a large part into a fan project quite a while ago. Not the program core itself but everything around it. Especially concerning the feature ideas I have to thank the community for longand fruitful discussions. But now for the last main point: The enormous amount of work canonly be done in small steps by myself. I need some helping hands! The more, the faster and betterit will proceed. Helpful RPG fans who want to help out can look at that thread (German), I will address the issueswith which I could need some help.

Last but not least I got a new section on our board, the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).It's still empty but it will grow in time! Of course, suggestions are always welcomed and everybody can submit something. I will also try that German texts can be translated into English soon...

Like I promised, you will find something special here from now on. It is an honor for me to present some of the work of a ingenious german composer asa download for the RPG-Soundmixer. His name is Marcel Schweder and his work is really something special! Because he works not only on film and theater productions but also for fantasy androle playing music. I am happy that some of his songs found their home here with us.

You will find here the SoundMixer-Download with 18 compositions (!) from his RPG-CDs "Requiem - Das Haus der Schatten" and "Requiem II - In finsteren Hallen". And like you probably guessed, the tracks are about horror and dispense. Just the right thing for Cthulhu and horror adventures, but they are also very good for darkand epic Sci-Fi systems

You can listen and use them freely for your role playing nights! If you want more songs like that but withflawless quality you really should take a look at both of his two CDs.

You can find more about Marcel Schweder and his masterpieces on his home page. If you have any questions or suggestionsyou can E-Mail him.

I opened a special thread on our board, so if youliked this you can tell us. The thread is in German, but English comments are also welcome, of course! So everybody is welcome to drop us some lines of praise or criticism, maybe we can bring you more like this in the future...

The end of work is still not in sight but slowly I see how much time the new SoundMixer versionstill needs. More exact news on this will follow in one or two month. Till then you surely will see some screen shots and further hints. You know already which features are a bit tricky so please forgive the seemingly endlessdelay.

The next news will be due in two weeks and this time there will be a great surprise for all our loyalSoundMixer fans!

It's finally time to present some long overdue news: The silence on the SoundMixer pageis deceptive, because its definitely not quiet on my PC. I am still tinkering on thenew SoundMixer, adding new features and improving the design. If you are curious now you canread my posting here whereI talk about the upcoming new (but still far away) Version.

It's difficult to report the current progress because I am surrounded by SoundMixer construction sites. Nearly no line of code stays untouched. But also the board wants to be supplied, the download section extended and the page improved. These are all tasks I barely can handle myself altogether. Therefore I want to say thank you to all my little helpers and excuse me for my partial absence and prolonged news pile-up in advance. After I immersed myself nights after nights in the code swamp of the SoundMixer I tend to forget things around me. But the forum is opened 24/7 and waits patiently for numerous and interesting discussions, meanwhile even without me ;)

Something I promised long ago has now come reality: The english sound collections are now translated and can be found in the download section. Have fun!

Yes there are probably still many small things I could tell but you have to wait yet a little bit longer.

After all of us (hopefully) made a good start in the new year, the daily routine slowly starts again. So this message just sounds like everyday news: The SoundMixer is under heavy development! If you think I am lazy you are wrong ;)

I cant reveal much because some really great attainments await the SoundMixer, and I am still not sure if its already the right time for this leap. I am experimenting now for at least a month on the limits of technical possibility's and we will see if the laid plans will work. Therefore I first want to make sure before I make large scale announcements. But my efforts are blooming, so it seems that realizing my ambitions is possible...

But I wont concentrate my efforts only on hypes and new features but also on solid improvements!

Concerning our English fans: I soon will finish a tool to translate German sound collections. This means all the German sound collections will soon be available in English!

Something stalwart at the end: I allowed myself to gather all the dispersed links on freely available MP3 music into one thread on our forum.

Ho, ho, ho!
On time for Christmas, the promised update! I hope that the time we investedin testing will prove useful and nobody will have any difficulties with the update. Especially becausequite a few internal things changed!

Maybe the most vital point is that there will be no more sound-libraries.The sound-packages will be abolished altogether. But don't worry! Of course there is a small add on program, which will get your old files up to date. You don't even have to relinquish the feature of saving sound-files into your sound-packages. Quite the contrary! This was now adopted for the sound-libraries and improved even further.

The new version offers many new things, but also some bug fixes! A complete listof the changes can be viewed here. The new manual is also in its common place. We can talk over the new features together in our forums.

It would be nice if you could use the conversion tool to bring your sound-libraries up to date instead increasing the burden of the server even more. But of course you still have the option to use our already upgraded download library.

We are also proud to announce that the english newsletter is now available.

In the end I wish you happy downloads and some nice holidays!

Greetings everyone,
The long waiting has an end, you will no longer be left in the dark about recentSoundMixer news. I (Rodriguez) will now take care of the news translations and willtry to do my best. But because I am not flawless (ahem) you are welcomed to reportany mistakes in my Blame Rodriguez!thread. ^_^

By the way, the new 1.610 version is now in the beta-stadium! Details of the new SoundMixer versioncan soon be viewed in the version history