[1.5.0] Sample Loader Issues

[JonathanTaquet]

Sample Loader issues when "Preview" button is pressed

Hi, I have found some issues in the Sample Loader page when performing things while the "Preview" button is pressed.
These bugs are related to the issue #505 I had previously opened, but that is now closed.
I will try to be more exhaustive here, in order to try letting you better understand the full problem.

All these glitches may be linked to a common software issue, so I group them all together here.
I will also mention some similar cases which actually work, to provide expected behavior.

Notes:

• It also appears that after encountering some of the glitches, under some conditions, the same glitches will also happen even if the "Preview" button is not pressed (see details below).
• In at least one case, the issue becomes a major issue: the Tracker seems to become completely stuck and you could need to unplug power to stop/restart it.

Steps to reproduce

By following the steps bellow, in the right order, you will encounter all the mentioned issues Issue $x, for x in the range of 1 to 5.

• Start with a blank project:

  • press "File" button
  • press New Project

• Go to the Sample Loader page by pressing "Sample Loader" button.

• In the SD card panel, select a folder containing samples, and select a sample.

• Press Preview button to listen to preview of the sample on the SD Card, and while holding Preview button, press Add, Add next or Import button.
  Issue $1: nothing happens where I would have expected my sample being added to the instruments list.
  Possible fixes:

  • either grey out the Add, Add next and Import buttons when Preview is pressed to indicate that adding/importing is not feasible when previewing,
  • or effectively add/import the sample properly. This option would be preferred and should be feasible as it is already working properly when listening to preview of the samples in the Instruments list/panel, while pressing Add, Add next or Import to add/import samples (see Notes below).

• Release Preview button, and press Add to effectively add the sample to the empty slot that is currently selected in the Instruments list.

• Press Preview again (and eventually select another sample) to preview sample(s) on the SD Card and select a sample.

• While holding Preview button, press Import button.

  • A popup appears with the message This action will replace the instrument. Do you want to continue? and the buttons' menu is changed to display No and Yes over the two last buttons.
  • Now, release the Preview button (this is to prevent inadvertently obtaining Issue $4 below)
    • Note: if your previewed sample is long enough, you will hear that the playback of the sample will however continue until it reaches the end this may be seen as an additional issue, but it is not especially problematic.
  • if you press Yes, Issue $2 happen:
    • the popup disappear, but the import window does not appear and nothing happen.
    • the button's menu is still showing No and Yes but if you press anyone of the two buttons, nothing happens.
    • but, you can navigates with the arrows between the samples and between the panels, and normal buttons behaviour works as if the correct button's menu was shown.
    • to restore correct button's menu, you can either:
      • press the button normally at "Add" position (1st one from the left), and answer No to the popup,
      • or press the button normally at "Add next" position (2nd one from the left), and answer No to the popup,
      • or press the button normally at "Import" position (5th one from the left), and answer No to the popup,
      • or navigate to the Instruments panel and either:
        • do one of the 3 previous solutions,
        • or press the button normally at "Rename" position (4th one from the left)
          • The sample renaming window will appear,
          • just close it by either pressing Cancel or Rename,
        • or press the button normally at "Delete unused" position (6th from the left)
          • A popup appears with the message This action will delete all unused instruments. Do you want to continue?
          • Answer either Yes or No, if you have released the Preview button when indicated above, else answer No.
    • now the menu is restored.
  • Note if you had pressed No, to skip Issue $2 the popup would have disappeared properly and nothing would have been done, as expected.

• if you have not released the Preview button when indicated above, you may need to restore a << normal >> state of the Tracker (see Issue $4 below).

  • navigate to a sample in SD Card panel and press then release the Preview button at least one time.
    • Note: it may happen that the first time you press Preview, the preview of the sample is not listened (see Issue $5 below), but even if nothing is listened, the normal state would be restored.

• Select a sample in the SD Card panel and press Preview button.

• Press Add or Add next while holding Preview button.

  • A popup appears with the message This action will replace the instrument. Do you want to continue? and the buttons' menu is changed to display No and Yes over the two last buttons.
  • Now you can release or not the Preview button, as you wish, it will works the same (you already entered into an abnormal state, see Issue $4 below).
    • Note: if you release it and your previewed sample is long enough, you will hear that the playback of the sample will however continue until it reaches the end this may be seen as an additional issue, but it is not especially problematic.
  • if you press Yes, Issue $3 happen:
    • the popup stay visible, the buttons' menu disappear and nothing happens... The Tracker seems to be stuck.
    • to unfreeze the unit you need to press on the button previously corresponding to the answer No (the previous last one)
  • Note if you had pressed No, to skip Issue $3 the popup would have disappeared properly and nothing would have been done, as expected, but you would have still entered in an unexpected state of the Tracker (see Issue $4 below).

From the time Preview is hold to preview a sample from the SD Card panel and at the same time you have pressed Add or Add next, the Tracker has entered into an unexpected state, and it will occur every time you do that... (until you press and release Preview to preview a sample of the SD Card panel).

• For the moment, do not press Preview anymore
• Select a sample in the SD Card panel
• Try to use Add or Add next
  • press Yes
  • you are back to Issue $3 (even if you are not holding Preview button)
  • press before last button (previously No) to go out Issue $3
• Try to use Import
  • press Yes
    • you are back to Issue $2 (even if you are not holding Preview button)
  • press first button from the left, then press No to go out Issue $2
• Now more problematic, move to instruments panel
  • you could try Add, Add next or Import, it would behave as above, you can either preview samples from the instruments panel, it changes nothing.
  • but now, if you try to press "Backspace Delete" button to erase a sample or if you press Delete unused button, you get Issue $4 nothing happen and the Tracker looks completely stuck. (It looks like in fact it is working properly but the display is stuck)
  • one solution to unlock the Tracker is to press the button that would normally correspond to Import (5th button from the left) then press the button that would normally correspond to No (7th button from the left), [or you should just unplug the tracker and restart it].
• If you try to add or import a sample to an empty slot, it will just do nothing.

To restore normal state of the Tracker,

• navigate to a sample in SD Card panel and press then release the Preview button at least one time.
  • Note: it may happen that the first time you press Preview, the preview of the sample is not listened (see Issue $5 below), but even if nothing is listened, the normal state would be restored.

Additional minor Issue $5

• Add a few samples to the Instruments list.
• Press Preview button to listen preview of samples from the SD Card panel
• Keep Preview pressed while going to Instruments panel,
• Move to another sample in the Instruments panel to listen to its preview,
• Now you can release Preview button, and/or preview other samples in Instruments panel
• Then navigate to SD Card panel,
• From now Issue $5 occurs: the first sample that would normally be listened by a preview in SD Card panel will not be listened, but the next one will.

Notes

These issues can also be obtained from an exist project but for ensuring reproducibility, we started from an empty project:

• Issue 1 will happen even if there are already samples in the instrument list, when you are trying to add/import to an empty slot while previewing samples in the SD Card panel.
• Issue 2 and Issue 3 will happen when trying to add/import samples to a slot in the instruments list that is not empty, while previewing samples in the SD Card.

If the tracker is not inside of the unexpected state mentioned above, there is no issue when previewing samples in the Instruments panel while performing other actions:

• Pressing "Backspace Delete" button while holding Preview button to delete a sample being previewed in the Instruments panel works properly.
• Pressing "Add", "Add next" or "Import" button while holding Preview button to replace a sample being previewed in the Instruments panel works properly.

Attachments and links

I don't think attachments are needed, you should be able to reproduce that easily.
But if you really need something for particular cases you are not able to reproduce, please ask...

Other important information

• How often does this bug happen? (every time, often, "it only happened once")

These issues happen every time, you should be able to reproduce them easily.

• Does this bug happen in previous firmware versions?

Yes, Similar bugs happened in previous firmware versions. Maybe not the Issue $1, I don't remember, but Issue $3 for sure.

• Does this bug happen in every project?

I would say yes, but if I remember, when loading a project coming from a previous firmware version, the behavior looked quite different. But similar issues to reported ones were obtained when using that previous firmware version with the same project.

[Jacknametrouble]

Fixed in https://github.com/polyend/TrackerBetaTesting/releases/tag/1.6.0b2

[JonathanTaquet]

It looks far more usable now (v1.6.0), thanks for the great improvement