This document is intended for users of older Mobius releases wishing to upgrade to Mobius 2.2. If you are not upgrading from an older release you may skip to the Installation Guide .
To upgrade an existing 2.x release to 2.2, simply run the installer and allow it to overwite the previous files. As always, your configuration files will be preserved, only the binary application files will be replaced. Review the Release Notes for version 2.2 section for the changes.
There were a large number of changes made in 2.0, but few of them will be visible. Many of these were architectural changes that will make future enhancements easier. Lots of small bugs were fixed and a few host crashes were fixed. Because of the size of the changes we have decided to make our first change to the major release number and call this version 2.0. Future releases will be built on 2.0 and increment the minor version number, 2.1, 2.2, etc. I do not plan any further development of the 1.45 branch unless it is necessary to fix a serious bug for someone that is unable to upgrade to 2.0.
Unlike the 1.x releases, when you install 2.0 it will not automatically copy and upgrade the old 1.x configuration files. Mobius will install into a new directory, c:\Program Files\Mobius 2 on Windows and /Applications/Mobius 2 on OS X. On OS X, the configuration files will be stored in /Library/Application Support/Mobius 2. Because the installation and support directories are different, if you want to continue using your old configuration files you will have to manually copy them from the version 1 directory to the version 2 directory. This will work fine for bindings but not all of the 1.x parameters, particularly those involving synchronization will be recognized in 2.0. Post to the forums or send mail to jeff@circularlabs.com if you need assistance doing the upgrade.
The plugins will also have different names, on Windows the VST plugin will be shown as either "Mobius 2" or "MobiusVst2". On OS X both the VST and AU plugins will be shown as "Mobius 2". Unlike past releases it is permissible to have the old 1.45 version a and the new 2.0 version installed and in use at the same time. You could for example add a 1.45 Mobius and 2.0 Mobius to the same Bidule layout. This is so you can test the new version to make sure it will work properly for you without losing the ability to go back to 1.45 if you find problems.
The new features that will be visible are:
While this release has many improvements over 1.45, due to number of changes it is quite possible that new bugs have been introduced. We expect to find bugs over the next few months and we will do our best to fix them promptly. If you are an active performing musician and do not have time to test the new release to make sure all of your current scripts and techniques will work the same, then I recommend that you consider this like a beta release and wait for one or two point release.
The major new feature of this release is a redesign of the speed and pitch functions and controls. Of particular interest is the new Speed Bend control that can be used to change the playback rate smoothly using a MIDI CC or pitch wheel rather than making semitone jumps.
Also of interest is the Time Stretch control that can smoothly change the loop duration and tempo without changing the pitch. Note however that since Time Stretch relies on the old pitch shifting algorithm, there are still some remaining issues with added latency that may make it unsuitable when synchronizing multiple loops. We consider this a "beta" feature, but can be be fun in some situations.
Many of the function and control names were changed during the redesign. In previous releases, changing both the playback speed and pitch of the loop was referred to as rate shift. We now consistnetly use the word speed instead of rate. So parameters such as Rate Sequence are now Speed Sequence. Some of the names were not simple substitutions of "rate" and "speed". For example the Rate Shift function is now known as Speed Step to better indicate that it changes speed in semitone steps. The following tables show how old speed and pitch function names have changed.
The following track controls have been added.
The behavior of some of the functions has changed slightly, be sure to review the Speed Shift , Pitch Shift , Time Stretch , sections of the Mobius Techniques manual for full detals.
If you want to try out the new speed, pitch, and stretch controls, a new display component has been added that allows you to organize two sets of track controls rather than having single very tall stack of controls. The track controls stacks in the status area are now called Floating Track Strips, see the Customizing the Track Strips section of the Exploring Mobius manual for information on adding two independent track strips to the status area.
When Mobius runs as a plugin, it will use whatever sample rate that the host is using. When Mobius runs standalone, you select the sample rate in the Audio Devices configuration window. The new field labeled Sample Rate is the first item below the device selection panels. You can select one of two rates: 44100 and 48000. Let us know if you feel you need other rates.
All of the synchronization features that exist in 1.45 still exist in 2.0, but the way they are configured is different. In 1.45 synchronization was defined in the preset. In 2.0 synchronization is defined in the track setup.
The parameters you formerly saw in the Synchronization tab of the Preset window you will now see in the Synchronization tab of the Track Setup window. One consequence of this is that most synchronization parameters will be shared consistently by all tracks.
The majority of the synchronization options such as Out Sync Realign Action, Out Sync Min Tempo, MIDI/Host Sync Unit, and Beats Per Bar do not need to be different in each track. Having these as preset parameters raised the possibility that each track would have a different value which complicated synchronization decisions (and caused bugs). Now it is easy to define synchronization parameters consistently for all tracks.
There are however two sync parameters that do occasionally need to be different in each track: Sync Source and Track Sync Unit.
Sync Source is what we used to call Sync Mode. It defines the style of synchronization that will be performed by the track. The possible values are:
The default sync source for all tracks is defined with the Default Sync Source parameter under the Synchronization tab of the Track Setups window. If you want to change this for selected tracks, select the Tracks tab of the Track Setups window and find the parameter labeled Sync Source. By default the value of this parameter is Default which means the track will use the sync source defined by the Default Sync Source parameter. If you change this, the track will follow the selected sync source and ignore the default sync source.
A similar parameter override exists for the Track Sync Unit parameter. This parameter determines where the synchronization point is when the sync source is Track. The possible values are Subcycle, Cycle, and Loop. The default sync unit is defined with the Default Track Sync Unit parameter under the Synchronization tab. If you want to override this change the Track Sync Unit parameter under the Tracks tab.
This is described in more detail in the Synchronization Parameters section of the Mobius Synchronization manual.
In the following table we will provide a translation between the 1.45 synchronization parameters on the left and the equivalent 2.0 parameters on the right.
| Sync Mode = Off | Set the Sync Source parameter to None | |
|---|---|---|
| Sync Mode = Out | Set the Sync Source parameter to Out | |
| Sync Mode = Out Manual Start | Set the Sync Source parameter to Out and check the Out Sync Manual Start box. | |
| Sync Mode = MIDI Beat | Set the Sync Source parameter to MIDI and set MIDI/Host Sync Unit to Beat. | |
| Sync Mode = MIDI Bar | Set the Sync Source parameter to MIDI and set MIDI/Host Sync Unit to Bar. | |
| Sync Mode = Host Beat | Set the Sync Source parameter to Host and set MIDI/Host Sync Unit to Beat. | |
| Sync Mode = Host Bar | Set the Sync Source parameter to Host and set MIDI/Host Sync Unit to Bar. | |
| Track Sync Mode = Off | Set the Sync Source parameter to anything other than Track. | |
| Track Sync Mode = Subcycle | Set the Sync Source parameter to Track and the Track Sync Unit parameter to Subcycle. | |
| Track Sync Mode = Cycle | Set the Sync Source parameter to Track and the Track Sync Unit parameter to Cycle. | |
| Track Sync Mode = Loop | Set the Sync Source parameter to Track and the Track Sync Unit parameter to Loop. | |
| Empty Track Action | Now under the Switch tab of the Preset window. | |
| Resize Sync Adjust | Now under the Synchronization tab of the Track Setups window as Out Sync Resize Adjust. | |
| Speed Sync Adjust | Now under the Synchronization tab of the Track Setups window as Out Sync Speed Adjust. | |
| Switch Sync Adjust | No parameter in 2.0, use Out Sync Resize Adjust. | |
| Mute Sync Mode | Changed to Out Sync Mute Action. | |
| Out Sync Realign Mode | Changed to Out Sync Realign Action | |
| Record Beats/Bar | Changed to Beats Per Bar | |
| Minimum Tempo | Changed to Out Sync Min Tempo | |
| Maximum Tempo | Changed to Out Sync Max Tempo | |
| Auto Record Bars | Now under the General tab of the Preset window. | |
| Auto Record Tempo | Now under the General tab of the Preset window. |
NOTE: It is important to understand that the 1.45 synchronization parameters will not be automatically upgraded when you run the 2.0 release. You will need to manually change synchronization parameters in 2.0.
Besides the synchronization parameters, many other parameters have changed location. Preset parameters will usually still be under the Presets window, but you may need to explore the new tabs.