Zirkonium

Download | Old versions

What can I do when Zirkonium is not fast enough while reading the sound files from the hard disk?

Avoid using many sound files with few channels each, instead use only a single sound file that contains all channels in an interleaved format. In order to create the interleaved sound file you could use Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver, available here: scottwilson.ca/site/Software.html.
Note that some common file formats have size limitations. For soundfiles larger than for example 15 minutes containing 32 channels, these formats might not work anymore. In case you need larger soundfiles use Apple's new soundfile format caf or the extended wave format. (Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver can write caf files.)
Use two or more sound files and place the sound files on separate hard-drives (one file per hard-drive). That gives the drive more time to read.
Use the same sampling rate for your sound files and your hardware audio interface (otherwise sample rate conversion will be done on the fly, which consumes unnecessarily cpu)
Try to experiment with the settings in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup:
- File Player Buffers (try to increase it to 10 or 20 or maybe more)
- frames (also increase it, to a multiple of 1024, e.g. 10240)
There have been problems with some versions of Zirkonium older than 0.9.17. Switch to a newer version, if you have one of those.
We have used Zirkonium in concerts with up to 32 channels of audio sources without problems, using "normal" equipment, like a G5 computer with its internal SATA hard disk. More channels have not been tested yet, but should be possible too.

When I use several IDs for the same mono-source, is then the sound file being read several times or only once?

only once

How can I reduce Zirkonium's cpu usage?

Put the Display Refresh Rate in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup to a lower level (e.g. 0.5 sec instead of 0.1 sec).
Put the SRC-Quality in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup to a lower level.
Close the Events-tab in the session window while playing (e.g. open the Sources-tab instead).
Try to reduce the frequency at which you send OSC messages (e.g. do not send more messages than every 50 milliseconds).
Make sure that the active input patch does not use more inputs than necessary.

On which port is Zirkonium listening for OSC messages?

port 50808 (in a future version this might be configurable)

Is there a way to check which OSC messages arrive in Zirkonium?

Not yet. There might be a possibility in a future version.

In order to debug your OSC messages, you can use a Pd patch as a workaround.

Use Pd-extended from here: puredata.info/downloads

Close Zirkonium, extract and open this Pd patch: print_osc.pd.zip

Now you see the OSC messages in the Pd console. These messages arrive in Zirkonium, once you close Pd and re-open Zirkonium

Is it possible to use the "tape" mode and the "live" mode simultaneously?

Yes. However, take care that the Zirkonium-controlled movements and live-controlled movements do not interfere. You should decide which IDs are being moved in the "tape" mode only, and leave the rest for live-controlling only.

Zirkonium does not start any more --- it keeps crashing. What can I do?

Try to execute the following command in a Terminal window:

defaults delete de.zkm.zirkonium

If this does not help, try to completely remove Zirkonium from your system and re-install it again.

How can I uninstall Zirkonium?

In order to completely remove Zirkonium from your system, delete the following files and directories:

/Applications/Zirkonium.app/

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/Zirkonium.plugin

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ZirkPipe.component

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Zirk2.component

~/Library/Application\ Support/Zirkonium/

~/Library/Preferences/de.zkm.Zirkonium.plist

I have created a piece in "tape" mode with Zirkonium. However, I have a concert where I can not use Zirkonium (e.g. because no Macintosh computer is available). What can I do?

You simply create a "bounce" of your Zirkonium session with the correct speaker configuration

Select a speaker setup in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup that matches your concert setup. (Create your own speaker setup if necessary)

Use the "Rec" button in the Events tab of your session window to bounce your session

The bounced file contains all the audio as it was sent to the speakers. Thus you can copy the file onto a multi-channel tape and use the tape during the concert.

Because of a small bug you will get 2 aif-files. One is empty and you can throw it away in the end.

step-by-step description:

Click on "Rec"; a new empty aif file is created on your Desktop (named something like "20081106-105756-Zirkonium.aif", where the numbers represent date and time).

Click on "Play". Sound data are being written into the new file.

The "Play"-button has changed into a "Stop"-button; Click this "Stop" button in order to finish the recording. The first sound file contains your piece in interleaved multi-channel format. (A second new file is created, which stays emtpy though and can be deleted).

Note that the recording does not stop automatically when your source sound files end. I.e. you might want to cut the end of the bounced file manually (using a sound editor that can deal with multi-channel files, e.g. Audacity).

Note that the current output patch is ignored. I.e. the channel numbering of the bounce follows the Zirkonium numbering of speakers (see the manual for more info about this). However, this might change in a future version of Zirkonium. For the time being you can use Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver to convert the bounced file into the format you need (available here: scottwilson.ca/site/Software.html)

The "Rec"-button has also changed into a "Stop" button. In order to start a new recording, you first have to reset the Rec-button by clicking on it.

When I add an event to an existing tape-mode piece, it always gets added at the end of the list, even if the start-time of event is set to an earlier value. How can I change this?

Once you have set the start-time of the event, click on "Start" in the title bar of the list.

Note that when you save, close and re-open the session, the events are sorted according to the start-time.

What happens with zenith-movements when I use a flat, non-dome speaker setup, with all speakers located on the same height (e.g. a quad setup)?

In earlier versions of Zirkonium, the zenith-values were simply ignored. This had the effect, that sources that were moving close to the center point of Zirkonium were sometimes jumping from one side to the other.

In the current version, Zirkonium prevents the jumping by automatically increasing the span of a source that approaches the center point.

Can I get more IDs in the device mode than the pre-configured number of IDs?

Not in the current version. In a future version of Zirkonium the number of IDs in the device mode will be configurable.

What is the use of the window which is located at Studio>Studio Setup?

In the "Speakers" tab you can define your own custom speaker configurations.

In the "Rooms" tab you can define room dimensions. This is relevant only for the HRTF simulation.

In the tabs "Input/Output Patches" you can define new Input and Output Patches. These tabs are somewhat redundant, since you could do the same in Preferences>Input/Output. However, the Input/Output tabs in the Preferences are a little bit buggy, so we recommend to use the tabs in Studio>Studio Setup instead (see below for a step-by-step decsription).

The "Admin" tab is not relevant for the normal user.

Note that in order to open Studio>Studio Setup, you have to close the Preferences window first.

How can I create a new Output Patch (or Input Patch) in Studio>Studio Setup?

Step-by-step description:

Click on the "+" sign on the left side, between the two main window frames .

You get a new entry in the upper frame, with the default name "Output Patch" and with 2 channels. Click on the name and change the name, then click on the "2" in the right column and change it to your number of channels (i.e. number of speakers that you use).

You get a channel list in the lower window frame, with one line per channel.

Take note of the channel numbering that Zirkonium uses, when creating a new output patch (see the manual for more information).

You might want to sort the list according to the "Patch Channel", by clicking on "Patch Channel" in the title bar. The patch channel represents the Zirkonium numbering of the channels.

Now click on the device channels and change the numbers according to your studio setup. The device channel represents the numbering of the channels in your hardware audio interface.

Once you have created your Output Patch you should select it in Preferences>Setup and test it in Preferences>Panner.

You save your Output Patch in the following way: Bring the Studio>Studio Setup windwo into front and select from the main menu File>Save.

More FAQs you find in the Manual (last page).


	Download \| Old versions
	Zirkonium FAQ ("Classic" Zirkonium)
	What can I do when Zirkonium is not fast enough while reading the sound files from the hard disk? Avoid using many sound files with few channels each, instead use only a single sound file that contains all channels in an interleaved format. In order to create the interleaved sound file you could use Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver, available here: scottwilson.ca/site/Software.html. Note that some common file formats have size limitations. For soundfiles larger than for example 15 minutes containing 32 channels, these formats might not work anymore. In case you need larger soundfiles use Apple's new soundfile format caf or the extended wave format. (Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver can write caf files.) Use two or more sound files and place the sound files on separate hard-drives (one file per hard-drive). That gives the drive more time to read. Use the same sampling rate for your sound files and your hardware audio interface (otherwise sample rate conversion will be done on the fly, which consumes unnecessarily cpu) Try to experiment with the settings in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup: File Player Buffers (try to increase it to 10 or 20 or maybe more) frames (also increase it, to a multiple of 1024, e.g. 10240) There have been problems with some versions of Zirkonium older than 0.9.17. Switch to a newer version, if you have one of those. We have used Zirkonium in concerts with up to 32 channels of audio sources without problems, using "normal" equipment, like a G5 computer with its internal SATA hard disk. More channels have not been tested yet, but should be possible too. When I use several IDs for the same mono-source, is then the sound file being read several times or only once? only once How can I reduce Zirkonium's cpu usage? Put the Display Refresh Rate in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup to a lower level (e.g. 0.5 sec instead of 0.1 sec). Put the SRC-Quality in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup to a lower level. Close the Events-tab in the session window while playing (e.g. open the Sources-tab instead). Try to reduce the frequency at which you send OSC messages (e.g. do not send more messages than every 50 milliseconds). Make sure that the active input patch does not use more inputs than necessary. On which port is Zirkonium listening for OSC messages? port 50808 (in a future version this might be configurable) Is there a way to check which OSC messages arrive in Zirkonium? Not yet. There might be a possibility in a future version. In order to debug your OSC messages, you can use a Pd patch as a workaround. Use Pd-extended from here: puredata.info/downloads Close Zirkonium, extract and open this Pd patch: print_osc.pd.zip Now you see the OSC messages in the Pd console. These messages arrive in Zirkonium, once you close Pd and re-open Zirkonium Is it possible to use the "tape" mode and the "live" mode simultaneously? Yes. However, take care that the Zirkonium-controlled movements and live-controlled movements do not interfere. You should decide which IDs are being moved in the "tape" mode only, and leave the rest for live-controlling only. Zirkonium does not start any more --- it keeps crashing. What can I do? Try to execute the following command in a Terminal window: defaults delete de.zkm.zirkonium If this does not help, try to completely remove Zirkonium from your system and re-install it again. How can I uninstall Zirkonium? In order to completely remove Zirkonium from your system, delete the following files and directories: /Applications/Zirkonium.app/ /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/Zirkonium.plugin /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ZirkPipe.component /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/Zirk2.component ~/Library/Application\ Support/Zirkonium/ ~/Library/Preferences/de.zkm.Zirkonium.plist I have created a piece in "tape" mode with Zirkonium. However, I have a concert where I can not use Zirkonium (e.g. because no Macintosh computer is available). What can I do? You simply create a "bounce" of your Zirkonium session with the correct speaker configuration Select a speaker setup in Zirkonium>Preferences>Setup that matches your concert setup. (Create your own speaker setup if necessary) Use the "Rec" button in the Events tab of your session window to bounce your session The bounced file contains all the audio as it was sent to the speakers. Thus you can copy the file onto a multi-channel tape and use the tape during the concert. Because of a small bug you will get 2 aif-files. One is empty and you can throw it away in the end. step-by-step description: Click on "Rec"; a new empty aif file is created on your Desktop (named something like "20081106-105756-Zirkonium.aif", where the numbers represent date and time). Click on "Play". Sound data are being written into the new file. The "Play"-button has changed into a "Stop"-button; Click this "Stop" button in order to finish the recording. The first sound file contains your piece in interleaved multi-channel format. (A second new file is created, which stays emtpy though and can be deleted). Note that the recording does not stop automatically when your source sound files end. I.e. you might want to cut the end of the bounced file manually (using a sound editor that can deal with multi-channel files, e.g. Audacity). Note that the current output patch is ignored. I.e. the channel numbering of the bounce follows the Zirkonium numbering of speakers (see the manual for more info about this). However, this might change in a future version of Zirkonium. For the time being you can use Scott Wilson's De-Interleaver to convert the bounced file into the format you need (available here: scottwilson.ca/site/Software.html) The "Rec"-button has also changed into a "Stop" button. In order to start a new recording, you first have to reset the Rec-button by clicking on it. When I add an event to an existing tape-mode piece, it always gets added at the end of the list, even if the start-time of event is set to an earlier value. How can I change this? Once you have set the start-time of the event, click on "Start" in the title bar of the list. Note that when you save, close and re-open the session, the events are sorted according to the start-time. What happens with zenith-movements when I use a flat, non-dome speaker setup, with all speakers located on the same height (e.g. a quad setup)? In earlier versions of Zirkonium, the zenith-values were simply ignored. This had the effect, that sources that were moving close to the center point of Zirkonium were sometimes jumping from one side to the other. In the current version, Zirkonium prevents the jumping by automatically increasing the span of a source that approaches the center point. Can I get more IDs in the device mode than the pre-configured number of IDs? Not in the current version. In a future version of Zirkonium the number of IDs in the device mode will be configurable. What is the use of the window which is located at Studio>Studio Setup? In the "Speakers" tab you can define your own custom speaker configurations. In the "Rooms" tab you can define room dimensions. This is relevant only for the HRTF simulation. In the tabs "Input/Output Patches" you can define new Input and Output Patches. These tabs are somewhat redundant, since you could do the same in Preferences>Input/Output. However, the Input/Output tabs in the Preferences are a little bit buggy, so we recommend to use the tabs in Studio>Studio Setup instead (see below for a step-by-step decsription). The "Admin" tab is not relevant for the normal user. Note that in order to open Studio>Studio Setup, you have to close the Preferences window first. How can I create a new Output Patch (or Input Patch) in Studio>Studio Setup? Step-by-step description: Click on the "+" sign on the left side, between the two main window frames . You get a new entry in the upper frame, with the default name "Output Patch" and with 2 channels. Click on the name and change the name, then click on the "2" in the right column and change it to your number of channels (i.e. number of speakers that you use). You get a channel list in the lower window frame, with one line per channel. Take note of the channel numbering that Zirkonium uses, when creating a new output patch (see the manual for more information). You might want to sort the list according to the "Patch Channel", by clicking on "Patch Channel" in the title bar. The patch channel represents the Zirkonium numbering of the channels. Now click on the device channels and change the numbers according to your studio setup. The device channel represents the numbering of the channels in your hardware audio interface. Once you have created your Output Patch you should select it in Preferences>Setup and test it in Preferences>Panner. You save your Output Patch in the following way: Bring the Studio>Studio Setup windwo into front and select from the main menu File>Save. More FAQs you find in the Manual (last page).
	page last modified: [an error occurred while processing this directive]