RE: The Mobius Technological Enslavement Device is now available

["Alan Kroeger" <nospam@akroeger.com>]

Wow this is way cool I assume you will be charging for this sometime in the
future. Do you do any embedded programming might be cool on a dsp
hardware/firmware platform too. Works great on XP though for sure might 
give
up on my EDP(as this is an excelent emulation) I wonder if my old crippled
Sony Vaio could deal with this well I will try it there too.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Larson [mailto:Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 12:24 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: The Mobius Technological Enslavement Device is now available


Some of you may recall that about 9 months ago during an embarrassing bout
of hubris, I announced that I was writing a Windows looping application 
that
emulated a Loop IV EDP.  It probably comes as no surprise that I
underestimated how hard that was going to be :-)

But I'm pleased (and relieved) to finally say that a public beta of the
Mobius looping device is now available.  You can find it at
www.zonemobius.com.  It was developed on Windows XP, should run on W2K and
ME, but might not run on 98.

Mobius is essentially 8 independent stereo EDPs with the ability to copy
loops and timing between them.  Extensive MIDI, computer keyboard, and UI
button control is provided.  Progress through the loop is displayed as a
horizontal "thermometer" annotated with markers that show when quantized
functions will occur.  Loops (including complete layer histories) may be
saved to and loaded from files.

I believe there is fairly complete coverage of features except for three
notable areas: Loop Windowing, Interface Mode, and external 
synchronization.
I'm working on loop windowing now.  Andy Butler made the wise suggestion 
not
to get too fixated on a perfect emulation and instead implement features 
the
way they made sense to me.  I do have an EDP and use it to cross check
behavior, but if you are an expert you will notice some differences.  Most
of these are discussed in the user's manual.

While anyone is welcome to try it out, it would be best if you already have
some knowledge of the EDP.  For obvious reasons I don't have the resources
to replicate the EDP manual, the documentation I do have is concerned 
mostly
with configuration and how Mobius is different than the EDP.  This is a 
true
beta, so it's still a little rough around the edges.  Basic operations
should work but as you explore the fringes you may find problems.  PLEASE
report them.

There is no immediate plan for a Mac port or a VST plugin.  I am finding it
easier and more interesting to evolve Mobius as a standalone application
that can host VST plugins and provide the optimized performance features I
want, rather than having it be a VST plugin and wrestle with host
interaction issues.  That may change once I start exploring Ableton Live,
but not for awhile.

I hope some of you find this as entertaining as I do.

Jeff