ac7 style file renamer: testers wanted

[shiihs]

Hi all,

 

I'm breaking out this post from a previous thread about WK7600 file formats.

 

A first version of the style file renamer as suggested by @Chandler Holloway is ready for beta testing.

This allows for changing the name of the style as displayed by the keyboard (including changing the length of the name).

 

I was hoping to find some people interested in helping me find problems with it. 

 

The GPLv3 license guarantees that the tool will always remain free to use, free to modify and free to copy.  However, if you want to use any of its source code in your own projects (which is perfectly allowed),  you are required to apply the same license to your complete software then (which includes making available the complete source code). Commercial companies don't necessarily like this license, but it's the best way to ensure that the software can be maintained over the long term. If I run under a bus tomorrow, or lose interest in the project, someone else can just take over and continue...

 

Currently I have a standalone executable for windows operating systems (windows xp and older are not supported) and for linux 64bit systems. For other systems (like mac os) it should be possible to run the tool from source code, at least if you have some experience running software. If you have some software development background using mac OS, you could also help by creating and contributing a standalone executable for that platform.

 

Here are the links to the standalone executable. Just download the link and save it in a folder of your choice.

No further installation should be needed: the executable contains everything you need (which is the reason it's quite big).

 

The very first time you run the software, it will display an about screen. Be sure to read it carefully.

 

Linux:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dS_bATl3K_bnFnsquuEDBcki-5dfLkAO/view?usp=sharing

 

Windows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-jUWyaJ198u11KVd7IsYZW43DXjEGZGB/view?usp=sharing

 

Mac:
no executable available since I don't have access to a mac OS system - but if you aren't afraid of getting your hands a bit dirty 
you can run the tool from source code. If you have even more courage, please contribute a standalone executable

 

Here's the link to the source code: https://github.com/shimpe/ac7renamer

It depends on another project https://github.com/shimpe/ac7parser which needs to be installed as well. Contact me if you need more help with this step.

 

Feel free to let me know if you run into trouble, or if you think some things could be improved.

 

[Jokeyman123]

I am not a software engineer, I have limited programming chops but will look at the source code. My Jazzware sequencer around for years is still my favorite and was originally a Linux creation and still has the sourcecode posted somewhere, so will defintely do what I can toi help this developoment.

 

It is not firing up in Windows 7 home premium-looks like it needs a windows runtime I don't have-version 1? I keep getting the same warning-windows asp runtime is not installed on your computer. I have all the newer runtimes installed. It is downloading as 28.3Mb, not overly large file. Only after I downloaded it 3 times did I get it to install itself, still not sure why that is but now that won't open either.  Briefly I had it running, I tried loading an .ac7 file (I have dozens saved on hard drive) it would not load the .ac7 to change the name. Will check in again later.

[Chandler Holloway]

Excellent work! I’m going to test it fully tomorrow and report back to you.

[shiihs]

2 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

I am not a software engineer, I have limited programming chops but will look at the source code. My Jazzware sequencer around for years is still my favorite and was originally a Linux creation and still has the sourcecode posted somewhere, so will defintely do what I can toi help this developoment.

 

It is not firing up in Windows 7 home premium-looks like it needs a windows runtime I don't have-version 1? I keep getting the same warning-windows asp runtime is not installed on your computer. I have all the newer runtimes installed. It is downloading as 28.3Mb, not overly large file. Only after I downloaded it 3 times did I get it to install itself, still not sure why that is but now that won't open either.  Briefly I had it running, I tried loading an .ac7 file (I have dozens saved on hard drive) it would not load the .ac7 to change the name. Will check in again later.

 

The standalone executables are a bit tricky. I generated it on a windows 10 system and it may be that it includes .dlls that are too "new" for windows 7. 

I definitely need to find a way to generate these executables more reliably.

 

There's no need to install anything, just save the executable in a folder of your choice and run it from there.

If all else fails, you can try to run from source code (but it requires you to install python and some packages first, these steps are documented at the github repository).

 

If you have files that don't load, and you can share them, please file a bug report on github and attach the .ac7 file so I can investigate if there's something "special" about the file.

 

Thanks for testing!

 

[shiihs]

Also please include a screenshot of error dialogs or copy-paste complete error messages (even more so if they are not generated by the tool, but by windows).

Usually every detail can help in understanding what goes wrong. Thanks!

 

[shiihs]

@Jokeyman123 I've build an executable on a windows 7 version. Maybe that would start on your system? I've noticed that on my windows 7 system it takes a (very) long time before you actually see the UI after starting the program. I'm not sure why that is, as on Linux and Win10 it started practically immediately.

 

Windows 7 executable download link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HXEVjXOxbys51vUxufpcjqrSFGgDMGeX/view?usp=sharing

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

OK, here is the first error message I received:

The program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-runtim-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer

 

I am running 64-bit Windows but have both 32 and 64 bit programs running on this laptop-I will try it on my other laptops, still Windows 7. It may be a simple solution-I can install the newest Windows 10 runtimes, see if that fixes it. The 2nd file you sent me a link to brings up the message "this file is incompatible with this version of Windows".  Here is a copy of an .ac7 I tried loading, but I suspect once I get this going, the problem will not be the file-it is one of Chandler's I downloaded for the CTX series.

 

5-4 Jazz X700.AC7

[shiihs]

@jokeyman123 it actually contains a parameter I haven't seen before (maybe something new in CTX keyboards).

I'll try to see if I can load it on my wk7600 so I can try to work out what it stands for, but if that is not possible things might get difficult...

 

 

[shiihs]

Thanks for testing - too bad the tests end a bit early (at least with that particular style file);

Finding out about unknown parameters unfortunately is very much expected in the first phase of this project

(nothing of the file format is publicly documented after all).

 

The good news is the style file loads into wk7600... it will still take some time to update my code (and my understanding ) though -

I will work on it in the coming weeks.

 

I'll update this thread when progress has been made.

 

[shiihs]

I'm somewhat excited to announce that I've been able to improve the underlying parser to make it much more robust in the presence of hitherto unknown parameters.

In particular, now the AC7 file shared by @Jokeyman123 can be correctly renamed and reimported, even though it contains many parameters I hadn't seen before.

 

I guess this means it's time for another test.

 

Could you please also point me to the rest of the style files you were using?

I'd like to examine them for more "weird" contents.

 

New linux executable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_iIQsxUoI7W3M7xiOAX1_xXNKFumdUkz/view?usp=sharing

New windows executable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C2CA8VrB8tCf2YfMZIAME4DuKoELAOZO/view?usp=sharing

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

OK, here are a few more .ac7 files I've taken off my PX350 Privia piano. These are more typical, older .ac7 files which can also be played in the CTk and WK series  also in the PX560. I have only uploaded .ckf format rhythm files here in the forum, not .ac7, since I like to be able to use that format for all the Casios I have, new and older. other users here may have uploaded other .ac7 thythm files here. 

HipHop Maten.AC7 Bossa4.AC7 RosiRock.AC7

[shiihs]

@Jokeyman123 thanks for those. I believe I have this older collection myself, downloaded from the forum somehwere.
So far I haven't found one that didn't work (but I probably didn't try the exact ones you posted here).

 

My next step is to set up an testing system that automatically parses and writes out again all .AC7 files in a folder
and then automatically checks that no parsing errors occur and that no differences exist between the loaded file and

the recreated file, so after every modification to the software I can quickly try out the effect of changes on a large collection of .AC7 files.

 

For this reason, having a bigger diversity in files is better, so if you happen to know about links to .AC7 collections, I'll be glad to learn about them.

 

Thanks for helping!

 

[Jokeyman123]

Not sure if its my computer, but your latest upload now works on my Dell Inspiron-still Windows 7 on this machine too.

 

One part of this software is not clear to me. When I load an ac7 using your software interface and hit your software's save button-it opens a Windows Explorer window (typical next step to saving a file) but even after I type my new file-name in your interface, the explorer window opens a blank "save" textbox, as if I never entered a new filename-requiring me to enter a filename again. Is this the way it is supposed to work? In other words, do I have to enter my new filename twice, once with your software interface, and then again in Windows Explorer's textbox?  I did not do that, so I'm still not certain this will work. Just wanted clarity on this step. Nice simple interface, very good so far.

[shiihs]

@Jokeyman123 I'm not sure but maybe there's some confusion about the two names:

• what you type in the main screen is the "display name", i.e. the name that will be displayed on the keyboard after importing. This name is stored inside the binary AC7 file.
• What you type in the "explorer window" when you click save is the "file name", i.e. the name of the AC7 file on disk or memory card. It can be completely different from the display name.

If you think this flexibility is overkill, it can easily be removed and the AC7 file name can be always made equal to the display name (except for some weird characters).

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

OK, got it. No its not overkill at all. I can't think of a simpler way to do it. As long as this is made clear just as you've explained it to me.I think it would be better to show the new file name when it is saved to the computer-just as it will appear in the keyboard. This way, I will be able to see both the original old filename and the newly named file. I think this is what you are describing? It will also make clear which files have been changed if I need to change a bunch, which I would need to do.

 

Aside***Would be nice if you could do this for ckf rhythm files too. The Casio file converter doesn't seem able to get my file names right-whatever I name my file in their converter (I use this to convert a .mid file to a ckf, since my older Casio does not see ac7 rhythm files, only ckf-its an older PX575)-it comes out showing something completely unrelated-as if it is extrapolating the rhythm name from one of the tones I'm using, very weird! But that's another unrelated issue.  So far, this new software is coming along nicely I think. Keep up the good work.

Quote

 

 

[Chandler Holloway]

I like the interface, and I agree that having the file name and the display name be separate is better in the long run. For archival purposes, it's better to be able to give it a long and descriptive name on your computer, as opposed to the much shorter and more limited display names. Plus, it means you don't have to worry about implementing a workaround for characters that are invalid in file names but important for the display names (like the forward slash commonly used to denote certain time signature styles, i.e. "6/8Wltz" or "5/4 Jazz".

 

I'm using the most recent version you listed as the "new windows executable" and I haven't been able to get any of my X700 expansion pack rhythms to load in. I always get the same error:

 

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'PopDscX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'TechnoX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'EHipHpX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

 

One thing I would also note is that the CT-X series display can only show rhythm names that are a maximum of 8 characters long, but your renamer allows for a max name length of 12. I assume the WK series and its more advanced dot matrix screen can display rhythm names as long as 12 characters, so please don't limit the program just to account for that. If I were to compile a list of the maximum number of display name characters possible for every .AC7 compatible keyboard, would you be able to include this information in the program somehow so that users can reference it in case they're not sure how many their specific model will allow? Or we could just include the list for the sake of reference in the forum post/github page that will accompany ReStyle's final release.

 

I've attached three of the files that gave me errors. Thanks for your work so far, let me know if there's anything else I can provide for the sake of testing. My CT-X700 expansion pack is hosted here on the forums if you'd like those for further testing.

Electronic Hip Hop X700.AC7 Pop Disco X700.AC7 Techno X700.AC7

[Jokeyman123]

Notice above Chandler-the first file I sent for testing was one of your .ac7 files for the MZX I believe-Jazz X700. I did manage to get this one to load and change without error. I also found out-I had to have Microsoft 4.7 Visual Basic C++ on my Windows machine or I could not run the program, this is actually the Windows 10 version of Visual Basic which installed on Windows 7 no problem (surprise there).  I've got it up working on 3 different laptops now, all Windows 7 Home Premium, a Dell Inspiron, a Lenovo x140e and an older Thinkpad x60 tablet PC.

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[shiihs]

1 hour ago, Chandler Holloway said:

I'm using the most recent version you listed as the "new windows executable" and I haven't been able to get any of my X700 expansion pack rhythms to load in. I always get the same error:

 

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'PopDscX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'TechnoX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

UnicodeDecodeError('ascii', b'EHipHpX7\x00ly\x81', 11, 12, 'ordinal not in range(128)')

 

The unicodeDecodeError definitely is a bug in my program indeed. I will fix it as soon as possible. Too bad I never encountered it in my own testing so far. 

 

Thanks for the list of CT-X700 rhythms. I suspect they can reveal more interesting problems with the current code (like the unicode error and the unknown parameters they revealed before). I really need to work on setting up that automatic testing system I described a few posts ago because exhaustively trying out all these files by hand is painful

 

If you were to compile a list of models and max lengths I could easily add a model selection and adapt the max length to the chosen model.
 

52 minutes ago, Jokeyman123 said:

I also found out-I had to have Microsoft 4.7 Visual Basic C++ on my Windows machine or I could not run the program, this is actually the Windows 10 version of Visual Basic which installed on Windows 7 no problem (surprise there). 

 

Well that's kind of unexpected. The program is written in python, not in visual basic nor in C++. But I guess it comes with some redistributable visual studio runtime .dll that is also used by the packaged program. On my wife's windows pc i didn't need any special .dlls installed (although perhaps they were already installed in the past as part of another program's installation). Anyway, it's good to be aware of such hidden dependencies. Testing on someone else's system and with someone else's files is often a moment of truth

[Jokeyman123]

I don't have it on the Dell Inspiron (Visual Basic 4.7) and it works fine on that machine so I'm stumped too. But then Windows i always full of of surprises. I am very familiar with Linux, the terminal and command lines, so if I can be of any help, let me know.

[shiihs]

3 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

I think it would be better to show the new file name when it is saved to the computer-just as it will appear in the keyboard. This way, I will be able to see both the original old filename and the newly named file. I think this is what you are describing? It will also make clear which files have been changed if I need to change a bunch, which I would need to do.

 

Do you think we need the come up with a way to specify batch conversions?

Just dreaming out loud here: how about something like a spreadsheet where

• first column lists all files found in a chosen directory on disk
• a second column can be used to type a new display name
  • in the absence of a new name, the file in the first column on disk is not touched
• and the third column could then be used to specify a new filename
  • in the absence of a new filename in the third column, the original file on disk could be backed up and then overwritten

CKF may not be possible I'm afraid, since my keyboard automatically converts CKF to AC7 and this makes pretty much impossible to systematically investigate exactly how the CKF format works internally. Sorry if that's a big disappointment. On the other hand there was a yamaha style converter written in Excel which I think contains some description of the CKF format, so perhaps that could provide a starting point. I'd like to concentrate first on getting AC7 to perform reliably though.

 

[Chandler Holloway]

6 hours ago, shiihs said:

Thanks for the list of CT-X700 rhythms. I suspect they can reveal more interesting problems with the current code (like the unicode error and the unknown parameters they revealed before)

 

One thing I will note about those expansion pack Rhythms is that they are based on 4-variation rhythms for the higher end CT-X3000 and X5000 models, and were in fact archived and rearranged on an X3000. When a 4-variation Rhythm is imported on a 2-variation model, Var1 and Var2 are the only ones that can be accessed. With that in mind, in some cases I copy/pasted Variation 3 or 4 over the Variation 2 slot whenever I felt it was appropriate during the translation process, so if you encounter any "redundant" variations, that's why.

 

I do have about half of the CT-X3000's Rhythm library archived, but I was very lazy on the renaming because the archival process is so slow (also why I stopped halfway through). The file labels are accurate, but many of them have display names of "NoNameA" etc because text entry with the scroll wheel is a bit tedious during extended sessions. ReStyle is going to be a huge help with streamlining the whole procedure, so major kudos for your efforts so far. I have a feature request that would add some useful functionality to beginner and intermediate Casio models that can import User Rhythms, but not edit them (like the CT-X700/X800, CDP-S350, and WK-245), but it requires a bit of background explanation.

 

When you're playing a Rhythm on a keyboard that can save Registrations, switching between Registrations with different Rhythms won't interrupt playback, but will cause the accompaniment section to switch to the new Rhythm style on the next downbeat for a smoother transition. However, one limitation of this feature is that Registrations only remember the style you had you selected when you first saved it, and not the variation (element) you had selected at the time. In practice, the accompaniment automatically transitions to the same variation (element) you had cued up before switching Registrations, i.e. if you start off on Variation 2 of Rhythm A, switching to a different Registration with Rhythm B selected will always put you in Variation 2 of Rhythm B by default.

 

You can manually specify the "destination Variation" for the transition, but it requires an extra button input. After queuing up a Registration change during Rhythm playback but BEFORE the transition on the next downbeat, you can press the corresponding Rhythm controller button to designate which variation will be called up in the new Rhythm style. This workaround is not mentioned anywhere in the User's Manual and I have only tested it on the CT-X models so I'm not yet sure if it's a universal behavior for all .AC7 comaptible models. I know @Jokeyman123 owns a fair share of such Casios, so any insight he can add on that would be appreciated. Plus, if you could verify the max character limit for Rhythm display names on any of your models for the sake of the list, that would be very helpful.

 

On the CT-X700's panel (one of the more compact panels in the product line), the registration buttons are a good hand-width of space away from the Rhythm controls, so the two button presses required to cue up a specific Rhythm variation during a Registration transition are less than ideal. This can become an issue when performing faster songs, where the window between measures to cue up transitions is much less lenient, especially if your model doesn't offer hands-free pedal registration cycling as you can't avoid taking at least one hand off the keys to input commands. On keyboards with onboard Rhythm editors, one workaround for this issue is sequentially swapping the variations around with a series of copy operations so that the extra button press is no longer required to make the intended transition. Even then, this process is a little circuitous since there's no simple "swap variations" command in any of the built-in Rhythm editor suites. For example, let's say I want to switch from Variation 1 of Preset Rhythm X to Variation 2 of Preset Rhythm Y and then to Variation 2 of Preset Rhythm X with the easiest button inputs possible. To accomplish this, I have to:

1. Select Preset Rhythm X and save a Registration.
2. Copy Preset Rhythm Y into User Rhythm Slot A so it can be edited.
3. Copy Var2 of User Rhythm A over Var1.
4. (Optional) Copy Var1 of Preset Rhythm Y over Var2 of User Rhythm A to preserve both variations of the source Rhythm.
5. Select User Rhythm A and save a second Registration.
6. Copy Preset Rhythm X into User Rhythm Slot B so it can edited.
7. Copy Var2 of User Rhythm B over Var1.
8. (Optional) Copy Var1 of Preset Rhythm X over Var2 of User Rhythm B to preserve both variations of the source Rhythm.
9. Select User Rhythm B and save a third Registration.

Now I can move between the different Registrations for easy transitions, and it would be totally hands free if pedal cycling is an option. The only issue is that this is a time-consuming workaround, especially if you're not on a touch screen model like the MZ-X series or the PX-560/360 and you're at the mercy of the selection wheel and number pad. Since it requires an onboard Rhythm Editor, it's also not currently feasible for owners of those previously mentioned "import but not edit" models, even though those models have access to Registrations. 

 

A long term goal of mine is to archive all of the Rhythm styles from every single .AC7 compatible model in the current line-up, and ideally, this archive would already include every single possible "permutation" of a Rhythm Style in terms of variation swapping. For example, if the Rhythm being archived is from a two variation board like the CT-X700, the archive will include the original Rhythm in "Var1-Var2" order as well as the variation swapped permutation in "Var2-Var1" order. If the source Rhythm has 4 variations and is organized in the standard "Var1-Var2-Var3-Var4" order, the archive would include the original as well as separate permutations for "Var4-Var3-Var2-Var1", "Var1-Var3-Var2-Var4", "Var2-Var1-Var4-Var3" and so on to account for all possible orders. This would also be convenient for 2 variation keyboard owners who want to make use of Rhythms from 4-variation models, as it would allow them to pair up any 2 variations from the source Rhythm in whatever order best fits their Registration chain.

 

If ReStyle included a dedicated "swap variations" and/or "generate permutations" command that could automate this entire process, it would vastly increase the speed with which I can complete and continually update the archive. It would also benefit users who want to quickly reorder .AC7 Rhythms that won't be included in the archive, whether those would be their own original Rhythms or those downloaded from somewhere else. In case you do implement it, I would recommend that the name of the file (not the display name, the file label) that gets output by ReStyle should be "<Original File Name> 21" or "<Original File Name> 3124"  name, where the number string at the end signifies the order of the variations in the newly generated Rhythm.

 

Please consider this feature for a future update if you think it would be feasible. Thank you so much for the work you've already done, ReStyle is definitely going to be a great supplement to my Rhythm archive (and vice versa).

[shiihs]

3 hours ago, Chandler Holloway said:

Please consider this feature for a future update if you think it would be feasible. Thank you so much for the work you've already done, ReStyle is definitely going to be a great supplement to my Rhythm archive (and vice versa).

 

It sounds like a challenge. I can definitely spend some time looking into it, but it's safe to assume it will take some time.

 

With regards to the style reordering, I think generating a single customized reordering in the tool would make more sense than generating all permutations at once, as the number of permutations can get quite large. The point is this: I think there are multiple variations and multiple fill-ins. Some style files contain up to 12 elements (some of which are empty), but so far I think I've seen up to 4 variations => 24 permutations, but also 4 fill-ins => another 24 permutations. Then, if you consider all possibilities of rhythm variations combined with all possibilities of fill-ins I think you end up with 24*24 = 576 possibilities? And that potentially for every style file... would give a huge collection (but maybe the reording makes less sense for fill-ins as you typically wouldn't want to transition from fill-in to fill-in?). 

 

I am a little concerned about making the GUI overly complicated for an occasional user, but I guess I could add a second, third .. tab in the UI where each TAB is specialized in a certain task. 

e.g. first tab = change display name of single rhythm (as it is now); second tab = adaption of display names of a whole collection of rhythms (spreadsheet proposal); third tab = variation permutation generation wordliberationdominationabomination thing

 

In related news, I probably can not look at the unicode decode problem until end of this week due to other obligations - it's not forgotten.

 

[Jokeyman123]

Chandler, I will check the registration switch-over functions in realtime on the PX350 and the CTK6200 and see how this works, I haven't used registrations much on those models, mostly with the 560 but I can look at that as soon as I have some more time, probably not until later today. And shiihs...only thinking out loud about the ckfs although I'm thinking the code for these my not be all that different from the more advanced .ac7 code.  If I knew what your programming chops were doing, I might be able to duplicate some of your work for the ckf's. The difference is-only 2 variations to a rhythm instead of 4 as in the MZ-X rhyythms Chandler has uploaded, and not as many tones can be programmed into the rhythms, I forget the exact numbers and midi channels but .ac7 allows for additional tones/midi channels not in the ckf. If it makes any difference-I could translate a ckf or 2 into an .ac7 and post here, but that might not be much help. I will look at Python, see if it is within my grasp. I have had some programming chops in the past with Visual Basic and C++, but not for quite awhile. I cn work off a command line with Linux.

[shiihs]

There's a new version where the unicode problem is fixed.

The program is now autotested on 122 style files that I collected from the forum (and in doing so I found and fixed another bug).

 

Linux executable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lvz_4cfrjElcdgbmQrEaUR9j2Q3c2_r3/view?usp=sharing

Windows executable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1589qmzQ74xfZjRHPDzxGFXHTllCDbu_5/view?usp=sharing

 

 

 

[Chandler Holloway]

On 10/16/2019 at 2:42 AM, shiihs said:

The point is this: I think there are multiple variations and multiple fill-ins. Some style files contain up to 12 elements (some of which are empty), but so far I think I've seen up to 4 variations => 24 permutations, but also 4 fill-ins => another 24 permutations. Then, if you consider all possibilities of rhythm variations combined with all possibilities of fill-ins I think you end up with 24*24 = 576 possibilities? And that potentially for every style file... would give a huge collection (but maybe the reording makes less sense for fill-ins as you typically wouldn't want to transition from fill-in to fill-in?). 

 

Speaking from my experience with the .CKF format, in a two variation Rhythm, there are 4 distinct fills. Obviously there are two fills from when you transition between Var1 -> Var2 or Var2 -> Var1, but the other two come in when you "retrigger" the same variation (i.e. Var1 -> Var1, Var2 -> Var2). I'm not sure if the two variation .AC7 Rhythms exhibit this behavior because I've never owned a 2-variation .AC7 model with a Rhythm editor on it (again, Jokeyman might be able to offer some insight here). I know for a four variation Rhythm, each variation only has one associated fill-in.

 

I agree that a generate permutations function is probably overkill. I think that a simple "swap variations" function would be nice for 2-variation .AC7 Rhythms. Yes, when it comes to re-ordering the fill-ins, you'd probably want them to stay paired up with the original variations. Whenever you swap Var1 with Var2, you should also be swapping Fill1 with Fill2. Maybe a specialized "swap fill-ins" function could be nice too, but I think that would be a pretty niche use case so I would weight that option against the possibility of cluttering up the GUI.

 

For a 4-variation Rhythm, I suppose that would require a more complicated implementation where you would manually specify the new order of the variations. I know as a WK owner you're probably more focused on supporting 2 variation Rhythms right now, so no worries if the 4-variation stuff is on the back burner. Generating a new file for each possible permutation would be a ton of files, indeed. For the sake of my archive, I would easily be able to make do with a more focused and less extraneous implementation of the variation swap. Even in its current state, ReStyle is already saving me a ton of time with the renaming process, so anything beyond that is just icing on the cake.

 

On 10/16/2019 at 2:42 AM, shiihs said:

I am a little concerned about making the GUI overly complicated for an occasional user, but I guess I could add a second, third .. tab in the UI where each TAB is specialized in a certain task. 

e.g. first tab = change display name of single rhythm (as it is now); second tab = adaption of display names of a whole collection of rhythms (spreadsheet proposal); third tab = variation permutation generation wordliberationdominationabomination thing

 

Sounds good to me. Simpler is definitely better, especially considering that the people who will benefit the most from ReStyle are owners of the lower end models in Casio's product line who may not have as much experience with music production software (or software in general).

 

11 hours ago, shiihs said:

There's a new version where the unicode problem is fixed.

 

The unicode error is gone! My files load in perfectly now. Just a few weird quirks I've noticed, though it is working fine for me overall.

 

When it pulls the old display name from the file, it tacks some weird "ly~~" characters onto the end of the name. I imagine these are placeholder characters of some sort to account for the fact that the CT-X Rhythm Editor can only create a display name with a maximum of 8 characters, but the .AC7 format will support up to 12. Not a problem at all in terms of functionality, just weird.

 

 

The other thing is that when the renamed Rhythm is created and it prompts you to put in a new file label, the .AC7 extension is not included by default and the output file is just a generic "file" file. If you add ".AC7" to the end of the file manually it will work, and of course you can rename the file normally afterwards, but ideally those extra steps wouldn't be required, especially if you were renaming in bulk. The renamed files are loading in and playing back perfectly on my CT-X700, though.

 

 

Thanks again for the great work so far! I look forward to writing a big long forum post about how to use ReStyle and its many applications for Casio users once I make some real progress on the archive. I'm going to be traveling for work all the way until the 28th starting tomorrow though, so I unfortunately won't be able to do much more hardware testing until then.