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Preset Librarian – going open platform

TimeLine and MobiusWhat? A librarian?

As you may have heard, we have been planning to develop a preset librarian for our TimeLine delay. The goal of the project is to allow users to connect their TimeLine to a computer and organize and back up presets.

First, an apology.

We recently posted a video on our Facebook page that showed an incomplete development version. Since then we have come to realize that our approach of building a proprietary, closed system was flawed. We also may have raised your expectations as to when software would be available. We always do our best to exceed the expectations of our customers, and in this case we did not. And for that we apologize.

Ok, so what’s next?

Instead of developing a closed, proprietary designβ€”or software that we would potentially need to charge money forβ€”we have opted to move forward with a new project utilizing an open platform. While this may cause a delay as we change direction, we feel in the long run it will offer more benefits over the version that we abandoned.

An open design.

As you may know, many preset librarians are proprietary systems. Some of these are not well supported, and never evolving. Many of them are not extendable to take advantage of new technology. By going with an open platform, users can get exactly what they want by interfacing directly with open source developers. And if you are technically savvy, you can customize for your own purposes and share the results with others.

Here’s the plan.

Within the coming weeks, we will be providing a core foundation that open source developers will be able to build upon. This early version will be for developers and coders, and will allow very basic command line preset management. If you’re a code monkey, this is the platform you’ll be able to start with to develop your own custom librarian.

Within the coming months, we will be working with an open source developer that has committed to building in additional features and providing a preset librarian that can be used by everyone. The plan is for his version to work on Mac and PCβ€”and will work with both TimeLine and Mobius.

Thanks!

We are very excited about the possibilities of shifting the librarian to an open platformβ€” and we hope you are too. Ultimately, going open will allow all sorts of customization, and can open up the door to new ideas one might not even imagine possible. We appreciate your patience as we change direction here. Keep an eye on our blogβ€” we will post updates on our progress and software downloads when they are available.

UPDATE – April 8, 2013:

We planned on first releasing a developer version of the librarian in a command line format. Now, as useful as this will be for code monkeys and programmers, we felt that we simply couldn’t release something that every TimeLine and Mobius customer could not use right from the get go. So we decided to take it several steps further and ensure that this first offering has a simple and easy to use user interface that everyone can take advantage of.

We still intend on releasing this librarian as an open platform and because of this, various research needs to be done to ultimately decide which code licensing makes the most sense for us and to our developer level customers. We are actively researching all of our options.

Thanks again for being patient with us while we work on getting this out to you. We will continue to post updates on our progress as it’s made.

UPDATE – May 22, 2013:

We’re just a few days away!

UPDATE – May 29, 2013:

Click here for information on the recently released developer’s edition.

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46 Responses

  1. You should MIDI-fy ALL your pedals! Why waste all their full potentials on one-shot-layouts?
    In fact, I think you should build all your boxes in a 19-inch 2HU rack unit … goodness, there people spending huge money on an AXE-FX to use it as an FX-processor alone. You could do much better, guys!

  2. Glad that you’ve chosen to have a version for Mac as well!
    Does this mean that it would be possible to share and download other’s presets? These are incredibly powerful pedals, and I know that there’s sounds that each of us would never think of without another set of ears and fingers to twist knobs.

  3. Firmware update? Cool! Can you say yet what we can expect? I’m also very interested in the preset librarian as a guitar playing code monkey πŸ™‚

  4. @Rob – the TimeLine firmware update will be mainly to address a few minor issues that we found. We will be implementing the ability to turn Global Tap on or off per preset.

  5. Just to realize, what you just posted: There will be a software for the pedal I paid for, and I will have to pay for the software, too?
    What kind of “business-plan” is this? Any other company will gladly offer you some programs, to edit their pedals—-and Strymon wants money for it?
    Who wants to buy a Timeline Pedal? I wonΒ΄t keep it…

  6. “…or software that we would potentially need to charge money for…”
    written above.
    That sounds to me like:”We had the option to develop a closed design software, where we charge money for, or get an open software and it will be free. THough you were working on something and threw it over, changed to the “open source code”, doesnΒ΄t mean to me, that the “old program” was thought to be free of charge.
    It sounds quite confusing to me. Nevermind. Happy X-mas!

    1. @CM – Ah I see! We had never planned to charge for the librarian softwareβ€” however there are other companies that do charge a fee for that type of software. Merry xmas to you too! πŸ™‚

  7. @Ethan – cool, thanks – they must be very minor issues – I’ve had no problems at all with my Timeline. Was “secretly” wondering if looper MIDI clock sync might be on the update radar at some point πŸ™‚ Anyhoo, really looking forward to seeing the librarian stuff unfold – keep up the great work guys!

  8. Seems like the only downside to this decision is that we have to wait a bit longer, but it does make sense, especially as you guys introduce new pedals with similar extensibility. I’ve been playing around with TouchOSC via iPad midi in the meantime, but it’s not super convenient.

    Though I will say, at the same time, that the dedicated editor for the Sonuus Wahoo pedal is pretty extraordinary and a real differentiator – bulletproof, multiplatform, gorgeous UI, detailed out the wazoo (or wahoo I guess)…I hope what we end up offers similar tweakability and features.

  9. Sounds Great!
    I am an open source developer and I’m very interested in getting information about the platform you mentioned you were launching. Thanks!

  10. @Pat, thanks for checking in with us. We’re still working on it but it’s coming along nicely and we are actively testing it right now so it shouldn’t be too long! Thanks for hanging in there with us while we work to get this out to you guys! πŸ™‚

  11. Is “core foundation” for very basic command line preset management already or soon to be posted for public consumption? Code monkeys are hungry!

  12. Can we at least get a “Timeline” of when the Librarian will be released? πŸ™‚ Please? πŸ™‚

  13. Yes it will be nice at least get a β€œTimeline” of when the Librarian will be released so we don’t have to go everyday to website to check if it been released ))))

  14. @Jarin thanks so much for being patient with us. I know how hard it can be especially when you want to be able to manage your patches so badly! We’re doing our best and working as quickly as we can. Testing is going well but we still have some things to work out. I can’t give you a specific ETA but as soon as I have one I will let you guys know! πŸ™‚

  15. @Michael, thanks for being so patient with us. All I can say is that we are still testing and doing our best to move along as quickly as possible. I’m sorry I can’t offer an ETA but again, we really do appreciate the patience you guys are showing for us.

  16. Hi, I’m curious what sort of license the code will be released under. I guess more specifically I’m wondering 1) will developers be able to charge for software they write that uses your library and 2) will they be obligated to open source their software if it uses your library. Thanks!

  17. I don’t think most of the Strymon users care about open source or your licensing or whether command line or even buggy, given that the product is out, but the editor is not. I think we would expect an editor that allows you to move/rename/share presets regardless of platform/command line or how feature-laden or even buggy it is. Let’s hope this happens soon!

  18. Can’t wait to see this, it would really make my use of the Timeline easier. FWIW, I would be willing to pay for the software to ensure that it is supported and not have to care about the open source software licensing variations. Open source has given me more headaches than supported commercial software ever has.

  19. @Alberto, we’re testing what might be the release build right now so we’re getting very close. Thanks for hanging in there with us while we work to get this out there for you guys. It shouldn’t be long now! πŸ™‚

  20. What happened to that facebook video anyways? That real-time control you guys showed us would be amazing to include in the Librarian software!

  21. @Danny – The facebook vid that was posted showed software that unfortunately was not ready for prime time. We have shifted to an open source platform, which will allow other coders to implement that type of editor capability in the future. Thanks very much for the feedback! πŸ™‚

  22. Love the Mobius. Please make an iPad app similar to Eventide’s H9 iPad app. I also love the idea of downloading additional sounds or features. And I’ll pay for it!

  23. I will definitely second an editor similar to the H9 app. I don’t own an Ipad, and I I think that my Timeline and Mobius sound better than my H9, but I find myself playing with my H9 more often lately because of the sheer ease of use and control the H9 control software offers.

  24. Apparently the files msvcp100.dll and msvcr100.dll are missing from the 0.9.3.8 installer. However, they ARE included in the 0.9.1.1 version. So I installed the 0.9.1.1 release, copied the above files into a separate folder, reinstalled the 0.9.3.8 version, and copied these files back into the program folder. It seems to work now.

    1. @Laurent – At this time we do not have any software for our products available for iPad or iOS devices. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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