'FeralA' decoder -- free-to-use

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On 9/28/2020 at 2:17 PM, John Dyson said:

Right now, the decoder is VERY VERY deficient in documentation.   I am spending much of my time this week producing some useful documentation, esp for beginning users.  Most likely, on Fri late afternoon, there should be improved documentation, with an updated/complete exhaustive man page (converted to pdf for reading), and a better beginners guide.   Also, I hope to have a more general 'user guide for success' type thing.   Using the decoder now is actually reasonably easy for people who are comfortable while using Linux/Windows command lines, and a simplified version new set of options might fit into the limiting scope of a GUI.   The spectre of a GUI appears to be more and more practical for both DA and FA decoding.

 

Also, on Friday (or Saturday), there will be a minor quality improvement release, targeted to improving one of the auxiliary features.  There are no more features to be added or substantively changed.   The expected change is a slight retuning of the anti-sibilance.   Even though the current version works pretty well, it is a little too likely for the anti-sibilance to add a 'hitch' to a vocal.   I have made the slight change to better avoid creating the 'hitch'.   (The change is not really 'tuning' per se, but is slightly changing the behavior of the dynamic notches.)   Associated with the changes, there is a performance improvement in the anti-sibilance code, so that more fine control can be provided without penalizing the speed.    This improvement already exists and is part of my ongoing decoding testing.

 

John

 

 

This is great. I hope you will open source the CLI version soon.

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I must stop following this drivel. Initially, I thought it was interesting; then I realised it was only delusion. Then it became sad.

Later, it became embarrassing. Now it is just annoying.

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On 3/28/2021 at 2:12 PM, John Dyson said:

Have you even tried to listen to the results lately?  Have you compared the results with the total cr*p that you are buying?  

 

The problem is the spam, you are releasing every few hours, and each time it is either "this time it is perfect, no more filter options" and two hours later "Oh no, I missed something, so give me time to tweak, see you in six hours " – then "ok, not I *think* I have fixed it, but need to check a few things" then "Ok, yes, it is the definitive one", then "crap, there was some missing EQ there that I need to fix, I am using my headphones to check but of course I do not trust my ears" – in an endless loop.

 

If you are indeed the John Dyson the developed parts of FreeBSD, you should know that this is not the way to develop software. You are not giving yourself enough time to think at all the variables and see how they interact.

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On 3/30/2021 at 10:16 AM, John Dyson said:

I am talking about the technology -- that is what the project is about.   This is VERY VERY heavy engineering, much more complex than the FreeBSD VM system.  I would think that some people might be interested.   Also, the complexity being not as great on FreeBSD, I had between two and four people to work with me -- is anyone willing to help here?

 

I understand this is difficult. Note that I am assuming you actually have the documentation to FeralA and since it is most likely a non perfectly reversible process, you are doing your best to approximate its inversion as accurately as possible. If it is a superimposition of several non linear filters, then the inversion risks to behave like a chaotic system. Not an easy feat.

 

On 3/30/2021 at 10:16 AM, John Dyson said:

About FreeBSD -- I actually wrote 1/2 of the 2nd kernel after the agreement between AT&T and Berkeley.  This is all while I was working under special permission from Bell Labs to do the FreeBSD project.  That put me into a strange, but interesting position.   Back then, we did have detailed discussions in our mailing lists, but not everyone was party to them...   Bell Labs (the AT&T research counsel) offered me a research grant to continue my FreeBSD work, but instead I decided to take a job in the Bay Area for over $1M/yr.

 

That's why I recall your name. You did a great service, and I think you are doing it now as well. As for the pay, it is easy to get a job for a lot of money. I made it clear to some people that approached me for a (legal!) job that I was not interested despite the $1M/yr and no taxes wage because I did not agree with their use of the technology. I earn a fraction of that amount now, but I am one of the principal architects at ARM and I am the lead for the security analysis of the most critical component of the just announced ARM V9 architecture (the Realm Management Extensions of the Confidential Compute Architecture), as well as the lead designer of the memory encryption components for the current and future versions of that sub-architecture. This involves also the development of cryptography and I am the designer of the QARMA tweak able block cipher. Which is used in the PAC, which I also co-developed while at Qualcomm. My main goal is to make this technology available to as many people as possible – I am sure you can relate to that – and I chose to work at ARM because I want to make it as "green" as possible. Why am I telling this? Because we should not make it into a pissing context, but I am used to develop stuff for a long time in order to make sure I release something stable. Otherwise people would not take me seriously.

 

On 3/30/2021 at 10:16 AM, John Dyson said:

Maybe I should dismiss the competency of the user base, and feel that they aren't worthy to know what is going on?

I hope for more in people, NOT LESS.

 

Well, I think I am competent - as a mathematician that has written a PhD thesis under the supervision of one of the most significant mathematicians of the 20th century. I am also a trained composer and an active musician.  So I understand what you are saying.  But I am not encouraged to download a tool every few hours just to read that there was a serious mistake or oversight and so on.

 

On 3/30/2021 at 10:16 AM, John Dyson said:

I have enough respect NOT to censor the information.  Those not interested can filter it themselves, I am not compelling ANYONE to read stuff.

 

Do not censor anything, just select what you output. You are not doing this for exposure right? This is a service. The right "marketing" is important also for free stuff if you want to see it adopted.

 

In respect, sympathy, and friendship,

 Roberto

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20 hours ago, John Dyson said:

I seem to remember 'Roberto' on the FBSD mailing lists.   Are you the same guy?

 

No, I do not think I even posted to the FreeBSD mailing list.

 

20 hours ago, John Dyson said:

Sorry for the rude or (actually frustrated) response.   I have been under a lot of pressure trying to fix heisenbugs. 

 

So not worry, I was assuming this was mostly out of frustration. Also, I work a lot with American colleagues and even if I am European I do not take it as rude to talk about wages (even though on this side of the pond it would be inappropriate, but I got some "inter-cultural communication" training from my previous employer to properly contextualise certain behaviours).

 

20 hours ago, John Dyson said:

Oh well -- working veryhard on the release.

 

 

Good luck. As for helping with the math, apart from the fact that I am quite busy, it is not specifically my field. I fear you may have an unsolvable problem at hand – definitely an exact solution is not going to exist. But I would be delighted for my fears (not persuasions! just fears) to be proven wrong.