[LAU] Finding/fixing denormals?

[Ken Restivo]

Any general advice for the non-DSP-literate on finding/fixing denormals?

I've been playing around with Beatrix, using an interesting unofficial patch submitted here some years ago, which adds ALSA MIDI and JACK output support. It works, after I added a check for none on's of zero velocity, and for MIDI channel greater than 3. It's a great Hammond simulator, more accurate than AZR-3.

But it has some denormal problems. With no notes playing, it quickly sucks up maximum CPU usage. Looks to me like it isn't running in RT mode either, but I can fix that... once I fix the runaway CPU problem.

But I don't know crap about DSP. Any quick hacks I could use to attempt to trace and locate the source of the problem, or quick fixes to try?

Also, it quickly gets to clipping mode when at maximum volume. I'd like to add a scale for master volume to bring it down a notch. This may be related to the denormal too, so that'd be a second-order problem.

Sadly, due to the Beatrix license, I can't post the few (very minor) patches I've done to get it working, nor can anyone help me by fixing this problem and sending me a patch either.

But it sounds great, and, if I can fix these one or two problems, I will definitely use it live (when playing a venue which lacks a real B3).

-ken