Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

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Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:07 pm

Ok I've uninstalled everything, reinstalled the latest LinuxSampler and I've found the VST-plugin and moved it to my proper folder.
However it doesn't show up in Sonar's plugin list. I should also mention that I'm on the 32 bit version of Sonar, I don't know whether the version of the LinuxSampler VST I have is 64 bit or 32 bit.

Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:25 pm

Ahhhh!

This thing is so incredibly badly made it's driving my crazy. I had it working a week ago without the VST thing - now when I go back to trying it without the VST it simply doesn't work! I've got MIDI Yoke installed but QSampler just isn't seeing the inputs and outputs. Also: I want to loop the audio from LinuxSampler back to my DAW, is this even possible?

Here's the setup I want to have:

Sonar MIDI Track -> (MIDI Yoke OUT 1) -> (MIDI Yoke IN 1) -> VSL Performance Tool -> (MIDI Yoke OUT 2) -> (MIDI Yoke IN 2) -> QSampler -> Audio Back To Sonar.

Currently I'm stuck at the QSampler stage: I can't select MIDI Yoke IN 2 anywhere in the application (that's if it doesn't crash within 2 minutes of use).

Andreas
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Andreas » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:40 am

Hi,

I guess the reason your Sonar doesn't see the LinuxSampler VST is that you're running the 32 bit version of Sonar, and the beta2 and beta1 installers only install a 64 bit version of the VST when run on a 64 bit windows. This will be fixed in the next installer version, so you can choose to install both 32 bit and 64 bit version of LS.

The installer tries to put the VST into the right place. First it looks in the Windows registry, as there might be a key there pointing out the current VST directory. This key may exist in two versions, one for 32 bit and one for 64 bit. If the installer doesn't find the key it uses $PROGRAMFILES64\Steinberg\VstPlugins. PROGRAMFILES64 is a nsis variable that on a 64 bit english system expands to "C:\Program Files". The next installer version will use $PROGRAMFILES\Steinberg\VstPlugins for the 32 bit VST, which expands to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VstPlugins".

The standalone version of LS uses MME for MIDI and ASIO for audio. These APIs are mostly made for communication with hardware MIDI and audio devices, so that's why it can be tricky to use LS to communicate with a sequencer on the same computer. For MIDI, as you know, you can use MIDI Yoke (and, sorry, I don't know why that has stopped working for you). For audio, some sound card drivers (ESI i think) allows you to route audio between applications. Another idea (that I haven't tested) is to use the "Jack" audio server, which also should allow ASIO applications to be connected to each other. But, anyway, I think you might want to wait for the next VST installer and test that first.

Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:15 pm

Ok well I think the VST version is the way to go - the stand alone version is too much hassle.
Is there any way I can trick the installer into thinking it's running on a 32 bit system so I can get the 32 bit plugin?

Well, actually, I'll try installing Sonar x64 first. The last time I tried it I got pops and clicks in all the audio outputs - but that probably wasn't the fault of x64, it was most likely the fault of my sample rate settings.

Ok: I've installed Sonar 64 bit and loaded up the LinuxSampler VST plugin, however I only see an empty box, is this normal?

Ok: I get it now, I have to run a frontend while I'm running the VST plugin. Ok I'll get back to you in a min with some feedback on how well it works.

Alright it seems to work fine, however I can't test the VSL performance tool because I need to route the midi from Sonar to the performance tool, and back to Sonar. Normally I'd use MIDI Yoke for this - but MIDI Yoke doesn't work with 64 bit applications. So just give us the option to install a 32 bit plugin in the installer would you?

Andreas
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Andreas » Fri Jul 03, 2009 4:33 pm

Hamish wrote:Ok: I've installed Sonar 64 bit and loaded up the LinuxSampler VST plugin, however I only see an empty box, is this normal?

Ok: I get it now, I have to run a frontend while I'm running the VST plugin.
The Fantasia frontend is supposed to be started automatically by the VST. But it should work just as fine to run a frontend manually too.
Alright it seems to work fine, however I can't test the VSL performance tool because I need to route the midi from Sonar to the performance tool, and back to Sonar. Normally I'd use MIDI Yoke for this - but MIDI Yoke doesn't work with 64 bit applications.
Maybe you can use LoopBe1 instead of MIDI Yoke? (I haven't tested it, just found it on the net, it claims to have 64 bit support.)

Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:05 pm

LoopBe1, as the name suggests only has 1 virtual cable (they want you to buy LoopBe30). I need two:

Sonar -> Cable 1 -> Performance Tool -> Cable 2 -> Sonar

Edit:
Alright, haha. I happened to have VMware workstation installed on my system with a 32 bit XP virtual machine ready to go.. So I ran the installer on that and moved the 32 bit DLL back to my own PC. Now I'll hopefully be able to get this to work properly.

Ok the 32 bit version doesn't load up in either the 32 bit Sonar or the 64 bit Sonar. I'm assuming it's the 32 bit version btw, the DLL was half the size of the 64 bit one. I'm assuming that this problem is caused by my copying over from XP.

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cuse
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by cuse » Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:14 pm

Hamish wrote:Btw, you shouldn't install to a hardcoded path C:\Program Files - because this causes problems for people like me with 64 bit systems where the VstPlugins folder is under C:\Program Files (x86)
Try using the environment variable %PROGRAMFILES(X86)% in your installer code.
This was never hard coded in the installer. It always uses the respective path suggested by the OS. However with the latest installer, which I just uploaded minutes ago, I fixed an issue with default VST path detection on 64 bit machines. Maybe it solves the problem you are talking about. The new installer also allows to install the 32 bit VST of LS to be installed alongside to the 64 bit VST of LS, since there are obviously still a lot people using a 32 bit sequencer on a 64 windows machine.

Here's the link to the latest release candidate:

http://download.linuxsampler.org/dev/wi ... _setup.exe

Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:54 pm

Yes don't worry - the installer installed to the correct path considering it was a 64 bit VST. I didn't realise it was a 64 bit VST at the time, so I assumed you'd hardcoded the path.
Anyway, I will try out this new installer, thanks.


Okay: I have to say it's not bad, considering that the Giga format isn't open... But the sample playing is just not accurate enough for professional work. The looped sustains don't work the first time - ie. if the first note in my passage is long enough to require a looped sustain, it won't work. However all the looped sustains afterwards seem to be fine, odd. Sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, I've got an annoying hissing noise in the background which I definitely don't remember having when I used Gigastudio 3. Although hissing isn't quite the word to describe it... it's like a grating noise... It's very possible that what I'm hearing is the noise of the bow on the string of the violin player but I really don't remember hearing it before.

I can provide audio files to demonstrate the looped sustain problems, if it will help.

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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by sbenno » Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:08 am

Hi Hamish, thanks for the feedback. Please provide the names of the samples you use and perhaps some small MIDI files that trigger the bugs you mentioned or cause the noise artefacts, possibly along with audio files so that the developer team can reproduce the problem and fix it. The more accurate feedback the bigger the probability that the problem can be quickly fixed.
Lately such reports like yours do not occur often so your feedback is very valuable. Please keep hammering LinuxSampler, providing feedback about the problems you encounter until everything works as it should be.

thanks,
Benno

Hamish
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Re: Before I download - will this work with VSL Pro Edition?

Post by Hamish » Sun Jul 05, 2009 1:59 am

Ok, I just mixed down my project so I could make a clip of the bit which had the looping error, and I noticed that the rendered file doesn't include the audio from LS.

So I've created a diagram which demonstrates the problem:

Image

Although bear in mind that LinuxSampler doesn't get that midi data, the performance tool does. LinuxSampler receives the midi data from the performance tool - which will have changed it to include key-switches to give a nice legato sound. I don't think the performance tool is at fault here because I don't remember having this problem using GigaStudio.
Last edited by Hamish on Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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