Switching between instruments using Program Change messages

[kmiya100]

ccherrett,

All I can say is, "Wow!" Your setup looks impressive. Our school purchased the VI libraries from a studio that was closing down; from what I've been told by our purchasing people, it was quite a difficult process. We were told the 1st Ed. library was obsolete and no comparison, and useless to us since we did not have Gigastudio. We've enjoyed the VI libraries since the Fall semester; most of our students use just the sounds from Special Edition (standard), but hopefully we will start to use other sounds as well in the future. I had been using linuxsampler just for a piano sound, and thought I'd see if the 1st Ed. worked with it. In just over a week I am finding it to be extremely usable, and not at all obsolete. After seeing your setup, I am more convinced that a linuxsampler setup has some significant advantages. I'm not sure how you're using Ardour in your setup, as I have an older version that doesn't have midi, but it looks amazing. I am definitely taking the linux ride. Thanks for showing what you're doing. I'd love to know in a little more detail how you've integrated Ardour into the linuxsampler/Rosegarden setup.

[ccherrett]

ccherrett,

All I can say is, "Wow!" Your setup looks impressive. Our school purchased the VI libraries from a studio that was closing down; from what I've been told by our purchasing people, it was quite a difficult process. We were told the 1st Ed. library was obsolete and no comparison, and useless to us since we did not have Gigastudio. We've enjoyed the VI libraries since the Fall semester; most of our students use just the sounds from Special Edition (standard), but hopefully we will start to use other sounds as well in the future. I had been using linuxsampler just for a piano sound, and thought I'd see if the 1st Ed. worked with it. In just over a week I am finding it to be extremely usable, and not at all obsolete. After seeing your setup, I am more convinced that a linuxsampler setup has some significant advantages. I'm not sure how you're using Ardour in your setup, as I have an older version that doesn't have midi, but it looks amazing. I am definitely taking the linux ride. Thanks for showing what you're doing. I'd love to know in a little more detail how you've integrated Ardour into the linuxsampler/Rosegarden setup.

I am very happy you are taking this route. I am currently at the end of my 4 year travels try to get VSL working. It is my intent to make a studio for my wife that is better then anything any Windows user has.

I am not 100% finished my Rosegarden setup, I am still coding in the named program and bank changes into the matrix editor. What this will do is allow you to have violin all on one track instead of having multiple tracks for one instrument. All articulations from different .GIG files on one track.

I will have two setups, One for Rosegarden and One for Ardour3 (Ardour3 midi is still in development and we will not see it for at least 6 months).

Rosegarden Studio:

My Keyboard -> Rosegarden -> The Performance Tool -> Linuxsampler -> Ardour -> Speakers

My Keyboard -> Ardour3 -> The Performance Tool -> Linuxsampler -> Speakers

So the next thing to get working is the program/bank changes in Rosegarden. Rosegarden is undergoing a rewrite so the code I am writing will need a rewrite with the new Rosegarden.

Anyhow, I know you will be happy with what happens next

[Alex]

Chris is the not the only one watching Ardour midi development with great interest.

In the meantime, Ardour works extremely well as an audio machine.
Simply route your linuxsampler audio outs to tracks in ardour, and voila.
Rosegarden handles the midi, with bank and program changes, and you get to record in pristine audio, and edit, in Ardour, with Linuxsampler doing the heavy lifting. (Because it can. )

You might like to take a look at Jconv, for all your convolution needs. Fons has just updated this to version 0.8.0. , with some nice features, and improved comments for users to understand the functions. Terminal app, but very powerful indeed, and an essential here at parchment studios.



Alex.

p.s. Chris, it took me quite some time to build my patch banks in RG. Pain in the backside, but the end result is worth it.

[ccherrett]

Rosegarden handles the midi, with bank and program changes

Hey Alex,

Are you sure you can preform a bank change in Rosegarden? As far as I have every been able to figure out you can only preform a program change on a midi track. One of the issues I am having now is that you have to be able to change banks in order to really take advantage of the VSL libraries. Also the program changes have no names associated with then only numbers from 1-128, so it becomes very hard to switch between articulations.

Thanks!

[Alex]

Sorry Chris, poor explanation on my part, and you are indeed correct.

For more than 1 bank per instrument, i add tracks. So my 1st violins are over 4 tracks (so far), each with its own bank. Normal patch changes then apply.
That's for full orchestra.

For a medium quick draft template, i've built a single bank per instrument template.

Alex.

[kmiya100]

I need to make a correction on our school's purchase of Vienna Instruments so I don't mislead anyone. Our purchasing department was anxious for me to make this correction, so no one tries to do what I thought we did. Our school was trying to upgrade from VSL 1st edition (purchased in 2004, and before my time at the school) using the VIP path. Unfortunately, we missed the deadline. We looked into purchasing an entire library from another studio, but was not given permission from Vienna. Our purchasing department finally went to our old, trusty music product source - Sweetwater. Our school wanted to make sure no one tries to do something unethical.

We have also found out that the VI can only be used by one individual user, not a corporation or studio. This means that only one instructor can use it, and not the students I will be getting clarification from Vienna, but I also think that even our instructor can't use the 1st edition library, as the original instructor who registered it is no longer at our school. It seems that Vienna products are not the best choice for schools. We are hoping Vienna will allow us to keep 1st edition on our linuxsampler workstation for demonstration purposes only, to show what can be done on linux. Linuxsampler and VSL make a great team; unfortunately, it just won't work in our school's multiuser environment.

Sorry for leading anyone astray in their purchases.

[ccherrett]

I need to make a correction on our school's purchase of Vienna Instruments so I don't mislead anyone. Our purchasing department was anxious for me to make this correction, so no one tries to do what I thought we did. Our school was trying to upgrade from VSL 1st edition (purchased in 2004, and before my time at the school) using the VIP path. Unfortunately, we missed the deadline. We looked into purchasing an entire library from another studio, but was not given permission from Vienna. Our purchasing department finally went to our old, trusty music product source - Sweetwater. Our school wanted to make sure no one tries to do something unethical.

We have also found out that the VI can only be used by one individual user, not a corporation or studio. This means that only one instructor can use it, and not the students I will be getting clarification from Vienna, but I also think that even our instructor can't use the 1st edition library, as the original instructor who registered it is no longer at our school. It seems that Vienna products are not the best choice for schools. We are hoping Vienna will allow us to keep 1st edition on our linuxsampler workstation for demonstration purposes only, to show what can be done on linux. Linuxsampler and VSL make a great team; unfortunately, it just won't work in our school's multiuser environment.

Sorry for leading anyone astray in their purchases.

Thanks for the heads up. That is a shame that they would do that to a school. Not like you are making a bunch of money off of it. They should do as M$ does and pollute the schools with their software so people only want to use it when they get out.

I cannot say VSL has done a great job of making happy clients

[kmiya100]

It is disappointing that students can't use the samples; however, the instructor will still be demonstrating the sounds for classes, so they will still be able to see what a great library of sounds VSL has recorded and edited.

I'm going to head over to the forum section on sample libraries to see what other Linuxsampler people use for orchestral work.

[ccherrett]

I talked with Gary Garritan yesterday on the phone and they are releasing the GPO for ARIA player. It will run under wine just fine. I would be willing to say that Garritan would entertain your school with some sort of licensing. They are much much cheaper than the VSL monster

http://www.garritan.com/GPO-features.html

It is not out yet but will be soon. A license is $199. At least that is what the old version costs. I would look into going that route. Gary has the right ideas about music if you ask me.

So keep your eyes open for it!