Looking in my Kontakt 2 manual Page 44 and I quote:
'Finally, an Instrument Bank is special type of instrument that can be used with a Multi-Instrument. It is essentially a "container" for multiple instruments, where each Instrument can be selected via Midi Program changes. You drag instruments into the Program Change slots from the browser or the rack.'

Who knows I might be lucky afterall with this GM stuff???

not meaning to "teach a granny how to suck eggs" but are you guys using GM1, or the newer GM2 default sounds? In GM2 there a heaps more sounds in deeper banks other than the standard 127, required by GM...just wondering

peace, out

Hi Frank,
it does mention something about program changes on the site, so hopefully everything will be ok.

You never know, maybe one of these days they'll use xg drum mapping like the reason gm font you put me on to. Then the drum compatibility woes would be over ( haahaa)
http://www.reasonbanks.com/pvitamin_map2.html

Enjoy your new software.

p.s. I'm having a bit of fun playing round with Vienna and drum mapping. I'm trying put together a drum font that sounds similar to my Clavinova's XG drums, making my styles a bit more interchangeable between the 2 soundsources ( fonts & Clav's xg).

best wishes
Rikki

Rikki, its good to see you are still busy at making all this software stuff work for you.....perfectly. Yes, I think it will work out for me with regard to the GM compatibility issue. The NI Kompakt Player which comes with Colossus may not beable to receive program change messages as the East West Tech indicated but I can always use Kontakt for this. Nonetheless, conversion of the Yamaha Styles to GM from XG remains alot of boring work....but I will do it once and then its done.

Colossus is a 14 GB GM Bank (not GM2). You really do not need more than the regular GM provided the voices are of high quality. In cases where I need a specific voice like Pedal Steel I would just change it out for some of the synth voices which I never use. As side in my initial post the styles do sound very good using this GM Bank. I just need to get the program change happening and then I am away to the races.

Rikki, it occurs to me suddenly I should have asked you also why you prefer OMB over Live - Styler. I still have not solved the conflicts with it after the installation of all this new software. Nonetheless this is all very exciting. I will get it all to work sooner or later.

Hey Frank

Sounds interesting. You've peaked my curiosity. Any chance of some online mp3 demo's of your new system?

Best
Scott Langholff http://www.ScottLMusic.com

Rikki, its good to see you are still busy at making all this software stuff work for you.....perfectly. Yes, I think it will work out for me with regard to the GM compatibility issue. The NI Kompakt Player which comes with Colossus may not beable to receive program change messages as the East West Tech indicated but I can always use Kontakt for this. Nonetheless, conversion of the Yamaha Styles to GM from XG remains alot of boring work....but I will do it once and then its done.

Colossus is a 14 GB GM Bank (not GM2). You really do not need more than the regular GM provided the voices are of high quality. In cases where I need a specific voice like Pedal Steel I would just change out an exiting synth voice which I never use with it. As I said in my initial post the styles do sound very good using this GM Bank. I just need to get the program change happening and then I am away to the races.

Rikki, it occurs to me suddenly I should have asked you also why you prefer OMB over Live - Styler. I still have not solved the conflicts with it after the installation of all this new software. Nonetheless this is all very exciting. I will get it all to work sooner or later.



[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 04-27-2005).]

Hi Frank,
mainly because OMB is an all in one package.
Realtime Arranger
Style Editor
Sequencer
Arranger etc

I basically flick from one function to the other. If a styles not working , I check out why in the stylemaker page fix it and test it.
Arranger page, I can type in a chord progression and put in the style parts ( from up to 10 different styles) handy for auditioning styles for songs without worrying about hitting wrong notes or chords. In short I can concentrate on what it actually sounds like. ( Also use Busker Software for this)
Also realized I can scan sheet music and use it with omb in realtime ie it scrolls as you play styles . Haven't had much time to spend on that, but it intersts me, as I read, I can't play by ear.

Livestyler sort of "looks" more proffessional than omb. I did try it originally about a year ago, but te version I had , couldn't play piano arpeggio's correctly ie I had some piano styles from my 9000pro and it just didn't play them right wheras OMB did. I had other sorts of styles playing okay, but not the ones I wanted. By that stage I got so involved with OMB, I never went back to Live Styler. Suppose I should give it another go oneday, especially since we're up to vers 8.

best wishes
Rikki

Well I worked on my FLR2005 Arranger System for about 20 hours and it sounds fantastic but tragically.....it doesn't work!!!

Kontakt does very very very very poorly when it comes to recognizing and implementing program change numbers. You would need to load the 14GB GM Wavetable 16 times (once for each channel) for it to work. Well even with DFD the best computer would not beable to handle this. Oh well!!!

NI, acknowledges the problem and plan to have a fix for it by Q3, i.e., Kontakt v2.1.

So in the mean time I will use the new version of Kontakt. It has many excellent features & high quality (scripting, effects, sound engine, etc.). From my Colossus Library I can immediately make use of excellent acoustic virtual instruments and amazing drumkits. I will convert my styles to the GM Standard while I wait for all this to be fixed. If it doesn't get fixed there is the Halion route I can take. It does well with Program Changes and can convert Kontakt Libraries to its format. I would rather not go to Steinberg - dongles are idiot things to use for protection - terrible.

I have high hopes that everything will work before the year is up.

hi frank,on your previous system,you was saying that the sound quality on your system was superior by using the more up to date software compared to what you hear on a top of the range arranger,a few others have followed gone down the same road,ie, vquestor,rikki,this may sound like a daft question but,if you was to upload a song would it sound the same on our keyboards as on your system or would our keyboard not play as good due to the limits of our keyboards be of a lower standard,mike

mike, when I say the sound is superior to any hardware based system I mean the instruments sound more realistic, there is less noise, there is less distortion and so on. Some of this comes about from higher quality effects and samples. Samples do not use looping. They have more samples per instruments and per velocity. As an example, pianos have every key sampled at 7 up and 7 down velocities plus release samples. This is why the Piano is 2.5 GB as compared to a couple of MBs in a hardware based module or keyboard.

So the whole thing just sounds more realistic......but its not perfect. Modelling a B3 Organ (NI B4) or a Saxophone would yield better results. Same could be said for guitars or other acoustic instruments. On some of the libraries I use the samples include keyswitching, e.g., changing from a smooth sax to a growling sax by depressing a key in a lower octave of your keyboard....but modelling is still better.

For the sound to sound similar to my system you would need to use my software and sample libraries. Plus you would need professional quality sound cards, e.g., RME, Echo, VSL, etc. The same applies to your audio equipment (speakers, mixer, amps, etc.).

One thing I would like to make clear is that the hardware based solutions are good enough quality for live performances and have a better control surfaces. For studio, club work, etc. a system such as mine makes more sense....you notice the quality.

[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 05-04-2005).]