Hi Vquestor,
unfortunately it's drum mapping I think, that is causing the biggest hassle.
The psr styles have drums in their kits that go beyond the gm standard ie they've got brush drums in most of their kits, wheras gm only has brushes in the brush kit.
ie in a psr Standard Kit you have brushes& snaredrums wheras, in a GM Kit, you'd have to use the brush kit to get the brush sounds, but you end up losing the snares.
That's just one example of a trade off.

It would be great to be able to put together a good quality xg mapped drum soundfont.
Better still, would be if one of the softsynth companies had an xg mapped drum set.

best wishes
Rikki

I realize the differences between XG and the
limited GM kits. Since we are using PSR styles, all kits really should be XG mapped anyway.
Since you're making your own soundfonts, I commend you on the tremendous amount of work
needed to replace mediocre sounds with those of higher quality. Once you finish, I think
it will be quite rewarding.

Rikki,

As a stopgap until one of us can possibly together a good soundfont, I've used "another xg soundfont". While it isn't the ideal font, I find it's overall sounds to be at least as good and in some areas a bit better than my SY-XG50 module.

I experimented a bit with Midi-ox and remapping of some GM patches so that they would correspond to some of the better quality voices of the Motif ES. So far so good. For now I'm working on converting the GM standard over to Es patches, simply because it should make ( GM ) midifile playback sound a lot better on the ES. It should also correspond well with OMB and style play when I use OMB in the GM synth mode. It's simpler than remapping XG to ES format, but if it works well and there are no latency issues ( it appears that I'll have to actually use midiox as an inline translator ), then I'll likely remap the XG banks / patches to fit the ES as well.

AJ

I just simply give up, all of you are so far ahead of me technically I should just run on silent and let the rest of the world go by. I will take all the good stuff and call it a day.....just can't keep up!!!

With respect to using the Audigy Soundcard and placing the drums on it would partially destroy my goal....everything software....but yes that is another alternative.

I have not given up on Bandstand for all things auto accompaniment. Kontakt for all things melody. It will happen.....

Vquestor, yes you pointed out the option of using a separate VST for drums (soundfont xg). More and more companies are starting to provide all the options....GM, GM2, GS and XG with their synths and sequencers, eg., Sonar. I think even Roland has at least in the near past offered XG compatibility. Yes if companies provided customer service as it should be they would make life as easy as possible for the customer. One should not have to work at using products.

Hi Frank,
even if you didn't use the audigy, can you slot the soundfonts ( drums only) into your setup using Forte & Live Synth Pro??

Actually found out I can get Bandstand locally ( 2 hrs away, that's local nowadays, haahaa) but I'm wondering if there's anyway I could convert the drums into a soundfont , if my limited computer system won't run Bandstand for the styles. I realize one of these days I may have to get an exernal hard drive & more memory.
Is there another option for getting better drum sounds?? and using one of the conversion programs. Doesn't matter if it's xg mapped as I think I can alter it to suit.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Frank L. Rosenthal:
[B]

With respect to using the Audigy Soundcard and placing the drums on it would partially destroy my goal....everything software....but yes that is another alternative.

Hi Vquestor,
sorry that sounded like some sort of a lecture on xg , gm. It's a bit frustrating when most of the softsynth drum sets are mapped to gm and we really do need xg drum mapping when using a psr style.

As for making up the font, one day I hope I will finish.
Maybe my problem is I can't tell what's a good drum sound & whats bad.
One thing I know, I don't like is the brush sounds in some of the fonts. Maybe it's what they sound like in reality? wheras I prefer the softer, less harsh sound in the arrangers.

Oh well, it's a challenge, which I quite enjoy.


best wishes
Rikki

Hi AJ,
I have Another XG, and it does sound quite good, especially for the size of it.
Somehow I don't think I'll end up with a psr ( either Tyros2 or psr3k) no stock here till next year. That being the case, I may try & get some of the drum samples I want for my font from my Clavinova's xg set.
Might do a bit more fiddling round with Samplit and see if I can work it out.

What I'm basically trying to do is try to match as closely as possible the xg drumset in my clav with an xg soundfont drumset. Means if I eventually end up using something like Bandstand for styles ( excluding gm drums) the only editing I'll need to do is the instruments like bass, piano etc which usually only require a bit of tweaking, wheras trying to redo all the drums in the styles is a big job, I'd prefer to only do once if at all possible. And, if I find better samples along the way, I can always keep replacing.
How are you going with your keyboard hunting.
I've been checking out Ketrons either the sd1 keyboard, or maybe even the midjay module, even though I probably wouldn't use some of the performance functions in the midijay. A module will take up less space.

Don't know much about midi ox. Sounds interesting though, I must admit I don't fully understand how you're using it.

I sometimes use the xg drums in the Clav. All I do is set Channel 10 in OMB to USB and the rest of the channels to either my audigy or to midiyoke. You must be talking about something far more complex.

best wishes
Rikki


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]Rikki,

Hi Rikki,

Here is a description of MidiOx directly from it's creator:

MIDI-OX is a Windows 95/NT program (also Win98/Me/2000/XP). It is a 32 bit program which will not operate under earlier versions of Windows. MIDI-OX is a multi-purpose tool: it is both a diagnostic tool and a System Exclusive librarian. It can perform filtering and mapping of MIDI data streams. It displays incoming MIDI streams, and passes the data to a MIDI output driver or the MIDI Mapper. You can generate MIDI data using the computer keyboard or the built-in control panel. You can even record and log MIDI data and then convert it to a Standard MIDI File for playback by a sequencer.

What I'm trying to do really isn't any more complex than some of the other ideas that you and Frank have thought of and suggested. Actually it's kind of a simple shortcut to make things go a little quicker. What I am trying to accomplish here is to have the ability to use the ES as both the controller and sound module for OMB. When I remap style voices manually for the ES, it can sound quite good with OMB. It is however, as I'm sure you know, a ton of work to change patch and bank data for each individual style.

My particular use of MidiOx in this instance will be to take the patch data output from OMB in GM mode ( or a midi file ), introduce it into MidiOX, and have MidiOx reassign the data so that it when it sends it back out it automtically will correspond to the desired bank and patch settings on the Motif ES. In this way, I can take the 127 standard GM patches and select which voice I'd like each of them to call up on the Motif ES, and then send that data back out from MidiOx to the ES.

It will take some work to do, but once it's done, it's pretty much done. It's still looks to be much less work than changing all of the patch / bank data for each individual style I want to use.

I'd still like to build a high quality soundfont, but this will take a lot of time as well.

As far as the search for a new arranger... no new developments. I'm still leaning toward the Tyros 2 at this point. If what I want to do with OMB works out ok, ( with latency being the only real concern, the rest should definitely work ok ), then there certainly is no rush, and maybe not even a need for me to have another hardware arranger.


Cheers,

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 12-05-2005).]

Hi AJ,
I think I've got it. Good luck with it as it's going to save you a lot of time in the long run.

Doing bank changes & program changes for the styles isn't my biggest hassle.
I just call up the "ctrl's" icon on the stylemaker page, then change volumes, program changes , bank changes etc
The part that takes me the longest, is the actual mixing of the style parts ( volumes, panning etc) & picking which version of an instrument sounds the best in the style. I'm a ditherer. I finish my tweaking , play it thru, then decide it still doesn't sound right and start agaim.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]Hi Rikki,