Vquestor, I guess the drum conversion could be done at real time. But I think it would be better to convert the style permanently so you will have it right immediately when you load it again.

Jos

Vquestor, I think we should try and convince Jos to design the translation tables for each drumkit so that we can convert the styles and save them in GM format. I would buy him a case of beer. I would even be willing to pay for it as an add on for OMB.

Jos I can see presure mounting for a new business opportunity for you!!!

Frank,

Glad to hear from you again. Are you where you want to be yet on the totally software arranger?

Tom

Tom, thanks for your kind comments.

I would say I am about 99% there with a totally software based system. In fact, I may move to 100% given that someone wants to buy my music computer. This will cause me to build the Shuttle XPC computer. This computer has only one PCI slot - so I will just use one high quality soundcard. This sets the stage for the complete conversion.

As I noted previously, I can use LiveSynthPro to produce excellent accompaniment. The only thing is to get all into one host environment. If I can get VSampler to work then I can move completely over to Cubase SX. I will perform further testing utilizing Cakewalk's Project 5. This may provide another alternative.

This is almost as exciting as music?

Frank,

Most drumsets in Yamaha styles are in bank 127. De different sets defined by the patchnummer are all compatible with the standard kit (bank 127, patch 0). The standard way in OMB to handle this in GM mode is to mute any drum event outside the GM range (35 - 81). I'm not sure that you get a better result by converting the notes to anything simular inside the GM range. But anyway if you have a conversion table for the standard kit then you could use the same table for all the other drumsets in bank 127.

Sometimes you might also find drumsets in bank 126. You will need the synthesizer that produce these sounds to find out if there is any similar sound in the standard kit.

And then there are styles converted from non-Yamaha keyboards that sometimes contain drumsets that are not compatible and can be in any drumbank.

The most problems where with the Arabic styles and they can be converted with the comversion table "bongos and congas".

If you find any style with imcompatible drum notes just discard it or import a drumtrack from another style.

Cheers

Jos

Joe,

This program is developing very well. I find it to be more useful than any of the other style players I've tried. Good work.

Straying off the topic for a bit.. I wonder if you have tried the latest version of jammer pro ( vers 5 ) Frank, and if you have, what your thoughts are on it.

Soundtrek has added some new features and it allows for user patterns that can be based on midi notes entered via a piano roll, as oppsoed to the old method in jammer 4. The algos can still be applied to vary the notes too. I like this feature, but the program is still a kind of "beta", as there are some features from vers 4 that have not yet been implemented onto 5. Also, it tends to crash occasionally. I must confess that I liked the older interface better as well, but I guess with added features comes more complexity and menus. I'm hoping that Soundtrek will "bring it up to speed", and like Joe does with OMB, they respond to user suggestions and comments quickly, so I'm betting they will. I wish there product was as easy to understand and work with as OMB is though. I like J Pro because it can be as predictable or as unpredictable in what it plays as the wants to user make it. Saves me some time editing a midifile so that every accomp bar doesn't sound exactly like the previous one. There are variances that can be applied automatically to velocity, lengths, and even note patterns too. This is why I like programs that work with algos that can vary these things for me. Doing it manually via piano roll editing is a painstaking and time consuming chore. J pro 5 still needs some work before I consider it a good tool to use though.

Joe and I had discussed something along these lines before as well, but I'm not sure whether adding algo features would or would not be useful to most of the users of his program. If it would be, great, but if not asking him to put that kind of effort into something like this ( I know it has to be a lot of work ) isn't appropriate if it doesn't interest his users or if it gets in the way of what his program is all about in the first place.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 07-01-2003).]

Jos, I am aware of what you are saying. When using a specific sampler or wavetable you need to determine what is in what bank, e.g., 1-128 or 0-127. In addition, Yamaha often, as you say, uses their drums from bank 127. The styles would need to be changed to accommodate this. This is the easy part.

The hard part is to get the drum instruments for XG to line up with the GM note numbers. For instance, brush tap, brush swirl, brush slap for the Brush Kit need to be on the appropriate note numbers on the GM Brush Kit. I know these do not line up between the XG and GM Brush Kits. There are a number of other examples within every drum kit that should be translated.

It, of course, would be nice to get this done but I can do without and continue to use LiveSynthPro or VSampler with the sYnerGiGS Wavetable. With the substitutions and changes in instruments I have made this wavetable is noticeably better than the top of the line arranger keyboards.

Bluezplayer, I have not as yet upgraded to JammerPro 5.0. I have checked the changes and think it is a significant improvement over the previous already a very good program. I will be upgrading shortly. In addition, I am waiting for the JammerLive update - Windows XP & JammerPro style compatibility.

Jos, that is not what I was asking. I'm sorry
I didn't phrase the question more clearly.
What I was asking was, if a possible future feature of : (( custom intonation tuning tables for the non-drum parts, that be accessed in real-time while a style was playing)) were possible.
Yes Frank, I agree that the translation tables would be a great idea.
In regards to your custom wavetable in
LiveSynthPro, so is it possible to
make a custom wavetable that has the correct
corresponding XG bank and patch change correlations(for all parts) such that any PSR style can be played correctly without modifying the original style itself? or is there always some tweaking of the style needed?

[This message has been edited by Vquestor (edited 07-01-2003).]

Vquestor, is this about detuning individual notes, like the two notes per octave that are detuned half a semitone in Arabic scales?

Frank, the difference between 1-128 and 0-127 doesn't exist. In MIDI there is only 0 to 127. If notes or patches are numbered 1 - 128 that's just because it's common human practice to start with number one and not with zero as computers do. But whenever you see things numbered as 1-128 in the lists of keyboards and software, the actual corresponding MIDI messages always are 0 to 127.

A.J., I remember our discussions about a combination of MIDI and algo styles very well. I built in a note generator in OMB to produce all kinds of mathematical computed sequences. But the result didn't sound very musical! The only thing that is left of all my experiments is the random velocity and controller waves. That does add a little variety, makes the accompaniment a bit more live because the repeated loop will never be exactly the same. So there is no combination of MIDI and algo in version 5, but there is a combination of MIDI and Wave audio instead. You can rip a drumloop from a CD and insert the .wav file in the style as an event.

What you also can do is make a style in Jammer. Make a MIDI file of it. Paste the MIDI file in a style in OMB. I did this with BIAB styles. It is true that the loops will be repeated in exact the same way over and over. But in OMB you can make the loops very long. In 256 MB PC memory you can store a lot of MIDI.

Jos

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jos Maas:
[B]Vquestor, is this about detuning individual notes, like the two notes per octave that are detuned half a semitone in Arabic scales?

Yes.
If it is possible, an ideal situation would be for you to create a small icon of a one octave keyboard, where the detuned notes
are highlighted, and a row of preset buttons
that activate the customized scales(including
a default to normal button). The option of
naming these scales would also be nice.
Where this can become a real can of worms, is how you will detune the notes. The inferior way of using pitch bend messages (using already available programs) should be avoided.
Instead, the Midi Tuning Standard(MTS) should be implemented, or even better yet,
Yamaha's sysex for scale tuning.