Rikki, I am so surprised.....or should I really be!!!!
Doing very well.....I think. I got a great deal of help from M. Bedesem in the conversion of the styles to GM (instruments, drum kits and volumes). The only issues left are the ones I have pointed out:
There is a small but disturbing interuption during the loading of instruments, e.g., drum kits or larger instruments.
The cymbals and hi-hats could be higher in volume relative to the snare durms, etc.
These issues are fixable. There is talk on the NI Bandstand Forum that NI may design a lighter version of Bandstand. I assume this would allow the full wavetable to be loaded into memory. I have investigated the RAM HD solution. This is a little on the costly side. I have elected to wait and see what NI will do in its next update.
The relative loudness of the various drum instruments within a kit can be adjusted utlizing OMB or a sequencer.
Overall I think Bandstand is of very good design. It has all the essential effects and adjustments required for very good sound production. Many of the instruments sound very good (pianos, drums, bass and so on). Load up a top of the line Piano in kontakt and pick a good swing/jazz style....and it sounds oh so good.
The combination of kontakt and Bandstand is ideal within a software based arranger system. They compliment each other in the way they sound and in the way you manipulate them.
I can't help but marvel at the overall progress in music software over the last 2 years. It is amazing.
Frank, did you ever get my email, I wrote you a week or 2 back asking for a review of Garritan JABB. I particularly am interested in the muted brfass varieties, are they useful or just there? And the upright basses, what kinds of control or specialty techniques do we have there? He's taking so long coming out with online demos, and the ones he's got aren't blowing me away, so as one who has the product and enjoys playing jazz, I'd like some impressions if you would please. You can reply here or in my email if you'd rather not continue with the hijacking of the thread I just started. sorry about that, but I didn't get a reply from the email i sent so I thought I'd post here in case you'd missed it.
Hi Frank, the velocities of the drums can be fixed in OMB, so not a problem for you in the long run. If they ended up designing a lighter version , and it was able to be loaded into memory, then it really would be worth looking at. Hopefully that would eliminate those glitches you're having,
I may upgrade that memory in my laptop yet. Just need the right incentive.
Either way, rikki2006 arranger is quite possibly going to be gm based, not xg.
Happy to hear you're getting it sorted out.
best wishes Rikki [QUOTE]Originally posted by Frank L. Rosenthal:
There is talk on the NI Bandstand Forum that NI may design a lighter version of Bandstand. I assume this would allow the full wavetable to be loaded into memory.
FAEbGBD, I have not used Garritan's J&BB to any great extent because of the volume & mod wheel issue. I am working with people at Brainspawn to come up with a way to send the mod wheel message from within forte Ensemble my host software. As Jos and others have pointed out I could buy an external Mod Wheel (to replace my A-37 Joy stick) or send Mod Wheel CC# messages via OMB or a Sequencer to set the volume levels.
I find this a pain for live performances in a one man band setting. It is a great setup for live performances where you are playing only one instrument at a time or in a studio setting. There is no doubt that the quality of J&BB is very good especially with all the features built into each instrument. Garritan accomplishes this with a relatively small byte size instruments. He has a number of demos at his web site for you to check out. In the case of GPO I was able to mangle the *.nki files and get rid of the mod wheel stuff but no such luck with J&BB. This too shall be fixed with time....I am not to worried I have got other alternatives, e.g., Colossus, NI's instruments, etc.
I will say it again, I find the quality of the Bandstand instruments very good for auto accompaniment (or midi files) but not good enough for standalone or lead type instruments. It is ideal in my software based arranger system. At the same time (and for free) you can do almost as good with a soundfont player and wavetable (enhanced wavetables).
[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 12-14-2005).]
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