What are software arrangers that are available today? Does software have harmony feature just like the Yamaha's?

XGworks is halfway there. It's like Band in a Box. You key in the melody and the chords and it will add the arrangement for you. Great for arranging your fake book.

Bryan

I view software arrangers as having 2 distinct catgories. The first is those that can be played in realtime similar to the way one would use a hardware arranger. These are suitable for live work with a laptop. The second is those that are based on step / chord entry recording. These are more suitable for recording midifiles for original or reproduced songs.

In the first category, I've tried One man band, Real Time style performer and Live styler. I actually purchased OMB, and think it's a good program that does what it claims to do. Also available from Soundtrek is Jammer Live. I haven't tried this one at all but it has gotten mixed reviews here in the past. None of these include a vocal harmonizer.

In the second category, I have and use XG works, Band in a Box, and Jammer pro v5. XG works is a sequencer which uses Yamaha styles and chords and style variations are step entered on a grid. It allows for vocal harmony if you have a VH100 vocalizer board installed in the computer or a hardware synth. BIAB is a program that will "auto create" a song via sevrral parameters the user sets. Chords can also be step entered at various intervals. Midi files cannot be imported except that in the later versions small files can be imported into the style creator for use as user styles. JammerPro is similar but works in different ways than BIAB. The latest version allows for quick editing of style parts via a midi piano roll, which is a big improvement over version 4. It is also a sequencer based program with it's own interface, and allows for import of and editing of midifiles. It also uses different algorithims to vary the recorded midi data. For me it allows for the most realistic sounding backing tracks of the 3.

AJ

Can you tell me if
Live-styler, Real-time style performer,
One man band, BIAB, and Jammer can all play Yamaha PSR2000/1000 style files?
Thanks.

Dunno about the others, but XGworks will play Yamaha style files. Just copy them into the style folder.

Bryan

Live styler, Realtime Style performer, and OMB are all based on the Yamaha style format. BIAB and Jammer user their own format and do not play Yamaha style types. They are both capable of using user styles which could be made from a Yamaha style's midi data. Jammer has released a new version, and style dtata can be imported via midifile or created in a piano roll sequencer.

AJ

Pilot and Bluezplayer,thanks for the help.
Does anyone know anything about
MidiYoke, MidiOx, or Hubi's Loopback device?
I would like to have a software arranger
play a software soundfont player, but would
like as little latency and CPU usuage as
possible. Is this realistic, or too much
for one computer(1.8GHz P4) to handle all 3 programs at once(arranger,midi-loopback,soundfont player)?
I wish the great Frank Rosenthal would
chime in with some insight.

I use MidiOx and MidiYoke with no trouble on a P233. I use it to run both XGworks and Cakewalk at the same time. I connect the keyboard (PSR740) to XGworks for the XG Editor and use Cakewalk for the StudioWare. Yhe output of both are set to MidiYoke Junction 1 as is the input of MidiOx. The output of MidiOx is connected to the keyboard. Hubi's loopback works just as well but I like the extra features of MidiOx.

Bryan

Vquestor, I checked in today and notice your question concerning Midi Yoke, etc.

Yes, Midi Yoke and others will work well with what you want to do. I have tested it with Live-Styler and Sonar XL running Live-Synth and a 128 MB Soundfont Wavetable. It comes closer every day to where I will beable to abandon my Audigy Soundcard!

As an overall generalization, Sonar/DXi/Windows drivers have higher latency when compared with standalone or VSTi instruments. It is a challenge to get it to around 10ms in Sonar. This is not so much an issue when you have a software arranger playing something like Live-Synth since you compensate for this in real time when playing lead instruments (low latency). However, latency for lead instruments is a more important issue.

It is good to see you are still interested in the software arranger approach.


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 06-16-2003).]

Frank,
I always keep an open mind on this issue. Could you remind me again, what is the make and model of the controller keyboard you are using? What do you like about it?
Starkeeper