Transporting Sounds

Posted on Jan 18, 2008 04:07 pm
RandalMcFloyd
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Inactive Since: Nov 11, 2007

Ok let's say that there's a place where a band plays but each person in the band has their own "little studio" at home.
Each of the band members have software that gives them a lot of sounds for MIDI and they want to use some of those sounds in the band but can't/don't want to take their computers with them to the rehearsal place.

If the rehearsal place has an MIDI controller is there a way to just transport the sounds on an external hard drive or something right to the controller without taking computers back and forth?

Sorry if that is impossible to understand...that's because I don't exactly know how to explain it.

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pjk
Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004

Jan 18, 2008 04:15 pm

If I understand . . .

Lets say I want to play strings samples, from Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO).

I play my keyboard at home, which plays the GPO sounds out of my PC.

To play the same sounds at rehearsal, I'd need to install the GPO onto the rehearsal computer. Then play on that keyboard, to have GPO played out through the computer.

Some programs / samplesets / softsynths have a 'load onto 1 PC only' type of clause, so licensing would be an issue. Some are 'only use on 1 pc at a time' so it may still work, depending on the program.

If you're playing free soundfonts, then you'll need a host program on the rehearsal PC, then install the soundfont onto the PC, and load it into the host.

hope that helps

RandalMcFloyd
I wish I had a profile picture
Inactive
Since: Nov 11, 2007

Jan 18, 2008 04:26 pm

Yeah that helps.

What if we had a small (say 25 key) controller with a lot of onboard sound memory space that we could take to rehearsal. The only problem is finding a small controller with alot of memory on it.
Do you know of any?

pjk
Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004

Jan 18, 2008 05:06 pm

Quote:
a small (say 25 key) controller with a lot of onboard sound memory space

I'm not following you. The controller doesn't have memory, only keys and knobs/sliders. The controller controls the computer / host. Then the PC / host plays the sounds. So the PC has the memory, holding the sounds.

Or am I missing something here?

RandalMcFloyd
I wish I had a profile picture
Inactive
Since: Nov 11, 2007

Jan 19, 2008 12:22 am

Well maybe I'm mistaken but I thought I found MIDI controllers that also came with memory locations. And so I'll look it up right now.

This one says it:
www.zzounds.com...tem--MDOAXIOM49
"...20 non-volatile memory locations instantly save and recall your favorite presets' and you can manage an entire preset library on your computer via SysEx dumps and the free Enigma software editor/librarian for PC and Mac..."

And so does this one:
www.zzounds.com...m--MDOKEYSTAT88
"...10 memory locations for saving all controller assignments..."

Other keyboards have also said something similar to that. Are those "memory locations" on the keyboard itself or are they saying that you can save that many presets on the computer of the parameters that can be controlled via the buttons and such on the MIDI controller?

pjk
Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004

Jan 19, 2008 03:06 am

Those only control the parameters assignable by the controller itself.

So you set up the controls (and/or parameters) on the keyboard, save the settings in a memory location, then you can recall it later.

These wouldn't be saved on PC by default, only inside the keyboard. But, the first quote, about sysex, this is a language that sends midi controller data from one device to another. So you may have 100 presets, in a library on your PC. Using sysex format, and a program that sends sysex data (like midiox), you can send 20 controller presets to the device. When you need different ones, you send new ones, and they overwrite the old ones (in the controller).

These settings will be independent of whatever host your controlling. They will control the host, but it could be any host: sonar, fl studio, reason, sound module, etc., and any set of sound files, samples, synth, soundfont, etc.