Native Instruments Bandstand

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A software sound module with a General MIDI compatible sound library.

One of Native Instruments newer releases Bandstand is a little different take on a very standard General Midi Synth. Having spent several year's authoring way to many GM sequences to count for several different companies I found this to be a tool I would have liked back then. If you are familiar with the GM sound set you know it was related to game sounds and the like for many years. This app takes those bog standard sound's and goes a step further with some nifty tool's not commonly found in a GM application or hardware synth. The sound's as well have been updated with some very good sample's from 9 different sample developer's including Big Fish Audio, modo bierkamp and Native Instruments to name a few.

The application works as a Stand-alone, VST, Audio Units, RTAS, DXi, ASIO, Core Audio or DirectSound application on Windows or Mac computers.

  • For use on Windows systems it requires Windows XP, 512 MB of Ram and at least a 1.4 Ghz processor but NI recommends at least 768 MB Ram and a 2 Ghz processor.

  • For use on a Mac it requires Mac 10.3.x, a 1.5 Ghz G4 with 512 MB Ram but recommends a 2 Ghz G5 or better with 768 MB Ram.

Installation

I think most of us are getting used to the size of some of these install's for software synth's and the like so it should come as no surprise that even this GM synth software is on a DVD. This is due to the 2+ gig sound library included. It is a single disk install and really didn't take too long at all. As with most software synth's using separate libraries for there sound file's Bandstand as well offer's to let you install the sound library to another disk or folder of your choosing. An absolute must for those of us who run separate drives for samples and the like. This synth can be installed as one or all of the following. Stand alone, VSTi, DXi, AU, and RTAS plugins.

As with all Native Instruments software you will need to run the registration tool, which sends a finger print of your system to NI for registration and in turn sends you the authorization key via email. The process this time took only a matter of minutes as I am already a registered NI user and doesn't really take much longer if you have never registered before. The authorization key was in my email box in about 2 minutes.

They also included a sheet in the package to let me know there was already an update which added some features discussed later, as well as updating the soundbanks. I strongly suggest getting the update as soon as you register the application.

Interface and controls

Running on the already proven Kontakt 2 synth engine NI once again have built a very straight forward and user friendly GUI. Everything is available from one of the two views. You will have access to either of these views whether in stand alone or instrument mode. The default view is the play view. From here you can do the majority of your setting up for playing back your midi files. Along the top are the buttons to choose a preset, which is an assortment of instruments as well as the settings you may have saved with them. The new preset clears the instrument and starts with an empty slate. Save which will save the chosen instruments and settings to a file you name or choose. Delete preset, which is self explanatory. Buttons to choose the play view or mix view. And the options button which allows you to set up your solo mode, velocity curve, library path, program change or mixer settings ignore buttons, and the DFD (direct from disc) streaming buffer size. DFD is the way NI streams the samples from the hard drive without scarfing up all your ram to supply the sample sounds. Also in the options is the receive midi automation selection page which allows you to change certain parameters that Bandstand follows.

Below are the channels cell's which in normal mode show you the instrument, its channel and have their own mute and solo buttons. These cell's as well have icons to show you what instrument category you are using at a quick glance. Now here is were Bandstand takes the GM synth up a notch with some extra control you won't find on many other GM softsynths, or even hardware GM synths for that matter. The channels cells will also change function for adjusting several other parameters as well with the buttons just below them. Pitch for normal transposition and fine tuning. Tune for selecting the base note as well as Tuning temperament. Scale, which again shows the base note as well as allowing the scale to be chosen from about 25 different scales. Slide, which allows adjustment of portamento time as well as the pitchbend sensitivity. Humanize which allows adjustment of Time, Velocity, Tune and Volume to give the sequence a more human feel. Quantize, which can bring a tweaky sequence back into a more even time. And lastly Midi Input which allows you to select the midi input channel the cell will listen to as well as setting the mode of the channel to poly or mono. There are 2 other buttons next to these which let you select to edit either a single cell on its own or all cells at the same time with one movement in one cell.

Below this you will find the patch browser containing all the instruments and drum sets. The instruments are broken into the usual 16 groups common to GM. You can view them in 2 different groups 1-8 and 9-16 with the simple click of a button. You can audition a sound by simply pressing the play button to the left of the window, or by selecting auto play they will play automatically when you click on them. This trigger is a short sequence that was designed for that particular instrument. Then when you've found the instrument you want, simply drag it into the cell you wish it be in. I guess I would like to have seen a double click to send it to the choosen cell, but this works just fine as well. The drum kits as well are chosen this way. Simply press the drumkits button and you have the nine kits to choose from. Standard, Room, Power, Electric, Analog, Jazz, Brush, Orchestra and the SFX kit. I found the Electric and Analog sets by Sonic Reality to be very good renditions of these 2 kits.

At the bottom you will find the obligatory virtual keyboard complete with pitch and mod wheel, as well as a transpose switch which will raise or lower a full 3 octave's 1 octave at a time.

On to the mix view; the mix view has the 16 channels laid out much like a typical mixer. The basic controls starting from the left side are like this. The channel and instrument, here you can still choose a different instrument via a drop down menu. Next over is the channel EQ which gives each separate channel its own set of EQ presets. There are 9 of them which give a pretty good selection for tweaking each channel just a little bit. I suggest if you're using them to leave yourself a little headroom in your levels as some can cut the channel level a little bit so you will want to make that up with a little increase in volume. Next over is the chorus knob followed by the reverb knob; these are both per channel effects, and worked pretty much as expected. Next in line are the volume slider and the pan knob, and lastly a mute and solo button for each channel appear here as well.

The Master section is available in both the play and mix view. This is where Bandstand really shines over the other GM synths, especially the soft synth variety. Although it isn't stated in their manual, it appears that the chorus and reverb in the master section are actually the master control for what I would call the chorus and reverb sends in each channel strip. This adds some really great control, which again are not found in most other GM synths. At the top is the Master chorus, there are 6 different types from mild chorus to a flange effect. Each type can be edited using 3 usual parameters found in this LFO effect. Rate, Depth, and Mix which blends the dry and wet signal to what ever level you need. The chorus effects, if used sparingly will add just a bit more depth to the overall mix. The flange effect was not overboard at all, but you can get a pretty outlandish effect with it when it's cranked up. Next in line is the Master reverb with 6 types of reverb, small, medium, and large room, medium, large hall and plate. This effect also has 3 parameters, mix, time and a choice to make here between basic and real reverb. Now this is a convolution reverb, not a cheesy low budget DSP by any means. Choosing basic will save on RAM use, and it still sounds very good. Switch it to real and I was shocked at how good it really was. It is however going to suck up a lot of RAM. Again, I haven't heard a reverb this good on any other GM type synth, software or hardware. Next it just keeps getting better, a very nice master EQ which operates separately for the master output section for the overall mix. It is a 3 band paragraphic with 9 well done presets. You can create your own EQ with the 3 parameters available, frequency, Q and gain. As well as adjusting it via the 3 knob's you can actually grab any of the 3 point's in the graphic interface and move them about to adjust the EQ. I found this really aided in giving Bandstand a much nicer final sound in the end. Next is the Limiter, yes a limiter on a GM synth. A very nice touch indeed to let you push that midi mix to it's maximum. There are again presets 5 of them which are of course, soft, medium and hard limiting but as well there are gentle boost and push. You have 3 controls, Input level, Release and Output level. I found this worked very well on everything I threw at it, and it's a welcome addition on a GM synth.

The master volume is as you would think just that, the master volume. As well in its upper left corner there is a panic/reset button if you ever encounter stuck or overloaded voice's in the synth. Click the edit button for a few more goodies as well.

  • Master Transpose will allow you to transpose the entire Bandstand up or down 24 semitones.
  • Master tune allows for finer adjustments.
  • As well there are monitors there for CPU usage, Hard Disc usage/access, Number of voice's being used, and this can be adjusted up or down with a maximum of 256. Lowering those will ease the load on the CPU.
  • A display as well for memory usage. There is also a button to optimize memory, click it then hit play and click again and it will remove all unused samples from memory to save RAM usage.

And just below that you will find the midi file player with some pretty simple and straight forward controls. Here is a great feature you won't find on any other GM softsynth, let alone a hardware synth. Press the Render to Audio icon and it will mix down your loaded sequence with all the effects and EQ you have applied. It will render in 16 bit wav or aiff audio to the destination you choose. I was impressed with the quality of the audio that it rendered, considering you start with a very simple GM file. As well there are control's to shut off program change and mixer automation, tempo adjustment, play, rewind and loop function as well and it also displays the file name and time. They also added in the update (which I highly recommend you download and install before starting the app.) a nice playlist editor which I found very complete as well as useful.

Performance

Overall Bandstand performed without a flaw, and I say that as I did manage to overload the synth with a midi sequence that was intended to do just that. However, I must add that to my surprise it didn't take much to bring it back to 100% performance without error. Years ago I wrote a sequence of Hall of the Mountain King specifically for pushing a synth, both hardware and software to their maximum. For almost all softsynths of this category I end up dropping at least 4 or 5 tracks out to get the synth back to a number of voices it can handle. I was absolutely amazed that I only needed to drop one simple track which consisted of Pizzicato Strings to get the synth to play the entire sequence without choking out or freezing voices on full.

I found playing this app live was a treat as well. Very simple and quick, and all the instruments responded as well or better then some softsynths at twice the price of this. Again you are dealing with a very good sound set, even though it is targeted at mainly General Midi sound's I would not be afraid to use most, if not all these instruments somewhere in mainstream work. It responds to all the control's you will find in the GM, GM2, GS, XG and Hyper Canvas systems, and it also has some extra controls added for its own interface.

Hidden Features

I was impressed to find that along with all the control you already have there is more. These parameters are not visible on the Bandstand interface, but they are there for you to use. I am talking about control of the Envelopes and Filters. You have control over most of the these parameters jsut as you would on a more dedicated plugin synth. There are also many other parameters not commonly found on a GM type synth.

Conclusion and Opinions

Pros: I found this app to be far and above most of the GM type software synths I have used, as well as most of the hardware type. Its basic GM sound set definately does not lack in quality, and make quick work when used as a pluggin for quickly sequencing out an idea for later use. A quick palette of sounds at the ready in one easy to use interface.

Cons: The dragging of the instrument to the cell, instead of a double click to send it to the assigned cell. But maybe I am just being picky here.

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