Tracktion Software

JumboNewJack · Post by **JumboNewJack** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:05 pm

Looking for some assistance using the bs-1 soundfont player as a filter in a tracktion track.

I was following the advice of another post where they recommended downloading the bs-1 soundfont player and loading the goldrums sf2 file for good sounding drums. I want to try using those sounds to make a drum loop. I'm able to put the bs-1 filter into a track, and the blue bs-1 panel comes up and I'm able to load the soundfont. But how do I get the sounds to actually play? I'm a newbie at soundfonts and I'm assuming (uh oh

) that you need a synth to actually have the sounds played. I put the jx and dx synths in the same track, in front of and in back of the bs-1, but no luck. I'm probably missing something simple, but my search on soundfont players hasn't been fruitful. Sorry this is long, but I just wanted to give the whole picture and maybe help out other newbies.

Thanks for any help/tips/guidance.

timmyo · Post by **timmyo** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:18 pm

You just need the soundfont player loaded and the soundfont selected in it - no other synths required. Either drag a midi input device (eg your keyboard) to the track (on the left of the track)and play it or create a new midi clip on the track and enter notes in the piano roll - voila - drums.

rpc9943 · Post by **rpc9943** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:19 pm

no you dont need a synth! pop the bs-1 in before the volume/pan filter (to the right) and then just go click on the left of track so it turns red, and press G. G will make a midi clip start, and from there you just draw some notes in.

RonC

braj · Post by **braj** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:20 pm

BS-1 is a synth. All you should need is the BS-1 with a soundfont loaded, and midi in the track to drive it.

Graeme · Post by **Graeme** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:28 pm

... and click on the left of the track and assign it to an audio output!

ceenda · Post by **ceenda** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:36 pm

Make sure you select the preset (area denoted by "program change" on the interface) when you load the soundfont!

I always forget to do that and then wonder why there's no sound.

JumboNewJack · Post by **JumboNewJack** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:53 pm

"BS-1 Is a synth" DOH! I knew assuming would get me in trouble. So when I have the bs-1 in the track, all I have to do is drag my input source (sb-live midi uart) and point it to the track and start entering notes.

This pops a question into my head...when I click on the input source pointing to a track, the keyboard appears in the bottom screen. Is then this input source acting as a MIDI controller?

rpc9943 · Post by **rpc9943** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:21 pm

yes.

RonC

braj · Post by **braj** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:27 pm

I don't think it's a midi controller, I believe it plays the plug directly and you can't record midi in the piano-roll with it.

M'Snah · Post by **M'Snah** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:48 pm

I don't know much about BS-1, I hope you have checked out the (free!) sfz soundfont player as well

rockstar_not · Post by **rockstar_not** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:35 pm

OK,

Those of you with T2, the full boxed set, have you done an A/B comparison between BS-1 and sfz for soundfont playback and being friendly to CPU?

sfz (the free one at least) is very finicky about having access to a contiguous section of RAM to load samples (or do it direct from disk if you want to accept the latency involved).

How about bs-1 compared to sfz?

-Scott

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:57 pm

Good sounding drumkit soundfonts? I tested so many of them. In addition to "GoldDrums" for a realistic sounding drumkit, you can also try these band drumkits (unpack with sfArk) and conveniently test all kits with a little MIDI drumsolo.

Speaking of soundfont players: Is anyone using sf-play? It sure is CPU friendly as the maker says on his site, but I wasn't able to get a high-quality sound with it, so I'm still using sfz. I also tried the bismarck player but did not like its interface.

rockstar_not · Post by **rockstar_not** » Sat May 14, 2005 3:11 am

sonicsmurf wrote:Good sounding drumkit soundfonts? I tested so many of them. In addition to "GoldDrums" for a realistic sounding drumkit, you can also try these band drumkits (unpack with sfArk) and conveniently test all kits with a little MIDI drumsolo.

Speaking of soundfont players: Is anyone using sf-play? It sure is CPU friendly as the maker says on his site, but I wasn't able to get a high-quality sound with it, so I'm still using sfz. I also tried the bismarck player but did not like its interface.

I have sfplay, but I believe this is one of the players that tosses out the built in adsr volume envelope information that's embedded in the font, and looks for you to program it for each sound - tedious. I'm wondering the same thing about bs-1. Does it just act like a sample as waveform player, or does it use the embedded amplitude envelope info built into the font, or both?

-Scott

JumboNewJack · Post by **JumboNewJack** » Sat May 14, 2005 5:03 pm

Nuff Respect to Ceenda for the key to the problem. Even though I had the goldrums.sf2 loaded, I still needed to click on the program change button and have 'Drumkit gold' selected. Now I'm able to enter midi notes in piano roll. So far this is the best sounding drums I've heard.

Haven't tried the sfz player, but the Bs-1 was free too.

Thanks!

msl · Post by **msl** » Sat May 14, 2005 7:31 pm

Nskit drum soundfont is well worth a try, and it's free. Get it at http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/nskit_download.html.

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