Free LinuxSampler 0.5.1 for Windows released (ASIO)

[Kyran]

I know you guys can't support new file formats over the course of a few days (or even months), but it's something you guys should consider putting on the roadmap.

It's about ease of use for the end user. Having to find an app which converts to .gig first and then manually doing the conversions is not good workflow. Even if you guys just implement an import function, which then calls the same tool to do the job and saves the .gig file in a temp folder (or if the options there, asks for a folder to store the .gig file permanently) would be a lot better.

Kontakt is a nice example to look at: it supports a ton of formats, so no matter what sampler you used before you can use all your samples with kontakt without having any troubles: just import it, wait a few secs and off you go.

I'll hunt down some gig files this weekend and give linuxsampler a test run

[sbenno]

FYI: We had some users reporting problems LinuxSampler not running on certain machines, even though the CPU had the SSE instruction set.
We discovered that the LinuxSampler installer does not run on older AMD Athlon processors which do not support Pentium 4 CPU instructions.
We added a workaround for those older AMD processors, see the LinuxSampler Windows HOWTO:

http://www.linuxsampler.org/windows.html

regards,
Benno

[tamahome]

tamahome:
yes we fully support scale tuning since LinuxSampler is used in a keyboard in the Middle Eastern market too, and they make lots of use of micro tuned scales

How do you tune it? Can you use Scala?

[keyman_sam]

Very impressive sampler (I used QSampler as front end) - even plays my monster Gigastudio patches with ease. The biggest advantage I can see is that it doesn't have that GSIF-compatible soundcard limitation that Gigastudio has, and it is very light on the CPU.

Keep up the excellent work guys - you'll gather a lot of attention if you get this sampler right.

[keyman_sam]

A screenshot showing 13 channels of Gigastudio instruments....I coulda loaded more - but as you can see, I got tired after sometime....

right click and select "View Image" to see the full screen image.




The drum kits were layered (same channel)....the others played in their own channels.

[sbenno]

tamahome:

this is the midi sysex you need to send in ordert to tune the scale (we use the Roland GS standard)
--------
F0H 41H 00H 42H 12H 40H 1nH 40H v1 v2 ... v12 xx F7H
Description:
Scale tuning, n is MIDI channel (0 to 15), v1 to v12 are 12 semi-
tones tuning values (C, C#, D, ... A#, B), in the range -64 (00H)
0 (40H) +63(7FH) cents.
This SYSEX allows non chromatic tuning of the musical scale
on a given MIDI channel.
Default v1, v2, ... ,v12 = 40H, 40H,...,40H (chromatic tuning).
Scale tuning has no effect if the part is assigned to a rhythm
channel or if the sound played is not of chromatic type.
--------

keyman_sam:
thanks for your feedback (I will respond to your PM too),
this was the first windows version so it still has some small rough edges.
the next version should come with VST and networking and will enable users to fully integrate LinuxSampler in their sequencer enviroment.
Low latency, no hackish driver to install, no kernel hacks and so on.
As you can see one can achieve excellent performance and latencies without dirty low level hacks.
And we are not even using explicit SSE instuctions in the code so we can push polyphony even higher, but it will come at a later stage.

A new easy to use OS/X binary will come out very soon too.

We will keep you posted here

cheers,
Benno

[marvotron]

so the GS stuff can only alter the tuning of the 12 notes in one octave which is then repeated across the whole keyboard?

it would be good if there was support for scala .scl files, afaik there arent any samplers which provide good microtuning support. (i.e. just load a .scl / .tun file)

even .tun files would be ok. also i think that would probably be easier to implement as its just a map of midi note numbers to frequencies, unlike scl files which can mix ratio and frequency info but dont have any specific keyboard mapping info inside.

also what would be great is if the tuning could be set both globally and per-patch with a switch to choose between the global tuning and the patch tuning.

[sbenno]

marvotron:

Yes the GS scale tuning is repeated across all keys.
We introduced it because there was an user wanting to play oriental music.

adding the features you suggested is not hard. perhaps a sysex which specifies the frequency (or frequency ratio) for each key would be the easiest to do.
but is there really a need to tune each key separately ?
what is the typical scenario where this is needed ?

PS:
we are going to release an updated easy to use version of LinuxSampler for OS X PPC/intel soon but we would need some testers, especially on mac/intel boxes before releasing it.
If you want to partecipate please PM me or write me a mail
my email addr is here:
http://www.linuxsampler.org/developers.html

thanks,
Benno

[tamahome]

He probably wants more than 12 notes per octave. Maybe you can implement the Midi Tuning Standard Robert Rich helped formulate?

[marvotron]

marvotron:

Yes the GS scale tuning is repeated across all keys.
We introduced it because there was an user wanting to play oriental music.

adding the features you suggested is not hard. perhaps a sysex which specifies the frequency (or frequency ratio) for each key would be the easiest to do.
but is there really a need to tune each key separately ?
what is the typical scenario where this is needed ?

im by no means an expert on microtuning, im just trying to get into it, but I would say that any scale that uses more than 12 notes per octave would need a different implementation.

take 19-tet as a start

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_equal_temperament

of course you dont have to divide the octave into equal parts, you dont even have to have octaves..

theres a whole universe which exists outside of 12 notes per octave and i think having .scl support would really open that up.

[keyman_sam]

I have a few suggestions :

1). The display of "GIG", and the loading status - "100%" as shown in the screen is unnecessary in the channel pane. You could eliminate both these, and cut the space required by each channel into half. When you do this, you can display more than 16 channels in the same window.

i).You could make it such that the loaded status is shown in the same line as the instrument name, and then when it reaches 100%, it disappears.
ii). The only reason to have the GIG in there is that in the future you may have more than one engine, which is understandable. But when you click channel properties it is immediately apparent what engine you're using, so the display of GIG is redundant.

[keyman_sam]

Hey any chances of supporting .gsi and .prf files in the future? Reading .gsi files is really crucial, imo.

[rmcgowan]

[quote="marvotron"]
it would be good if there was support for scala .scl files, afaik there arent any samplers which provide good microtuning support. (i.e. just load a .scl / .tun file)

even .tun files would be ok.
[/quote]

Yes! I agree with the above. There are lots of VSTi modules that support .tun files and .scl files. (I prefer .tun myself for these synths so that I have ease and uniformity between all my modules, but it seems to be a religious thing with some people.)

Anyway, there ARE samplers that have good microtuning support. Wusik is one of them... well, maybe the only one! As far as I can hear Wusik implements .tun file support compatibly with everyone else who uses .tun files, so it can be used as a reference to test against.

[tamahome]

Kontakt, Dimension Pro, Fruity Loops and Shortcircuit to some extent. Astralis C & Morgana I think.

[sbenno]

Hi all,
FYI due to popular demand we opened a Forum on the LinuxSampler website.

The address is here:
http://bb.linuxsampler.org


So if you have questions about using LinuxSampler on Linux, Windows or OS X it will be the easiest place to get help directly from the developers and other users.

On the forum we are currently discussing about the new modular engine of LS so anyone is welcome to partecipate and throw in their ideas.

thanks,
Benno