linuxsampler-devel

[Linuxsampler-devel] Questions - Audio channels & MIDI ports vs. MIDI channels

[Mark K. <mk...@co...>]

Hi,
    I'm just starting to set up a few files to automatically load 
multiple gig files. I want to check with you all something about the way 
LS presents itself to qjackctl. (Or probably more accurately to Jack)

    I'm using the following script:


GET CHANNELS

ADD CHANNEL
SET CHANNEL AUDIO_OUTPUT_TYPE 0 JACK
SET CHANNEL MIDI_INPUT_TYPE 0 ALSA
SET CHANNEL MIDI_INPUT_CHANNEL 0 1
LOAD ENGINE gig 0
LOAD INSTRUMENT 
/home/mark/data/samples/Gigs/Drones/04DramaDrones/45DroneArcheol
ogy.gig 0 0
SET CHANNEL VOLUME 0 1.4

ADD CHANNEL
SET CHANNEL AUDIO_OUTPUT_TYPE 1 JACK
SET CHANNEL MIDI_INPUT_TYPE 1 ALSA
SET CHANNEL MIDI_INPUT_CHANNEL 1 10
LOAD ENGINE gig 1
LOAD INSTRUMENT /home/mark/data/samples/Gigs/Drums/Wizzo/Ambience Kit 
XXL.gig 0
1
SET CHANNEL VOLUME 1 1.4

GET CHANNELS


All indications in the two LS terminals are that things are working 
correctly, but when I look at LS inside of qjackctl I see the following 
that I want to ask questions about:

1) I get only a single pair of audio outputs, not the two separate pairs 
I might have expected. Is LS currently mixing the output of all engines 
into a single stereo output pair or is the second engine not there at 
all? I think they should be separate so that I can send them to 
different signal processing chains.

2) I only get a single MIDI port inside the MIDI connections page of 
qjackctl. This may be correct as I think qjackctl doesn't show me what 
is hooked to each MIDI channel, but I want to check that this is the 
expected operation. If this is expected then can I somehow create 
separate ports for each loaded instrument, and even nicer, can I somehow 
name these ports so that connections to them become more user friendly?

I also noticed that LS is picky about what channel numbers I use. For 
instance, if there isn't a channel 0 then I cannot assign an engine to 
channel 1. I don't know if this is intended or a bug, but it seems 
likely that later we'll want to be adding and dropping channels as we 
use the sampler and it would be good to just allow the user to use any 
unique number instead of an incremental one. Just a thought.

I haven't made much sound yet. Just getting started...

Thanks,
Mark

Re: [Linuxsampler-devel] Questions - Audio channels & MIDI ports vs. MIDI channels

[Christian S. <chr...@ep...>]

Es geschah am Dienstag, 18. Mai 2004 19:57 als Mark Knecht schrieb:
> 1) I get only a single pair of audio outputs, not the two separate pairs
> I might have expected. Is LS currently mixing the output of all engines
> into a single stereo output pair or is the second engine not there at
> all? I think they should be separate so that I can send them to
> different signal processing chains.

Yes, they're simply mixed at the moment, but audio and MIDI driver 
configuration (including what you want) is in work.

>
> 2) I only get a single MIDI port inside the MIDI connections page of
> qjackctl. This may be correct as I think qjackctl doesn't show me what
> is hooked to each MIDI channel, but I want to check that this is the
> expected operation. If this is expected then can I somehow create
> separate ports for each loaded instrument, and even nicer, can I somehow
> name these ports so that connections to them become more user friendly?

Currently: no, no
Very soon: yes and yes

> I also noticed that LS is picky about what channel numbers I use. For
> instance, if there isn't a channel 0 then I cannot assign an engine to
> channel 1. I don't know if this is intended or a bug, but it seems

Intended

> likely that later we'll want to be adding and dropping channels as we
> use the sampler and it would be good to just allow the user to use any
> unique number instead of an incremental one. Just a thought.

For what purpose? The sampler channel number is only meant as an unique ID to 
distinguish the sampler channels.

CU
Christian

Re: [Linuxsampler-devel] Questions - Audio channels & MIDI ports vs. MIDI channels

[Mark K. <mk...@co...>]

Christian Schoenebeck wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> Yes, they're simply mixed at the moment, but audio and MIDI driver 
> configuration (including what you want) is in work.

Great!

> 
> Currently: no, no
> Very soon: yes and yes

Cool!

>>I also noticed that LS is picky about what channel numbers I use. For
>>instance, if there isn't a channel 0 then I cannot assign an engine to
>>channel 1. I don't know if this is intended or a bug, but it seems
> 
> 
> Intended

Hum....
> 
> 
>>likely that later we'll want to be adding and dropping channels as we
>>use the sampler and it would be good to just allow the user to use any
>>unique number instead of an incremental one. Just a thought.
> 
> 
> For what purpose? 

For what purpose would it be good to be able to use any number? I had 
the 2-channel script I presented in the start of this thread. I just cut 
it in half to test the MIDI channel 10 item and wasn't allowed to do 
this since it was using sampler channel 1. I was forced to change it to 0.

For what purpose would I be adding and dropping channels? Possibly I'm 
doing a performance where a certain voice is used early but then not use 
later. I want to remove this voice and all loaded samples from memory to 
free up the resources. Possibly there's a command for doing this that 
leave the sampler channel in place? If so what is it?

My original thought was that I'd do this by just killing the channel but 
you've probably got a more elegant solution I haven't discovered yet.

> The sampler channel number is only meant as an unique ID to 
> distinguish the sampler channels.

If it's *only* intended to be unique then why can't the first one be 1 
or 5? It would seem to me that if I attempt to reuse the number then LS 
could tell me the number is in use, couldn't it?

Thanks!

Mark