Bandstand Questions?

Just hoping someone will have the patience to answer a few questions for me. Thanks.

1) How much better is Bandstand than Roland VSC. That's what I currently use to play my midi files and it is pretty cheesy.

2) I am looking for a simple standalone midi player with decent samples. I am guessing Bandstand will do the job. How are the guitar samples?

3) Will Bandstand map my midi files to the proper instrument when loaded? or do I have to assign each track to an instrument sample?

4) Can I use an external midi device to trigger Bandstand's samples?

5) I there anyway to expand the sample library? Such as software like Sample Tank.

6) Were there any versions proir to the one I can buy from stores now?

Thanks for your time. I appreciate it!
Keith

 

1. The difference is a matter of opinion, but listen to the demos of the Bandstand software to form your own opinion.

2. Pretty good, I think! But again -- a matter of opinion.

3. Not sure what your question is.

4. Yes.

5. No, Bandstand is its own sample library. If you want more, you might want to look at Kontakt (its big brother), or any of the numerous sample libraries available for Kontakt.

6. If you buy it in a store, you are then eligible to download the latest version (which is just bugfixes and added compatibility) free from the NI site.

 

can i use the digidesign Xpand and strike RTAS as an addition to my sound library? how?

thanks

 

1) Loads, miles, years, whatever term you want. The step up from VSC is just amazingly huge. It is the first GM soft synth I've ever come across that can reliably sound better than my Edirol SD-20 (current generation of the Roland SoundCanvas). If you want a demo post a link to a MIDI and I'll run it through Bandstand so you can hear what it'd sound like (I can also post an SD-20 version for comparison if you like). I think you'll find it just annihilates the VSC. Remember that the VSC has a total sample set of around 8MB. Most Bandstand instrument are bigger than that, it has a 2.5GB sample set.

2) Should do the job, the stand alone player works fine. The electric guitar samples are acceptable. I've never found a sampled electric guitar that I consider truly good, to get that I find you have to generate an unmodified sound and then run it through an amp simulator. However, as far as these things go, they are pretty good in Bandstand.

3) No need to do any mapping. By default bandstand responds to all MIDI requests including instrument change, volume, pan, effects sends and so on. You can change the options so that it won't if you need that for any reason, but by default you load a MIDI, and it'll do everything the MIDI tells it. It also responds to most of the GS/XG calls. It doesn't have the additional instruments, but it'll do other things asked of it (and does have additional drum kits).

4) Ya that works just fine. Though personally if you are going to do that, I'd recommend loading a sequencer (like Cakewalk Sonar) and loading bandstand in that. However it takes MIDI directly, just tell it what to listen on.

5) It isn't designed for it. Looking at the architecture of the program it might be possible if you messed around with the files (the instruments all seem to be normal nki definitions and wave samples) but it really isn't made for it. Better to just load up a sequencer and then use that to assign individual instruments to either Bandstand or to another sampler.

6) No prior versions, this is the first one.

At any rate, I really recommend Bandstand if you are looking for General MIDI software. GM has really fallen out of favour these days and this is the first piece of software I've seen that does a really good job of it. I bought my SD-20 a number of years ago precisely because I couldn't find any good GM software, I'd been using a SB Audigy 2 and SoundFonts prior to that. Bandstand is the first time I've found software that I'd consider all around better. I've found better samples for given instruments, of course, and sometimes GM synths that have some good features, but never a whole package that could outdo the SD-20. Bandstand is it, and it was well worth the cash.

 

As sycraft said the difference is huge.

I should also add that BANDSTAND gives a better and more uniform sound than Garageband or Logic8 do when you import MIDI files into those programs and use their built in ( EXS24 ) General MIDI instrument collection.