Initial impressions and wishlist for next version

1) In some sequencers - when the Bandstand window is active, pressing the space bar is causing the MIDI file player to be invoked instead of the expected sequencer transport being started/stopped. Please can we have an option in BANDSTAND to disable keyboard input - when run inside a sequencer, as opposed to stand alone.

2) It would be very useful to be able to assign our own Kontakt instrument bank to any of the 128 instruments. For example to replace the Piano 1 with a much larger and better quality piano.

I tried this by copying the standard Kontakt II Steinway library and patch - renaming the nki filename to the 001 - Piano 1 - this "almost" works - except the chorus, reverb,volum and pan controls become disabled. I think at the very least, BANDSTAND should be modified to allow it to replace an instrument with a ( appropriately renamed ) Kontakt II instrument and sample set.

3) The Piano is very poor considering the disk streaming available. I can hear the looping. Surely it would have been better to include the same pianos as in Kontakt. I have the GM500 GM set originally created for Gigasampler. On there they provided GigaPiano which sounded much better. The Jazz and acoustic guitars are also poor.

4) Provide an option to "pre-load" ALL 128 instrument NKI's and the leading edges of their sample sets - in RAM - either on loading BANDSTAND, or by clicking a button. This is for those of use who have plenty of RAM ( 2Gigs or more ) . It would eliminate all the delays and hiccups currently seen when playing big MIDI files.

 

Another really useful feature would be to be able to save the loaded MIDI file including any changes made to settings, such as pan, levels, instruments inside Bandstand. Often the orginal MIDI needs adjusting to suit the GM module.

Just downloaded and tried out the 1.01 upgrade and it definitely improves things. Love the playlist feature.

 

(1) Why are there no tool tips?? I have to press items to find out what they do!! Strange oversight.

(2) Is it possible to make a change that allows you to grab a corner and pull it in to make the Bandstand window smaller when you wish (i.e. everything in the window smaller - not just lost off the edges)? It's a pretty window but often I want to keep it in view but not taking up so much screen real estate.

(3) Bandstand does not work properly in Band In A Box. I have 2Gb of memory and I get the most dreadful hangs and have had to cold boot my PC many times. I still can't get things to work. Did NI test Bandstand with BIAB I wonder? Is it BIAB's fault? It's a shame because the BIAB community is large, uses GM almost exclusively and was looking forward to the release of Bandstand.

(4) The manual is simply dreadful, guys. There are cross references that don't refer, and worst of all an important reference on page 23 to optimizing your PC latency - refer to Appendix A and there is no Appendix A !!!!!!!!! And what on earth is all that nonsense about the history of even temperment and scales???? We can Google that if we want it. What we need are facts and help running Bandstand.

Summary: I like the sounds a lot, and the GUI is first class. But it's a product that is so clunky and irritating to use at present I don't think I can continue with it until some changes are made. This is the first NI product I've bought and I must say I expected more from a company with a good reputation in the soft synth field. I fear the likes of Sound On Sound may give it a hammering when they review it. Sorry.

 

if youre talking about running it as a plugin inside BIAB on Windows, then the problem is mainly PG music and BIAB itself for the rubbish way in which it currently implemented Virtual Instrument hosting.

 

Hi all,

many good ideas and questions!

1) hotkeys are now disabled in hosts in the 1.0.1 update

2) yes, I noticed that NKIs are currently playing but not hooked up correctly in the mixer; this is because we are using special scripts in the NKIs; you will have to wait for a future Kontakt update - then you can just add the missing scripts and it will work (these scripts will NOT work in Kontakt 2.0.2!)

3) feedback forwarded to sound design

4) you are right on with this one! unfortunately it's not as easy as just putting all the NKIs into a bank and then loading 15 banks; we are therefore completely redoing this for the next update! 1GB should then be enough to run stand-alone

5) glad that you like the update yes, the save to SMF feature was in the spec but then cut; would say we can do it for the next update ot the one after that 4) is more important in my mind

6) tool tips are indeed missing! trying to get them in soon

7) smooth window resizing is not possible with out current GUI technology, sorry! however, we can think about defined smaller views for one of the next updates

8) I believe BIAB only added the VST feature recently, right? during Bandstand planning it was not considered a factor since it depended on system MIDI drivers; all other VST hosts worked well in test

9) feedback forwarded to the manual author

Skyline, please try it stand-alone on your system after installing the 1.0.1 update!


Best,
Markus

 

Markus,
Many thanks. I have the upgrade, thanks. And I'm just downloading the latest BIAB upgrade with VST support.

The stand alone version works fine. Can I send Band In A Box output to Bandstand in stand alone mode? How could I do that?

Regards
John

 

Hi John,

I believe people use virtual MIDI cables for this purpose. try Googling for "MIDI Yoke". Then set the same virtual MIDI cable as the output in BIAB and the input in Bandstand.

There is also a very insteresting group of people in the forum below. They will know for sure. If you ask them, can you please also point them to the new forum here?

http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/012151-3.html


Best,
Markus

p.s.: the above assumes you are on a PC. there are similar free products for the Mac.

 

Done.
I have a PC. I'll try midi-yoke, thanks.

 

Hi John,

I like the demo you posted in the other forum. do you want to post it here as well?

let us know how MIDI Yoke works out for you and any tricks!


Best,
Markus

 

Hallo Markus,

As a brandnew user of Bandstand, may I also pray for some priority for the save function in the stand-alone version (of 're-arranged' midi files) (and then to export them e.g. to my stage-piano) ? I know it's perfect possible (but rather complex) in a sequencer, and Bandstand looks to me to be so user-friendly as a midi-player ... (for instance the autoconversion facility into an audio (wav) file, it may be important to go on to improve those facilities ...
Some other users also asked for 'import' facilities. I find it so pity not to be able the import e.g. the samples of (your own) acoustic piano ...

Kind regards from BE

Luc

 

Here's the link to my demo:
http://www.moviepostercollector.tsohost.co.uk/skyline/LA_PBAL.mp3

It's purely a Band In The Box style demo which I exported as a midi file to Sonar and then rendered to audio. The only 'sweetening' was a slight use of Wave Arts' FinalPlug - http://www.wavearts.com/FinalPlug5.html

Midi Yoke: Works like a dream! No problems using Bandstand with Band In A Box this way. Both work absolutely fine.

BIAB Technical Support have told me they're buying a copy of Bandstand and will work on the problems their users are having with it as a Dxi/VSTi inserted within BIAB.

 

'Guest'??

Just wondering why I show as a 'Guest' when I fully registered my copy of Bandstand and other forum members show as 'Owners'?

 

Hi John,

thanks for sharing the demo and the news! I will give MIDI Yoke another try then. before I could not get it to work on Windows XP.

I have to check with the forum operators about the Guest status on Monday.


Hi Luc,

got your scenario! I already put the export to SMF feature and the import instruments feature on the prio list for the next update. import would probably be restricted to NKIs for now i.e. Kontakt based libraries. would that suffice? this would, of course, include basically every sample instruments format out there since Kontakt 2 can import those...

I also would like to make Bandstand the one-in-all solution for all things SMFs!

keep those scenarios coming - they are the best way to convince our managers that we need resources for the next free updates ;-)


Best,
Markus

 

For a future version - how about not only allowing us to set our own Kontakt instruments for any patch, but also actually allow any patch to replaced by a different plugin VI !!!!!

In other words add the ability to host an AU or VST plugin for a particular patch. Hosting within a plugin - weird i know but very useful.

For example the rhodes patches could then be optionally replaced with Lounge Lizard or FM7, and the hammond patch with B4 etc.

there would have to be a facility to specify which patch to select for the VI -for example we might want a particular B4 patch to be selected for whenever the midi Organ1 patch was requested in a song.

 

Hi Dstenning,

yup, that would be perfect I have it on my wish list as well!

albeit, that would be a major architecture change for the application - so not something we could do for a free 1.x update anytime soon.


Best,
Markus

 

Hello Markus,

I'm not (yet) an user of Kontakt, as I own an (older) version of Halion, but I do understand your policy of course!

Have a nice (further) weekend over there

Luc
BE

 

Once you do though - say in v 2.0 i think you'll have huge interest and a true winner on your hands . it will be one of a kind - not just another sound module or yet another synth.

 

I just wanted to say how disappointed I am in the quality of the guitars in Bandstand. Almost everything else is spectacular for a general Midi product, but the Guitars are really not any better than most of the lesser products that I have used in the past.

I want to also say that I am very grateful for NI's willingness to work with PG Music to correct and improve the integration of Bandstand with Band in a Box. Once they work together properly I will become an evangelist for Bandstand at my live performances.

 

Hi Steelrain,

yup, we are aware that the Guitar sounds do not find any appreciation amongst the Bandstand users. they are the first on our list to be replaced.

thanks for your otherwise encouriging feedback! the combination of Bandstand and BIAB is indeed a fascinating scenario.


Best,
Markus

 

A Polyphonic limiter. If the song have 256 voice, it should stay at 256 voice and not overpassed it.