Lite version? [was: What a $$$!]

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Zeus,

Can you (or anyone else) recommend a few of these more expensive modules that you use. I must admit I thought the Hypercanvas MP3 that Tomgadd posted was streets ahead of the BS version, so if you are saying there are products (with that ease of use) that can go a step above, I'd be interested in exploring them even if they are more expensive. (Just goes to show how subjective all of this is however, because Frank Rosenthal thought the BS one was better - maybe my ears need re-training)

Many thanks,

mark.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Mark
Here are the midi files:
http://www.moviepostercollector.tsohost.co.uk/skyline/ABRA.MID
http://www.moviepostercollector.tsohost.co.uk/skyline/LA_PBAL_1.MID
http://www.moviepostercollector.tsohost.co.uk/skyline/Ashant1.mid

These midi files are style demos from Band In A Box that I exported to Sonar where I loaded Bandstand. Apart from twiddling with pan, volume, reverb and chorus, the only treatment was a slight dose of WaveArts' FinalPlug on the final audio.

Goes to show how personal tastes are vastly different - I thought that Bandstand violin was 100% convincing and just like the real thing! You really have to pity these software designers..

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Thanks again, Skyline.

And Band in a Box - now we're talking!! I honestly think that is a great little product and tremendous value too. Although I can just imagine the 'pros' rolling their eyes skyward at this point. Maybe NI should create a User forum 'lite' and not let me log on to the proper one?

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Being a guitarist BIAB is a great tool for doing my bass, strings and brass parts when I'm writing songs. A much under rated tool. I put it through Bandstand via midi yoke and Bandstand behaves itself as it's in stand alone mode.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

An interesting test would be to program a midifile with bandstand as the source. After it was mixed and sounding great (which is what a programmer would do anyway), then play the midifile back thru the hypercanvas etc. I wonder how it would sound? Would the difference the same as the complaints people seem to be making now? I too have to adjust the levels etc with Bandstand if I want to useit, but hey I'm a geek and love fiddling with this sort of thing.

Colin

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

As far as I am concerned the sounds in Bandstand are decent enough. Where it becomes an issue is that it is increasingly difficult to operate with it on a consistent basis. I have had BS now for a couple of weeks and it has got great potential but it's a dog's breakfast at the moment. Sometimes it decides to load files, sometimes it doesn't, one goes crazy trying to work out what works when and what doesn't etc.

NI need to get it happening in an optimal manner. I agree that a lite version would help to start off with. It's a memory hog and it still doesn't offload unused memory as well as it possibly could. Loading of samples is too long and I could go on but I'd be just repeating what's already been said.

Needless to say it's an expensive beta. One hopes that NI rewards the early adopters and feedback gatherers in some manner down the track. A better version of BS asap will be reward enough for me.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

I personally agree with this statement, but taste is such a personnal linked thing. And a number of improvements have already been promised by Markus, aren't they.
May I add another point of consideration to those who find the sounds in BS not great at all ..... I listened recently to the demo files of the Yamaha Tyros 2. Why do they sound so great, so real (at least, some of them, not all sounds are demo'd) and why do (in the comaparison files) the sounds of the Tyros I , sound so 'thin' ...... But so many people purchased the Tyros I at that time, and those I spoke to seemed satisfied at that time. Where they wrong then?
Kind regards
Luc
BE

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Sorry, just trying to help, I don't even own or am intrested in Bandstand.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Colin,

Great idea! It had occurred to me that the Band in a Box midi files are somehow optimised for VSC (bundled with BIAB) and HyperCanvas/Super Quartet (flogged in their web site). I wouldn't have the patience to do that myself (and am already spending too much time on this forum!) but if you ever got round to doing it I would love to try out the MIDI file.

Cheers.

Mark.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Hello kurtkurt,

we are sorry to hear your criticism,
do you use the 1.0.1 Update?

It would be helpful to know more about your points to improve the software in further versions.

Does your criticism pertain to sound, performance, usability?

Thank you in advance for informing us about details.

best regards
tom schneider
NI Product Manager

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

I have to say - even though I am excited about BANDSTAND and use it for practising jazz, hypercanvas beats it in other areas - specially on POP tunes. One only has to play back the example MIDI files provided with HC ( the Earth wind and fire tunes ) through BS to see where BS needs to be "tweaked". But i believe it is only a matter of just that - tweaking and evolving the sample set. Im sure soon all the sound details will be addressed.

Hypercanvas only uses a 20MB wavetable after all.

Other posters probably think BS beats HC maybe because they are using the "jazz" or simple "country" type styles, where i would agree BS does sound better.

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

hi,

www.mira-multimedia.de/ablage/Bandstanddemo1.mp3

here you heare a 32 MB Soundcanvas from 4 Years ago.

greatings

 

Hi all,

thank you for all your comments during the last week!

on one hand many reviews and users seem quite happy with the current sound set.

on the other hand, we do realize the need for a smaller soundset with fast loading times and better MIDI sound in the mix.

we are therefore currently evaluating various short-term and mid-term options that have also been mentioned in related threads. a special lite sound set, support for user sound sets, and eventually an optimized version of the current soundset are on the table.


Best,
Markus

 

I just want to die.

I gave up the chance to buy an external hardware module for only a little bit more than the price of Bandstand. I might consider Bandstand "OK" if it were'nt for one serious flaw: changing patches from within the song.

Nothing is worse than a 5-second delay in the middle of the song because you switched from Piano to Organ. There's only 16 channels to work with, so patch changes are inevitable.

This is simply no good for my needs. What's worse, the shop won't take back the software (understandably) so I don't have ANYTHING I can use any more. So I'm screwed unless NI is willing to take back the software for refund. I'll even pay a restocking fee! PLEASE!

 

Just curious - What the heck did you buy it for??

I'm not sure why you need patch changes or more than 16 channels for live use. It seems a little excessive. I think the patch loading issue will be taken care of in a future update, so you probably just need to be patient.

I use it live, and absolutely love it.

Tom Esson

 

I don't do anything live. I useit on my studio computer to compose - and I tend to compose some pretty intricate stuff.

I intended for this to be what it was advertised as: a replacement for a General MIDI synthesizer. Except it doesn't work with software (eg: a game or program that calls on MIDI data.)

The updated patch helped a bit. I HATE, HATE, HATE the balance issues though! The drums are almost always drowned out and weak! Trumpet is probably the worst sound of the bunch. the panic button "!" needs to remove the sustain pedal that holds down dozens of notes (great for pianos/guitars, vile for everything else.) Panic button is supposed to remove that - but this one doesn't - it stops the stuck notes but as soon as you hit play again, they just start piling on again.

I want a refund and I want it soon before someone else buys that Edirol module and I'm REALLY up the creek!

 

Re: What a waste of money!!!!!

Don't know what you are talking about here. I just sold my Yamaha Rack es because Bandstand absolutely sounds better. Looks to me like you don't know how to work with midi files, mixing, changing instruments, and such. I have now converted about 100 songs and couldn't be happier. The thousand dollar Motif sounded good, but good in the way that driect recorded guitar sounds good through a pod. Bandstand sounds like REAL instruments recorded in REAL rooms. The guitars are the oly thing I don't like, and I mean only the electrics. The Nylon sounds good to me, but the Motif didn't do good electrics either. As for bass, the pick bass is TEN TIMES better than anything on the Motif. It is fat and round, with just a little edge. Also, why would someone not be able to use it live? I am doing that next week, and I am using it right here day after day while changing my songs over to it. It's working great. No problems, or nothing that I haven't figured out how to overcome, and I am only using 512 megs of ram, and using an Audigy card so I am being forced to use 48000 sample rate with that 512 ram, and it still works fine. The sound are very nice to me, you just gotta know how to mix and how to manipulate midi files.

Again, why is it that anyone here cannot use it live? Why not?

Jeff