problems with bandstand

Hi
My name is Nick and I am a teacher at University of Miami School of Music.... MIDI Lab
I recently got Bandstand and have only problems with it. My setup is Powerbook G4 1.5 GHz and 1.5 GB RAM and Tiger 10.4.3.
Bandstand version 1.0.1.013 (if that is the newset version)
Max voices 256
buffer size 122
I tried it with built in aidio interface, Motu Traveller and RigKontrol2 with the same result.
I am trying to play different Standard MIDI Files in stand alone mode,
(they don't use all 16 MIDI chanels). The result is:
starts play fine and then stops, crackles and noises etc...starts again..
totaly useless..

 

Hi Nick,

sorry about this bad impression!

did you try setting the latency of your soundcard to at least 20 ms?


Best,
Markus

 

Hi Markus
I just tried with 22 ms latency and some MIDI files with less used MIDI chanels went without stops but those with more than 12 MIDI chanels did the same stops.
My goal is to be able to let standard MIDI file play as background for my singing and playing guitar with Guiar Rig 2 which than in case of 20 ms latency is useless. Do you think that this goal is doable!?
Nick

 

Hi Nick,

I understand where you are coming from.

unfortunately I do not think that this is possible with your current setup at this point. we are working on improvements for an update, though.


Best,
Markus

 

Not to sound like a preacher about this, but is Bandstand on your system drive? If so, forget about getting decent latency, it's too busy handling other tasks. Even external USB2 and Firewire drives are better than putting the softsynths on the system drive.

Also have to say "thanks", I learned something about designing a softsynth GM instrument from this. Generally, the long latency of a background instrument is not a problem since it only affects the startup time. Once things are rolling all is well since the performer is in sync with the output audio rather than the input midifile. This could be useful since the GM synth will need more polyphony than a typical "solo" softsynth. Unfortunately there is only one latency setting so if one is also using a solo softsynth like Guitar Rig, B4 or AP, the performer is forced to go for the shortest possible latency which puts high demands on the GM softsynth.

(Note the I don't have Bandstand so the concept below may already be implemented)

Since I haven't gotten into VST or audio coding I have to wonder: In Forte', under latency, the buffers are depicted by both quantity and size, as in "1x128". Since this is the case, could Bandstand have a multiple buffer setting so that real time softsynths would use the normal "1x" setting but Bandstand would use, say, "4x"?

Let's assume that basic latency setting is 2.5 ms and Bandstand set to 4 buffers. If I understand this right the basic effect would be a 2.5ms latency on the solo instruments and a 10 ms latency in Bandstand. Since Bandstand is not real-time the effect would be a 10 ms delay between depressing the start key and Bandstand emitting sound. Not likely to be a burden. At the same time the 10ms Bandstand latency would cut it a lot of slack, hopefully with an improvement in polyphony and effects handling. And, in your case, Guitar Rig would still have 2.5ms latency.

Ernie

 

Hi Ernie,

excellent comment! I had the same thought when we realized that Bandstand can use quite some latency values depending on your hardware.

I got a negative answer from our developers last time - but I will bring up the question again. normally after a while developers get more creative ;-)

I wanted to take this chance to thank you for your great posts on the sampling line forums! you are one of the top contributors with great ideas and practical feedback.


Best,
Markus

 

Markus, if you look at a previous post where I provide my system setup I can report that my system operates at around 2.5 or 2.9 ms without any problems. To me the variables include:

The Soundcard and its drivers.

The need to use 2 Hard Drives (one for samples - one for programs). The HDs should be operating at 7200rpm with 8mb Cache.

Fast & amount of memory helps.

The amount of stuff running in the background. My computer is tweaked just for music, only music, absolutely only music, nothing but music.....can I say it once more.

Even other components can be impacting ... poor video cards, etc.

And, of course, the music software you use can have an impact. However, I have no trouble with my system which has many complex things running at the same time (kontakt, Bandstand, effects, vocal harmonizer and B4, etc.) within forte Ensemble as the host. Yes there are some hiccups with kontakt and Bandstand.......but but but but but but no show stoppers!!!!!!!

I have been monitoring the kontakt and Bandstand forum and it seems to me that there is a need to get more information out there and who knows it may be necessary to tighten up on the system requirements a little.

I hope this helps.

Thank you

Frank L. Rosenthal

 

Hi Frank,

great feedback as well!

yup, I am thinking about a way to streamline hardware setups or at the least provide better setup tutorials.


Best,
Markus