MIDI WorkShop and Gigastudio

[kevin]

Are there any known incompatibilities with Gigistudio?

I'm currently evaluating the SAWstudio demos. (I've been using SAWPro and Cakewalk). Under "MIDI Device Setup" in WorkShop the Nemesys ports show up, but no data is getting thru. The other ports work OK. Am I going about setting this up wrong?

I've tried a few things like rebooting, loading GS first, etc. I doubt re-installing GS would help. SAWStudio doesn't make any registry entries, does it?

BTW, as usual, thanks for writing such excellent software and answering questions like this.

[kevin]

Never mind - it needs "Midi Short Msg Compatibility Mode" enabled!

Please disregard! (except for the thank you)

[Bob L]

Good deal, you found it. :)

Giga virtual ports do not seem to accept midi long messages which the MWS prefers to use for the performance improvement made possible by ganging multiple midi messages into one Windows function call rather than using hundreds or thousands of separate midi calls in order to deliver midi data.

The first MWS versions required the use of a midi hardware port looped back on itself to use Giga, but I later worked the short message availability into the code on a port by port basis without having to sacrifise performance on other ports that do not have a problem with midi long messages.

The MWS is a fun and powerful addition to the SAWStudio environment, although it does operate quite differently than most other sequencers you are probably familiar with... give it some time to experiment and the design might start growing on you... I am always improving on it and there are many more updates due to come out for it.

The main focus in the current versions has been performance... the timing of the engine and the repeatable sync performance is where most of my energy has gone so far... and I am extremely happy with the results... still much more to come as it continues to evolve. :)

Bob L

[TotalSonic]

The main focus in the current versions has been performance... the timing of the engine and the repeatable sync performance is where most of my energy has gone so far... and I am extremely happy with the results... still much more to come as it continues to evolve. :)

Bob L

Bob -
I guess the 2 biggest things that I would like to see in MWS are a Score view and a Pattern/Loop/Drum view. Being trained to read music from an early age I just find that a score view gives me a lot more info a lot quicker than piano roll type of views - and I know a number of people involved in film scoring that have the same requirement of a score view for any sequencer they choose (which otherwise I think film scoring is an area I think SAW is perfect for). I also work a lot with loop based production for things like hip-hop and house/techno - and while I feel MWS serves linear production needs very well the lack of a pattern view and being able to load, move & chop patterns quickly in MWS makes it not suitable for my midi production needs currently. I'm hoping you could introduce these in MWS 1.5 so I could jump on board - currently I'm thinking of getting Cubase SE ($99) and tieing it to SAW via MTC to replace my "ancient" Winjammer Pro - although I'd prefer to use an MWS that had score and pattern views.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Bob L]

Steve,


Both of those options would be nice to have.

The score view, of course, can get very involved as music scoring is an intense subject when you get down to details and nuances of displaying music notation. I have no desire at this time to get into the depths of notation, but I have thought about a simple view for reference, not for outputting notation as finished scoring... I think I'll leave that to the full fledged notation programs like Seballius and the others. :)

I have never really been a fan of loop based editors, even way back when I first saw Notator on the Atari... I've always enjoyed the linear mode, especially for film and video scoring, because I enjoy seeing the production layed out visually in front of me. I am experimenting with some chunk type editing features in the MWS which will help enhance laying out loop sections in a linear fashion... we'll see where it all goes.

Bob L

[TotalSonic]

Bob -
I certainly wouldn't want you to try and put in everything the Sibelius people did for a score view!! - I just want to be able to view and edit in the midi info as a score - not do fancy notation printing.

I'm wondering if Dan McKee who wrote WinJammer would be willing to share the code for his score view & editing with you - I think he did a great job in this area - and it seems senseless to have to reinvent the wheel for this kind of thing.
Last time I tried to contact him in hopes that I could continue distribution of WinJammer, he was very reticent to talk and seem totally pretty much done with any involvement in the audio-soft world - although maybe you have a better in than I do.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[TotalSonic]

Steve,

I have never really been a fan of loop based editors, even way back when I first saw Notator on the Atari... I've always enjoyed the linear mode, especially for film and video scoring, because I enjoy seeing the production layed out visually in front of me. I am experimenting with some chunk type editing features in the MWS which will help enhance laying out loop sections in a linear fashion... we'll see where it all goes.

Bob L

That'd be a nice start. Anyway - I essentially have to deal with loop based music all the time in order to pay the rent so I use Orion Platinum which is designed for loops specifically to deal with these. This is the reason I've also been begging for ReWire support - because while I love the ease of getting the loops sequenced in Orion I hate mixing in it and would prefer to do all mixing in SAW.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Bob L]

I can understand how he might feel that way. :D

If I decide to tackle the simple notation view, I would most likely need to write the code from scratch anyway... most code does not share well with my style of programming.. It usually takes longer for me to figure out and then fit the code into my application than to just write it myself.

Of course if anyone has a great Time Compression algorithm they would like to share... I'd be happy to spend the time fitting it into the program. :)

Bob L

[TotalSonic]

Of course if anyone has a great Time Compression algorithm they would like to share... I'd be happy to spend the time fitting it into the program. :)

Bob L

I think between Delay Dots DX freeware "Pitchworks" - http://www.delaydots.com/xproducts.html#pitchworks
& the Sony Time Compress/Expand that is part of their XFX1 DX suite - $35 from http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=7
the Time Compression is already pretty happening in the SAW environment for those that want it - although I'd love to have a native implementation too!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Yura]

Hi!

as here about MWS, I only felt there I shortage of something. and I find it "something" apeared to be STEP MODE RECORDING. I mean non realtime recording from MIDI keyboard to input.

I Used the demo MWS for creating one of my adertisment roller fo TV of
30 seconds long so I been contained to demo limit and there was a splandid satisfaction of stabiliti of 3 days of hard work no one hang. i did my usual test before to work with a MIDI extra loading and it was perfect (playback chords of 20 packed notes sequensed by 32-th and record it via analog, and after it measuring an average fluctuation of resulting 32-ths). I say to novices, not all saquensers can bear that test!

Y.O.