JamOrigin - MIDI Guitar = Polyphonic Guitar to MIDI Software

Started by Charles5150, December 15, 2012, 05:18:42 AM

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Elantric

Just a hint:

On my Lenovo W510, I'm using a mSATA 256GB SSD drive to hold my whole NI Komplete 7, and all my other VSTi Romplers and Soft Synth data from Ableton Live 8, and Studio One Pro. 

Its full.

I have a separate Seagate Momentum XT 750GB boot drive for OS/ Programs, its sitting at 350GB full - but I admit I have lots of Electrical Engineering apps installed too. (Altium Designer, Protel, SolidWorks)

Lenovo W510 has 64GB RAM and Intel I7 Quad Core , which helps a lot too!

I can bring the Lenovo to the gig, then control it with an iPAD running TeamViewer VPN app.

Read this thread for todays Computer recommendations
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/


Not sure I would use a Surface Pro, as the only attraction is the touch interface, (try before you buy - Its NOT an iPAD)  while the restricted RAM at 8GB, and Restricted 128GB SSD are deal killers for a DAW/ Live Virtual rig in 2013.

mbenigni

Actually the Surface Pro only has 4G of RAM.  Based on personal experience, I could make do with 128G storage (I'd never consider the 64G version) so long as I had an external drive for backups, and a big SD card in the slot to hold non-DAW related files, e.g. my music library.  I'm more concerned about the 4G RAM and relatively slow i5 processor.

The machine I'm leaning toward right now is actually the Lenovo Yoga with 8G RAM, an i7-3537U, and a 256G SSD, with an empty bay for a second SSD if needed.  It also has a larger touchscreen - 13" vs. the Surface Pro's 10".  (This is especially notable given the 16:9 aspect ratio, which I find a little off-putting for anything other than watching films... which I have no interest in doing on a 10" or 13" screen.  No idea where the fascination with widescreen on tiny devices has come from.  It's one point where I think Apple has the right idea with the 4:3 iPad, where you can, for instance, look at a PDF of an 8.5x11" chart and make decent use of the on-screen real estate.  What I'd really like is a 13" 4:3 touchscreen for exactly this reason.)

The only thing the Surface Pro has going for it in this analysis is form factor, build quality, and "sex appeal".  It's built like a tank, and fit and finish are just... cool.  But in all practical terms the Lenovo comes out ahead.  I'm on the fence.  I've got a lot of experience with laptops FAR slower than even the Surface Pro, so I know what I'm getting myself into.  It's just a question of which itch to scratch: fastest/most powerful vs. portable/asthetically pleasing.

QuoteLenovo W510 has 64GB RAM
You're running 64G of RAM?!?  Or is that the maximum supported?  That is just insane.

Elantric

I run 64GB ram - since its under $200 for the upgrade.

(even less today)
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-12800-204-Pin-Modules-CT2C8G3S160BM/dp/B008LTBJFW/ref=pd_cp_pc_1

Have 32GB RAM in my Lenovo W510 and 64GB DDR3 Ram in my 2011 iMac 27" I7 3.4GHz Quad Core

mbenigni

Wow, that is a lot of RAM.   :)  My PC at home only has 6G in it!  I've been running 64-bit OS's for a while, but nothing ever convinced me there would be a benefit in going as high as 64G.

As for the Yoga vs. the Surface Pro, the difference in CPU speeds are significant, but quantifiable at least.  The one thing I'm having a hard time judging is how performance will be impacted with 4G RAM vs. 8G, especially given an SSD to (somewhat) alleviate performance hits incurred by paging.  It's a shame that Surface Pro can't be upgraded beyond 4G, and I believe the Yoga is maxed out at 8G.  The price paid for "thin and light".

Elantric

To feed myself, I Rely on VMWare. 90% of the time I'm using a 2001 era version of Protel 99 SE to design PC boards, and it flat refused to run on any OS newer than Win XP. So I use Windows 7 Pro 64bit as my Main OS, and run VMWare Player and assign a full 4GB RAM just for the Virtual WinXP Pro environment running under  VMWare Player.

I need 8GB of RAM Minimum to pull that off and run smooth.


Time is Money - With a current Quad Core Intel I7 CPU, running VMWare's virtual WinXP Environment, the performance is much faster than my old native WinXP machine from 2005

mbenigni

Yeah, it sounds like my needs are much more modest.  All my professional development work is done in an office on hardware owned by someone else (although this too is woefully outdated.)  At home the most taxing PC application is the occasional video game (which will be relegated to that old 6G Intel Q9550 tower.)  Even when I'm running Ableton it tends to be less of a DAW (I don't record much anymore) and more of an improvisation-friendly mixer/ looper/ VST host.  And that's exactly what I'd need for performance, where a small chuck-able chassis (i.e. Surface Pro) is also desirable.  But how far can I go with the "less is more" vibe before it's just less LOL.

Elantric

In my case, I'm editing Video for a monthly cable access show - Would post copy's, but bulk of Artists i film only want the video displayed on my local regional Cable show - not YouTube. )

So I have the full Adobe Cloud Create Subscription, (learning Premiere and After Effects) and Sony Vegas Pro 12, and Protools 10, use a Matrox MX02 MiniMax with H.264 Encoder for Video Editing

This all requires a higher performance PC 

Elantric

Quotewhere a small chuck-able chassis (i.e. Surface Pro) is also desirable.

I opted for a Refurb 2011 MacMini Server for that need.

Bring a small Wi-Fi Router to the gig,  Control MacMini and OSX with an iPad running iDisplay

http://www.getidisplay.com/

mbenigni

Quote from: Elantric on February 25, 2013, 11:14:58 AM
I opted for a Refurb 2011 MacMini Server for that need.

I've got a Mac Mini banging around somewhere.  I should probably hook it up as a network file share or something.  But I'm talking really chuck-able: 10 x 7 x 0.5", 2lbs, solid state, and most importantly, running on a rechargeable battery.  A single box you can throw on a music stand and plug into the PA, or the FX loop of your amp, and put to work. 

The only thing I don't have quite figured out is an elegant instrument level input and A/D/A conversion product.  On my old laptop I used an Echo Indigo I/O, but the PCMCIA slot gave way to the PC Cardbus slot and now Cardbus is disappearing.  USB is great and all, but it still means an extra box to lug and plug.

Elantric

Re ASIO4ALL - your mileage may vary.

I do not recommend ASIO4ALL - its Never going to surpass the low latency performance of the Factory ASIO Driver for your specific audio device from the manufacturer.

True ASIO4ALL can allow you to run multiple Audio Interfaces - but one of them will be forced to use the sluggish WDM driver, and your latency WILL increase using ASIO4ALL, vs. the low latency performance of the Factory ASIO Driver for your specific audio device. 

ASIO4ALL was designed to fool your pro audio software that in a pinch the Internal Audio chipset in your PC/Laptop could support a "pseudo ASIO" mode - simply so you could work with Cubase if you forgot to bring your Pro Audio Interface, but it always uses the sluggish audio round trip of the native Windows drivers.
shawnb wrote >
QuoteAll ASIO4ALL does is make WDM act kinda like ASIO.  Under the covers, it's actually WDM.  I'd suggest you remove a layer of processing & just use another driver that is sharable.   On Windows, I would experiment with whatever drivers are available - WASAPI drivers or maybe even the WDM driver.

ASIO4ALL is very, very cool.  A great idea that helped solve a problem - the author owned a product that didn't have a compatible driver for XP, so he was forced to emulate ASIO given just a WDM driver.   But folks think they're running ASIO but they're not.


http://tippach.business.t-online.de/asio4all/intro.html


GovernorSilver

Glad to have been pointed by elantric to this thread.  Sounds quite promising, especially for use with a Marcodi Harpejji - I was sorely tempted by their Thanksgiving sale which brought the price of a Harpejji G16 down to the $1600 range.  Intriguing instrument (to me) but not a practical one for installing a hex pickup for various reasons.

Elantric


GovernorSilver

I'll probably join at some point, and speak more of the Harpejji after I buy one (probably will wait until next Thanksgiving).  Suffice it to say the G1 model reflects some improvements over that original D1 design, and there are more recent demos/clips featuring Stevie Wonder and AR Rahman.

shawnb


I'm waiting to see the success of polyphonic pitch bend...   I view the guitar as a very unique controller, and want that playability xferred & controlling my chosen voice.  Heck, I use a slide on my GR gear all the time!   Once it gets that far, I'm in!   (And if the latency beats my other gear, I'm very, very sad...)

As it is, it's very, very cool.  If I were just starting, it'd be the way to go.  If folks ask how to get their feet wet & start to explore guitar synthesis, this would probably be my first recommendation actually.   Very low entry cost.   
Address the process rather than the outcome.  Then, the outcome becomes more likely.   - Fripp

polaris20

V2.0 has come out for iOS, and apparently uses the same engine as the desktop version. I've got to go to work, but will be trying this this evening. I've already got the app, but haven't used it much because the latency and glitching was a bit much.

If I can route the MIDI from that to Cubasis (which I believe I can with virtual MIDI) then this will be a very cool traveling setup for sure.

mbenigni

Concerning the VST version, what are your experiences (guitarpolson?) in terms of velocity sensitivity?  As far as I can tell, I'm getting a brick wall constant velocity from the VST (I didn't notice until I tried playing some bass guitar samples.)  Their website mentions velocity sensitivity, but I can't tell whether that's specific to the iOS version, or whether it's properly implemented in the VST beta.  Maybe I just missed a configuration setting?

audiotrax

I've been playing with this.  It's pretty amazing for what it is.  You can get SOME pretty usable results out of it (depending on your expectations.

Like all this technology getting all the levels perfectly calibrated is critical.

Having said that, it doesn't hold a candle to the tracking I get out of the Roland GR-30, especially with the Ghost MIDI pickup.
Owner of: VG-88, GI-10, Cubase 5, Kontakt, SampleTank, var VSTI's, Roland JV1080.  Strat with GK-2A, two Roland GR500 analog guitar synths

mbenigni

audiotrax, are you using the VST/AU version, or the iOS app?  Are you getting any kind of velocity sensitivity out of it?

mbenigni

Scratch the velocity-sensitivity question.  I've got it working pretty well now.  It's a matter of getting the sensitivity and velocity gains setup to complement one another properly.  Also, easy to lose track of this when some of your VSTs aren't velocity-sensitive.   ::)

Having GREAT results with pianos now.  Very happy!

Kenmac

An update on some exciting news about this software. This was posted over on the KVR forum:

"MIDI Guitar 0.7.0 beta, pre-release for KVR

This is our biggest update so far. Lots of improvements and new features.
Please let us know how it goes.

This update was a bit too long on the way. Expect monthly updates from now on. Version 0.8 scheduled for mid-june. 0.9 for mid-july. Soon after that 1.0. More on this later.

WHAT'S NEW:

Audio Recognition:
General recognition improvements.
Generally more sensitive for even better tracking of "sloppy" playing.
Latency improvements, especially at 128 samples/44.1Khz.
Bends accuracy improved.

General:
Polyphonic tuner built-in.
New plugin manager/browser.
New "Essential" mode for MIDI Guitar beginners.
New dynamics automation. Finally a MIDI Guitar where palm mutes matters! (EXPERIMENTAL).
Two new types of artificial/infinite sustain.
Independent instrument and effect channels to easily layer synths and guitar amp.
Reimplemented audio device setup in standalone version.
MIDI input channel selector in standalone version.
Audio input channel selectors in standalone version.
Removed CPU Usage meter as it was not accurate.

Bugfixes:
Fixed crash bug on Windows XP.
Fixed crash bug with some audio interfaces
Fixed font on download links in update dialog.
Fixed issue with activation of license failing in rare cases.
Fixed issue with activation of license crashing on Mac OS X 10.5.8."


There's also a link to download the latest beta but because he mentioned it's a pre-release for KVR, I'll post the link to the announcement instead:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=359095&start=675

Currently near the bottom of the page.
"Let them brush your rock and roll hair."

mbenigni

What a great surprise to come home to this.  Thanks a million for posting, Kenmac!  I don't really understand why they pre-released to KVR as opposed to just putting the beta on their own website.  I would never have known it was available, and as a paying customer I find that a little... well let's just say odd.

Anyway, it is an improvement and I was already having pretty great results with beta v0.6.  The only feature I'm really holding out for now are the custom velocity curves.  Velocity works OK now, but it's really in need of some kind of compression/expansion options.

The sustain implementation is a little tricky as well, but that's just as likely down to my personal setup, using JamOrigin as a plugin vs. standalone.

All in, awesome software, and I'm glad to see they're still actively improving it.  For a while it looked like the focus would just be on the iOS version.  Getting better results with pianos than with any hardware solution I've ever tried (though I've yet to try FTP...)

Shatner

#96
I am impressed with this software's potential now. Too bad I couldn't get it to successfully record a track with Logic or Studio One when I tried. Still a very cool start.

EDIT - I found my problem and purchased a license. I was just new at using the recording software. Go MidiGuitar Go.

Kenmac

Quote from: mbenigni on May 17, 2013, 06:04:39 AM
What a great surprise to come home to this.  Thanks a million for posting, Kenmac!  I don't really understand why they pre-released to KVR as opposed to just putting the beta on their own website.  I would never have known it was available, and as a paying customer I find that a little... well let's just say odd.

Anyway, it is an improvement and I was already having pretty great results with beta v0.6.  The only feature I'm really holding out for now are the custom velocity curves.  Velocity works OK now, but it's really in need of some kind of compression/expansion options.

The sustain implementation is a little tricky as well, but that's just as likely down to my personal setup, using JamOrigin as a plugin vs. standalone.

All in, awesome software, and I'm glad to see they're still actively improving it.  For a while it looked like the focus would just be on the iOS version.  Getting better results with pianos than with any hardware solution I've ever tried (though I've yet to try FTP...)

:) You're welcome mbenigni but even though there are some massive improvements in this software there's one drawback and that's the new function they've added for scanning VST and VSTI folders. A lot of people posting over at KVR and myself have noticed that the software will seem like it's scanning and after waiting for 20 minutes it still hasn't finished scanning the folders. At first I thought it was because I have more plugins on my main music dedicated computer than on my netbook so I tried installing it on my netbook and it's the same story.  :(  They've been told about this on KVR and they've promised there'll be an update soon. I don't know why they just didn't keep the function that allows you to load in a .dll file instead. Anyway I did try it with the test piano and the tracking and sensitivity really is better.
"Let them brush your rock and roll hair."

mbenigni

Quotethe software will seem like it's scanning and after waiting for 20 minutes...

Wow, glad I didn't head down that rabbit hole last night.  I very nearly did try to set up VSTi's in order to test the "Stack and switch to amp" sustain setting, but decided instead to mess around with MIDI controls in Ableton.  I've used JamOrigin MIDIGuitar almost exclusively as a plugin up to now, and will probably continue to do so, so problems with its own hosting capabilities won't be a problem for me.  For a change.   :)

Shatner, exactly what kind of problems did you have trying to record Logic/Studio One?  Were you running JamOrigin standalone or as a plugin, and were you trying to record MIDI, audio, or both?

Shatner

Shatner, exactly what kind of problems did you have trying to record Logic/Studio One?  Were you running JamOrigin standalone or as a plugin, and were you trying to record MIDI, audio, or both?

No success recording either way, just wanted to test it...but I was at the end of a long day with not much experience with these new (to me) DAW's and this new software.

I've just moved to Macbook Pro and used to use Cubase 5 with PC, but I'm not into losing usb ports for dongles anymore, so I got Logic Pro 9 and the Studio One that came with the FTP bundle...all pretty new to me still.

I'll try again when I'm a little fresher...But I had a good noodle with the JamOrigin in standalone and hope I can record with it so I can use a couple other guitars!