Questions not Answered By Documentation

Started by scratch17-fgn, April 01, 2013, 01:57:14 PM

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scratch17-fgn

I know that no one has had a chance to really examine the capabilities and limitations of this device as of yet. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding. It's April 1st, so (hopefully), my FTP is on the way to my dealer.

Having read the user guide, I have some concerns. The documentation is preliminary, and incomplete. I hope that is all that going on. I hope these are not design limitations with FTP.

First of all, it seems that the user guide infers that only VST format plug-ins will work with the FTP stand-alone application. In the least, only VST is mentioned in the plug-in scanning instruction sections. Is this the case, or am I making a silly assumption?

The only mention I've found of AU plug-in compatibility is the FTP application within a DAW that supports AU format, such as Garage band, Logic Pro, Presonus Studio One 2 (which is compatible  with VST and AU plug-ins). https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/Smileys/classic/huh.gif

Second, I see no mention in the user guide at all as to how the FTP hardware will show up in a host DAW. Is this totally DAW dependent?

Can the FTP assign the MIDI output from each string to a different instrument track? Is this automatic when you select Mono mode? In Poly mode, does the MIDI output for all six strings appear on one track? Can you change the MIDI channel number assigned to a string's MIDI output?

There is no mention that I can see in the documentation which shows how you assign the MIDI output from FTP's app directly to a DAW instrument track. Did I miss this? How can you edit the MIDI data if you can't export it to an instrument track in your DAW?

The FTP receiver is supposed to be USB host compliant. Accordingly, it should be seen by the DAW as a MIDI device, in the same way as a USB MIDI keyboard would be seen in the list of connected MIDI devices.

With most USB MIDI keyboards, you can select the MIDI channel(s) output by the keyboard, and the instrument tracks that will be triggered by the keyboard (by selecting the same MIDI channel(s) in the DAW, as input). You don't need a dedicated application running stand alone or as a plug-in.

Does the FTP require running its application to function? On first glance, it would seem so. From the software installation pdf:

QuoteNote that software packages marked as "required" must be installed for
your TriplePlay product to function properly.

I suppose that this line is somewhat open to interpretation. It doesn't actually say that the software must be running; it says it must be installed for the product to 'function properly'. If you think about it, the application requires the Sampletank and Komplete Elements instruments to be installed for the factory patches to 'function properly'. But there is no mention of a requirement that the FTP app be running.

So, hopefully, there will be a way to set up the FTP hardware to trigger instrument tracks in a DAW without using the FTP application. 

Speaking of the FTP application, why only four synth tracks in the mixer? I like many of the patch saving features of the app, but I'd certainly like to be able to have at least one instrument plug-in slot per string.

Here's another question. If your computer can handle the load, could you create two instrument tracks with independent instantiations of the FTP plug-in? If this is possible, could you set up different string splits on each track, and assign different virtual instruments on each instantiation of the FTP plug-in's four synth tracks?

By the way, the FTP plug-in must be classified as an effect plug-in by the DAW. Otherwise, it couldn't open other instrument plug-ins. Logic Pro has more than one plug-in effect slot per track. Could you load two FTP apps onto one track?

Again, I may be missing something here, but it seems that the FTP application's output is the audio from the mixer (and whatever associated virtual instruments that the FTP app's mixer has loaded). That means you must open the Triple Play Application as an effect plug-in in an audio track.

All of the instrument sounds must be premixed by FTP application's mixer. While there is no mention of this in the user guide, it seems that the mixed audio gets bussed to the audio track on which the FTP application plug-in was opened.

To put it simply, this for me is a huge limitation of the application. You can only apply effects plug-ins to the mixed track, as opposed to being able to adjust the sound of each of the virtual instruments in separate tracks of your DAW.

I hope in a later revision, the mixer within the FTP app can be bussed with direct outputs to a DAW's mixer inputs, so the DAW can be the mixdown tool.

I understand that Fishman wants to get new buyers to consider MIDI guitar. Making a really easy plug and play way to play MIDI guitar sounds is a great marketing idea to get the interest of new users. I have no problem with that.

I am just hoping that this doesn't mean that FTP is limited in the way it can be used as a studio tool.

To sum up, I hope that it turns out that FTP has the ability to do the following:


  • Output MIDI directly to multiple instrument tracks within a DAW.
  • Assign separate MIDI track numbers to individual strings.
  • Work without the FTP application running the instrument plug-ins.

Steven.

Elantric-fgn

#1
Some of these questions are answered by
Andras Szalay here:

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=5188.msg58717#msg58717

. . . the future ain't what it used to be . . .