Comments for Trnsfrmr

Comment on Getting started with CoreMidi by Melody Class

Melody Class — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:58:50 +0000

nice

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by Radar Windstar

Radar Windstar — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:16:55 +0000

@Radar Windstar Once you get your Radias, go to Korgforums.com and you can download patches converted from the MS2000, MS2000B, Microkorg, R3, plus at least two new banks of artist designed patches. Just go to the Radias/R3 section of the forum.

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by Radar Windstar

Radar Windstar — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:15:43 +0000

@admin Congrats. I'm confident you'll be happy with it. Like you said, 699.00 is peanuts compared to the Virus. I've toyed with the idea of getting the Blofeld also. But between the Virus and the Radias, (and all of my other synths) it doesn't seem to offer anything different soundwise. The Virus and Radias are different sonically. I only wanted it to get the PPG wavetables in hardware. I have the PPG Wave VST so it wasn't really necessary. The thing that baffles me is why the Polar cost the same as the 61 key Virus. I wanted the Polar to conserve space but couldn't bring myself to spend the same amount for it as the full keyboard.

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by admin

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:24:49 +0000

@Radar Windstar
Wow!. So I ordered a Radias. Should be getting here on the 13th

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by Radar Windstar

Radar Windstar — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:09:36 +0000

admin :@Radar,Thanks for commenting. Just when I get used to the idea of using Massive’s stepper and performer to create the kinds of sounds I would want the Radius for, you fly down here to remind me how wonderful the Radias is I think I will probably get the Radias eventually. It is still the only synth different enough from the Virus for me. Although I agree it may have a better interface, a wider variety of effects, mod sequencer, variable filter and formant thingie magic; I doubt it will satisfy me more than the Virus does. I used to own an M3 with the exb-radias board installed so I’ve been able to compare them side by side. How is the Whiteout in the flesh by the way? I’m yet to see one.

It's absolutly gorgeous of course. For some reason it reminds me of a Mellotron. After three months I finally hooked it up to my computer. I think I am falling in love.

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by admin

admin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 01:19:15 +0000

Radar Windstar :
Not trying to beat up the Virus, but at 699.00, if you like the sound, don’t pass up the Radias.

@Radar Windstar I hear you. $699 is peanuts considering how much I paid for my Polar. I'm not a big fan of modules and controller combos else I would have settled for a Snow, Radias and Blofeld for the same price I paid for the Polar.

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by admin

admin — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:03:34 +0000

@Radar,
Thanks for commenting.

Just when I get used to the idea of using Massive’s stepper and performer to create the kinds of sounds I would want the Radius for, you fly down here to remind me how wonderful the Radias is

I think I will probably get the Radias eventually. It is still the only synth different enough from the Virus for me. Although I agree it may have a better interface, a wider variety of effects, mod sequencer, variable filter and formant thingie magic; I doubt it will satisfy me more than the Virus does. I used to own an M3 with the exb-radias board installed so I’ve been able to compare them side by side.

How is the Whiteout in the flesh by the way? I’m yet to see one.

Comment on Access Virus Ti2 KB Whiteout Edition by Radar Windstar

Radar Windstar — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:50:36 +0000

I would get the Radias if you have the cash to spare. I bought a floor model Radias keyboard in April (I love it’s unusal look). I had wanted a Virus for a long time, so when I heard about the Whiteout edition keyboard I put myself on a mailing list to be notified when it became available. After getting the Radias, I really didn’t think I needed a Virus. However I got a nice piece of cash at the same time the Whiteout came out so I jumped when I got the email. I really like the Virus, but so far I spend much more time on the Radias. It’s just more fun to me than the Virus. The Virus sounds more like a Reaktor softsynth to me. The front panel of the Radias is much more ergonomic than the Virus. The Virus display is poorly placed. Whenever I adjust a value knob, my hand blocks the display so that I cannot see what I’m doing. Not trying to beat up the Virus, but at 699.00, if you like the sound, don’t pass up the Radias.

Comment on NI Maschine Review. First Impressions. by KillRaven

KillRaven — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:28:49 +0000

For the ugly, moving around slices cannot be done when you slice but it can be done once ‘Assign to’ the sliced parts to a pad and then move the starting and end points on the LCD.

KillRaven

Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:02:03 +0000

Thanks, that’s a help. When I wrote pattern based, I meant parts actually, a la the Alesis MMT-8. It will alos be a live recorder (packetlists) Don’t know if that changes things. I work best that way, assembling chunks of different and similar sounding parts into songs. Thanks again for your time and thoughts.

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Comment on Who needs multitasking! by zaklady bukmacherskie

zaklady bukmacherskie — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:35:51 +0000

It’s big pleasure to read your articles, will back here soon

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Comment on iPad is a winner!!! by Josiah Russell

Josiah Russell — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:42:56 +0000

i am planning to buy an iPad since it looks lighter than a regular desknote and i don not use much of the features of a laptop.”.’

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Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by Robert

Robert — Sun, 09 May 2010 05:03:44 +0000

Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by admin

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 06:20:46 +0000

@Robert
I’m posting this without having had much time to think it through.

I think timing shouldn’t be a big problem. Maybe you could deliver timestamped midi data in 2 measure chunks. Or you could make the chunk size dependent on the tempo of the pattern. The faster the tempo, the higher the chunk size.

As far as how to structure it all, I would probably approach it like below. Mind you, I haven’t spent much time thinking about this.

Song
attributes: name, tempo, followSongOrPatternTempo?
has a playlist

Playlist
has a list of slots.

Slot
attributes: length
has one pattern

Pattern
attributes: name, tempo, length, swing
has 16 tracks
belongs to Song

Track
attributes: name, length, resolution, output, loop
has many steps but resolution determines which steps are active
belongs to a pattern

Step
attributes: active?, accent, index
has one note or controller message
belongs to a track

Note
attributes: pitch, velocity
belongs to a step. time_stamp can be derived from the step.

Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by Robert

Robert — Sat, 08 May 2010 05:14:56 +0000

Thanks for the post, and congrats on the paying gig. One of the challenges with my own project is figuring out how to handle the data I will be recording and outputting. It’s a pattern based beast, so will have a minimum 99 patterns of variable lengths, each with 16 tracks…and each track will have all the packet/packetlists and other data associated with that. Not sure how best to ‘struct’ all that. Then my other technical wonderment is going to be how to time all that on the way back out and still deal with interface updates, etc.? There’s not much roadmap for all this. Blogs likes yours and others are helpful, since googling on CoreMIDI provides not much information.

Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by admin

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:45:55 +0000

Lol. Shame on me. That weekend never came. I’ll return to the project sometime this month when I’m done with a paying gig

I created a virtual receive port and I went as far as logging the received messages and updating my midi activity monitor. I’ll post what I have done so far and hope you find in useful. If not, I’ll post my complete parser soon.

This is the midiReadProc from my virtual receive port.
static void midiReadProc(const MIDIPacketList *midiPacketList, void *readProcRefCon, void *srcConnRefCon) { [[JXMidiSystem sharedInstance] updateReceiveActivityMonitor];


	int i, j;

	MIDIPacket *nextPacket = (MIDIPacket *)midiPacketList->packet;

	for (j=0 ; j < midiPacketList->numPackets; ++j)

	{

		for (i = 0; i < nextPacket->length; ++i)

		{

			NSLog(@"--%02X", nextPacket->data[i]);
		}

		nextPacket = MIDIPacketNext(nextPacket);

		NSLog(@"MIDIPacketNext");

	}
	//left nibble is 0x9A >> 4

	// right nibble  0x9A % 16

	// status bit >> 127

	//y = ((x >> 4) & 0x0f) | ((x < < 4) & 0xf0); swap nibbles

}

Comment on Bytes, Nibbles & Bits for CoreMidi by Robert

Robert — Fri, 07 May 2010 09:35:45 +0000

Did you get your parser done before you bailed on the project? If so, please do post or email it still. I am working on a 16 track sequencer and I need all the help I can get. Thanks for your other CoreMIDI posts. (All two of them).

Comment on yamaha motif xs vs korg m3 in 60 seconds by alfred gori

alfred gori — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:22:12 +0000

Hi Admin and thaks for your prompt reply.The reason im keen on being able to record on step mode is that there are certain written passages that i couldnt even beggin to decifer let alone play unless i hear them first.
Does the M3 have step mode recording where i could for instance write half a bar of half note triplets in 4/4 and tie it over to a doted quarter note followed by 16 32nd notes for one beat and so on!? Sometimes i get transcribed solos that are pretty radical and would like to hear what they would sound like.
Well my freind….thanks to your input and others ive narrowed my choice to either the motiv xs or the M3.I like the idea of being able to save your sequences on a usb device.
or be able to hook up a cd burner and download your song to a cd.
How does it work with the motiv? Must you use Q base and acomputer to download into a cd?
Well my freind…again thak you for all the input!!

Comment on yamaha motif xs vs korg m3 in 60 seconds by admin

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:44:44 +0000

@alfred gori
Hi Alfred, what you heard is correct. The XS has no step recording but I didn’t find that to be a huge limitation since you can set a 100% quantize strength, loop and record your notes in realtime. Even better, you can use the play fx to push or pull note start, adjust note velocity/pitch non destructively. Using just PLAY FX, you could start by recording a bars of straight C notes; shift the pitch on the downbeats to play kicks, shift the pitch on the upbeats to play snares, shift the pitches other beats to play a hi-hats and push the time on alternate beats to create a swung feel.

You could also use the arp to generate the basic rhythms and tweak them later to personalize them. If I remember correctly, the latin and Brazilian arp patterns are quite well played. The possibilities are endless really.

You should take a look at the Play FX section in the manual. I think its a brilliant feature and the bonus is that its non destructive.

As far as the Roland Fantom G, I don’t think I can give an objective opinion about it. As much as I loved my MV-8000, I have a bias towards Roland synths. Typically, it takes me just a couple of minutes to get a song going on a workstation but I sat at one for about 15 minutes and was unable to grasp the interface.

Comment on yamaha motif xs vs korg m3 in 60 seconds by alfred gori

alfred gori — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:17:26 +0000

Excellent input on the comparison and contrast of m3 vs motif xs!!
Id love to hear what your thoughts are on the fantom g series as im undecided in which of the 3 to purchase!
heard a comment that you cant sequence via STEP MODE in the yamaha motif xs series! is that true?
I mostly write latin jazz and Brazilian type of music so lots of syncopated notes etc.Loading step mode sometimes saves me time!
Anyhow…thanks again for your inpuys and hope to hear more of your comments in the near future!!