# Converting VSL legato instruments to iMIDI



## synthetic (Aug 28, 2007)

Note: I'll remove this at the request of VSL if they don't feel comfortable with it. 

Pretty much the only reason I still have the VSL Performance tool on my machine is for playing Legato instruments. There's a tutorial on the LearnGigastudio site about converting the repetition instruments to iMIDI, but Legato was always a big scary mystery. Well, the other day I decided to crack the manual >8o and figure this out. And it's not that tough to do (though you need GigaStudio 3 Orchestra with the full GigaEditor to do it): 

1. Navigate to one of your VSL legato instruments. Right click on it and select "Open with GigaEditor"
2. When the instrument loads, you'll see a bunch of folders on the bottom left hand corner. Right click on one of them and select "Export all sample folders." Give it a location to export to. 
3. Switch back to the Windows explorer and look at the folders you saved. You'll see that the legato samples are arranged by interval skip. The sample that moved to that note from 3 half steps below is called "3up." You'll have 1-12 up and down, often in several variations. For instance, in the case of the solo cello from the pro edition, I got forte, piano and glissando forte. You'll also see the sustain sample ("sus_mp" or something like that) and the release sample folder labeled "RS". 
4. Switch back to GigaEditor. Close that instrument and make a new one (little page icon in top left corner). 
5. Drag the sample folders for the instrument you want to create from Windows into the folder area. I like to make individual GIG instruments instead of one big instrument with multiple articulations, but suit yourself. In my case I want to make a forte legato cello. so I drag in all 24 of the up and down folders for forte, a sustain sample and a release sample, for a total of 26 folders. 
6. Make a new instrument (trumpet button) if you don't have one already and select it. Click the little wizard hat for the New Instrument Wizard. Name the instrument in step 1 and then click next. 
7. Select "Make a region per sample" and click next. (You don't have to worry about the range for now.) 
8. In step three of the Wizard, check "reserve space for stereo" in the bottom right corner. Select "Smart MIDI processor" in the first column, 32 in the second column and name it Legato in the third. Click on the "State Names" button and enter these field names: 

1-12 should be up1 through up12
13-16 aren't used, call them whatever
17-28 are down1 through down12
29 is sus
30 is sus alt1, if you have a repetition sample to use
31 is sus alt2
32 is release

9. When you're done with the above, close the fields window and click next for step 4. Now you'll see a list of all the sample folders you dragged in in the left column and a list of the state names you just made on the right. Click the first folder and assign it to a state (do1 = down1, etc), and continue until you've filled all of them. I assign the sustain sample to all three sustains, though I'm not sure that matters. When you're done, click finish. 
10. Load the sample in GigaEditor by clicking the arrow pointing to the GS above your instrument. You'll be prompted to save and name your instrument before it loads. 
11. Right click on the instrument (the trumpet in the top left field) and select "iMIDI Rule Manager."
12. In the iMIDI rule manager, select "Legato (mono) mode selection" and accept the defaults. 

With a pinch of luck, you should have a working Legato instrument you can use in GigaStudio 3 or GVI without the VSL Tool. I've only been playing with this for a day, and I had one instrument that didn't work for some reason. But two of them so far have. You can change the instrument range if you want by dragging the edge of the bottom range in the keyboard view at the top of the screen. 

I'm sure some developers will cringe from reading this, since I'm cutting a bunch of corners and not tweaking every step. But, it works! Without the Maple router nonsense! Next I'm going to convert these to accellerated 24-bit samples so I can add the DEF filter...

Again, if any developers want me to pull this then PM me. Enjoy, -jl


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## Mark Belbin (Aug 29, 2007)

Cool. I wish I had a way to batch-convert bitrates. If I did, I'd already have the DEF stuff done for some of the opus 1 instruments. I can think of a billion benefits to having those samples configured as such, including more dimesion space for legato mapping plus other ways of splitting them up (x-fades for tremolo, etc.). Reminds me how sad I was to find out that VSL had gone their own way. 

If I understand correctly, the iMIDI legato has the release samples built into the instrument, yes? Or have I taken the use of "release" in the documentation out of context?

-Belbin


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## synthetic (Aug 29, 2007)

Yes, the release sample is built into the legato rule. Pretty cool. 

Batch-convert, there are a few apps out there that do this. Barbabatch is the most common. I found a Mac freeware program called Switch that also does this. 

I prefer the GigaEditor method to VSL's otherwise excellent player, as it allows me to stretch samples to stupidly-high pitches. 

And the First Edition set is still on sale.


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## Fernando Warez (Aug 29, 2007)

synthetic @ Wed Aug 29 said:


> Yes, the release sample is built into the legato rule. Pretty cool.
> 
> Batch-convert, there are a few apps out there that do this. Barbabatch is the most common. I found a Mac freeware program called Switch that also does this.
> 
> ...



Where? You mean the pro edition right?


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## synthetic (Aug 29, 2007)

Yup, sorry. The VSL Pro Edition and Horizon Series are on blowout sale before they're gone forever. Check the VSL homepage.


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## MikeGraybill (Aug 30, 2007)

This gives me the inspiration to finally attempt a conversion myself. I'm in the process of switching from slave GS3 machines to a single self-contained setup, and the only thing that won't be saved and "integrated" is the performance tool, which I refused to install at all on the single machine. So I'm using one fx-teleport slave for the Performance stuff until I learned how to go about a conversion. Still need more mileage out of the 1st Edition myself, and hopefully sometime this year I can start adding from the VI stuff - but until then..

This is very helpful, thanks!


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## nicoroy123 (Nov 28, 2007)

Hi synthetic, can you still find the tutorial to create repetition with iMIDI ? I cannot find it on learngigastudio.com.

I am trying to see if I could eliminate the Performance Tool completely...

Thanks


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## chimuelo (Nov 29, 2007)

I 2nd The Motion.


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## synthetic (Nov 29, 2007)

I think this is how I did it: 

- Open a GIG file in the GigaEditor, save a copy. 
- You'll see a list of instruments on the top left pane. Select two or more, right click, "Combine Instruments."
- You'll get a new window. In the top left corner, you can re-order them to control which is the first one you'll hear. You want to combine them using "Round Robin" from the pull-down menu on the bottom left. You can also name the new instrument in this window, "staccato RR" or whatever. Hit OK. 
- Save the GIG file. You should have your round robin instrument. 

I did this for some Sonic Implants staccato instruments that didn't have round robin programming, but had variations of up/down, etc. I think SAM Horns also has some variations that you can use with this rule, and several other libraries.


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## cm (Jan 5, 2008)

congrats synthetic for *cracking* the manual ... i never got my head 100% around to fully understand the iMidi stuff ... of course VSL will not request to remove this - would be a little bit late, wouldn't it? 

a forum post at the VSL community forum the question came up for a *final update* of the giga sample libraries - i'd assume this will not happen because no one at VSL will find the time to build acknowledged .art-files for all legato and repetition articulations.
in case there is a demand for such .art-files and a significant number of working user-created .art-files exists i could ask to reserve some space in the user area for downloading them (discussion and documentation could happen in the gigastudio forum then)
... assuming updates would work with .art-files, because downloading complete gig-files would realistically not be possible.

christian


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## Ed (Jan 5, 2008)

synthetic @ Thu Nov 29 said:


> I did this for some Sonic Implants staccato instruments that didn't have round robin programming, but had variations of up/down, etc. I think SAM Horns also has some variations that you can use with this rule, and several other libraries.



With SAM samples a lot of the time they put alternative samples a few octaves up the keyboard. Is there an easy way to deal with that?


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## Mark Belbin (Jan 5, 2008)

Ed,

That would be the same as Jeff's instructions above (combine instruments, etc), but you'd need to make a copy of the low (written pitch) instrument, and of the alternate, higher instrument. If low and high are on the same instrument, just clone it twice and delete the lower stuff from one, and the higher stuff from the other. Then you'll want to drag all regions of the higher instrument to match the mapping of the lower, and ensure that their unity piches are set to the keys you remapped them to. Once the instruments are identical (excepting the fact that they contain alternate samples), you can do Jeff's combination trick.

Belbin


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## tarzana (Jan 6, 2008)

Hello ,

Not to be off topic ... but if i may pose a question regarding the conversion
process from VSl legato instruments...

any one managed to succesfully convert the legato instruments
into kontakt format ....

best regards to all on a healthy and productive new year!

tarzana


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## MikeGraybill (Mar 18, 2008)

so I've finally gotten around to converting, it's been going well. need some help figuring out this editor though. I can get a single dynamic legato instrument working great, but now I'm faced with these cellos. 3 levels from p-mf-f and that means there are 3 sets of the up/down-24 file groups that need to be layer-switched via modwheel. I'm not sure how to lay this out, like would I put the mod-controller in first and specify 3 as the dimension (or 6 for stereo?), and then try to put in the iMIDI legato info after? (still not sure how to map 72 dimension spits when there is room for only the 32..)

If my confusion makes sense to anyone, please advise? I know this to be possible in GS3, since I've been using an .art file update from vsl a long while back that combined all 3 layers of the performance legato cello section into one mod-controlled patch which I was using with the performance tool. I'd been looking forward to that patch a long time, and this applies to the clarinet and violins I believe too, so I'll need to figure this out before I can proceed.


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## synthetic (Mar 19, 2008)

Probably not the ideal way to do it, but you can convert all three levels individually. Then select these three instruments, right click and select "combine instruments." Then you get a pop-up window asking how you want to switch between them, select the mod wheel. There's a way to select how much crossfading you do as well but I can't remember it off the top of my head. But the GS4 Editor manual is not available for download.  

Or, select velocity to switch between them, convert your wave pool to 24-bit and turn on the DEF filter. Whoo-hoo. 

Or, stack the three instruments on a channel and switch between them with stack properties. However, this method would be more like a keyswitch -- it wouldn't fade from one to the other, just select it.


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## Mark Belbin (Mar 19, 2008)

I second the motion for applying the DEF. 

BUT:

The way to do an xfade is to combine the instruments as "layer", then right-click on the instrument, select "crossfade editor", and define the xfade in and out points. 

Save, load, and rock out :twisted: 

-M


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## MikeGraybill (Mar 19, 2008)

Thanks for the quick help, I just went looking for info on DEF to learn how to apply it and found this:

http://www.wavelore.com/DEF_Tutorial.shtml

They linked to the Tascam DEF tutorial, so I'm sure I'll begin to understand better by this evening. One thing I'm not clear on tho, it sounds like I won't need the p layer or the ff layer? Or does DEF use those two layers as reference points during the creation of the new instrument but not require that they be present in the pool afterward, just keeping the mf layer of samples to work with? I'll probably find this answer as I continue reading.

I hope I can have some playable instruments again tonight! Also need to determine a good way to batch convert up to 24bit, I'm embarrassed to say I've never needed to do this, only ever in small quantities..


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## Mark Belbin (Mar 19, 2008)

Hey Mike,

That site is run by yours truly, so I can clarify:

The tutorial does outline an approach that involves setting up the filter on a single velocity layer, using two more for reference. It's a little unclear, becase we used as the demonstration instrument one whose FF layer proved best for use in the final instrument, but this is not the most likely scenario. The common approach is to use the mf layer, and use additive filtering to simulate ff, and subtractive to simulate pp. One day I'll take the whistle backto the studio and record it with more care in order to re-create the sampled version with a more musical result.

So the tutorial basically says, "take three velocity layers in seperate instruments, and apply the filter (in calibration mode, at first) to the middle (mf) instrument. Cross reference that to the pp layer, adjusting the DEF on the mf instrument until you find a satisfactory match. Save the data. Repeat for the ff layer. Switch off calibration mode, and viola."

Now, you can apply those settings to a multi-velocity instrument, and what you'll get is an "extension" of the dynamic range that your settings are intended to emulate using the one layer; you are applying a filter setting, for example, to the FF layer which was designed to make the mf layersound like the ff. Therefore, the sound will not be "true". It may be "good", but that is for you to decide. This approach, as with all DEF'ing, will likely require some futzing with veocity curve and attenuation settings in the giga editor.

GS4 will be better for this, since it allows different filter settings not just on each note (as in v.3), but for each split - velocity, layer, KS, whatever. that way, you can find the DEF settings for PP to emulate the other layers, and ones for mf, ones for ff, etc.
Also: GS4 cò?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{?³   t{ ?³   t{!?³   t{"?³   t


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## Cinesamples (Mar 22, 2008)

MikeGraybill @ Thu Mar 20 said:


> Still having trouble with procedure. Here's my goal, in this case using the VSL 1st Edition performance set Cellos 8 Legato patch (updated to use all 3 layers via mod):
> 
> I exported the pool from that instrument, created a new instrument and imported them to start fresh. I run the wizard as Jeff has outlined in the first post here. The only difference would be instead of accepting the iMidi Legato mode 'default' settings, I opened up the performance tool v2 from VSL and then opened the legato .pal file and used that information to set the iMIDI rules correctly for each isntrument.



Hi Mike, 

Can you post the information from the legato .pal file for us?

Thanks, 
Mike


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## MikeGraybill (Mar 25, 2008)

I finally got Wavelab and I really like it. With it, I batch converted the 861 directories and 12,315 wave files that comprise the legato element of the original 1st edition performance set (minus flute, since I already did that one) into 24bit format. This was a hurdle I needed to get around before I could really mess with building DEF-based instruments, though it sounds like GS4 will do this even more easily. It's okay, I needed wavelab anyway, been without an editor too long.

Been up way too late tonight to try making an instrument, but I did think of an easy way to show the settings for the performance tool via a screen pic. I'll try to upload them, hope it's useful. The name of the instrument and it's settings are visible on each open performance tool in the next post.


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## MikeGraybill (Mar 25, 2008)

Here's a long image, so it won't screw up the formatting:


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## synthetic (Mar 25, 2008)

I'm writing a legato mode tutorial for the TASCAM website that should hopefully be a bit easier to follow than the above steps (because it has pictures). Check out my other iMIDI tutorial on the TASCAM site that covers DEF and Repetition/Round-robin. It's under GigaStudio 4 in the Resources tab. The legato tutorial will be up soon. I tried attaching it as an extension, but a PDF is not allowed on this board so you'll have to wait a little longer.


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## Bruce Richardson (Mar 25, 2008)

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## MikeGraybill (Mar 27, 2008)

Got it! =o 

I just didn't understand a few things, including DEF and what it actually did. Now that I get it it's a breeze! Inspiring enough that now I've interrupted doing the performance instruments and am opening up some older ones, like the original kirk hunter virtuoso strings - I bet they will sound brilliant if used with DEF instead of the way they were initially set up to run.

The tutorial Jeff made on the tascam site really simplifies things, and with the SAM libraries and original Sonic Implants strings.. man the list of things I wanna mess with now is suddenly very long! Thanks for all the help.


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## a7 (Jul 28, 2008)

synthetic @ Tue Aug 28 said:


> There's a tutorial on the LearnGigastudio site about converting the repetition instruments to iMIDI,



Can you tell me which one it is and where I might find it on that site?

Thanks


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## synthetic (Jul 28, 2008)

I think it's one of the videos you have to pay for on that site. However, I wrote a round-robin tutorial for the TASCAM site. It's still online here:

http://www.tascam.com/products/gigastudio_4;9,7,1055,19.html (http://www.tascam.com/products/gigastud ... 55,19.html)

Download both iMIDI tutorial PDFs.


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## a7 (Jul 28, 2008)

Thank you, sir.


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