Posted
I bought Synfire Pro 7 months ago, and found it so complicated and frustrating to set up that I walked away from it and didn't use it again until last week.
Now I'm ready to give it another try. I've watched the tutorials posted by Blue Phoenix several times each, and they've been helpful. I've also read the relevant parts of the manual.
Yesterday I was finally able to set up a Global Rack consisting of 2 Engine Modules, 1 for Kontakt 5 and 1 for Omnisphere. I created a bank in Kontakt 5 consisting of the sounds I would like to use for the Global Instruments. But I am experiencing problems getting the Global Instruments set up.
On the Global Instruments tab:
For Piano, I have chosen to use Kontakt's "The Grandeur". When I click the drop down arrow for the Rack Module field, I see a choice of "Omnisphere (New Instrument), and Kontak 5 (The Grandeur). I'm concerned as to why Kontakt 5 says The Grandeur after it, because supposedly I have set up a bank with 6 different sounds and can choose any one of those. But oh well, on to the next step.
I choose the Sound Name, then browse to The Grandeur, and click OK. I then press the Play arrow, and The Grandeur starts playing. Hey, this is easy. (Not)
On to Bass. (I skipped Chords because I'm currently undecided as to what sound I want to use for Chords.) I choose Kontakt 5 from the list...it still says The Grandeur at the end. I click on the search icon to the left of the Sound Name field, and under the Global tab the choice has defaulted to Omnisphere. I find this odd, since I just told SP I want to use Kontakt 5. So I change it to K5, browse to my choice (Scrabee Rickenbacker Bass), then click OK. But the Rack Module field for the Bass now reads "Omnisphere (New Instrument). Huh?! I just told it to use K5 and Scarbee Bass.
Trying the remaining Global Instruments, I find that the same thing happens. No matter how many times I choose the K5 Module and a sound from the K5 bank, the Rack Module returns to Omnisphere (New Instrument).
Thanks for any assistance you can offer.
Tue, 2016-07-26 - 11:03 Permalink
Hi Hangdog,
The Global instruments tab is be used for internal sounds in Synfire : library, pallette ,...
You must assign there a General Midi device description for piano/chords, bass, guitar,drums and metronome
Leave this tab, don't use it for soundassigning for your Vsti
I agree this tab naming Global Instruments is confusing together with the tab Global Sounds : it is not a handy design
Global Sounds .. could be renamed : Global Rack sounds
For assigning Racks with sounds you must use the Global Sounds tab : choose there 32 or 64 bit Vsti you want to use ( not both ! : choose one)
Then add a rack with the + .. load a plugin .. make a device description ( For Kontakt you can use "extract a device description ) ..fill slot 1 with a sound ( must be assigned ) and now you can play this sound with your keyboard
Tue, 2016-07-26 - 22:13 Permalink
Synfire offers quite many options of setting it up in different ways, which can be a challenge at first. On the other hand, once you got familiar with the concept, you will not want to miss it, as it allows you to integrate a lot of different external software and hardware.
How does your K5 device look like? You said "I created a bank in Kontakt 5 consisting of the sounds I would like to use for the Global Instruments.", which suggests you might have created a sound bank with patches (aka programs), while in the most common cases K5 is a sampler that has a fixed sound per MIDI channel (depending on which preset you load).
Can you upload the device description file here (or mail to support at cognitone dot com), so we can have a look? (right-click on the device list on the "Global Device Desciptions" tab to reveal the file on disk).
Thanks.
Wed, 2016-07-27 - 02:59 Permalink
Thanks for your help.
I guess I need to determine if one or more of my softsynths has a standard MIDI section.
Wed, 2016-07-27 - 03:44 Permalink
Hi Andre:
I'm totally sold on the POTENTIAL benefits of Synfire, and I plan to stick with it this time. Getting the train rolling is the problem.
The Kontakt 5 bank I created was per the instructions in the Blue Pheonix video, Part 3 (I think.), which is linked to from the Cognitone website. It is indeed a sound bank with patches.
I've sent the device descrition via email.
Thank you.