Audio Track

Geist FXpansion is no longer available. They have a Geist2, which costs $199...way more than I'm willing to pay just to bring audio into Synfire.

But thank you for chiming in. It was worth a shot.

Do you mean I would, in Synfire, send MIDI notes to an instantiated sampler VST, which would then trigger audio in the sampler corresponding to those notes? Sounds feasible, if maybe somewhat clumsy. Being able to import an audio track would still be far preferable. But maybe that's what I'll end up doing in lieu of an audio track. Thanks.

Anyway, for the time being I've gone off in a different but related direction. I'm running Maschine Studio as a VST in Synfire. I have dozens of expansion sets, and I picked a project that I like from one of them. I dragged/dropped all the MIDI from the various patterns in the expansion over to a Synfire library, where I processed the patterns into phrase pools. (If, during import, you check the box that tells Synfire to import all files in the Directory, Synfire will import every pattern from that project in one operation.) I didn't bother processing the non-pitched (basically the drums/percussion) patterns, because it's tedious and I plan to have Maschine play some or all of those in sync with my Synfire/DAW project. I just need to process the pitched MIDI, so Synfire can work its magic with it.

Then I added to the Synfire project the phrases I liked, and sent them to various synths. I auditioned various chord progressions. The project, still in progress, sounds similar to the original Maschine expansion, but also quite different...different chords, different synth sounds, and I added a different bass part, using a modified bass phrase from another of my libraries.

The result (so far) is unlike anything I've produced before. Did I create it? I've been asking myself that question for years now, well before I arrived at even my still rudimentary skill level with Synfire. My answer is, it's computer-aided composition. I didn't start from scratch, but the result is always something unique that didn't exist before. In a way this method (using Maschine MIDI patterns) is similar to using ANY phrase pools from a Synfire library, except the phrases are more likely to work well together.

In terms of producing high-quality music more quickly, and having a fairly good idea from the outset as to what the final genre will be, I find this method intriguing.

You would know the situation better than I. And there are alternatives, so I'll just have to figure out which one works best for me.

Still, one can dream can't one? :)

MISTER Cat? Why so formal? :)

I'm not sure who that chap is. 

And anyway, I'm slowly coming around to thinking that using a drone may be the easiest solution.

Thank you.

Let's get on a first name basis...call me Hangdog.

Thanks for the link. That might do the trick, although at first glance it looks like I'll have to make the audio track into a video in order for it to work with that plug-in. No big deal.

Re drones: I prefer to work in either Synfire or my DAW, but not both at once if I have a choice. 

But if the VST thingy doesn't pan out, it will probably be drone time.

As I recall, I tried using drones years ago...didn't much like them. The whole process seemed clumsy.

Also, Andre was quite definite that there would be no audio track feature in Synfire. But there are apparently other options.

Dear Most Honorable & Esteemed Ruchir:

I finally got around to trying the VidPlay VST demo, and it does work. (Hooray!)

Easy to use.

But before I buy the full version ($18 US), I have a question for Andre: Will Synfire support VST2 for the foreseeable future? VidPlay is a VST2. Thanks.

EDIT:  I also plan to check out MPC Beats.

So far I have been unable to figure out how to import an audio track into MPC Beats. I've found a ton of instructional material explaining all the arcane features, but not how to import audio.

OTOH in VidPlay it is very simple to import audio even without reading a manual, although it does mean I have to convert the audio into a video, and unlike MPC Beats the VidPlay app is not free. Still, unless audio import in MPC Beats turns out to be fairly easy, I'll probably go with VidPlay.

Yes, that works. Simple enough! Thank you.

One little inconvenience is that there can be only ONE instance of MPC Beats running in Synfire at one time, so if I set it up on the Global Rack and then do the "Copy to Rack" thing to copy it to the Private Rack, I get an error message when I try to use the private rack instance. Thus I'll probably skip the Global Rack set it up on the Private Rack for every project in which I want to use outside audio. No big deal...it's easy to set up.

Thank you. I do have the full Kontakt, but I'm using MPC Beats to play audio tracks in Synfire, because it's easy, free, and it works.