Screencast of Composing with DP and Bidule

[Gabe S.]

i just tried it and you can drag&drop midifiles from RMX to DP even if RMX is in Bidule

Wow again!

Wow! Interapplication MIDI file dragging? haha Now THAT is clever!

-g

[Gabe S.]

is this cpu meter in OSX?

Hi Dan.

Yeah, both CPU meters are from Activity Monitor in the Window menu and are available in OS10.4.11 and OS10.5.6.

The Green meters: Window--->Show Floating CPU Window--->Vertically.

The Blue ones: Window--->CPU Usage

I don't know why I have both open; they both always show exactly the same information.....just more eye candy I guess

Sometimes the DP CPU meter can be SLAMMMMMED, and these Activity Monitor meters (and even other 3rd party ones) are only a quarter of the way up......Who knows which ones are right, but if the Activity Montor's meters are correct, it makes me wonder about DP and it's cpu meter, and if DP is able to use all the horsepower that's available....

Cheers.
-gabe

[Don T]

Mike,
PDC, an interesting way to work. You are a conductor / composer and the orchestra is waiting your every command. Love the template and integration.

Would you be interested in doing some longer screencasts in hi rez as overview lessons for my students? For $$$ of course. OR, maybe putting something together for a "live" demo at PCC?

Don T

[dpdan]

Yeah, both CPU meters are from Activity Monitor in the Window menu and are available in OS10.4.11 and OS10.5.6.

The Green meters: Window--->Show Floating CPU Window--->Vertically.

The Blue ones: Window--->CPU Usage


Cheers.
-gabe

Thank you Gabe, but where do I find this when DP is open?
Dan

[Gabe S.]

where do I find this when DP is open?

The CPU meters are part of the Activity Monitor application. Are you familiar with the Activity Monitor app? It's in the Utilities folder that's inside the Applications folder. Activity Monitor is where you'll find the "Window" menu I was referring to in the previous post.

The CPU meters float overtop any other windows, and you can position them wherever you want.

Does that help?

Cheers.
-gabe

[jroadrage]

Here's another good resource monitoring app that displays everything in the menu bar:

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

[dpdan]

thank you Gabe,
Dan

[erikjamesmusic]

As I'm setting up my bidule templates, I have a question for Mike or anyone with this type of orchestral template.

When using Eastwest samples, do you always opt for the "close mic" position, or do you use the "Stage mic" position? I love the natural reverb samples from EW, but since I'll have an instance of altiverb on every aux stem, logic tells me that I can always add more reverb, but can't take away reverb, so I'm leaning towards the "close mic" position for my templates. I don't have symphobia, but i would imagine an instrument like that has big reverbs already on the patch itself. Would you leave the reverbs on the patch if it sounds right, and just make a separate stem for instruments with reverb already on them? i'm dumb and confused.

Anyone have any opinions either way?

[jroadrage]

As I'm setting up my bidule templates, I have a question for Mike or anyone with this type of orchestral template.

When using Eastwest samples, do you always opt for the "close mic" position, or do you use the "Stage mic" position? I love the natural reverb samples from EW, but since I'll have an instance of altiverb on every aux stem, logic tells me that I can always add more reverb, but can't take away reverb, so I'm leaning towards the "close mic" position for my templates. I don't have symphobia, but i would imagine an instrument like that has big reverbs already on the patch itself. Would you leave the reverbs on the patch if it sounds right, and just make a separate stem for instruments with reverb already on them? i'm dumb and confused.

Anyone have any opinions either way?

I'm definitely not an expert but here's the way that I work with mixing libraries that have varied ambience.

For each Altiverb depth that I want to use I open two instances on separate busses. One will have only the ER activated and one with just the tail. This gives me the ability to control the send levels independently. Libraries like SAM horns and EWQLSO with the close mics still have a lot of "room" on them compared to something like VSL so I can just dial down the send level for the ER instance so that they sound like they're in the same space as drier libraries, it also keeps the sound from getting to muddy. Also, as much as I like the Todd AO set, I like using a different ER for low percussion to keep things from getting to muddy, with the ER and tails separate its really easy to do.

A lot of the time the amount of ambience matching that you have to do depends on if the two sounds are in the same orchestra section. If you have a horn section from EWQLSO playing right after a horn section from VSL then it'll stick out if they're not matched carefully. If you're using a string section from one library and a brass section from another then it's not quite as important and things like non-orchestral percussion or ethnic instruments can usually exist in their own space.

[c0mp0ser]

Hey guys...

Just want to let you know that I will be publishing all future screencasts here: http://www.cinesamples.com/videos/

Oh, Erik James: Just personal preference, but I would stick with the Stage Mic, and just put it on it's own aux bus with no altiverb. Close mic with altiverb cannot compare to real stage mic.

Mike

[dix]

Hey guys.

Really really great thread you guys got going here. Thanks Mike for the videos. And Cinesamples is great too! I love those sounds.

Here's my two cents about the recent posts regarding latency compensation in the thread:

Don't drive yourself too nuts trying to iron out the latency 100%----at least in a template. The problems get more complicated when using outside sources like Bidule and outside pcs because of DSP plugin compensation inside DP. Once you start using plugins in your project and DP starts auto-compensating for the plugins that all induce differing amounts of delay, DP can't compensate for the latency of external audio compared to the internal audio because it has no idea what the external latency is. So, even after trying to come up with a constant number, you'll still end up having to massage again. And then, of course you change tempo and it gets even messier. (I would hate to change the settings on 200 Time Shift instances across my template.)

So, the bottom line is that it takes a little massage on each project. You know what I do sometimes.......I use the plugin "Buffy" to delay audio from some of the internal sources because the sounds from outside the Mac are the main sounds. But, that ends up changing from tempo to tempo too.

Working with external audio has never been perfect and will probably never be perfect.....hehe.....you just get used to it after awhile. Mike said it right when he mentioned that he just plays a little before the beat. I know it sounds weird but you just start getting used to it.

Mike, in your video, I noticed you're using the Virtual MIDI ports in Bidule vs. the ReWire ports. I asked the Plogue guys about the difference on their forum, and they had an interesting response. Check it out: http://www.plogue.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3961 Anyway, your video inspired me to try Bidule and I'm really excited about the prospects so far. So, thanks for that!

Cheers.
-gabe

FYI. If you use the "Bidule ReWire" MIDI module as your MIDI input in Bidule (in DP you'd then use "Plogue Bidule Device : Bus 1-Bus:1 Chn:1 and so forth as your MIDI destination as suggested in the Plogue Forum post above) rather than the "MIDI Input Device"s that you drag from the palette Bidule will be compensated for w DP's ADC. As far as can tell you can only have eight instruments running through the "Bidule ReWire" module, but you can still add additional MIDI inputs, if need be, from the palette. They just won't be in the ADC scheme.

I can't thank Mike enough for this thread. It's changed my approach to Orchestral templates dramatically for the better.

[bolla]

Thanks Mike and everyone for their ideas. It's taken about 10hrs of reorganizing (so far) but well worth it.
Time for a bigger monitor - Perhaps in portrait mode to accommodate the tracks window.
Best wishes,
Bolla