gardibolt
05-12-2004, 04:27 PM
Hi all,
I\'ve been browsing through the GPO site and these forums, and been in communication with Gary, but thought I\'d see whether users thought that GPO would be what we\'re looking for.
I\'m project director for a website that posts unheard/unrecorded/unpublished compositions of Beethoven in MIDI form. We\'ve got 300+ midis, totaling over 12 hours of such music right now, but we\'ve been looking for something that would produce more realistic sounds that are not dependent on the listener\'s soundcard--something that would readily convert from our MIDIs to whatever format and be realistic sounding, that we could then record and convert to mp3 format for upload.
How has the GPO Standard MIDI File Translator worked out for people? I was pretty wowed by the demo pieces on this site, which I found fairly indistinguishable from the real thing except on very critical examination, but as I understand it they didn\'t run through that process, so I\'m wondering whether they\'re at all an accurate reflection of what we\'d end up with. The cautions on the MIDI File Translator page (\"Standard MIDI files are not necessrily the best match for GPO\") make me a shade dubious. I read the thread that used the Air on a G String as a test sample and that just raised more questions about the sound quality. Does using that translator allow you to continue to tinker with the sounds afterwards? For instance, could we add crescendos or fool with attack speed post-translation? A really key point for us is that since we have so many past MIDIs already in the can we\'d like to get an acceptable sound without making a ton of modifications, or at least not hugely time-consuming ones, since there\'s still more unpublished LvB out there that we need to get to. But that may just be an inherent limitation in what we\'re trying to do....And what about the other way round? If we produce future music using GPO is there a convenient way to convert it to MIDI? Or will I end up sequencing things twice? Please tell me that\'s not the case....there aren\'t enough hours in the day.
Another point that concerns me is the apparent dependence of the program on the mod wheel. I\'ve always just used a manual sequencer (the long-defunct Digital Orchestrator Plus) and not a keyboard, so it\'s not clear to me in the least how that would work. Have others made such a transition without too much difficulty? I don\'t even know where to start on that, old dogs and such not up for new trickery (at least not without plenty of treats). Clearly I\'m looking at some additional hardware, though it\'s not at all clear to me how sophisticated a keyboard I\'d need beyond just the existence of a mod wheel in order to get good functionality out of the program. I think I do have enough computer hardware, with 1GB of RAM and running a 3.0 with an Audigy 2 soundcard, which supports ASIO, but if I don\'t I\'d sure like to hear about that too.
I\'m presuming that I\'d have to learn a new sequencer in any event, since DOP doesn\'t support VST or any fancy plugins or much of anything really (it took some doing to get it to deal with smf, which always struck me as absurd for a sequencer), so what would be the suggestion for a sequencer that best works with GPO--optimally not too different from DOP though I hold out little hope for such a notion. Would the items bundled with GPO suffice for most of our needs? Saving money on a nonprofit endeavor is always a good thing. We\'re usually dealing with smallish ensembles, though we do have some symphonic works (symphony and concerto movements) in our repertoire.
Given my unfamiliarity with the program, I\'m probably not asking the right questions, or not asking them correctly, but since folks here seem pretty civil I\'m taking the chance. Feel free to set me straight and tell me what I SHOULD be asking. Any assistance in figuring this out and making the assessment will be much appreciated. Thanks for the patience with a lower-than-newbie. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif It\'s neat to see a program that has such devoted followers, and ample support directly and through the forums, so if GPO would work for us I\'d certainly like to give it a whirl.
I\'ve not linked to our site since even though it\'s nonprofit I don\'t want to violate forum rules, but if it\'s OK I can provide the link later. Thanks again,
Best,
Mark
I\'ve been browsing through the GPO site and these forums, and been in communication with Gary, but thought I\'d see whether users thought that GPO would be what we\'re looking for.
I\'m project director for a website that posts unheard/unrecorded/unpublished compositions of Beethoven in MIDI form. We\'ve got 300+ midis, totaling over 12 hours of such music right now, but we\'ve been looking for something that would produce more realistic sounds that are not dependent on the listener\'s soundcard--something that would readily convert from our MIDIs to whatever format and be realistic sounding, that we could then record and convert to mp3 format for upload.
How has the GPO Standard MIDI File Translator worked out for people? I was pretty wowed by the demo pieces on this site, which I found fairly indistinguishable from the real thing except on very critical examination, but as I understand it they didn\'t run through that process, so I\'m wondering whether they\'re at all an accurate reflection of what we\'d end up with. The cautions on the MIDI File Translator page (\"Standard MIDI files are not necessrily the best match for GPO\") make me a shade dubious. I read the thread that used the Air on a G String as a test sample and that just raised more questions about the sound quality. Does using that translator allow you to continue to tinker with the sounds afterwards? For instance, could we add crescendos or fool with attack speed post-translation? A really key point for us is that since we have so many past MIDIs already in the can we\'d like to get an acceptable sound without making a ton of modifications, or at least not hugely time-consuming ones, since there\'s still more unpublished LvB out there that we need to get to. But that may just be an inherent limitation in what we\'re trying to do....And what about the other way round? If we produce future music using GPO is there a convenient way to convert it to MIDI? Or will I end up sequencing things twice? Please tell me that\'s not the case....there aren\'t enough hours in the day.
Another point that concerns me is the apparent dependence of the program on the mod wheel. I\'ve always just used a manual sequencer (the long-defunct Digital Orchestrator Plus) and not a keyboard, so it\'s not clear to me in the least how that would work. Have others made such a transition without too much difficulty? I don\'t even know where to start on that, old dogs and such not up for new trickery (at least not without plenty of treats). Clearly I\'m looking at some additional hardware, though it\'s not at all clear to me how sophisticated a keyboard I\'d need beyond just the existence of a mod wheel in order to get good functionality out of the program. I think I do have enough computer hardware, with 1GB of RAM and running a 3.0 with an Audigy 2 soundcard, which supports ASIO, but if I don\'t I\'d sure like to hear about that too.
I\'m presuming that I\'d have to learn a new sequencer in any event, since DOP doesn\'t support VST or any fancy plugins or much of anything really (it took some doing to get it to deal with smf, which always struck me as absurd for a sequencer), so what would be the suggestion for a sequencer that best works with GPO--optimally not too different from DOP though I hold out little hope for such a notion. Would the items bundled with GPO suffice for most of our needs? Saving money on a nonprofit endeavor is always a good thing. We\'re usually dealing with smallish ensembles, though we do have some symphonic works (symphony and concerto movements) in our repertoire.
Given my unfamiliarity with the program, I\'m probably not asking the right questions, or not asking them correctly, but since folks here seem pretty civil I\'m taking the chance. Feel free to set me straight and tell me what I SHOULD be asking. Any assistance in figuring this out and making the assessment will be much appreciated. Thanks for the patience with a lower-than-newbie. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif It\'s neat to see a program that has such devoted followers, and ample support directly and through the forums, so if GPO would work for us I\'d certainly like to give it a whirl.
I\'ve not linked to our site since even though it\'s nonprofit I don\'t want to violate forum rules, but if it\'s OK I can provide the link later. Thanks again,
Best,
Mark