TenCrazy.com MFX AutoAlternator: FREE!

[Markleford]

One of the (many, many) cool things about Garritan Orchestral Strings is MaestroTools by Jeff Hurchalla of Marblesound. It's a MIDI performance manipulator that allows the composer to add variety to manually played parts so that sampled instruments maintain a realistic variance in sound aspects.

Two *unfortunate* aspects of MaestroTools, though, are (#1) the Maple MIDI loopback driver app is required to be running, and (#2) any changes it makes to your MIDI performace are "frozen" the way they're originally received. While these are certainly no great impediment to their usefulness, I personally would rather (#1) get the same functionality as an MFX plugin within SONAR (or other MFX-capable host), and (#2) be able to view and edit my original performance before the effect of the MIDI manipulation is made permanent.

So I'm making this baby-step into reproducing the functionality of MaestroTools in MFX form.

TenCrazy.com MFX AutoAlternator allows you to do automatic bow-direction alternations in the ALT patches of Garritan Orchestral Strings. Of course, it can also be applied to other systems: for example, you can alternate left and right-hand hits on the Timpani patch in Garritan Personal Orchestra. Anything with two sets of alternate samples mapped across the keyboard is game.

But wait: there's more! I've added a feature that will allow you to alternate sound instances across two separate MIDI channels. As such, you can create hand-tweaked sample sets by loading in two of the same patch and altering the pitch and timbre parameters of only one of them.

Get your free copy at:

http://www.tencrazy.com/

Enjoy. Create.
- m

[Houston Haynes]

WOW! Cool! I can't wait! :eek:

[Sepheritoh]

Thank you thank you thank you.

[KevinKauai]

Sounds fascinating, but I must admit my total lack of comprehension and ingnorance about WHAT an "MFX" is.

Will this work with Cubase SX2, for instance? Does it attach itself to the Kontakt player with GPO or have I completely missed the point?

Inquiring minds want to know!

LATE UPDATE: I went searching the 'net for "MFX" and "MFX Plugin" and finally found a "rumor" that there is, indeed, some sort of "MFX Wrapper" that lets these be used in Cubase SX. However, all attempts at finding the ACTUAL thing to download failed, including referencing the Steinberg FTP site itself. (I saw other posts that the ftp site had been down.)

Hints, anyone?

Thanks ... KevinKauai :)

[Hardy Heern]

Thanks again Markleford for your brilliant skill and generosity.

Respect

Frank

[Markleford]

LATE UPDATE: I went searching the 'net for "MFX" and "MFX Plugin" and finally found a "rumor" that there is, indeed, some sort of "MFX Wrapper" that lets these be used in Cubase SX. To my (limited, SONAR-user's) understanding, there is indeed an MFX wrapper that is an official Steinberg free release. Apart from that, I'm clueless as to where to find it and how to make it work, as I'm not a Cubase SX/SL user.

I have received reports that my MFX plugs have worked in that environment, at least. I imagine other users will pipe up if they know...

And thanks to the others for the thanks!

- m

[Ned Bouhalassa]

There's no small chance of getting ported onto Mac, right? :(

[Markleford]

There's no small chance of getting ported onto Mac, right? :(Not by me, at least: all I have is a PC. I'd be happy to hand over my source to anyone who could do the port to some other Mac MIDI plugin standard, though, but I'm honestly not sure if one exists. So far as I know, AudioUnits doesn't cover MIDI-only manipulation?

- m

[UNIX_GURU]

One way to do it would be to build an AU instrument that is capable of hosting another AU instrument inside of it, though this would not be as good as a AU MIDI filter. I would take a crack at it though right now I am very busy with my "real job".

[dewdman42]

1 - MFX is not on mac. Period.

2 - MFX plugins will SOMETIMES work on Cubase with the wrapper. But some plugins have problems FYI. Trial and error. One of the main reasons I got Sonar instead of Cubase was because of MFX and CAL. Try it on Cubase and let us know.

3 - For the Mac, there are other possibilities. AU does NOT have a great midi out interface. Core-audio needs to be improved in this regard. However, with OSX, you can easily have a program that functions similarly to mapletools. OSX is really good about allowing practically unlimited virtual midi ports.. So its easy to create a program that functions as a a virtual midi in/out port and then do midi plugin types of things there. There is a program already out called MidiPipe for OSX that does a lot of stuff..you might be able to already do what you want with that.

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Thanks for the tip about Midipipe, DM. I will try it later tonight.

[jbareham]

MFX Wrapper for PC Cubase SX is here

ftp://ftp.pinnaclesys.com/Steinberg/download/Downloads_PC/Cubase_SX/MFX_Wrapper/

Regards
Jason

[KevinKauai]

Thanks, Ned. I'm pretty sure I went through all the usual places to find this download and wasn't able it.

MFX plugins will SOMETIMES work on Cubase with the wrapper. But some plugins have problems FYI. Trial and error.Now, that pause for concern! I guess I'll see if this new thing works once I get my GPO Contest things submittted.

Thanks, all! KevinKauai

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Kevin,

Jason is the one to thank, not me! :D

[wes37]

Am I the only stupid one here? Where do I put the .dll in Sonar? In other words, once I download it, how do I use it?

[Markleford]

Am I the only stupid one here? Where do I put the .dll in Sonar? In other words, once I download it, how do I use it?You can put it just about anywhere, but you then have to get its information in the registry: read the accompanying text file in the zip archive to find out various ways of accomplishing this.

- m

[Houston Haynes]

Steinberg has their own MIDI plug-in protocol - a subset of the VST protocol, I believe. You can get more info on it HERE (http://www.steinberg.net/DocSupportDisplay_sb.asp?templ=&doclink=/webvideo/steinberg/support/doc/VST%20Module%20Architecture%20SDK_1.htm&Langue_ID=&Product_ID=).

[wes37]

You can put it just about anywhere, but you then have to get its information in the registry: read the accompanying text file in the zip archive to find out various ways of accomplishing this.

- mThank you. I guess I should be more specific...I don't understand what "Copy TcMfxAutoAlternatorReg.bat to the directory with the .dll, and double-click to run the .bat file" means and when I downloaded the "Windows Shell Extensions", right-clicking on them does not offer an "Install" option, so I don't get how to make this work.

Sorry, computers are not my forte.

[tgfoo]

Hmmm, this looks quite useful.... Now if only I really new how to use MFXs.... Guess there is not better time to learn than now. Thanks! :D

[Markleford]

Okay, here's the easiest way to install it (on Windows 2000 and XP, and hopefully Win9x):

* Download the AutoAlternator the .zip file from my site.

* Use your unzip program of choice to empty ALL its contents to a directory where it will permanently live. If you are under WinXP then you should just have to double-click the .zip file within the Windows Explorer (aka "File Manager") program.

* Double-click on TcMfxAutoAlternatorReg.bat to install

That is all. If this does not work, mention the results and we'll figure it out.

- m

[Garritan]

Markleford,

This is fantastic. There have been so many requests among Cubase and Nuendo users for an MFX plugin that would do auto-alternation.

The alternating instances across two separate MIDI channels is brilliant. This would also benefit GPO users as well. I wonder how that would work with different solo instruments. Time to experiment.

Thank you again!

Gary Garritan

[Ian Westwood]

Markleford,

Thanks for the time you have invested in doing this. I certainly appreciate it for use with Cubase SX/HALion. I wonder if I could be cheeky and ask if you have any plans to implement the legato feature?

Here's hoping!

Ian

[Markleford]

I wonder if I could be cheeky and ask if you have any plans to implement the legato feature? Sorry, I must've missed this reply back those 3-4 weeks ago!

Yes, if I have time someday (full up now!), I'm definitely going to take a stab at the legato feature.

- m