EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Perhaps I am being stupid but I thought the Sampler Instrument was 
purely the EXS24 file for the instrument itself and that the EXS24 
scanned the various hard drives and automatically found the related 
audio file. What would be the exact procedure to copy all instruments 
and the relavent data?. Hendrick as said that once I have done that I 
can create an alias in Logic pointing to my new library. Could some 
kind soul explain the procedure for this aswell. Once I have 
this 'Library' safely tucked away I can then delete all the 
duplicates in my system.

I'm quite a lousy keyboard player so I've never used a volume pedal before.
Today I did a session with a player who needed to do a lot of volume
swelling and was used to doing it with a foot volume pedal connected to the
master keyboard.
We were using some Miroslav Vitous EXS orchestral instruments that I have
translated from my Sample Cell CD Roms.
We could not get the EXS to receive any Vol Pedal info.
I tried the same pedal on my other modules and it worked fine.
I loaded up the Sample Cell version and it also would not respond.
So...........does this mean that Vitous doesn't expect any one to use volume
pedal control or won't the EXS or Sample Cell respond to a Volume pedal via
the master keyboard.
Basic stuff but there you have it my learned compatriots.
Phil Buckle.

Thoughts from the mind of ukgfm, 10-04-2002:

>Perhaps I am being stupid but I thought the Sampler Instrument was
>purely the EXS24 file for the instrument itself and that the EXS24
>scanned the various hard drives and automatically found the related
>audio file.

That's my understanding as well...

>Hendrick as said that once I have done that I can create an alias in 
>Logic pointing to my new library. Could some kind soul explain the 
>procedure for this aswell.

On a Mac: drag the folder with samples someplace else.  Delete the 
original (inside the Logic folder).  On a Mac: press command-option 
and drag the samples-folder "back" into the Logic folder: an alias 
will be automatically created.  On PC: no idea -- probably 
right-click and "make shortcut" or something similar.

>Once I have this 'Library' safely tucked away I can then delete all 
>the duplicates in my system.

... as long as they're genuine duplicates, and not just files with 
identical names.  How smart is the EXS when it comes to detecting 
duplicates?

-- 
Hendrik Jan Veenstra  <h@...>
Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html

>
>Today I did a session with a player who needed to do a lot of volume
>swelling

Once again, I need to step up on to my soap box on this:

Expressive control of amplitude was built in to the original midi spec, and 
assigned it's own controller number, namely cc#11. It's called, 
appropriately enough, expression. All general midi synths respond to this, 
as well as pro synths, e.g. Kurzweil. The concept is simple, enable changes 
in amplitude that do not affect the mix level of the instrument, it's midi 
volume, cc#7.

Using controller #7 for expressive control of volume is a clumsy 
workaround, but unfortunately it is the only way to do it with the exs24, 
because cc#11 is not implemented(actually they are using it for some other 
parameter).This makes it unuseable in the long run for anyone wanting to do 
a lot of orchestral emulation.

Guess I'll finish the rant: Even though I have several hundred dollars 
invested in exs24, it mostly sits, because I will not even bother to begin 
converting my library when I know I'll have to deal with this serious 
limitation. When I am doing orchestral work my left hand is on the pitch 
wheel or the mod wheel(mapped to amplitude)_the whole time_. Very 
disappointing. I never dreamed it would be missing such a simple element. 
And I wouldn't mind if they had provided a parameter anywhere that allowed 
for expressive real time control of amplitude, but they haven't from what I 
can see.

For now I'm pinning all my hopes on an update, and trying to keep myself 
from moving on to another platform...

Thanks for reading this far. Emagic: It's a tremendous oversight!

Darcy





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thoughts from the mind of Darcy Phillips, 10-04-2002:

>Once again, I need to step up on to my soap box on this:
>
>Expressive control of amplitude was built in to the original midi spec, and
>assigned it's own controller number, namely cc#11. It's called,
>appropriately enough, expression.

OK, here's my soapbox (and it's bigger than yours :).  I have the 
original midispecs here at home, and controller 11 was originally an 
unassigned controller.  I.e. the convention of using CC11 as 
expression is from a later date and is not in the original midi specs.

>Using controller #7 for expressive control of volume is a clumsy
>workaround, but unfortunately it is the only way to do it with the exs24,

..and any synth older than... 5 years, 10 years?

>because cc#11 is not implemented(actually they are using it for some other
>parameter).This makes it unuseable in the long run for anyone wanting to do
>a lot of orchestral emulation.

I agree that a functional expression controller would be very nice indeed.

>Guess I'll finish the rant: Even though I have several hundred dollars
>invested in exs24, it mostly sits, because I will not even bother to begin
>converting my library when I know I'll have to deal with this serious
>limitation.

Sure it's a pain in the *ss to have to use CC7 and not be able to 
control "general volume" independently anymore, but I don't know if 
that justifies the idea that the EXS is now useless.  How about 
inserting a Gainer plugin and using that as overall volume control? 
A bit crude, maybe, but better than nothing, I guess.


-- 
Hendrik Jan Veenstra  <h@...>
Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html

Hendrik Jan wrote:

> Thoughts from the mind of ukgfm, 10-04-2002:
> 
> >Perhaps I am being stupid but I thought the Sampler Instrument was
> >purely the EXS24 file for the instrument itself and that the EXS24
> >scanned the various hard drives and automatically found the related
> >audio file.
> 
> That's my understanding as well...

I was catching up on this group today and read another post a few weeks
older than this one, pointing out a setting which seems very relevant and
may not be activated by default -- Michael Karlsson wrote "Open the EXS,
choose edit and go into the edit menu. Open  Preferences and choose 'Search
samples on: External Volumes'"


> >Hendrick as said that once I have done that I can create an alias in 
> >Logic pointing to my new library. Could some kind soul explain the 
> >procedure for this aswell.
> 
> On a Mac: drag the folder with samples someplace else.  Delete the 
> original (inside the Logic folder).  On a Mac: press command-option 
> and drag the samples-folder "back" into the Logic folder: an alias 
> will be automatically created.  On PC: no idea -- probably 
> right-click and "make shortcut" or something similar.

Yep. On a PC: find the folder where all your .exs instruments are, right
click on it and 'Create Shortcut', then Cut/Paste this shortcut into the
Logic folder and rename it "Sampler Instruments". I *think* that's the right
name, whatever it is Logic uses by default (I remember reading this folder
name in the release notes of LAP as well). Also on the PC, if you just drag
folders/files to another partition it 'copies' them by default - if you want
to save a step just 'cut' the folders/files and 'paste' them on the other
partition. 

Jeremy