Tascam GigaEditor 4 User Manual Download

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TASCAM GigaEditor 4

GigaStudio 4 Instrument Editor

User Manual

Summary of Contents for GigaEditor 4

Page 1: ...TASCAM GigaEditor 4 GigaStudio 4 Instrument Editor User Manual ...

Page 2: ...rmation in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of TEAC America Inc The software described in this manual is provided under the terms of a Software License Agreement The Software License Agreement specifies the terms and conditions of use TASCAM NemeSys GigaStudio GigaStudio Instrument Editor GigaSampler and GigaSampler Instrument Editor a...

Page 3: ...sion 46 Changing the Order of Dimension Splits 48 Changing the Dimension Controller 49 Chapter 4 Tutorial Advanced Drum Kit 58 Kick Drum 58 Snare Drum 64 Toms 68 Cymbals 71 Hi Hats 75 Chapter 5 The Instrument Wizard 83 Preparing the Samples 83 Using the Instrument Wizard A Simple Mapping 84 Using the Instrument Wizard A Complex Mapping 89 Load Status 94 Separating Parameters from GIG file 95 Chapt...

Page 4: ...ntelligent MIDI iMIDI Rules 181 iMIDI Rules in GigaStudio 181 iMIDI Rules in the Instrument Editor 182 Using the iMIDI Rule Manager 183 The Transpose Rule 184 The MIDI Filter Rule 185 The Legato Mode Rule 185 The Repetition Mode Rule 188 The Pattern Alternator Rule 188 The Controller Trigger Rule 192 The Release Trigger With Tracking Rule 193 The Rule Builder 194 The Mando Tremolo Rule 197 The Mon...

Page 5: ...r 4 0 includes the following changes from version 3 0 1 The Dynamic Expression Filter which in Giga 3 was accessible only through the use of a specially formatted initialization file is now exposed in the Editor as part of the normal parameter scheme Some of the DEF parameters are global to an instrument and are found on a new tab in the Instrument Properties dialog The DEF coefficients are part o...

Page 6: ...me as the folder 7 The maximum number of layers splits in a layer dimension has been increased from 8 to 128 8 While in the past it s been easy to change the controller assigned to a dimension velocity has been an exception once a velocity dimension always a velocity dimension Giga Editor 4 0 will now allow a velocity dimension to be changed to any other controller Note that when this is done the ...

Page 7: ...an take a few moments if the instrument is particularly large Opening the Instrument Editor from the Windows Desktop When you re doing intense instrument construction you may want to run the Editor alone without GigaStudio 1 You can launch the Editor from the Windows Start Menu 2 You can launch the Editor by double clicking a shortcut on the desktop 3 Last but not least you can launch the Editor b...

Page 8: ...al of them and hitting the Enter key Opening a GIG file from the Instrument Editor With the Instrument Editor open you can open any gig file using the standard File Open command 1 Go to the File Menu and choose Open Alt F O or Ctrl O 2 Use the Open Instrument File dialog to navigate to your gig file 3 Select the file and click on the Open button ...

Page 9: ...ve of a given instrument Users of your instrument will hear this sample when using the audition feature of the QuickSound Explorer The Maximum file size box and the checkboxes underneath it are used when it is necessary to split an instrument into more than one physical file For details see the note about large GIG files on page 99 Loading a GIG file into the sampler After you open a gig file in t...

Page 10: ...nstrument stack Regions Each instrument can have up to 128 regions A region defines a zone on the keyboard Dimensions Each region can contain as many as eight dimensions A dimension can contain up to 128 splits each mapped to a unique sample Dimensions and splits allow multiple samples to be mapped to a region while the performer uses MIDI controllers or other methods to choose which samples are h...

Page 11: ...umber of instruments to deal with inside the same gig file Banks are the top level of the Giga heirarchy Instruments The next level is the instrument Gig files can have many instruments inside them and these instruments can share common samples without using any extra hard drive space or sample buffering RAM Each instrument has a discrete bank and patch change number Regions An instrument can cont...

Page 12: ...ch dimension split is assigned a unique sample to play back We ll refer to the process of assigning samples to splits as mapping the instrument A single sample can be assigned to multiple regions without additional overhead Articulation Parameters In addition to its sample assignment each dimension split also has its own unique set of over 100 articulation parameters Many of the parameters define ...

Page 13: ...les currently up to 256 can be mapped to a single region while MIDI control and intelligent MIDI rules determine which of those samples will sound at any given moment 5 Map your samples into the regions you have created In practice the last three steps are often combined into a single action For example dragging and dropping a group of samples into the Region Window can automatically create a regi...

Page 14: ...it integer mono or stereo format As you import samples they are added to the Sample Window in the lower left portion of the Editor Samples are organized into folders preferably in a way that anticipates how they ll be organized in the instrument you are building For example if you ve sampled a trumpet at three different dynamic levels and two different attack styles you might create six folders wi...

Page 15: ...ple folders When you create a new gig file you will always find a default sample folder in the Sample Window You can rename it if you like You can start importing samples into this folder or you can create new folders 1 To create a new folder right click anywhere in the Sample Window and choose New sample folder This will create a new folder ready to be named 2 You can then give it any name you wa...

Page 16: ...er and choose Import samples You can right click anywhere in the Sample Window but the samples will be imported to the currently selected folder 2 This will bring up the file browser 3 When you select a sample the sample s properties are displayed including its word size and sample rate length in seconds and size in kilobytes ...

Page 17: ...own the SHIFT or CTRL keys 5 The samples will now appear in the Sample Window Within a folder samples can be sorted either alphabetically or by pitch Right click in the Sample Window to select the sort option from the context menu The asterisk by each sample indicates that these samples have not yet been written into the gig file The asterisks will disappear when the gig file is saved ...

Page 18: ...to a new folder named after the source directory 1 Right click in the Sample Window and choose Import directory This will bring up the folder browser 2 Select a directory and click OK to import the directory into the Sample Window Any wav files in the directory or dxl files which are accelerated Giga samples will be imported Other types of files are ignored ...

Page 19: ...y to import directories and samples is to drag and drop them directly from the Windows Explorer into the Sample Window You can drag samples from the Windows Explorer to any folder in the Sample Window 1 Here we are dragging to the folder named Import Sample Folder 2 Now the samples appear in the folder ...

Page 20: ...Snare samples in the Default Sample Group folder Importing Sample Folders from the Desktop You can also drag an entire directory or even multiple directories from the Windows Explorer into the Sample Window For each directory that you drop a corresponding folder is created and any samples in the directory are imported to that folder 1 To begin navigate to where you can see several folders that hav...

Page 21: ...nual 21 2 Drag and drop a folder or several folders from the desktop into the Sample Window 3 All the folders and their samples are now in the Sample Window This is the fastest way to import a large number of samples at once ...

Page 22: ...ng inaccuracies in the original performance Unity note and fine tuning are sometimes saved along with the audio data in a standard wav file If your samples include this data the Giga Editor will recognize it when the samples are imported and retain the information in each sample s properties If your wav files don t include tuning information you have a couple of options One is to set the unity not...

Page 23: ... convenient way to create regions but it is sometimes useful For example drum kits often don t lend themselves to the more streamlined ways of creating regions because each drum snare kick hi hat etc is effectively a different instrument and may require a differently structured region Creating a few regions manually will also help familiarize you with the concept of mapping samples before we intro...

Page 24: ... Actually if a sample is highlighted in the Sample Window it will be mapped here automatically Either way the mapping is easy to change as we ll see below When we create velocity splits later they ll appear in this window After you ve created one or more regions you can resize them or move them around the keyboard Moving Regions 1 To move a region grab it in the middle so that the mouse turns into...

Page 25: ...at the mouse turns into a left right arrow 2 Then drag the mouse to stretch the region You can do this with either side of the region 3 A single region can be stretched up to the full range of the MIDI keyboard Regions are not allowed to overlap so a region this large would be the only region in the instrument ...

Page 26: ...gion the ALT key is not necessary Alternatively select the first region in the intended range then click the last region while holding down the SHIFT key 2 The selected regions will now be highlighted in yellow or orange The orange region is the focus region whose properties are displayed in the editor s other windows It is always included in the selection 3 You can then move all these regions at ...

Page 27: ... nothing more than play a single sample While a region that simple might have its uses we ll take things a small step further here and give our new region a single dimension so that we can make it more musically expressive by assigning multiple samples to it Remember that a region can have up to eight dimensions all working simultaneously so this example will just hint at the possibilities One of ...

Page 28: ...be visible in the Velocity window Each split can be mapped to its own sample Each split also has its own unique articulation that is its own set of envelopes filters and other performance parameters Velocity splits for manually created regions Because velocity splits are such a common feature of sampled instruments you can tell the Editor to add a certain number of velocity splits automatically wh...

Page 29: ...tal bands in the Velocity Window Note that the velocity splits are also divided into left and right halves indicating that this is a stereo region Mapping Samples to a Region At this point we ve created a region and assigned it a simple Velocity dimension All that remains is to map some samples to the region For this example suppose we ve sampled a bell at four different dymanic levels and importe...

Page 30: ...tely it maps to the entire region including all four of our velocity splits You can see this in the Velocity window where the ff sample is named in all four of the splits This isn t exactly what we want The solution is to drop each sample directly on its own split as shown below ...

Page 31: ...kely to encounter this message in the early stages of constructing an instrument Minor edits such as changes to split points and articulation parameters are communicated directly to the instrument in memory and do not require a file save When the instrument is loaded into memory the LOADED indicator lights green and the instrument is ready to play A Faster Way To Work Creating and mapping regions ...

Page 32: ...t there are no unmapped keys between regions If you drop several samples and find that only one region is created a likely explanation is that the samples do not contain pitch information and have all defaulted to middle C Since regions cannot overlap only one sample can be mapped to any given note Assign a unique pitch to each sample in the sample properties and try again ...

Page 33: ... Creating and mapping splits automatically In the example above we created a series of regions by dropping a group of samples in the Region Window This is a convenient way to create regions but it creates only the simplest kind of region mapped to a single sample with no dimensions or splits Once the regions are created however we can create and map additional splits easily by dropping groups of s...

Page 34: ...34 TASCAM GigaEditor 4 Manual The drop maps the samples across the keyboard according to their pitches ...

Page 35: ...window with the left mouse button Map to existing split alpha order Replaces the samples in the existing split with samples from the dropped folder mapping the samples alphabetically by name The editor assumes you are dropping unpitched samples and turns off pitch tracking in the mapped splits Map to new split by pitch Creates a new split at the point where you dropped the folder and maps the fold...

Page 36: ... to choose then is Map to new split by pitch Since we dropped the folder in the upper part of the existing single velocity split the new split will be created above the old one The old split now covers velocities from 1 to 63 and retains the original Velocity1 sample mappings The new split covers velocities 64 to 127 and is mapped to the Velocity2 samples Remember that this will split every one of...

Page 37: ...d the sample will not transpose at all it will always play at its natural pitch wherever you put it This is good for drums and percussion or sound effects 2 Pitch Tracking Enabled Drag With Left Mouse Button When Pitch Tracking is enabled the sample will be transposed up or down from its unity note root note or natural pitch depending on what unity note is assigned and where it is mapped on the ke...

Page 38: ...be removed when the switch is made 1 In this example we have four velocities mapped to four stereo samples 2 If we drag a mono sample to the top velocity the whole region is changed to mono and this sample is mapped to the top velocity split as intended However the bottom three samples have been removed Since this is now a mono region the splits can only be mapped to mono samples This chapter has ...

Page 39: ...c Velocity This is the traditional velocity switch typically using the velocity with which the key is struck to select among samples recorded at various dynamic levels MIDI continuous controllers When a MIDI controller is assigned to a dimension the value of that controller at note on determines which split will sound Examples include using the Mod Wheel to switch between closed and open hi hats o...

Page 40: ...ngle note to get to know the concept of working with dimensions E 2 of an Orchestral Bass Ensemble from the Vienna Symphonic Library Everything will be done with the manual drag and drop method so you can see and experience directly what these dimensions do Once you understand what they do you will then be better prepared to work with the Instrument Wizard The Instrument Wizard does everything des...

Page 41: ...ete existing splits and to change the order of splits within a dimension even after samples have been mapped to them 4 Click on the Add button to add a second velocity split The new split will appear at the top 5 Click the Rename button and change the name of each split Name the first one Soft and the second one Loud for now Then click OK to close the Dimension Controller dialog 6 Now the Velocity...

Page 42: ...e splits and more dimensions It s a worthwhile habit to get into if you plan to do a lot of instrument design Mapping the Samples At this point we have a stereo region with two velocity splits but without any samples the region will be silent In this section we ll complete the job by mapping samples to the region 1 Import the two Bass Sustain folders into the Sample Window These are in the Editor ...

Page 43: ...re now mapped to the low and high velocity splits In order to hear them we need to save and load this instrument 4 Choose Save or Save As in the File menu and save this gig file to your hard drive 5 Click the Download button on the toolbar to load the instrument 6 The Load Indicator Light will turn green when the instrument is loaded and ready to play ...

Page 44: ...the highest velocity that will map to the split below the line Playback Monitoring This is a good place to briefly point out the various Playback Monitoring features of the GigaStudio Editor As you play the keyboard a variety of real time things happen on the screen at once especially if you have the Jump to Regions and MIDI Select enabled First we will enable the Jump to Regions mode 1 Right clic...

Page 45: ...ted in yellow The sample mapped to the currently focused split the split highlighted in orange will have the orange border around its icon Now we will enable MIDI Select mode 5 Go to the top right of the Region Window and click on the MIDI Select button to turn this feature on The button will light up MIDI Select enables regions dimensions and velocity splits to be automatically selected by incomi...

Page 46: ...ote in real time as you adjust a filter on the bottom velocity you don t want the MIDI Select tool constantly throwing you to the top velocity split every time you play too loud This is a tool that you will toggle on and off depending on what you are doing Adding a Second Dimension Now we will add another dimension to the sustaining bass note we have been working on This will be a Mod Wheel dimens...

Page 47: ...it the Dimension Controller dialog 5 Now we have two Mod Wheel splits and two Velocity splits However the instrument won t sound any different yet because we haven t mapped the new staccato samples 6 To see which samples are mapped to the upper range of the Mod Wheel click on the upper Mod Wheel split The Velocity window shows that the original Sustain samples are still mapped to the upper Mod Whe...

Page 48: ...s of this new dimension click on the Download button again This will save the new changes and load the instrument Changing the Order of Dimension Splits You might decide that you d rather hear the Staccato samples instead of the Sustain samples when the Mod Wheel is in the lower part of its range Fortunately you can easily change the order of the splits in any dimension even after they have been m...

Page 49: ...witched the Loud samples to the lower part of the velocity range Changing the Dimension Controller Dimension Controllers can also be changed easily without having to re map the samples and this can be done across the whole instrument If you don t like the controller that has been assigned in a library you have you can change it to something else If you are designing your own instrument the ability...

Page 50: ...Sustain Pedal 4 Now instead of the Mod Wheel switching between the Sustain and Staccato samples the Sustain Pedal will change them instead You will need to re load the instrument to hear this change Change to Keyswitch Next we will change this to a Keyswitch dimension This will allows us to use keys on the MIDI keyboard to change between the Sustain and Staccato samples 1 Once again click on the d...

Page 51: ...ion of the keyboard which is normally drawn as a gray rectangle When you create a Keyswitch dimension the region turns purple to show that it s now in use You can drag the keyswitch region to move or resize it just like a normal region Typically the size of the keyswitch region will depend on the number of splits in your Keyswitch dimension Since we only have two splits we ll set the keyswitch reg...

Page 52: ...aying the keyswitch and the other for playing the notes Change to Round Robin The procedure is the same as in the previous two examples Change to the Round Robin this time for the dimension controller What this will do is automatically change back and forth between the Sustain and Staccato samples every time you play the instrument Reload the instrument and play the instrument note repeatedly to h...

Page 53: ...ion So far we have covered basic switching dimensions that use MIDI controllers or Velocity to change the samples that are played back Another type of dimension is the Layer This allows you to layer several samples on top of one another to be played back at the same time By default all of the splits in a layer dimension sound simultaneously when a note is played But you can also control the volume...

Page 54: ...ource to Layer Type in a Description and name the Split names to Soft and Loud Click OK 5 Now we have a Layer dimension split with Soft on the left and Loud on the right 6 Select the Soft dimension split and drag Bass Sustain p E2 to the velocity map ...

Page 55: ...e want to apply the following edit to both 9 Click the header bar in the Articulation Parameters window and choose Mix Layer from the category menu 10 Click in the value field for Attenuation controller to see a menu of options The default is None Change this to 1 Mod wheel because we want the Mod Wheel to continuously control the volume of both layers ...

Page 56: ...ade between the soft and loud layer You can also do custom in and out points using the Crossfade Editor This tool can handle any number of layers When you use this method leave the Control invert parameter set to No for all layers The crossfade is defined instead by a set of four parameters Crossfade in start Crossfade in finish Crossfade out start Crossfade out finish Typically each layer will ha...

Page 57: ...TASCAM GigaEditor 4 Manual 57 ...

Page 58: ...r Tutorial Files directory for this chapter How To Map Samples Advanced In the Instrument window you can name the instrument to Tutorial Drum Kit You can also delete the Default Sample folder to keep the Sample window from getting too cluttered The final result should look like the screen shot at left Now we are ready to start creating a drum kit Kick Drum The Kick Drum has four velocities of mono...

Page 59: ...city splits ready to be mapped to Kick Drum samples 4 Drag and drop the Kick Drum samples to the four velocity splits as shown below Be sure to use the right mouse button to disable pitch tracking We want all the samples to play at their original pitch 5 At this point it would be nice to hear the results as we edit the Kick drum parameters and velocity split points so click the Download button ...

Page 60: ... the instrument is loaded the LOADED indicator will turn green and you should be able to hear the Kick Drum if you play C2 on the keyboard 9 The note will also light up in blue on the keyboard when you play 10 The blue arrow will move to the velocity levels you play in real time This will help in adjusting the Velocity Split points to be able to see them as you play ...

Page 61: ...ty a little larger than the rest so you can hear it The top velocity has a narrower range so that it only triggers when you really hit the key fairly hard The next step is to put a longer release time on this Kick Drum The default release time 300 milliseconds is a bit too short 12 Select all the velocity splits of the Kick drum so that they are all highlighted This way any edits we perform will a...

Page 62: ...ed here as well By dragging the blue dot on the Kick Drum region you can adjust the Release Time here This is another option for editing various parameters in addition to the Parameters Window and the Waveform Window It will be especially handy for editing multiple regions at once You can also select various parameters by clicking on the left side of the Region Window header bar and choosing the p...

Page 63: ... Type parameter to Lowpass 19 Now play the Kick Drum and notice how the tone gets darker or brighter depending on how hard you play There are two types of tone change happening here at once One is the sound of the velocity switching between softer and louder recordings of the Kick Drum The other is the Lowpass Filter Between these two things you can get a smooth transition from soft to loud Feel f...

Page 64: ... we have two identical regions of the Kick Drum on C2 and D2 The new region is an exact copy of the original one including the sample mappings as well as the parameter edits that we made above Snare Drum The next part of the drum kit to map out is the Snare Drum This drum will have separate samples for the left and right sticks These samples are stereo with four velocities There s an additional se...

Page 65: ...ck drum regions those will turn solid and these Snare regions will get the hash marks 2 The Velocity Map for these new regions shows a Stereo split and four Velocity splits 3 Select the Left Snare region E2 Drag and drop the Left Hand Snare samples from the Sample Window to the four velocity splits using the right mouse button Snare Left v4 ff Snare Left v3 f Snare Left v2 mf Snare Left v1 p 4 Sel...

Page 66: ...k like a snare drum switch Moving the Mod Wheel forward beyond the halfway point will switch to the snares off samples while moving it back will switch back to the snares on samples Also there is only one set of Snare Off samples in these tutorial samples There are no separate Left and Right hand samples so we will map the same Snare Off samples to both regions 6 Click on a Dimension header bar 7 ...

Page 67: ...nd then select the Snares Off dimension 10 Map the four Snares Off samples to the velocity map Repeat this with the Right snare region so that both regions have Snares Off samples 11 Click on the Download button to hear the latest results 12 Play the Snare samples while moving the Mod Wheel back and forth ...

Page 68: ...use to select all four velocity splits In the Mod Wheel dimension window select only the upper snares off split Change an articulation parameter such as Release Time The result is that the new Release Time will be applied to all of the velocity splits because you selected them all in the Velocity dimension but only to the Snares Off versions because only the Snares Off split is selected in the Mod...

Page 69: ...ll apply to all of them 2 Using the same techniques as with the Kick and the Snare adjust the velocity split points and the Release Time and add a Lowpass filter Again the changes will apply to all three regions at once because they were all selected in the previous step 3 Click on a Dimension window header 4 Do the same thing we did with the snares Set the Control Source to Mod Wheel Enter Snare ...

Page 70: ...gaEditor 4 Manual 5 Now the Toms have a labeled dimension switch 6 Select the G2 region This will be the Floor Tom 7 Select the Snares On dimension 8 Map the Tom Floor Snares On samples using the right mouse button ...

Page 71: ...samples Select the Snares Off dimension Map the Tom Mid samples High Tom Select the B2 Region Select the Snares On dimension Map the Tom High Snares On samples Select the Snares Off dimension Map the Tom High samples 12 Click the Download button to save and reload the instrument 13 Now play the Toms while moving the Mod Wheel back and forth You should hear the snares turning off and on Cymbals The...

Page 72: ...s 1 Create 4 new regions on C3 D3 E3 and F3 This should create four regions with four Velocity Splits Select all four of the regions 2 Give the velocity split points a rough adjustment as in the past examples Set a Release Time of 5 seconds 3 Select the C3 region in the Region Window Map the Ride Tip samples using the right mouse button ...

Page 73: ...ct the E3 region in the Region Window Map the Crash samples using the right mouse button 6 Select the F3 region in the Region Window Map the Splash samples using the right mouse button 7 Click on the Download button to save the changes and hear the results Play the cymbals and tweak the velocity split points and release times if needed ...

Page 74: ...note while the soft sample is still decaying and drown out the soft sample However even though you can t hear the soft sample any longer it would still be using up polyphony until it is finished decaying With Self Masking enabled the louder note will cut off the softer note 8 Before enabling Self Masking trigger one of the cymbals several times from soft to loud Watch the polyphony meter on the st...

Page 75: ...ot least we have the Hi Hats 4 stereo velocities of Tip Closed 4 stereo velocities of Tip Open 4 stereo velocities of Edge Closed 4 stereo velocities of Edge Open 4 stereo velocities of Foot Closed We are going to get fancy with the Hi Hat The Sustain Pedal will do several things at once Switch between Open and Closed Tip and Edge Samples Trigger one of the Foot Closed Samples Cut off the Open Sam...

Page 76: ...tain Pedal dimension split that will switch between open and closed samples 2 Click on a Dimension header bar 3 Do the same thing we did with the snares Set the Control source to Sustain Pedal Enter Hi Hat Open Close in the Description field Rename the Splits to Hi Hat Open and Hi Hat Close Click OK when you are done 4 Select the G3 region This region will have the Hi Hat Tip samples ...

Page 77: ... Manual 77 5 Select the Hi Hat Open Dimension Split 6 Map the Hi Hat Tip Open samples using the right mouse button 7 Select the Hi Hat Close Dimension Split 8 Map the Hi Hat Tip Closed samples using the right mouse button ...

Page 78: ...Manual 9 Select the A3 region This region will have the Hi Hat Edge samples 10 Select the Hi Hat Open Dimension Split 11 Map the Hi Hat Edge Open samples using the right mouse button 12 Select the Hi Hat Close Dimension Split ...

Page 79: ... to map out is the Foot Closed Hi Hat region 14 Select the B3 Region This will be the Foot Closed Hi Hat 15 Map the Hi Hat Foot samples using the right mouse button 16 Click on the Download button to save the changes and hear the results 17 Play the Tip and Edge Hi Hat regions while triggering the Sustain Pedal ...

Page 80: ...ow we can play the Foot Closed Hi Hat on the keyboard but we also want the Sustain Pedal to trigger one of those samples as well And we want it to shut off the open Hi Hat samples when closing just like the real thing 18 Right click in the Instrument Window and choose iMIDI Rule manager from the context menu If this option is grayed out you need to load the instrument by clicking on the Download b...

Page 81: ...tings and click Add to add this trigger to the rule At this point the Controller Triggered dialog should look like this 21 Click OK to close the rule dialog and OK again to close the Rule Manager Now when you step on the Sustain Pedal it will trigger the mf Foot Closed sample on B3 the mf sample is triggered because it corresponds to the velocity of 64 The Sustain Pedal also continues to switch th...

Page 82: ...ut each other off The Sustain Pedal will cut off any open sustaining samples while it triggers the Foot Closed sample This is very similar to the way the real Hi Hat operates This chapter has touched on nearly every section of the Instrument Editor but we ve still confined ourselves to relatively simple regions with no more than two dimensions Next we ll look at a tool for creating more complex in...

Page 83: ...imple and will save a lot of time Sample Names and Unity Notes For the Instrument Wizard to work it needs to know the Unity Note also known as Root Note of each sample This is the note that the pitch is recorded at and assigned to on the keyboard Even if the samples are not chromatic the Instrument Wizard can assign them to their root note and then stretch the regions until they meet each other Th...

Page 84: ...h That would be 704 samples that would have to be mapped by hand without the Instrument Wizard The Instrument Wizard can map these out for you in about a second So as a general rule there needs to be one folder of properly named samples for every single velocity or dimension split Using the Instrument Wizard A Simple Mapping 1 Start with a new instrument and import the 4 Tutorial Electric Piano fo...

Page 85: ...lect the checkbox Create Regions every and set it to 1 half step This will create chromatic regions one for every note on the keyboard The other option would stretch non chromatic regions 5 Set the start note to A0 Set the end note to C8 This sets the range to cover an 88 note keyboard ...

Page 86: ...city split dimension 8 Set the Splits number to 4 This will create four velocity splits one for each folder of samples 9 Fill in the Description and the Split Names These work the same way as the description and split names when manually creating dimension splits This is a good habit to get into because names can help you keep your bearings when dealing with complex instruments Also naming is abso...

Page 87: ...ons Also notice that the folders of samples are represented in the left section Mapping the samples out is simply a matter of assigning these folders to the splits in the right section 11 Assign the folders on the left one at a time to their corresponding velocity split on the right To do this click on a folder and then click on a velocity split name Click on the Next button to finish the Instrume...

Page 88: ...l to hear what it sounds like and start tweaking it Chromatic vs Non Chromatic mapping In the example above we chose to map the notes chromatically even though the samples are not chromatic This was the Create Regions every 1 half step option on Page 2 of the Wizard Alternatively we could have created one region per sample to be able to better see where the samples are The disadvantage of doing it...

Page 89: ...ou don t need the editing resolution the non chromatic mapping makes it easier to see where the samples are mapped Using the Instrument Wizard A Complex Mapping In this example we ll use the Bass Ensemble samples to create a complex keyswitch instrument with two velocity splits This will demonstrate the need for good labeling of the dimensions and splits 1 Start again with a new gig file and impor...

Page 90: ...top and bottom notes a bit Press Next to move on to Step 3 of the Instrument Wizard 5 Set the first Controller Source to Velocity and give it 2 splits Name it Velocity Splits in the Description field 6 Set the second controller to Keyboard and give it 8 splits Name it Keyswitch in the Description field 7 Click on the Split Names button for the Velocity dimension and name the splits as shown Click ...

Page 91: ...nt Wizard Here is where the naming comes in real handy This would just be a matrix of numbers otherwise 9 Map the folders on the left to the splits on the right Match the folder names to the split names 10 The Instrument Wizard maps the regions across the keyboard ...

Page 92: ...a MIDI channel to hear what it sounds like and start tweaking it Complex Mapping Example Here is a brief example of a more complex mapping in the Instrument Wizard In Step 3 of the Instrument Wizard we have four dimensions A Velocity dimension with two splits A Keyswitch dimension with four splits each a different articulation A two way Layer dimension that adds the Tremolo samples A two way Susta...

Page 93: ... what you would see if you don t enter descriptions and state names It would be virtually impossible to figure out what goes where in this matrix of numbers Here are the dimensions of the finished instrument This will allow a 4 way Keyswitch between Sustain 8th Note Quarter Note and Pizz articulations ...

Page 94: ...n You can play the instrument while you edit and you can hear the changes in real time as long as the RELOAD light is not glowing Loading Instruments to MIDI channels Choose a port and MIDI channel 2 Click the Download button 3 Make sure your keyboard is sending to the correct channel and connected to the correct port 4 The entire gig file will load to the MIDI channel You know it s loaded properl...

Page 95: ...n When the RELOAD indicator is lit you can continue to edit the instrument but you will not hear all of your edits until you have done a save reload cycle Click on the Download button You can save the file to its original location Save or to a new location Save As Note that if you choose Save As the Editor will always perform a full save If a full save is required anyway the Save As option may be ...

Page 96: ... Things to keep in mind This file will load just fine in the main GigaStudio Interface but you need to make sure that both files are together in the same directory on the hard drive or this will not work If you want to simplify things you can re save this split file again when you re done editing Save it again but with the checkbox un checked and it will merge them back together into a single gig ...

Page 97: ...ment the Editor s main menu one item at a time File Menu New Alt F N or Ctrl N Creates a new and empty gig file Open Alt F O or Ctrl O Opens an existing gig file This command is similar to the File Open command in most Windows applications but the file dialog has a few special features ...

Page 98: ...e Descriptive wave names box The names will be replaced with simple numeric indexes For additional features of the Giga Editor file dialog see Save As below Save Alt F S or Ctrl S Saves the currently loaded gig file If the file is new and has never been saved before you will get the Save As screen where you can name the file and select where you want it to go on your computer If the file has been ...

Page 99: ...in gx01 C MyGigs Violin gx02 To open this file set just open Violin gig as you normally would When you open Violin gig the extension files will automatically be opened along with it The Save As dialog contains several options that control the creation of extension files Maximum file size This is the absolute maximum size in megabytes of any single output file It applies to the main gig file and al...

Page 100: ...r own the Editor is relieved of the need to save the entire wave pool even if you make major changes such as adding or deleting new instruments regions and dimensions Save Limited Alt F L This is identical to the Save As option except that the editor will discard all samples that are not mapped to at least one region Use this option to minimize the size of the output file but be aware that the dis...

Page 101: ...us editing commands Many of these commands can be accessed with the computer keyboard These keyboard commands match the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts for the most part The Cut Copy Paste and Delete commands on this menu will change to reflect the type of object that is currently selected instrument bank region sample etc To make an edit select an item with the mouse and go to the menu with t...

Page 102: ...he Editor compares them with the samples in the target file and discards any duplicates There are a variety of ways to paste depending on the item you are working with For example regions can be pasted to the same key range or you can specify where to paste them This will all be covered in detail in each area of the Editor As with the other edit commands you can right click with the mouse over an ...

Page 103: ...e Windows desktop into the Sample Window Using this method you can import more than one directory at once You can also right click anywhere in the Sample Window and choose Import directory from the context menu Export all sample folders Alt E A This will export all the samples in a gig file to standard wave files on your hard drive Any loop points in the samples will be exported intact This is han...

Page 104: ...on compression with 20 bit quality This offers even more polyphony with a very slight quality loss 24 bit max accelerated preserve 18 bits More disk acceleration compression with 18 bit quality This offers even more polyphony with a very slight quality loss 16 bit integer Standard uncompressed 16 bit samples 16 bit accelerated preserve 16 bits Disk acceleration compression with no loss of quality ...

Page 105: ...f they contain loops or if they are too short for the acceleration algorithm to work on The output looks something like this Failed conversions do not mean there is anything wrong with your gig file These samples will simply stay in place in their original format Edit macros Alt E M Starts the Edit Macro dialog which allows you to rename delete and change the keyboard shortcuts for existing macros...

Page 106: ...ady contained mod wheel dimensions then all of the original mod wheel splits will be stacked together in the combined mod wheel dimension Note that this menu command is only enabled when two or more instruments are selected in the instrument window Crossfade editor Alt E O Crossfades are specified in Giga by editing four articulation parameters the fade in start and end points and the fade out sta...

Page 107: ...n The crossfade points you define and the controller you select under Attenuation control will be applied to the instrument when you press Apply Multiple instruments Use this mode when you plan to stack multiple instruments on a single MIDI channel in GigaStudio and crossfade between one entire instrument and the next using the specified attenuation controller In this mode each band in the Crossfa...

Page 108: ...QuickSound Database will recognize when doing complex searches for GigaStudio instruments The search criteria can also be edited from the QuickSound Explorer and you can do batch keyword entry as well The second tab Extension files is empty in the case of a standalone gig file For instruments that span multiple files this tab lists the names of the additional files usually with the extension gx01 ...

Page 109: ...e below Velocity splits for manually created regions Defines the initial structure of regions that you create manually by right clicking in the keyboard display and selecting Create region Unity note for imported wav files Tells the Editor how to set the unity note for imported samples when no unity note is defined in the wav file itself You can choose to simply default such samples to middle C or...

Page 110: ...ed to the null sample Unmapped regions are perfectly legal so uncheck this box if you are using them for some deliberate purpose Use internal names on WAV import Tells the Editor to take the names of imported samples from information inside the wav file rather than from the wav file s name If no internal name is present the file name will be used anyway Retune regions when dragging Controls whethe...

Page 111: ...s the Editor to hang temporarily check this box You will still be able to drag samples and folders into the other Editor windows for mapping purposes To export samples as wav files right click on a sample or folder and use the Export function since dragging samples outside the Editor will no longer work MIDI Menu Channel Status Alt M C This command displays the Channel Status window which shows yo...

Page 112: ...d size which is an estimate of the disk space that will be needed to save all of the files currently open Show Audio Alt V A This command displays or hides the graphical audio waveform view The waveform view displays the sample wave and parameters such as ADSR envelopes LFOs and loop points This allows you to precisely edit these parameters and see how they will lay on top of the sample Note that ...

Page 113: ...ndow Menu This is the same as the Window menu seen in many Windows applications with options for automatically arranging the window layout and for bringing a particular window to the foreground when you have multiple gig files open Help Menu Options on this menu will bring up the Editor s help file take you to the TASCAM web site and launch the About box which displays information about the versio...

Page 114: ...Instrument Banks This example shows two banks containing a total of three instruments A gig file can contain up to 128 instruments Bank and Instrument Facts GIG files can have multiple Banks and multiple Instruments These correspond and respond to standard MIDI Bank and Patch Program Changes This is where you cut copy paste and rename instruments and change their bank and patch numbers You can als...

Page 115: ...t Properties You can change the Bank and Patch number here among other things In this example we will change this instrument to Bank 3 This will create a new Bank and move the instrument into it This is how you create new Banks 2 Now the instrument is in Bank 3 The new bank is created automatically Deleting a Bank ...

Page 116: ...context menu and choose Delete bank You can also press the Delete key on your computer keyboard Cut or Copy Bank 1 Select the Bank you want to Copy or Cut with the mouse 2 From the Edit menu select Cut bank or Copy bank Either command will place a copy of the bank on the clipboard Cut deletes the bank from the file Copy leaves it in place 3 The same commands are available on the right click menu C...

Page 117: ... with that bank are merged into the second file s wave pool When this happens the Editor will discard any samples which have exact duplicates already in the new pool remapping regions as necessary to use the existing copies This operation avoids wasted space in the target file but it can take some time to complete Copy and Paste Banks Drag and Drop Banks can be dragged and dropped bewteen files co...

Page 118: ... New instrument from the popup menu Cut Copy Instruments 1 Select the Instrument you want to cut or copy with the mouse 2 Select the Cut or Copy command from the Edit menu You can also use Ctrl C for Copy or Ctrl X for Paste on the computer keyboard 3 Or right click on the instrument to bring up the Instrument context menu and choose Cut instrument or Copy instrument with the mouse 4 A progress wi...

Page 119: ...ace in the target file but it can take some time to complete Copying and Pasting Instruments using Drag Drop Instruments can be dragged and dropped like other objects When you drag and drop an instrument within a file it is simply moved from one bank to another When you drag an instrument from one file and drop it into another file the result is a full Copy and Paste operation Renaming an Instrume...

Page 120: ...when standard MIDI Bank and Patch Change commands are sent from a keyboard or sequencers Instrument numbers are from 0 to 127 banks from 0 to 16383 Effects Send This feature is disabled for the time being Attenuation and 6 dB Boost This allows a global attenuation setting for the whole instrument If the instrument is prone to distorting or too loud you can bring the volume down with this setting E...

Page 121: ...ied by GigaPulse First and Last Keyswitch Key Sets the region of the keyboard which will be used for any Keyswitch dimensions in this instrument Note that the keyswitch range appears in the Keyboard window as a gray region purple if a Keyswitch dimension is present and can also be moved by dragging its edges with the mouse Initialize these controllers on instrument load Use this section to specify...

Page 122: ...e is a view of the wave pool containing several folders It is extremely helpful organize the samples into folders for designing and building complex instruments Folders should be divided in categories by instruments velocity splits and dimension splits This is especially important when working with the Instrument Wizard Clicking on the plus sign to the left of a folder opens it up to display the s...

Page 123: ...k indicates a sample that is either freshly imported or recently edited using an external audio editor Samples in this state may not play correctly until the gig file has been saved and reloaded Sample Window Menu Commands Right clicking in the Sample Window brings up a context menu The menu is shown below as it appears when a sample is selected When a folder is selected some of the commands will ...

Page 124: ...when it is no longer needed To hear your edit first save the file from the audio editor and then save and reload the gig file Audition sample only Plays the selected sample Find instance Ctrl F sample only Locates the first region to which this sample is mapped The editor brings the region into view and selects the specific split where the region is mapped If the sample is mapped to more than one ...

Page 125: ... desktop into the Sample Window This method allows you to import multiple folders at once Replace sample sample only Replaces the selected sample with a new sample from a wav file The Sample Open dialog appears so that you can locate the replacement file Any regions mapped to the sample you replace will be remapped to the new sample Replace all samples in folder folder only This command allows you...

Page 126: ...ound anywhere in the root directory or in any of its subdirectories 2 Match only if the subdirectory name also matches the wave pool folder This mode is useful when the sample files are arranged into subdirectories which mirror the folders in your gig file The samples in a folder named Piano will be replaced only by files found in a Piano subdirectory of the root directory Samples for which no mat...

Page 127: ...ted sample the audition sample for every instrument in the gig file The audition sample for the currently selected instrument will have a tiny letter A next to its icon Cut Copy Paste Delete Rename These commands are used as in any Windows application Note that when you cut or delete a sample any regions mapped to that sample will be unmapped will no longer sound Batch rename Use this command to r...

Page 128: ...o convert the bit rate and apply Disk Acceleration compression to all the samples in the gig file You can also convert the whole file to mono This allows a developer to easily generate 24 and 16 bit versions of the library in both mono and stereo This interface is covered in detail in the Edit Menu section Sort by pitch Sort by name Choose one of these options to specify how samples should be orde...

Page 129: ... yellow If you select multiple regions or splits then multiple samples may show the yellow highlight Even when you have selected multiple regions or splits a single region and a single split within each dimension will still have the focus noted by an orange highlight The single sample at the intersection of all the currently focused splits is drawn with a red border around its icon This is the sam...

Page 130: ...dow has no horizontal scroll bar When the display is zoomed in too far to see the entire keyboard at once you can shift the view left or right by dragging the mouse in the keyboard area of the window Zoom In Zoom Out Middle C This red line indicates where Middle C MIDI note 60 is The red line is always just to the left of Middle C By default middle C is named C4 You can choose a different octave n...

Page 131: ...n The MIDI Select button allows regions and dimensions to be highlighted and selected by incoming MIDI data When this option is turned on for example you can select a particular velocity split within a region by playing a key in that region at the correct velocity MIDI Note Ons Notes triggered via external MIDI are highlighted in blue Parameter Editing The blue lines and circles visible on each re...

Page 132: ... the drag in the empty gray portion of the display To select a range of regions that are not contiguous hold down the CTRL key and click with the mouse to add or remove regions from the selection Note that the single most recently selected region is colored orange This region has the focus the dimension windows and articulation value displays refer to this region If multiple regions are selected t...

Page 133: ...g left or right You may also move several regions at once by selecting the regions you want to move and then dragging any one of the selected regions Normally regions moved in this way are not retuned meaning that splits for which pitch tracking is in effect will sound higher or lower after being moved Check the Retune regions when dragging box in the Preferences if you wish to preserve the pitch ...

Page 134: ...eyboard to use this command The newly created region will span a single key Drag the region or its left or right edges to change the note coverage Cut region s Deletes the currently selected region s and makes a copy of them on the clipboard Any samples mapped to the selected regions are also copied but not deleted from the current file Copy region s Makes a copy of the currently selected region s...

Page 135: ... Apply macro Use this function to perform complex and repetitive editing This command will apply a Macro to every split in the currently selected region or regions This function works only if at least one macro has been previously defined See the Macros chapter for more information about creating Macros of your own Transpose Changes the tuning of the selected region s by half steps and cents This ...

Page 136: ...update here and vice versa This helps you keep a visual overview of the editing process It allows you to edit three different ways and see the results from three angles in real time When the Envelope preview button is pressed the waveform is drawn as if the amplitude envelope EG1 were already applied to it Envelopes View When an envelope parameter is selected in the Parameter Window the correspond...

Page 137: ...he pitch envelope is drawn in blue LFO View When an LFO parameter is selected in the Parameter Window the corresponding LFO waveform is drawn in the Waveform Window You can edit the LFO rate by dragging the breakpoint The LFO display is color coded The amplitude LFO is drawn in yellow The filter LFO is drawn in violet The pitch LFO is drawn in blue ...

Page 138: ...ed by regular MIDI controllers such as the Mod Wheel or by other program logic for example a Round Robin dimension Each active dimension window is divided into cells representing its dimension s splits In the example above you can see four velocity splits and two Mod Wheel splits Each velocity split displays the name of the sample mapped to it subject to the selection in the other dimension window...

Page 139: ...lits is set and displayed here Various parameters settings and visuals are displayed here Right clicking here brings up a context menu with several editing tasks Each split in the Velocity Window also displays the setting of whatever parameter is being edited at any time It gives a numerical and graphical bar display A vertical divider line in the middle of the velocity window indicates a stereo r...

Page 140: ...cally put it in Stereo mode You can also manually change the Stereo or Mono status by right clicking on the Velocity Map and choosing Force to mono or Force to stereo in the context menu When going from Stereo to Mono the dialog window will give you the option of which side s articulation to keep the left and right sides of a stereo sample each have their own articulation ...

Page 141: ...mouse Velocity Splits are created and named in the Dimension Controller window The Velocity Split order can also be changed here as well To display the Dimension Controller window click on the header bar at the top of the Velocity Window Assigning Samples Samples can be assigned mapped by dragging them from the Sample Window to a Velocity Split in the Velocity Map ...

Page 142: ...ach region the sample which most closely matches the region s pitch is used for the mapping Drop multiple samples or a folder onto a velocity split with the right mouse button The selected splits are remapped in every region across the keyboard The exact method for mapping the samples is chosen from a popup menu The menu options are Map to existing split by pitch This is the same as simply droppin...

Page 143: ...dd Press this button to add a split to the dimension To add more than one split with a single click increase the value in the numeric field to the right of the Add button Splits added in this way are empty with no sample mapped and a default articulation Split Divides each selected split into two identical splits Only those splits selected in the list are affected click with the SHIFT or CTRL keys...

Page 144: ...ted split See the chapter on Macros for details Map to null sample Clears any sample mapping from the selected split the split will be silent Show envelopes This menu option displays a check mark when enabled click the menu command to turn the option on or off When enabled a small graphical display is added to each cell of the velocity window showing some aspect of that split s articulation The di...

Page 145: ...to velocity Additional dimensions can be created in any of the smaller horizontal dimension windows Eight of these windows are available but you can select a display mode that hides some of the windows if you don t need them all Click the Dimension View button near the bottom of the Editor window to cycle through the available modes The Dimension Controller dialog again To activate deactivate or m...

Page 146: ...lit will sound Examples include using the mod wheel to switch between closed and open hi hats or using the sustain pedal to switch between piano samples recorded with and without sustain Layer The Layer dimension is unique in that all of its splits sound simultaneously instead of just one Layers are sometimes used in conjunction with MIDI volume control and or crossfades to give continuous control...

Page 147: ... dimension advances to the next split when a key is struck in any region The basic Round Robin dimension described above advances only when a key is struck in its own region In the case where the number of splits in this dimension varies across the keyboard the new rule uses a modulo addressing technique Smart MIDI processor This special dimension is used in conjunction with iMIDI rules such as th...

Page 148: ...rently selected for editing These buttons will be extremely helpful as you proceed to edit articulation parameters in the next section To understand why the region and split selection is important consider the example of a piano sampled with 88 regions and 10 velocity splits with an additional dimension dedicated to the sustain pedal By Giga standards this is a very simple instrument but it still ...

Page 149: ...as its own articulation a set of over 100 parameters that define envelopes LFOs filters and the like The parameters appear in the lower right portion of the Editor grouped into categories for easier access To choose a category click on the header bar at the top of the list Parameter values can be edited directly in the list Depending on the type of value you click on the list will either allow you...

Page 150: ...ter affects the Filter over time The GigaStudio offers the following envelope parameters for the amplitude and filter envelopes Pre attack level Attack Time sec Decay 1 Time sec Hold Yes No amplitude envelope only Sustain level Decay 2 Time sec Infinite Release Time sec All of these parameters can be adjusted from the Parameters Window and also by dragging the parameter indicators in the Region Wi...

Page 151: ... will range from zero to at most a half second for a natural sounding instrument However extreme settings can be used for special effects to put a slow volume ramp up for each triggered note Decay 1 Time sec The Decay 1 Time is measured in seconds 0 000 60 000 This parameter sets the amount of time for the first decay of the envelope It decays from the peak level of the attack down to the sustain ...

Page 152: ...arameter determines how long it will take for the sample volume to ramp down depending on how Decay 2 is set If the Decay 2 is set to Infinite the release will kick in when the note is released If the Decay 2 is set to a specific amount of time then the release will kick in after that amount of time or when you release the note whichever comes first Envelope Modulation Settings The Modulation sett...

Page 153: ...stic changes with the Mod controller This also applies to the Decay and Release settings A little experimentation will be needed to learn how this works and figure out the settings you need Amplitude Filter Pitch Low Frequency Oscillators LFOs Amplitude LFO Filter LFO Pitch LFO Low frequency oscillators are used to control various parameters cyclically so that continuously repeating changes over t...

Page 154: ...ernal depth settings but you won t hear its effect until the assigned MIDI controller is moved forward Amp LFO 1200 Volume Oscillation Filter LFO 1200 Filter Resonance Pitch LFO 1200 Pitch in Cents Control source Selects the modulation source for the LFO depth The choices include internal fixed control Mod Wheel and an alternate MIDI controller which is different for each type of LFO Combinations ...

Page 155: ... the sum of the internal and the modulated external depths Flip phase Inverts the polarity of the amplitude or filter LFOs This is not available for the pitch LFO Synch Enables a single synchronized LFO The LFO will be constant no matter what note is played or when it is struck When Synch is not enabled an LFO begins at the point in time when each note is played When several notes are sounding eac...

Page 156: ...hetic textures with electronic characteristics Filter type 0 None The filter is bypassed 1 Lowpass Filters out high frequencies 2 Highpass Filters out low frequencies 3 Bandpass Filters both high and low frequencies 4 Bandreject Filters out middle frequencies Turbo LPF Adds additional poles of attenuation to the lowpass filter algorithm creating a more intense analog filter effect This option is o...

Page 157: ...er allows you to assign a MIDI controller to the Cutoff Frequency for real time continuous control This overrides the Cutoff Frequency setting which will be disabled once you assign a MIDI controller here Control invert When set to Yes inverts the response of the Cutoff controller Minimum cutoff Places a limit on the lowest filter cutoff frequency when using MIDI cutoff controller The low range of...

Page 158: ...red Range is 0 127 Dynamic resonance A setting of Yes increases the overall resonance by dynamically scaling the Q in addition to the cutoff frequency of the filter in accordance with changes of envelope and or external control Resonance controller Assigns a real time MIDI controller to Resonance Key tracking When set to Yes scales the cutoff frequency based on key position relative to the assigne...

Page 159: ...ver velocity yielding a darker response The range is 0 127 with a default value of 20 This parameter is only available when the Cutoff Controller is set to None Filter velocity response curve Defines how the filter responds to note on velocity 0 Non linear 1 Linear 2 Special These settings work in conjunction with the Velocity dynamic range parameter see the next item Filter velocity response dyna...

Page 160: ...160 TASCAM GigaEditor 4 Manual Velocity curve set to Linear Velocity curve set to Non linear ...

Page 161: ...which define how the filter responds to changes in MIDI velocity The next section is concerned not with the filter but with the way simple volume responds to keyboard velocity Use these parameters to adjust the instrument to suit your playing style and the feel of your MIDI keyboard Velocity split point The maximum velocity for which this split will sound ...

Page 162: ...The curves are the same as those shown in the previous section for the filter response Velocity curve scaling Works in conjunction with the five Dynamic Range settings to give even finer control over velocity response Find a Dynamic Range setting that works best and then use this parameter to fine tune the feel Range is 0 127 Release response curve The Release Velocity settings affect the release ...

Page 163: ...using a Release Trigger dimension you can control the volume of its playback depending on how long you hold the note With slower settings you can hold the note down longer and still get the release trigger sample to play fairly loud With faster settings the release trigger will be quiet or even silent unless you let up on the note quickly The range is 0 fastest to 9 slowest Mix Layer Settings This...

Page 164: ...e same attenuation controller to groups of related notes or samples a MIDI controlled sub mix capability can be designed into the instrument so that individual sounds can have discrete MIDI volume control Attenuation control invert Reverses the response to the Attenuation Controller This is crucial to creating a simple MIDI controller cross fade layer Both layers would be set to the same MIDI cont...

Page 165: ... reversed on one of the channels The Side level can then be adjusted by attenuation to dial in the preferred amount of spread in the stereo image Self mask When checked this causes high velocity notes to shut off lower velocity voices This feature conserves polyphony and should be tried on all samples with percussive attacks and relatively slow releases pianos guitars cymbals etc Sustain defeat Th...

Page 166: ... GigaStudio For example when an instrument is assigned to inputs 1 2 in the mixer Samples with an offset of 0 the default will be routed to channels 1 2 Samples with an offset of 2 will be routed to channels 3 4 Samples with an offset of 3 will be routed to channels 4 5 Samples with an offset of 4 will be routed to channels 5 6 Etc Sample start offset The sample offset is used to start playback at...

Page 167: ...ese parameters are modified automatically when you map a sample to the region The sample carries its own copy of these parameters visible in the Sample properties dialog and these values are copied to the articulation when the sample is mapped Unity note When Pitch Tracking is enabled this is the note at which the sample will be played at its original or native pitch When Pitch Tracking is disable...

Page 168: ...ailed filter profiles In other words the DEF can make a sample sound as if it were played at different intensities allowing for real time crescendos and diminuendos of a sustaining note Note the DEF works with 24 bit samples only Some of the DEF settings including enabling and disabling the filter are defined globally for an instrument These global DEF settings are found on the Dynamic Expression ...

Page 169: ... to modulate the DEF with the EG2 filter envelope This is always in addition to the assigned controller for the DEF the values of the EG2 envelope and MIDI controller are added together The normal multimode filters Lowpass Highpass Bandpass Bandreject DO NOT have to be running for EG2 to modulate DEF EG2 values below 50 are subtracted from the runing CC value and EG2 values above 50 are added to t...

Page 170: ...lters are composed of four independent parameters that affect the overall shape and volume of the filter cutoff frequency Q Q0H and V0 Each parameter has a range of 0 to 127 The first three parameters affect the timbre of the filter frequency and Q while the fourth parameter V0 is used for volume compensation Cutoff Frequency Fc Determines the initial center frequency for the Q0 Quality factor Q S...

Page 171: ... are interrelated the Region Window plots them in a special way When any one of the DEF parameters is selected all of the parameters in that particular filter set pp mf or ff appear in the Region Window The currently selected parameter appears with draggable handles on each region the others are indicated by color coded lines However you can change the currently selected parameter by clicking on a...

Page 172: ...show the value of the parameter that s currently selected in the Parameter Window While the Parameter Window shows multiple parameters for a single region the blue line display shows a single parameter as its value varies from region to region across the keyboard The parameter can be edited by dragging the blue circles And as we ll see below by selecting multiple regions you can edit the entire in...

Page 173: ...usually affects all of the selected regions But the exact effect is determined by the current Drag Mode which is set via the Drag Mode menu To see the menu click on the right hand portion of the header bar above the keyboard The three drag modes are Drag all selected regions In this mode the blue markers for all selected regions move in unison applying a uniform increase or decrease across the key...

Page 174: ...djusted proportionally Before After For example you could use this mode to set an amplitude release time that is short at the top of the keyboard and gets progressively longer in the lower register Drag with proportional scaling This mode preserves the basic shape of the current settings while applying a bend that is centered on the region where the drag occurs Use this mode to make subtle modific...

Page 175: ...lution The scale for the axis is displayed at the right side of the Region View The scale changes depending on the parameter being displayed For many parameters you can change the vertical resolution by moving the slider beside the scale Lower resolution Higher resolution ...

Page 176: ...anual Some articulation parameters have a very limited range for example those that can only be set to Yes or No When a parameter like this is selected rescaling the vertical axis isn t practical and the slider will be disabled ...

Page 177: ...equently you can even assign a hot key to any macro You can also copy your collection of macros to another GigaStudio system A Macro can consist of just a single articulation parameter such as Filter Cutoff or it can contain multiple parameters or even an entire articulation Saving Macros To save a new Macro select the split that has the settings you want to save This will be the split whose param...

Page 178: ...checking or unchecking boxes in this list you control which parameters will be included in the macro The parameters are arranged by category these are the same categories used to organize the Parameter Window A blue square next to a category means that all of the parameters in that category will be included In the illustration below the macro is being set up to include the entire amplitude envelop...

Page 179: ...tom of the editor window Copying Macros to other machines It is very easy to transfer your collection of macros to another machine This transfers the whole list and overwrites the existing macros of the machine you are copying them to The macro file is named GsEditMacros and can be found in the Tascam program files folder typically c Program files Tascam GigaStudio 4 To copy your collection of mac...

Page 180: ...button near the bottom of the editor window The Articulation Macros dialog is displayed To change a macro s name or hot key select the macro and press Properties Macros may also be deleted using the Articulation macros dialog Changes and deletions made in this dialog are not applied until you click OK so if you make any mistakes click Cancel and your macros will remain in their original state ...

Page 181: ...iMIDI rules are listed later in this chapter iMIDI Rules are added edited or deleted via the iMIDI Rule Manager in one of two ways In GigaStudio a rule can be added to an instrument and then saved together with the instrument as part of a performance file The rule will be loaded with the instrument whenever the performance is loaded In the Instrument Editor a rule added to an instrument will be sa...

Page 182: ...e just the instrument settings with the performance 5 In the future when this performance is loaded the iMIDI Rules will be loaded along with the instrument iMIDI Rules applied in this way are part of the performance not part of the gig file iMIDI Rules in the Instrument Editor 1 The instrument needs to be opened in the Editor and loaded to a MIDI channel Otherwise the iMIDI Rule Manager will be d...

Page 183: ... loaded in the future its iMIDI rule will be loaded as well Using the iMIDI Rule Manager 1 Select a rule from the Available Rules window and click the Load button 2 Depending on the rule you may get an initialization dialog Fill in the necessary details and click OK See the sections on the individual rules for details of the initialization settings The example configuration dialog below is from th...

Page 184: ...e See the sections on the individual rules for details on editing 4 When you are finished click OK to close the Rule Manager Next we ll discuss each of the available iMIDI rules in detail The Transpose Rule This rule is very simple It transposes every MIDI note by a given number of half steps up to two octaves in either direction ...

Page 185: ...portamento slides bewteen notes or for natural legato note transitions The rule automatically takes care of complex dimension switching in real time as you play the keyboard Legato Mode requires some very meticulous sampling sessions to capture all the intervals speeds and loudness levels but the results are as realistic as can be The nice thing about this rule is that you need only to play the ke...

Page 186: ...strument if the instrument is fairly simple and has one obvious key range of regions If needed you can change the note range here Number of Legato samples Displays the number of Legato articulations For the time being this will always be 12 Ghost Key Bypass This controller will mute the Default Sustain samples until you release it This function makes it possible to start a legato passage with any ...

Page 187: ...ience you will need to create some standard release trigger samples This is usually done by creating a copy of the sustain samples and then deleting everything except the tail Release Trigger samples are optional Alternate Sustain samples There is room in a Legato Mode instrument for two alternate variations of the sustaining samples Alternate Sustain amples are optional Legato Samples To do a com...

Page 188: ...recorded sequence of notes The Repetition rule allows this sequence to be played at a faster tempo and for notes in the sequence to be omitted The Pattern Alternator Rule The Pattern Alternator acts like an automatic key switcher It changes articulations on the fly as you play the notes on the keyboard Every note you hit advances to another articulation instantly The order of the articulations is ...

Page 189: ...TASCAM GigaEditor 4 Manual 189 6 p f p swell 7 Tremolo 8 Pizzicato Add the Pattern Alternation rule using the iMIDI Rule Manager The configuration dialog for this rule looks like this ...

Page 190: ...e next articulation Quarter Note Then the 8th Note articulation And so forth When all of the articulations have been performed the pattern will start over again with the Staccato sample This default setting gives the same effect as a Round Robin dimension But the Pattern Alternator rule allows you to modify the default pattern to store multiple patterns and to select any of the stored patterns usi...

Page 191: ... Staccato Quarter Note repeating On the other hand you might want a very complex pattern that covers a whole phrase or line of music In that case you increase the split count to as many notes as you need up to a maximum of 32 Then you change the articulations to cover your musical phrase note by note Multiple Patterns So far we have worked with a single pattern but we can have up to 32 different p...

Page 192: ...ontroller Trigger rule allows any MIDI controller to trigger any MIDI note For continuous controllers this rule is velocity sensitive the faster you more the controller the louder the sample plays back It s possible to define multiple triggers with a single instance of this rule Controller Use the Controller list to select any of the available MIDI controllers Trigger point Sets the exact spot in ...

Page 193: ...oller like this there is no basis for velocity sensitivity When this box is checked the velocity of triggered notes is fixed at the value defined in the Velocity box When you have defined a trigger click the Add button You can combine several triggers for complex effects For example here we have the Mod Wheel triggering a small scale C D E F G when pushed forward Use the Remove button to delete an...

Page 194: ... rule solves that problem by constantly tracking the signal level of each sample and setting the volume of the release trigger samples accordingly The configuration dialog for this rule is shown below The sample s voice parameters such as the amplitude envelope are always included in the tracking calculation Optionally the sample s signal level can also be tracked The Rule Builder The Rule Builder...

Page 195: ...wn list Incoming MIDI Data 1 This will change depending on the type of incoming MIDI event For Note On Off the data will be in Note Names C 1 G9 For all the other controllers the data will be in MIDI control numbers 0 127 Set a minimum and maximum value Use the incoming MIDI data window at the bottom of this window to help figure out what Notes or MIDI controller numbers to use Incoming MIDI Data ...

Page 196: ...he bottom of this window to help figure out what Notes or MIDI controller numbers to use Use Data 2 from incoming This overrides the values entered here and lets whatever values are in the Incoming Data 2 section determine the range instead Filtered MIDI Data 2 This will also change depending on the type of Filtered MIDI event For Note On Off the data will be Velocity Levels 0 127 For all the othe...

Page 197: ...ing the MIDI controller numbers Just play a note or controller and look at the list to see what it is To clear the list close the interface and reopen it Experiment away with this tool The possibilities are endless The Mando Tremolo Rule The Mando Tremolo rule was designed as a means to emulate instruments that are often played in a tremolo style the quick repetition of the same note like the mand...

Page 198: ...1 release time Play Zone Determines the upper and lower boundaries of instrument regions effected by the iMIDI rule defaulting to the max range of the instruments existing regions Instrument Layout Determines the number of tremolo and non tremolo splits present in the instruments layout The Mono Mode Rule with Portamento Reshaping Filter PRF The Mono rule has three functional modes Staccato Legato...

Page 199: ...ato mode Overview Staccato mode is the most simple of the three Mono Mode Rules In this mode following notes will force previous notes to terminate Use the note off delay slider to determine how long to wait after a new note on before sending a note off message to the previous note The release time of terminated samples is determined by that regions EG1 release time Developer Requirements There ar...

Page 200: ...t without using the formant shaping filters or extended portamento controls of the Custom PRF profiles This default mode simply bends samples from an original source note to a secondary destination note when the notes are played in a connecting overlapping fashion PRF Custom Legato Portamento Mode The PRF filter functionality is applicable ONLY to 24bit instruments Much more complex than tradition...

Page 201: ... from scratch can be an involved process for this reason GS4 includes a nominal set of factory PRF profiles for different instrument types that are easily applied to any 24 bit instrument To load a factory PRF profile to an instrument first select the Custom Legato Mode in the Mono Mode Rule Dialog then navigate to the Portamento Reshaping Filter Tab and click Load from file Factory PRF profiles a...

Page 202: ...ns the region specific PRF parameters Portamento Extended Controls Portamento extened controls are located on the left hand side of the PRF tab and give the user specific control over the style and range of how an instrument slides from note to note Continuous Control Selects whether the portameno time slide rate will be controlled internally or by a MIDI Continuous Controller Max Portamento time ...

Page 203: ...response is reduced flattened based on incoming note on velocity 0 no filter pullback 127 full pullback range With this parameter set to 127 an incoming note velocity of 127 will use the full value of the PRF filter coefficients while lower velocites result in a flatter filter response Slide Curve type Selects the portamento slide curve type either nonlinear bell type acoustic or linear synth Note...

Page 204: ...n to the next interval set i e once you select Up Long you should finish tweaking Fc Q0 Q0H and V0 before selecting the Up Short interval For example to adjust the Up Short filter set parameters first select the Up Short interval set Now trigger a note and bend that note upward by three semitones to hear what the current filter settings sound like Next adjust Fc Q0 Q0H and V0 until the transposed ...

Page 205: ...transposed by the instruments region mapping and then apply those same filter settings to all keyboard regions that contain that sample For instance if a sample of C4 is mapped to both C4 and C 4 find the PRF settings for C4 and then apply those same settings to C 4 Use of Body Models and Room Models Of course the use of body models contributes greatly to the realism of programmatic portamento but...

Page 206: ... capability will allow for one set of sustain samples to perform both tasks effectively Set of secondary release trigger samples secondary release Also optional 1 set of release triggers can be mapped to different dimensions w independent editing capability to provide note off functionality to entire instrument Functionality Poly Mode instrument behaves typically note off messages fire primary rel...

Page 207: ...s an optional dimension that allows the instrument to vary samples and or articulations as the user plays the instrument For example if the instrument was played with a bowing technique then the designer might want a separate set of samples for the up and down bows ...

Page 208: ... of the instrument layout expected if an instrument is to take advantage of this mode Region Layout Dimension 1 Round Robin optional 2 Smart Midi Processor Primary Sustain P Target Sustain Up TSu Hammer on Secondary Release SR Transitional T Target Sustain Down TSd Pull off 3 Release Trigger optional Keys strucks E3 down F3 down Sampler plays E3 P is triggered E3 P is terminated F3 TS is triggered...

Page 209: ...stain C4 Target Down Sustain When returning to root the Target sustain as well as the transitional sample and the secondary release will inherit the velocity of the note that is being released Appendix PerfUtility PerfUtility is a command line utility found in the GigaStudio program directory typicaly c Program Files TASCAM GigaStudio 4 The utility is designed to aid developers in migrating their ...

Page 210: ...ong author string up 63 characters long company string up 63 characters long e g PerfUtility convert d tascam gig MyFolder comments Giga 4 converted performance author Joe Bibbo company TASCAM This will convert all the performance files in the specified folder to the latest version ...

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