MuseScore with Garritan instruments

I made some experiments and investigations, and I'm happy to report that we can use MuseScore with Garritan instruments. It's not straightforward, but works, and doesn't take too much time to set up.
I tried it in Windows XP, and had success with the following setup.

You need to download and install "Jack audio server" from http://jackaudio.org/ and Loopbe1 (free for personal use) from http://nerds.de/en/download.html
This way you'll be able to have a connection like MuseScore > Jack > LoopBe1 > Aria

1. Run "Jack Control", choose Setup...
a. set server path: jackd -S -R -X winmmeb. set driver: portaudioc. press OK 
2. Start "Jack server" by clicking Start in Jack Control
3. Run MuseScore and in Edit > Preferences > I/O
a. uncheck portaudio
b. check use Jack MIDI output
4. Restart MuseScore
5. In Jack Control, click on Connect, in the Connections tab, click on MIDI tab.
a. On the left side, you should see MScore1 - click on it, then on mscore-midi-1
b. On the right side, click on system_midi, then click on the bottom one, at me it's playback_3, but you might have only 2
c. Press Connect
6. Open Aria Player, and select LoopBe Internal Midi (in) as Input device.

If everything's right, now MuseScore should play through Aria. If you cannot hear the sound, you might need to connect to a different playback_x device in the 5th step.

Remove the first time signature in MuseScore

If you try to delete the first time signature, by selecting and pressing Delete, you get an error message: "The first time signature of a piece cannot be removed". You might try to hide it, but it would be ugly:

But if you add an empty measure at the beginning, then delete that, you can achieve the following:

 See a small animation that shows how to do this:

Reaper 4 is out

REAPER, my new favorite DAW (digital audio workstation), which I started to use instead of Sonar is out with a new version. I can hardly wait to check it out.
I'm especially interested in REAPER 4 MIDI editing capabilities, which needed some refinement to really shine.
I will make posts about the new features I like the most.

Duduk demo using Garritan World Instruments

I created a basic demo of the duduk from Garritan.

I've played everything (except percussion and bass) on an EWI USB, no post processing was made.
Duduk and Darbuka is from Garritan World Instruments, strings from Garritan Personal Orchestra, bass from Garritan Jazz and Big Band.
I used the reverb included in the Aria player.



Then I found that while according to wikipedia the duduk note range is from F#4 to A5, the samples in Garritan World Instruments goes from D3 to E4! So I transposed the demo lower with a fifth, and I think I got something much more expressive and realistic. Hear it yourself:

Control keyswitches from pedals

If you play an instrument with keyswitches (like Garritan libraries), you might want to control the keyswitches with the piano pedals.
If you want to do that and use REAPER, the little script below can be of help. It maps the three pedals to the note of your choice.

Click here to download from REAPER repository.

After downloading put in the Effects folder of the REAPER application directory.

Garritan Aria SFZ Tutorial

For the Garritan tutorial competition I created a video that shows how to sample your own instrument for use with the Garritan Aria Player and the EWI USB.

You can download the SFZ and the samples from my website:
http://lilypondtool.organum.hu/garritan-aria-sfz-tutorial-my-whistle.zip
You can watch the video here:

Some useful links:

• The SFZ speification: http://www.cakewalk.com/DevXchange/article.aspx?aid=108
• An other SFZ tutorial (though not Aria-specific): http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr08/articles/sonartech_0408.htm
• SFZ forum on Plogue's (Aria's developer) site: http://www.plogue.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=14

"Garritan Jazz and Big Band 3" and Wivi comparison

I'm afraid the Wallander Band is not as good as it appears. I checked only the Wivi trial version and found that the saxes, the flute and the clarinet are very musical, and expressive, but I don't find them realistic for solo work.

In my opinion Garritan Jazz and Big Band is superior for the jazz instruments, or at least a better buy :). Just looking at the 2 saxes in the Wivi trial (Tenor and Alto) I created a small comparison. You can listen to that at 

http://lilypondtool.organum.hu/sax-wivi-and-jabb.mp3

Wivi tenor, Garritan tenor, Wivi alto, Garritan alto. Note that I'm totally beginner in jazz wind istrument playing, so sorry about the music quality. I used standard settings, no EQ, and played with an EWI USB.

So with Garritan JABB you get some 60 instruments (including very good keyboards, vibe, basses, drum sets) for the same price, and most of them are very good. Turning on some airflow noise and key clicks, for some instruments you get very applicable results for live solo work.