[Denemo-devel] Request for future midi support from a linuxsampler-dev

[Nils Gey]

In my communication about jackbridges in windows/mac the linuxsampler dev Alex 
Stone gave the following ideas. As I promised I now forward it to the Denemo 
list.

I guess basically its about designing Denemo with port and multichannel out per 
staff. Port means a specific midi-out interface, so it would show up in 
QJackctl as sub-interfache of Denemo midi-out ("Staff 01: Violin" or whatever). 
Multichannel out per staff means the midi-channels 1 to 16. 

>>forwarded message:
Nils,
As i've already posted in the linuxmusicians forum, i'm a fan of Denemo, and 
would like to see it go forward. (I'm also a classical music and film composer, 
desperately trying to finish an album's worth)

I'll add to this my enthusiasm for a symbiotic relationship between Denemo and 
Lsampler. The advantages both ways are obvious, but the big jump for me (and i 
speak only for myself) is the potential for true articulation playback, not 
hindered at all by restrictions of port or channel.

Example. We're writing a 1st violin part, that requires multiple articulations. 
Instead of just 'voices' per staff, the ability to assign a port to staff would 
open a huge opportunity to refine a playback to a much higher quality.

Even more, if a Dictionary were built in Denemo, that is, a user defined list 
specifying playback per symbol or articulation, then we could, given robust 
enough hardware, playback even more nuance in our work.

So a brief example of the Dictionary could be as follows:

Cello staccato up bow (user defined port,channel, and selected symbol, or 
combination of symbols)
Cello staccato down bow (user defined port, channel, and selected symbol, or 
combination of symbols)
etc...

I have 45 ports, each with associated patches for each instrument in the 
orchestra, plus a couple.(2 each for strings)

If i could build a big dictionary template in which each port/channel/patch is 
assigned to a symbol, or combination of symbols, then it would effectively make 
scoring simple, and importantly, when recording the playback from LS, remove a 
large chunk of donkey work, manually building phrases, runs, etc from scratch.
It wouldn't remove entirely the need for manual work, but if it removed a major 
percentage of it, well, we're in front. (imho)

I appreciate the feedback you gave me about the keystrokable opportunities in 
Denemo, and i've been going through them, assigning, and refining the workflow. 
Denemo's most certainly a powerful and already mature tool in that aspect, and 
with practise, i've gradually been improving the workflow, to the point of near 
instinct. (more practise needed, though.)

It's my opinion we don't need to think about soundfont format, as the only 
primary sound playback device, anymore. Given the almost infinite capacity in 
LS to expand by port and channel, only limited by hardware, not software, I 
think LS would serve extremely well as a powerful playback device for a greatly 
improved playback, more akin to reality. Add to that the powerful 
Jack/Jackmidi, and many of the limits us long time notation and engraving 
writers have experience, would go away, and leave more time for writing.

2 pennies worth, and i wish the Denemo team continued success.

In appreciation,

Alex.