doc/quickstart/libgig.sgm

<chapter id="gig"><title>The GIG format</title>
 <section id="gig_overview"><title>An Overview</title>
  <para>
  <indexterm>
   <primary>GIG</primary>
  </indexterm>
        Allthoug this is only a quickstart somebody might want to know more
        about the GIG format and all that Regions, Dimensions, Samples and
        stuff. <firstterm>GIG</firstterm> is an abbreviation of <emphasis>
        Gigasampler</emphasis> a format defined by some company to hold
        lots of data about <emphasis>noise</emphasis>. Samplers are able
        to morph a (MIDI-) key event into a sound. Either they just play
        a so called sample, or change it according to the key's note, maybe
        shift it, do something with filters or oscillators.
  </para>
  <para>
        To describe all that you have the GIG-format. It contains not only
        the samples but also where they're situated on the keyboard, their
        basic tuning and lots of controlling information like aftertouch,
        modwheel and so on. This rather complex information is split into
        different parts.
  </para>
 </section>

 <section id="gig_region"><title>Region</title>
  <para>
        A <firstterm>region</firstterm> is a range of notes or keys. For example one could
        have a bass drum sample and assigns it to a single key, let's
        assume C4 for that. So when the GIG-file contains that region, ranging
        from C4 to C4 (one key) and referring to the base drum sample. If you
        load this file into your sampler and press C4 you hear it kicking.
  </para>
 </section>

 <section id="gig_dimension"><title>Dimension</title>
  <para>
        Kicking the bass drum is not really a complicated use case. Imagine a more
        sophisticated piano sample. You can play it hard or soft, higher or lower notes
        and even press various pedals. That's the <firstterm>dimension's</firstterm>
        task. You take various samples (soft, hard, this pedal, that pedal) and get,
        let's say 4 different sample types of a 2-octave range.
  </para>
  <para>
        First you create a region ranging from C2 to C4. But you get only one
        sample into this region. A dimension adds additional <emphasis>dimensions</emphasis>
        to this. A region with another dimension splitting into 2 bits gives
        you 4 more samples (2^2). Now how will the right sample be selected?
        First of all there's the region information, you already pressed a key.
        The sampler just asks the dimension, which controller it belongs to,
        checks this controller's setting and chooses the sample from the
        according dimension.
  </para>
 </section>

 <section id="gig_instrument"><title>Instrument</title>
   <para/>
 </section>

 <section id="gig_group"><title>Group</title>
   <para/>
 </section>
</chapter>
1	<chapter id="gig"><title>The GIG format</title>
2	<section id="gig_overview"><title>An Overview</title>
3	<para>
4	<indexterm>
5	<primary>GIG</primary>
6	</indexterm>
7	Allthoug this is only a quickstart somebody might want to know more
8	about the GIG format and all that Regions, Dimensions, Samples and
9	stuff. <firstterm>GIG</firstterm> is an abbreviation of <emphasis>
10	Gigasampler</emphasis> a format defined by some company to hold
11	lots of data about <emphasis>noise</emphasis>. Samplers are able
12	to morph a (MIDI-) key event into a sound. Either they just play
13	a so called sample, or change it according to the key's note, maybe
14	shift it, do something with filters or oscillators.
15	</para>
16	<para>
17	To describe all that you have the GIG-format. It contains not only
18	the samples but also where they're situated on the keyboard, their
19	basic tuning and lots of controlling information like aftertouch,
20	modwheel and so on. This rather complex information is split into
21	different parts.
22	</para>
23	</section>
24
25	<section id="gig_region"><title>Region</title>
26	<para>
27	A <firstterm>region</firstterm> is a range of notes or keys. For example one could
28	have a bass drum sample and assigns it to a single key, let's
29	assume C4 for that. So when the GIG-file contains that region, ranging
30	from C4 to C4 (one key) and referring to the base drum sample. If you
31	load this file into your sampler and press C4 you hear it kicking.
32	</para>
33	</section>
34
35	<section id="gig_dimension"><title>Dimension</title>
36	<para>
37	Kicking the bass drum is not really a complicated use case. Imagine a more
38	sophisticated piano sample. You can play it hard or soft, higher or lower notes
39	and even press various pedals. That's the <firstterm>dimension's</firstterm>
40	task. You take various samples (soft, hard, this pedal, that pedal) and get,
41	let's say 4 different sample types of a 2-octave range.
42	</para>
43	<para>
44	First you create a region ranging from C2 to C4. But you get only one
45	sample into this region. A dimension adds additional <emphasis>dimensions</emphasis>
46	to this. A region with another dimension splitting into 2 bits gives
47	you 4 more samples (2^2). Now how will the right sample be selected?
48	First of all there's the region information, you already pressed a key.
49	The sampler just asks the dimension, which controller it belongs to,
50	checks this controller's setting and chooses the sample from the
51	according dimension.
52	</para>
53	</section>
54
55	<section id="gig_instrument"><title>Instrument</title>
56	<para/>
57	</section>
58
59	<section id="gig_group"><title>Group</title>
60	<para/>
61	</section>
62	</chapter>