doc/quickstart/live_editing.sgm

<chapter id="live_editing"><title>Live Editing</title>
 <section id="about"><title>Only trust what you hear...</title>
  <para>
        So far we've been using <application>gigedit</application> as stand-alone
        application. The main drawback of this approach is that you cannot
        immediately hear the effect of your modifications unless you explicitly
        (re)load the respective instrument into a sampler, which is unconvenient
        and wastes a lot of time (especially with big instruments). Fortunately
        gigedit and <application>LinuxSampler</application> are friends and
        politely share the same instrument(s) at the same time if you tell them to
        do so.
  </para>
  <para>
        To do this, you first have to load the respective instrument(s) into
        <application>LinuxSampler</application>, i.e. by using a frontend
        application like <application>JSampler</application> or
        <application>QSampler</application>. In this example we describe it
        by using <application>QSampler</application>, but you'll see it's
        pretty much the same thing with <application>JSampler</application>.
        Select the channel strip of the instrument you want to edit and click
        on the "Edit" button on the same channel strip:

  <figure id="shot_qsampler_edit"><title>Selecting an instrument to edit from QSampler</title>
        <screenshot><mediaobject><imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="shot_qsampler_edit.png" format="PNG"/>
        </imageobject></mediaobject></screenshot>
  </figure>

        Alternatively you can also select this function from the menu (
        <menuchoice>
           <guimenu>"Edit"</guimenu>
           <guimenuitem>"Edit Channel..."</guimenuitem>
        </menuchoice> ). In any case
        <application>gigedit</application> should popup on the screen in less
        than 5 seconds. This time you can see <application>gigedit</application>
        like being "attached" to <application>LinuxSampler</application>.

  <figure id="shot_gigedit_hosted"><title>Gigedit running "attached" to LinuxSampler</title>
        <screenshot><mediaobject><imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="shot_gigedit_hosted.png" format="PNG"/>
        </imageobject></mediaobject></screenshot>
  </figure>

        If nothing appears on the screen or in case you get an error when clicking
        on the "Edit" button, refer to <xref linkend="live_trouble" />.
  </para>
  <para>
        All modifications you do on the selected instrument with
        <application>gigedit</application> will immediately be audible when you
        play notes.
        When you close <application>gigedit</application> you'll notice that it
        won't ask you to save the instrument, which it would usually do when you
        run <application>gigedit</application> as stand-alone application. This is
        because the modifications are not lost when you close it, at least not
        unless you kill the sampler as well. So when you click again on "Edit"
        you'll see that all the modifications you made are still there. Also note
        when selecting "New" or "Open" from the menu to create a completely new
        instrument or open another one from a file,
        <application>gigedit</application> will be "detached" from the sampler,
        that is the other instrument will not be audible with the sampler. This is
        currently (2007-10-07) a minor limitation of the sampler and
        <application>gigedit</application>. So if you want to create a completely
        new instrument from scratch you first have to create that instrument with
        <application>gigedit</application>, save it to a file and then load it into
        the sampler. After that you can continue like described in this chapter and
        edit the new instrument "live" by clicking on the respective "Edit" button
        in <application>QSampler</application>.
  </para>
 </section>

 <section id="live_trouble"><title>Trouble with live-editing</title>
  <para>
        <application>LinuxSampler</application> and
        <application>gigedit</application> need to be compiled properly to be able
        to use the described "live editing" feature between those two applications.
        So here is a short technical explanation how the interaction between those
        two applications work: <application>LinuxSampler</application> per se
        doesn't actually know anything that an application like
        <application>gigedit</application> exists in this world. However the
        sampler provides a plugin system to extend it for this functionality. When
        you compile the sampler you define a directory where the sampler shall look
        for plugin DLLs to load on startup. So first check if that directory
        actually exists or if the sampler was not compiled with the correct /
        desired plugin directory. When you start the sampler from the console
        simply by typing the command <command>linuxsampler</command> and you see
        something like this:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~ $</prompt> <command>linuxsampler</command>
LinuxSampler 0.4.0.7cvs
Copyright (C) 2003,2004 by Benno Senoner and Christian Schoenebeck
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Christian Schoenebeck
Detected features: MMX SSE
Creating Sampler...OK
Registered sampler engines: 'GIG'
Registered MIDI input drivers: ALSA
Registered audio output drivers: ALSA,ARTS,JACK
Loading instrument editor plugins...<errortext>Could not open instrument editor plugins directory (/usr/local/lib/linuxsampler/plugins): No such file or directory</errortext>
Registered instrument editors:
Starting LSCP network server (0.0.0.0:8888)...OK
LinuxSampler initialization completed. :-)
        </screen>
        Then there's definitely something wrong. :) So either create the mentioned
        directory (in this case "/usr/local/lib/linuxsampler/plugins") manually or
        recompile <application>LinuxSampler</application> in case you want it to use
        another directory as plugins directory. Assuming you want it to use the directory "/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins" instead you could compile the sampler i.e. this way:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/linuxsampler $</prompt> <command>./configure --enable-plugin-dir=/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins &amp;&amp; make</command>
        </screen>
        probably in conjunction with some other configure script parameters and some
        nice CXXFLAGS to optimize the sampler for your machine, but this is out of
        the scope of this document. After the compilation completed, you would
        install the sampler as user root as usual:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/linuxsampler $</prompt> <command>su</command>
Password:
<prompt>mybox linuxsampler #</prompt> <command>make install</command>
        </screen>
        Again make sure that your chosen plugin directory exists, if not create it
        and when running <application>LinuxSampler</application> now again, the
        error message on the console ("Could not open instrument editor plugins
        directory") should be gone.
  </para>
  <para>
        Now you must recompile <application>gigedit</application>, because it has
        to compile the appropriate plugin and has to place that plugin DLL into the
        samplers plugins directory. It should look like this:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>./configure</command>
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
...
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/gmsgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for GTKMM... yes
checking for GIG... yes
checking for SNDFILE... yes
checking for SF_INSTRUMENT.loops... yes
<errortext>checking for LINUXSAMPLER... yes
Found linuxsampler 0.4.0.5cvs
Retrieving LinuxSampler's plugin dir... /usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins
Relative plugin dir: ${libdir}/linuxsampler/plugins</errortext>
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating src/Makefile
config.status: creating src/gigedit/Makefile
config.status: creating src/plugin/Makefile
config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
config.status: creating debian/Makefile
config.status: creating doc/Makefile
config.status: creating doc/quickstart/Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing intltool commands
config.status: executing default-1 commands
config.status: executing po/stamp-it commands
<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>make</command>
        </screen>
        Make sure the higlighted section of the configure script output looks
        similar like above. After compilation completed, you once again install
        with the common procedure:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>su</command>
Password:
<prompt>mybox gigedit #</prompt> <command>make install</command>
        </screen>
        This will install the <application>gigedit</application> binary, as well
        as its plugin .so file into the directory "/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins"
        (or whatever you chose). And when you start the sampler now from the
        console, it should look like this:
        <screen>
<prompt>bob@mybox ~ $</prompt> <command>linuxsampler</command>
LinuxSampler 0.4.0.7cvs
Copyright (C) 2003,2004 by Benno Senoner and Christian Schoenebeck
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Christian Schoenebeck
Detected features: MMX SSE
Creating Sampler...OK
Registered sampler engines: 'GIG'
Registered MIDI input drivers: ALSA
Registered audio output drivers: ALSA,ARTS,JACK
Loading instrument editor plugins...OK
<errortext>Registered instrument editors: 'gigedit'</errortext>
Starting LSCP network server (0.0.0.0:8888)...OK
LinuxSampler initialization completed. :-)
        </screen>
        Now you're done with setup and the steps described in
        <xref linkend="about" /> should work for you. If not, you probably found a
        bug. Feel free to contact us via our mailing list or open a bug report on
        our website.
        <note>If you just used precompiled binary packages of
        <application>LinuxSampler</application> and
        <application>gigedit</application>, i.e. from the Linux distribution of
        your choice, you shouldn't have to recompile them by yourself. Either the
        versions of <application>LinuxSampler</application> and / or
        <application>gigedit</application> are too old or they were simply not
        compiled / packaged correctly. In both cases, please report it to the
        respective package maintainer of your distribution!</note>
  </para>
 </section>
</chapter>
1	schoenebeck	1392	<chapter id="live_editing"><title>Live Editing</title>
2			<section id="about"><title>Only trust what you hear...</title>
3			<para>
4			So far we've been using <application>gigedit</application> as stand-alone
5			application. The main drawback of this approach is that you cannot
6			immediately hear the effect of your modifications unless you explicitly
7			(re)load the respective instrument into a sampler, which is unconvenient
8			and wastes a lot of time (especially with big instruments). Fortunately
9			gigedit and <application>LinuxSampler</application> are friends and
10			politely share the same instrument(s) at the same time if you tell them to
11			do so.
12			</para>
13			<para>
14			To do this, you first have to load the respective instrument(s) into
15			<application>LinuxSampler</application>, i.e. by using a frontend
16			application like <application>JSampler</application> or
17			<application>QSampler</application>. In this example we describe it
18			by using <application>QSampler</application>, but you'll see it's
19			pretty much the same thing with <application>JSampler</application>.
20			Select the channel strip of the instrument you want to edit and click
21			on the "Edit" button on the same channel strip:
22
23			<figure id="shot_qsampler_edit"><title>Selecting an instrument to edit from QSampler</title>
24			<screenshot><mediaobject><imageobject>
25			<imagedata fileref="shot_qsampler_edit.png" format="PNG"/>
26			</imageobject></mediaobject></screenshot>
27			</figure>
28
29			Alternatively you can also select this function from the menu (
30			<menuchoice>
31			<guimenu>"Edit"</guimenu>
32			<guimenuitem>"Edit Channel..."</guimenuitem>
33			</menuchoice> ). In any case
34			<application>gigedit</application> should popup on the screen in less
35			than 5 seconds. This time you can see <application>gigedit</application>
36			like being "attached" to <application>LinuxSampler</application>.
37
38			<figure id="shot_gigedit_hosted"><title>Gigedit running "attached" to LinuxSampler</title>
39			<screenshot><mediaobject><imageobject>
40			<imagedata fileref="shot_gigedit_hosted.png" format="PNG"/>
41			</imageobject></mediaobject></screenshot>
42			</figure>
43
44			If nothing appears on the screen or in case you get an error when clicking
45			on the "Edit" button, refer to <xref linkend="live_trouble" />.
46			</para>
47			<para>
48			All modifications you do on the selected instrument with
49			<application>gigedit</application> will immediately be audible when you
50			play notes.
51			When you close <application>gigedit</application> you'll notice that it
52			won't ask you to save the instrument, which it would usually do when you
53			run <application>gigedit</application> as stand-alone application. This is
54			because the modifications are not lost when you close it, at least not
55			unless you kill the sampler as well. So when you click again on "Edit"
56			you'll see that all the modifications you made are still there. Also note
57			when selecting "New" or "Open" from the menu to create a completely new
58			instrument or open another one from a file,
59			<application>gigedit</application> will be "detached" from the sampler,
60			that is the other instrument will not be audible with the sampler. This is
61			currently (2007-10-07) a minor limitation of the sampler and
62			<application>gigedit</application>. So if you want to create a completely
63			new instrument from scratch you first have to create that instrument with
64			<application>gigedit</application>, save it to a file and then load it into
65			the sampler. After that you can continue like described in this chapter and
66			edit the new instrument "live" by clicking on the respective "Edit" button
67			in <application>QSampler</application>.
68			</para>
69			</section>
70
71			<section id="live_trouble"><title>Trouble with live-editing</title>
72			<para>
73			<application>LinuxSampler</application> and
74			<application>gigedit</application> need to be compiled properly to be able
75			to use the described "live editing" feature between those two applications.
76			So here is a short technical explanation how the interaction between those
77			two applications work: <application>LinuxSampler</application> per se
78			doesn't actually know anything that an application like
79			<application>gigedit</application> exists in this world. However the
80			sampler provides a plugin system to extend it for this functionality. When
81			you compile the sampler you define a directory where the sampler shall look
82			for plugin DLLs to load on startup. So first check if that directory
83			actually exists or if the sampler was not compiled with the correct /
84			desired plugin directory. When you start the sampler from the console
85			simply by typing the command <command>linuxsampler</command> and you see
86			something like this:
87			<screen>
88			<prompt>bob@mybox ~ $</prompt> <command>linuxsampler</command>
89			LinuxSampler 0.4.0.7cvs
90			Copyright (C) 2003,2004 by Benno Senoner and Christian Schoenebeck
91			Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Christian Schoenebeck
92			Detected features: MMX SSE
93			Creating Sampler...OK
94			Registered sampler engines: 'GIG'
95			Registered MIDI input drivers: ALSA
96			Registered audio output drivers: ALSA,ARTS,JACK
97			Loading instrument editor plugins...<errortext>Could not open instrument editor plugins directory (/usr/local/lib/linuxsampler/plugins): No such file or directory</errortext>
98			Registered instrument editors:
99			Starting LSCP network server (0.0.0.0:8888)...OK
100			LinuxSampler initialization completed. :-)
101			</screen>
102			Then there's definitely something wrong. :) So either create the mentioned
103			directory (in this case "/usr/local/lib/linuxsampler/plugins") manually or
104			recompile <application>LinuxSampler</application> in case you want it to use
105			another directory as plugins directory. Assuming you want it to use the directory "/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins" instead you could compile the sampler i.e. this way:
106			<screen>
107			<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/linuxsampler $</prompt> <command>./configure --enable-plugin-dir=/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins && make</command>
108			</screen>
109			probably in conjunction with some other configure script parameters and some
110			nice CXXFLAGS to optimize the sampler for your machine, but this is out of
111			the scope of this document. After the compilation completed, you would
112			install the sampler as user root as usual:
113			<screen>
114			<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/linuxsampler $</prompt> <command>su</command>
115			Password:
116			<prompt>mybox linuxsampler #</prompt> <command>make install</command>
117			</screen>
118			Again make sure that your chosen plugin directory exists, if not create it
119			and when running <application>LinuxSampler</application> now again, the
120			error message on the console ("Could not open instrument editor plugins
121			directory") should be gone.
122			</para>
123			<para>
124			Now you must recompile <application>gigedit</application>, because it has
125			to compile the appropriate plugin and has to place that plugin DLL into the
126			samplers plugins directory. It should look like this:
127			<screen>
128			<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>./configure</command>
129			checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
130			checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
131			checking for gcc... gcc
132			checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
133			checking whether the C compiler works... yes
134			checking whether we are cross compiling... no
135			...
136			checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/gmsgfmt
137			checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
138			checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
139			checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
140			checking for GTKMM... yes
141			checking for GIG... yes
142			checking for SNDFILE... yes
143			checking for SF_INSTRUMENT.loops... yes
144			<errortext>checking for LINUXSAMPLER... yes
145			Found linuxsampler 0.4.0.5cvs
146			Retrieving LinuxSampler's plugin dir... /usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins
147			Relative plugin dir: ${libdir}/linuxsampler/plugins</errortext>
148			configure: creating ./config.status
149			config.status: creating Makefile
150			config.status: creating src/Makefile
151			config.status: creating src/gigedit/Makefile
152			config.status: creating src/plugin/Makefile
153			config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
154			config.status: creating debian/Makefile
155			config.status: creating doc/Makefile
156			config.status: creating doc/quickstart/Makefile
157			config.status: creating config.h
158			config.status: config.h is unchanged
159			config.status: executing depfiles commands
160			config.status: executing intltool commands
161			config.status: executing default-1 commands
162			config.status: executing po/stamp-it commands
163			<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>make</command>
164			</screen>
165			Make sure the higlighted section of the configure script output looks
166			similar like above. After compilation completed, you once again install
167			with the common procedure:
168			<screen>
169			<prompt>bob@mybox ~/cvs/gigedit $</prompt> <command>su</command>
170			Password:
171			<prompt>mybox gigedit #</prompt> <command>make install</command>
172			</screen>
173			This will install the <application>gigedit</application> binary, as well
174			as its plugin .so file into the directory "/usr/lib/linuxsampler/plugins"
175			(or whatever you chose). And when you start the sampler now from the
176			console, it should look like this:
177			<screen>
178			<prompt>bob@mybox ~ $</prompt> <command>linuxsampler</command>
179			LinuxSampler 0.4.0.7cvs
180			Copyright (C) 2003,2004 by Benno Senoner and Christian Schoenebeck
181			Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Christian Schoenebeck
182			Detected features: MMX SSE
183			Creating Sampler...OK
184			Registered sampler engines: 'GIG'
185			Registered MIDI input drivers: ALSA
186			Registered audio output drivers: ALSA,ARTS,JACK
187			Loading instrument editor plugins...OK
188			<errortext>Registered instrument editors: 'gigedit'</errortext>
189			Starting LSCP network server (0.0.0.0:8888)...OK
190			LinuxSampler initialization completed. :-)
191			</screen>
192			Now you're done with setup and the steps described in
193			<xref linkend="about" /> should work for you. If not, you probably found a
194			bug. Feel free to contact us via our mailing list or open a bug report on
195			our website.
196			<note>If you just used precompiled binary packages of
197			<application>LinuxSampler</application> and
198			<application>gigedit</application>, i.e. from the Linux distribution of
199			your choice, you shouldn't have to recompile them by yourself. Either the
200			versions of <application>LinuxSampler</application> and / or
201			<application>gigedit</application> are too old or they were simply not
202			compiled / packaged correctly. In both cases, please report it to the
203			respective package maintainer of your distribution!</note>
204			</para>
205			</section>
206			</chapter>