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</td><td valign=top width="100%"> |
</td><td valign=top width="100%"> |
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<div id="contents"> |
<div id="contents"> |
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|
|
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<h2>General</h2> |
<h2>The Project</h2> |
| 126 |
<p class="default"> |
<p class="default"> |
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LinuxSampler is a work in progress. The goal is to produce a free, open source pure software audio sampler |
The LinuxSampler project was founded with the |
| 128 |
with professional grade features, comparable to both hardware and commercial Windows/Mac software samplers |
goal to produce a free, open source pure software audio sampler |
| 129 |
and to introduce new features not yet available by any other sampler in the world.<br> |
with professional grade features, comparable to both hardware and |
| 130 |
<br> |
commercial Windows/Mac software samplers |
| 131 |
LinuxSampler was designed as a sampler backend, decoupled from any user interface. It provides a network interface |
and to introduce new features not yet available by any other |
| 132 |
using an ASCII based protocol called <a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/api/draft-linuxsampler-protocol.html">LSCP</a> |
sampler in the world. |
| 133 |
for controlling the sampler and managing sampler sessions. But don't be afraid, with QSampler we |
</p> |
| 134 |
already have a convenient GUI frontend (based on the cross-platform GUI library Qt) for LinuxSampler and due to the |
|
| 135 |
decoupled design you can even control the sampler with the GUI frontend from another computer, probably even running |
<h2>The Engine</h2> |
| 136 |
another OS like Windows or OS X. Beside our own custom network control layer we planned to add existing ones as well |
<p class="default"> |
| 137 |
(e.g. <a href="http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/">OSC</a>). With the planned SMP and cluster support |
<u><b>LinuxSampler</b></u> was designed very modular, especially |
| 138 |
LinuxSampler might become a very interesting tool for high-end studios and concerts in future.<br> |
(and in contrast to other samplers) it was decoupled from any user |
| 139 |
<br> |
interface. LinuxSampler itself usually runs as own process in the |
| 140 |
It is planned to support all common sampler formats in LinuxSampler, but at the moment we chose to concentrate on the |
background of the computer and usually does not show up anything on |
| 141 |
Gigasampler format, because we think it's currently the best sampler format in regards of quality and power, especially |
the screen, or at most it can be launched to show status |
| 142 |
for the synthesis of natural instruments like pianos, brass and bowed instruments. But we already made good advance in |
informations and debug messages in a console window:<br> |
| 143 |
implementing this format, so we are optimistic to start with adding other formats soon. Beside that we also planned to |
<br> |
| 144 |
design our own, sophisticated sampler format to introduce a more powerful and more flexible sampler format compared to |
<a href="screenshots/ls_0_5_1_console.png"> |
| 145 |
any sampler format currently available in the world. Be encouraged to share your ideas about such a new format with us!<br> |
<img src="screenshots/ls_0_5_1_console_preview.png"> |
| 146 |
|
</a><br> |
| 147 |
|
<br> |
| 148 |
|
That means LinuxSampler itself is the "engine" of the sampler, it |
| 149 |
|
is the software component which performs all the heavy and time |
| 150 |
|
critical computational tasks of handling MIDI events, calculating |
| 151 |
|
the audio data and sending the final audio data to your sound |
| 152 |
|
card(s). We call LinuxSampler the <i>sampler backend</i>. |
| 153 |
|
</p> |
| 154 |
|
|
| 155 |
|
<h2>The Face(s)</h2> |
| 156 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 157 |
|
Obviously you need some way to control the sampler. That's where a |
| 158 |
|
2nd application comes into game, which we call a |
| 159 |
|
<i>sampler frontend</i> application. A frontend is (usually) a |
| 160 |
|
graphical application, visible on the screen, providing the user |
| 161 |
|
a set of e.g. menus, buttons, sliders, dials, etc. to allow the |
| 162 |
|
user to control the sampler in a convenient way. It merely sends |
| 163 |
|
the user requests to the sampler engine (LinuxSampler) and in turn |
| 164 |
|
shows the engine's status informations on the screen. A frontend |
| 165 |
|
does not perform any signal processing tasks, so you can see it as |
| 166 |
|
a "face" of the sampler.<br> |
| 167 |
|
<br> |
| 168 |
|
For luxury we already provide you two different frontends / "faces" |
| 169 |
|
for LinuxSampler: |
| 170 |
|
</p> |
| 171 |
|
<ul> |
| 172 |
|
<li> |
| 173 |
|
<u><b>QSampler</b></u> is a light-weight frontend written in |
| 174 |
|
C++, using straightforward native graphical controls of the |
| 175 |
|
underlying operating system. That way the appearance of |
| 176 |
|
QSampler on the screen is very fast and it only consumes very |
| 177 |
|
little resources. Due to its utilization of the operating |
| 178 |
|
system's common GUI controls, it looks slightly different on |
| 179 |
|
every operating system (also dependent of the user's selected |
| 180 |
|
theme on his OS):<br> |
| 181 |
|
<br> |
| 182 |
|
<a href="screenshots/qs_0_2_1_win.jpg"> |
| 183 |
|
<img src="screenshots/qs_0_2_1_win_preview.jpg"> |
| 184 |
|
</a> |
| 185 |
|
<a href="screenshots/qs_0_2_1_ubuntu.png"> |
| 186 |
|
<img src="screenshots/qs_0_2_1_ubuntu_preview.png"> |
| 187 |
|
</a><br> |
| 188 |
|
<br> |
| 189 |
|
Note however, QSampler does not fully support all features of |
| 190 |
|
the sampler engine (LinuxSampler) yet. Most notably the |
| 191 |
|
engine's instruments database feature is not yet covered by |
| 192 |
|
QSampler. But if you don't need that particular feature, |
| 193 |
|
you're certainly fine with QSampler as well.<br> |
| 194 |
|
<br> |
| 195 |
|
</li> |
| 196 |
|
|
| 197 |
|
<li> |
| 198 |
|
<u><b>JSampler</b></u> is a full-fledged frontend for |
| 199 |
|
LinuxSampler, written in Java and currently comes in two |
| 200 |
|
flavors: <b>JSampler "Classic"</b> offers straightforward GUI |
| 201 |
|
controls whereas <b>JSampler "Fantasia"</b> provides a modern |
| 202 |
|
skin based user interface:<br> |
| 203 |
|
<br> |
| 204 |
|
<a href="screenshots/fantasia.png"><img src="screenshots/fantasia-preview.png"></a> |
| 205 |
|
<br> |
| 206 |
|
JSampler supports all features currently available in the |
| 207 |
|
sampler engine (LinuxSampler). Also note that even though |
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|
JSampler is written in Java and slightly more hungry |
| 209 |
|
regarding resources (compared to QSampler), this usually |
| 210 |
|
does not have any impact on the audio rendering performance |
| 211 |
|
of the sampler, since the engine runs completely independently |
| 212 |
|
and with much higher CPU priority than the frontend(s).<br> |
| 213 |
|
</li> |
| 214 |
|
</ul> |
| 215 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 216 |
|
It's completely up to you which frontend to use. You could even use |
| 217 |
|
both parallel at the same time for the same sampler engine |
| 218 |
|
instance, really! ;-) You're concerned that your sampler frontend |
| 219 |
|
might waste precious resources of your computer? No problem, just |
| 220 |
|
setup the sampler session for your needs and then quit the |
| 221 |
|
frontend application. The sampler engine doesn't care! It continues |
| 222 |
|
to do its job. You need to change something? Start the frontend |
| 223 |
|
again (or another frontend) and you see what you expect to see: the |
| 224 |
|
current setup and state of the running sampler engine. |
| 225 |
|
</p> |
| 226 |
|
|
| 227 |
|
<h2>The Format</h2> |
| 228 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 229 |
|
It is planned to support all common sampler formats in |
| 230 |
|
LinuxSampler, but at the moment we chose to concentrate on the |
| 231 |
|
Gigasampler format, because when we started this project, the |
| 232 |
|
Gigasampler format was (in our opinion) the most popular |
| 233 |
|
and "best" sampler format in regards of quality and power, |
| 234 |
|
especially for the synthesis of natural instruments like pianos, |
| 235 |
|
brass and bowed instruments. But we already made good advance in |
| 236 |
|
implementing this format, so we are optimistic to start with |
| 237 |
|
adding other formats soon. Beside that we also planned to |
| 238 |
|
design our own, sophisticated sampler format to introduce a more |
| 239 |
|
powerful and more flexible sampler format compared to |
| 240 |
|
any sampler format currently available in the world. Be encouraged |
| 241 |
|
to share your ideas about such a new format with us! |
| 242 |
|
</p> |
| 243 |
|
|
| 244 |
|
<h2>The Editor</h2> |
| 245 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 246 |
|
<u><b>gigedit</b></u> allows you to edit and create instruments |
| 247 |
|
for the Gigasampler format, which can be used with LinuxSampler |
| 248 |
|
as well as with Tascam's Gigastudio. Following our line of |
| 249 |
|
modularity we also made the instrument editors independent |
| 250 |
|
applications. Because let's face it: every sampler format is |
| 251 |
|
different, so in our opinion it is better to honor the specific |
| 252 |
|
features of one format with its own instrument editor application |
| 253 |
|
instead of trying to fiddle everything into one single bloated |
| 254 |
|
application. So gigedit is our first editor, dedicated to the .gig |
| 255 |
|
format:<br> |
| 256 |
|
<br> |
| 257 |
|
<a href="screenshots/gigedit_0_0_3.png"><img src="screenshots/gigedit_0_0_3_preview.jpg"></a> |
| 258 |
|
<br> |
| 259 |
|
You can use gigedit as stand-alone application or in conjunction |
| 260 |
|
with LinuxSampler. For the latter case gigedit installs a plugin |
| 261 |
|
into the sampler engine, so the engine (and with it the frontends) |
| 262 |
|
knows that gigedit actually exists and can handle the .gig format. |
| 263 |
|
So even though we decoupled the sampler's components into |
| 264 |
|
independent applications, they all work seamlessly together. |
| 265 |
|
<a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/gigedit/quickstart/gigedit_quickstart.html#live_editing"> |
| 266 |
|
Just press the "Edit" button |
| 267 |
|
</a> on a channel strip of a frontend and |
| 268 |
|
gigedit will automatically popup on the screen and you're |
| 269 |
|
immediately ready to edit your selected instrument, making all your |
| 270 |
|
modifications audible in realtime. Even when editing huge |
| 271 |
|
instruments of 1GB or more, tweak the instrument with gigedit and |
| 272 |
|
immediately hear it while playing on the keyboard at the same time. |
| 273 |
|
And the good thing: even with new sampler formats we're going to |
| 274 |
|
add soon (and with it new editors), you don't have to remember |
| 275 |
|
which instrument you loaded uses which format. Simply click on |
| 276 |
|
"Edit" in a frontend and the sampler engine will choose the right |
| 277 |
|
instrument editor application for the respective instrument for |
| 278 |
|
you. |
| 279 |
|
</p> |
| 280 |
|
|
| 281 |
|
<h2>The Technical Interface</h2> |
| 282 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 283 |
|
As the components of the sampler are independent applications, |
| 284 |
|
there must be a way to let the applications communicate with each |
| 285 |
|
other. For this LinuxSampler provides a native C++ |
| 286 |
|
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface">API</a> |
| 287 |
|
as well as a network interface using an ASCII based protocol which |
| 288 |
|
we call "<a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/api/draft-linuxsampler-protocol.html" title="LinuxSampler Control Protocol">LSCP</a>" |
| 289 |
|
for controlling the sampler engine and managing sampler sessions. |
| 290 |
|
Our frontends support that network interface, which also allows to |
| 291 |
|
control the sampler engine with the GUI frontend(s) remotely from |
| 292 |
|
another computer, probably even running a completely different |
| 293 |
|
Operating System. And compared to other remote control solutions, |
| 294 |
|
the frontend won't feel sluggish, as the frontend is running on |
| 295 |
|
your local machine.<br> |
| 296 |
|
<br> |
| 297 |
|
You can also configure your computer to automatically start the |
| 298 |
|
sampler engine and loading your prefered sampler session without |
| 299 |
|
any frontend, simply by using a <i>LSCP session file</i>. How do |
| 300 |
|
you get such a "LSCP session file"? Both frontends write LSCP |
| 301 |
|
session files for you when you request them to save your current |
| 302 |
|
sampler session. And as those LSCP session files are ordinary |
| 303 |
|
human readable text files, you can adjust them with any text |
| 304 |
|
editor if you want. |
| 305 |
|
</p> |
| 306 |
|
|
| 307 |
|
<h2>The Compatibility</h2> |
| 308 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 309 |
|
LinuxSampler is available for the most popular operating |
| 310 |
|
systems and already supports a variety of audio and MIDI driver |
| 311 |
|
systems on each OS. It does not require any special dedicated |
| 312 |
|
device drivers from the sound card manufacturers, so you can |
| 313 |
|
also use it with cheap consumer cards. Due to its clean design |
| 314 |
|
the sampler can be ported to other operating systems and |
| 315 |
|
extended for further driver systems with a minimum of effort. |
| 316 |
|
So we're prepared for the future! |
| 317 |
|
</p> |
| 318 |
|
|
| 319 |
|
<h2>The Community</h2> |
| 320 |
|
<p class="default"> |
| 321 |
|
All applications are under active development. However we all work |
| 322 |
|
on this project for fun in our spare time. There are still so many |
| 323 |
|
things to do and our hands are limited. So don't hesitate on |
| 324 |
|
participating to the project! You don't necessarily need to be a |
| 325 |
|
skilled programmer to help the project. Testing the applications, |
| 326 |
|
<a href="http://bugs.linuxsampler.org.">reporting bugs</a>, writing |
| 327 |
|
documentation, providing artwork, themes for frontends, etc. helps |
| 328 |
|
us and all users a lot! Simply subscribe to our |
| 329 |
|
<a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxsampler-devel"> |
| 330 |
|
mailing list |
| 331 |
|
</a> and we'll of course take you by the hand in case you want to |
| 332 |
|
participate with active source code development. Don't be afraid! |
| 333 |
|
You have your own ideas and concepts for making the sampler better? |
| 334 |
|
Great, share them with us!<br> |
| 335 |
<br> |
<br> |
|
Anyway, there are so many things to do and our hands are limited. So don't hesitate on participating to the project! |
|
| 336 |
</p> |
</p> |
| 337 |
|
|
| 338 |
</div> |
</div> |
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