Correspondence with Nick Copeland

Hi,

I really like your killer app! I had purchased Native Instruments B4 5 years ago and played on Cubase, but always wanted to play on a Linux system. So, now I have Ubuntu 10.04 Studio, and use Jack to patch (including shell script to automatically connect multiple instances).

I'm using bristol 0.4 and will upgrade to current version, but was wondering the maximum instances of organs allowable to play. I have a pretty up-to-date computer system, and notice when I have automatically "patched" one instance of Qsynth, and then 4 instances of bristol (B3, Vox, Rhodes, Rhodes Bass) the 4th instance (regardless of which one) gets terminated due to some sort of midi write error.

Was wondering if others had this problem or if there is a fix. If I'm able to use approx 7 instances of keyboards, then I'll stick to Linux for live performances.

Also, is there a table of keys that indicate control of the keyboards (eg. in native instruments, pressing SHIFT x toggles rotor. I will eventually get a better keyboard/MIDI controller.

Any suggestions or directions would be greatly appreciated. I will add anything I learn to my Ubuntu WIKI ( http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_Guide ) and my blog: ( http://murraysaul.wordpress.com/ )

Thanks for all you have done! Rock on!

Murray Saul

Hi Murray Saul,

The cause of the processes getting terminated is probably Jack complaining about CPU utilisation. Some of these synths ran to 10% CPU per voice, that is on my Xeon 2.2GHz machine. When Jack cannot keep up due to process load then it terminates processes. Somewhere in the 0.50 stream I finally got around to filter optimisation and the results were what I was after, the CPU utilisation per voice comes down to below 2% on the same CPU: it has been tested with a 32 voice Prophet-5 running as a Unison synth, 64 oscillator all running together slightly detuned, it took 65% CPU to do it admittedly.

Bristol does not raise any limit on what you do. You can run 7 different bristol emulators over Jack (use the -audiodev option to separate them) or if you use the -engine feature then you can run 7 emulators on the same bristol engine. The difference is a bit like having lots of synths or having one multitimbral synth with 32 voices. Bristol supports both methods of use, the default is multiple synths rather than a multitimbral synth.

Now how far that will get you depends a little on what you want to do. If you want 7 synths running at the same time then typically each synth engine will get 32 voices, depending on your Jack version then all of the synths may have to run on a single core so if you stay within a limit of, say, 48 voices total it will work. Check out JackDMP/Jack2, whatever it is called these days for distributed processing where you can get multiples of the 48 voices as Jack will use multiple CPU cores.

I am pretty certain you will get better results if you go for 0.60.5, the most recent release. I would be interested in seeing an example shell script for how you start all of these, it would show which method you are using and I could also give some feedback on other options you could use.

Kind regards, nick.

"we have to make sure the old choice [Windows] doesn't disappear”. Jim Wong, president of IT products, Acer

I think that is the first time, I have request a mod and it was implemented! Wow!

I teach at a College in North America (Toronto, Canada). In late October we have a conference on open source software. I would like to offer a one hour workshop on home recording with Linux, and was wondering if possible if we could invite you to speak via video conferencing regarding Bristol organ...

Here is a link to the website: http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2010/

Murray

Hi Nick,

I absolutely love your Bristol Organ, and will be learning (in more detail) how to play keyboards like the B3, Vox and Rhodes.

I was wondering if you had any documentation on how to use settings or work with the presents when using Brighton (Graphical Interface), or if you recommended any links. I see a lot of technical information, but can't seem to locate any information on how to use the graphical settings. I'm trying to switch over from Native Instrument applications from a Windows system to a Linux system this new year.

If you can any sort of documentation more for the user, that would be greatly appreciated :)

Keep up the excellent work!

Murray Saul Orangeville, ON Canada

Thanks Nick, that helps.

If you could just describe how to use the "load" area on the brighton settings interface how to store and reload settings, that would be helpful. When using Native Instruments for the B4, what I like is the ability to quickly load types of general settings, although I know what you are saying about the reverse keys was well...

I teach and write notes on HOWTOs. I will be learning how to use Bristol and Brighton. I have not problems documenting it, and if you like what you see, you can link to it, or use/modify to your heart's content.

I believe performing / recording in Linux very feasible and would like to contribute to "getting the word out there". Bristol is truly awesome, and I appreciate all that you do...

Thanks Murray

Last question. What do you recommend to generate a "dirty" overdrive sound like with "smoke on the water", "hush", or "gimme some loving"...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks, Murray

Sorry to bother you. I was renovating my basement, and stepped away from using my Ubuntu Studio system.

When I run my script, I notice that Bristol organ is NOT displayed in ALSA tab anymore, but in MIDI tab. I can't seem to get my TASCAM US122 device to connect to Bristol organ like before (using the aconnect command).

Even when running aconnect -io

with Bristol organ running, there is no display at all (i.e. no port 129). Has there been a recent change - i.e. did I somehow get clobbered since it was working perfectly in the summer and Fall.

I'm using Ubuntu 10.10...

Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated. I want to connect my TASCAM USB device to play the Bristol organ like before...

Murray

Hi Nick,

I upgraded your version, but when I run from command line it gives error regarding jack:

/usr/local/bin/startBristol -b3 -channel 4 -gain 3 -jack -midi seq & [1] 17945 msaul@studio:~$ Requested Jack drivers, not compiled into bristol exit: 437: Illegal number: -1

Now, it just solved a problem with wineasio in order to play the Ninjam application with wine. I had to revert to jackd1 instead of jackd2 in order to allow me to configure audio to jack using Ninjam application.

It was working perfectly!

But, unfortunately, I just can't seem to stay put. I installed your version to test out -geom option, but when running command to startBristol it indicates above message. It seems to me, I have tried everything.

It does state (when running ./configure):

| Build with JACK Session support ................ : false

(I don't know if this is the problem).

I do have libjack-dev installed I have tried this both from zipped tarballs and Ubuntu Synaptic package manager, but to no available.

Are there any additional suggestions you can make?

Murray

I will do as you suggest later today. Yes, family is more important at this time - I agree totally! We will be watching the Dr. Who special tonight! Big fans...

Cheers and happy holidays...

Murray

Here is output from your suggested command:

msaul@studio:~$ /usr/local/bin/startBristol -b3 -channel 4 -gain 3 -jack -midi seq -debug 1 Requested Jack drivers, not compiled into bristol exit: 437: Illegal number: -1

Attached is the log file...

Cheers, Murray

I un-installed release 0.6, and installed bristol-0.50.8 using jackd1 and works perfectly...

I will check to see if any earlier versions under release 0.6 to see if that works...

FYI, Murray

I have narrowed down the error to "bristol-0.60.7.tar.gz"

This is where the error occurs. The last version that works is: bristol-0.60.6.tar.gz

FYI, Murray Saul

Hope you had a nice X-MAS holiday with family - I did as well  :)

I know that Netbooks are not the best candidates for running Ubuntu studio and keyboard emulations, but I did get it working quite well with my Acer Aspireone A0715h computer, an Maudio 61-keystation, and (with or without) my Tascam US122 USB device.

It nearly works perfectly - although when I press many of keys simultaneously, there is a slight distortion (faint clicking - even if I set voices to 8). I suspect that when running Jack (with RT kernel), it is approaching 86% which is causing that situation.

I was wondering if there were any "tweaks" that could help I recall that I tried the -lwf option . I know I may be limited by the Atom processor, and I could upgrade my RAM from 1GB to 2GB - would a RAM upgrade make a difference?

Anyways, my configuration is "good to go" in my opinion. I will be trying it out over the next few band practices. The multiple pressing of keys using a piano sound font with Qsynth does not create that slight clicking, but I suppose that it becomes more complex with emulating an organ...

Anyways, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I suspect I will be using Ubuntu Studio to performing live. I will be creating a full tutorial on how I am performing live using Ubuntu Studio... mentioning Bristol organ of course!

)

Murray