Fantom-G

an app for patch/sample management

an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 09:22
I put together a program that will move a studio set, all patches, & their associated samples from one project to another. It automatically renames the samples & updates the sample references within each patch.

A have a few questions:

Is there already a program for this?
Is this what yase is for?
If the users here are interested, how would i go about sharing this application with this community? Add as attachment?

Please respond if you have an interest. A simple post indicating a 'thumbs up'.

Also, If i am reinventing the wheel here please correct me.

Re: an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 10:20
1. No, so far it has been a tedious manual process to do this.
2. yase was predominantly for converting sample formats and for creating msam patches but it is also capable of moving multisamples, though iirc, when i took a look at it, it required a bit of user intervention to move a msam patch from one project to another
Another program.. chicken something or other, is alleged to be able to do the same thing, however i do not recall seeing evidence that it actually does.

The librarian never played nice with samples so you likely have something very handy here, particularly if it can be extended at some point to also transfer live sets and songs...I would suggest post as an attachment for folks to try out, then once there is adequate feedback that its performance is robust it would be worthy of a sticky.

Re: an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 12:25
hey if it can do that for live sets and single multisample patches you'd be on christmas card list for life. So far the biggest bugbear with the g is managing the data within the projects. Can be done manually but is extremely lengthy, complicated with many oppurtunites to mess it up

Re: an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 12:44
Cool. thanks guys. I just got it working last night. It should be no problem to make it work with single patches & live sets as well. Once its cleaned up a bit i will post it. Right now everything is hard coded (i.e. source & destination are static). I'll set it up where you can select the patch/live/studio data & the destination project later tonight. Along with further testing..

after that I'll try to do i'll try to do something similar with RPS/rythm pad sets & their associated phrases.. I'm afraid songs will be more difficult to work with, but we'll see.. we may still have to resort to SMF export for songs..

P.S. currently this app only works with SAMPLES, not MULTISAMPLES.

Re: an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 16:13
if you can get it to work with multisamples you could actually make some money out of it. Im sure even being a relativelt new fantom g user that people would gladly pay to save them the ridicuosly complicated process that it is at the moment

Re: an app for patch/sample management

24 Apr 2012, 18:03
This would be awesome if you can do it. Being able to move multisamples between projects and have it all come up intact would be brilliant. It's one thing that stops me really delving into the sampler. Chicken Systems say they are working on an app called Fantom Creator, similar to their Motif creator that will take care of all this, but it has never appeared. They say their app will convert any sample format into fantom and move multisamples around, but it hasn't happened yet. The Yase thing is Windows only right? Never tried it as I have a mac.

Re: an app for patch/sample management

25 Apr 2012, 00:12
Well, fantom g owners... I'm sorry to say it, but i think multisamples are out of scope for this project..

Here's how it works so far:

1: Hook the fantom up to the Fantom G editor & load the desired studio set from the SOURCE PROJECT.

2: Choose file-> export SMF-> (studio set + patch).

3: copy the newly created midi to the SOURCE project's SEQ/SMF directory.

4: run this program. specify the midi file as the 'source' & the destination project directory as the 'destination'.

Each of the necessary samples are copied to the destination project's SMPL directory. They are renamed according to the lowest available (nonexistent sample file).

A 'new' midi file will be created inside the destination project's SEQ/SMF directory. It contains the updated version of the studio set.

5: Now, all you need to do is load your destination project & play the SMF.

At this point, you still may have to save each patch & save the studio set in the desired locations. If you are using the studio set for a song, you can simply save the song.

The program is a java application so it will run the same on windows/mac/linux. It is a 'console' application. You can run the program from your command prompt. Shell scripts will be provided for each platform to simplify it's use.

Sorry i haven't attached it for you to see yet. i ran out of time today & it's still not 'nice'. Hopefully my next reply will be saying: "here it is!.."

This next part is just me rambling...

As you can see above, i am using midi messages to set parameters in real time. This has advantages & disadvantages. The good thing is, this program doesn't edit any of the fantom g system files. Therefore, bad things are less likely to happen. Also, it makes the data easier for me to work with & makes it quite portable. The bad part is, you can only edit data which can be transmitted or received as a midi message..

For this reason, i think multi samples will require a different approach altogether. I still intend to make app for them if i can.
I'd also like to make one for RPS/RHYTHM pad sets & associated phrases. (This looks promising)
Finally, i'd like to make one that does something similar for songs. This looks more difficult. At very least, i'd like to be able to update audio tracks & associated samples.

More ideas for this app..

- support live sets & single patches. This is a must & may be part of the first release. Total time 1 day.

- Persist data (if a sample has already been copied from project A to B, rather than make a 'new' sample. Instead, overwrite the existing sample. This will allow later changes to project 'A' samples to be reflected in project 'B' samples. It will also allow for multiple live/studio/single sets to be copied at different times, during different sessions without creating a new sample when it is not necessary. Total time: 1.5 days.

- Reverse operation (i.e. copy 'new' samples back to original project.)

- delete samples ( delete samples previously copied from A to B.)

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 11:52
Sorry for the delay. The app will be done today. I ran into an issue. Read below:

During testing i noticed that everything was working fine with studio sets Live sets. It also seems to work with 'single' PATCHES. However, it was not working single RHYTHM set or single SAMPLE sets.

This wasn't making any sense. after trying to debug & running several tests I discovered that the ORIGINAL unaltered midi files generated by the fantom g editor don't work for single rhythm & sample parts.

Has anyone else noticed this issue?

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 17:48
this all sounds very interesting.. im a keen programmer myself.. I can just imagine how your getting the data from the G using just midi, its sounds a bit like the old Peeking and poking method in the old days of programming..
Now let me see if my vision matches what you do for getting patch data...
Here is the equivalent of peeking..

For every parameter of a patch i would send a INC command to all parameters
this would then force a transmit of the new data telling what the original values where -1.
From these values you can then assess what the new values need to be to accommodate the new patch settings including the new samples slot etc...

am i getting close ;-)
Or maybe its just my way of think about it..



[img]http://www.geocities.com/cpmul/myconfig.jpg[/img] - [img]http://forums.rolandclan.info/pub/attach/116700-UT.jpg[/img] - [img]http://www.geocities.com/cpmul/filesystem.jpg[/img]






Listen to GlassSlipper


X-Bugs.org

Results not Excuses

My Setup

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 20:18
Right on quinnx. I barely used any of the functionality of the g editor until recently. That's what prompted me to use midi messages. I have known for some time that the G transmits/receives lots of sysex messages but the Editor makes them visible in the top right hand corner whenever you change a setting. That makes it pretty easy to know what bytes do what. The editor also allows for export of all parameters, so i figured this would be a good place to start..

I am just now finishing up the v1.0 beta. It will copy live/studio sets along with all patches & their required samples. It will not copy multi-samples. Due to what appears to be a bug in the editor, this program does not work with single patches exported from the editor...

Quinnx, i can give you some info about these midi messages if you are interested.

Should be a couple of hours before i package this & try to upload it here.

.. almost.. there..

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 20:41
Editor makes them visible in the top right hand corner whenever you change a setting.


Try using MidiOX it will give you a visual on any or all Sysex transmitted from the G



[img]http://www.geocities.com/cpmul/myconfig.jpg[/img] - [img]http://forums.rolandclan.info/pub/attach/116700-UT.jpg[/img] - [img]http://www.geocities.com/cpmul/filesystem.jpg[/img]






Listen to GlassSlipper


X-Bugs.org

Results not Excuses

My Setup

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 22:42
Here it is! Fantom G Organizer v1.0 beta.

Copy Live/Studio set from one project to another including all patch parameters & associated samples. Each sample will only be copied once so you can update it in the future & keep your projects in sync.

Let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 22:47
Wait, how do you upload attachments?? I clicked the upload attachment tab & followed the procedure but i don't see the file in my last post. I'm using a droid 4 to upload it because i don't have internet here. Could that be the problem? Or am i just making a mistake?

Re: an app for patch/sample management

26 Apr 2012, 22:52
IIRC, only attachments with certain file extensions can be uploaded here. I think ".zip" is one of them.

← Back to Fantom-G