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As I use Vintage with my NU1 and the keyboard action is quite different from native one when I use Vintage D

I don't have a DAW. I just play piano.

Anyway, the setup of these MIDI players is no different than that of any MIDI software.

You simply select the MIDI output destination. And for that output MIDI Yoke provides the routing.

So how is it that setting the output on a config screen is a lot of trouble?

Remember, the MIDI Yoke thing only has to be installed and configured once. Once it's configured, I believe every time you fire up the MIDI player, it will remember the last used MIDI device (MIDI Yoke), and similarly, the Kontakt Player will also remember it's settings. I use a different MIDI loopback driver called LoopBe1, and this is how it all works for me. (and LoopBe1 starts automatically when I boot the system, too)

Greg.

I see now that you were not just showing how to play a MIDI file as your opening line of text suggested but also showing how to setup each program.

I did not have to manually create a MIDI port and didn't have to install two programs (Yoke and Player).

I have Cubase and Abelton Live which did involve selecting the MIDI output and input devices during initial setup. I really did not even have to install a DAW because one installed with the operating system OS X.

Regardless of which I choose now I just open them and drop a MIDI file which automatically creates a track. Then I assign a sound source and am ready to just play or record. I have gone a step further and have project files that I use as templates for each software plug-in that I might use by itself like a Vintage D. I just open the project and begin playing after the samples load into RAM, or in this case I would drop a MIDI file into a project and play it.

So basically I should be able to do everything within DAW (I have Ableton Live Lite 8) when I set Vintage D up as VST plug-in there. But at the moment I haven't figured out how to to that just yet.

Correct.

OK, so maybe someone can help me out with this.

I tried to open Vintage D library (.nkl file) in Ableton Live, and got the following message:

"The sampler instrument is not available. The product Sampler is required to go beyond this limitation. See the User Account/Licence preferences...blalala)"

I went to that preference setting and there it shows: Live version: Ableton Lite 8 Focusrite Novation Edition.

Software instruments: none
Sampled instruments: none

I hope this doesn't mean that my ableton version is limited so I can't use any instruments...

You need to load the Kontakt VST in Ableton and then inside Kontakt you can load the Vitnage D library. Ableton has no concept about nkl files.

Watch this for the general procedure of loading a VST inside Ableton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhFI751iBo

Thanks a lot ! I'm sure it will work now.

Update: I understand now how to activate but the problem is that in Plug-in Devices browser I have just empty slot, no Activate button or any folders... So, this is strange.

I'll probably try to contact Ableton in this regard, but if anyone has some tips, go ahead.

New update: OK, I somehow activated that button, but now the problem is with "custom folder" - what I need to set it to? I tried before Vintage D, now with Kontakt (leading to kontakt .exe file, because there's no other files I'm finding), but nothing shows up.

Victory! I cracked that nut! :)))

OK, so now I have Kontakt in Ableton. But... when I click on that Vintage D icon when kontakt opens (from ableton) , nothing happens. I can just click and click, but Vintage D doesn't load.
Are there other preferences I need to check?

So, now I got even Vintage D started in Kontakt in Ableton, and that's OK, but when I try to record, it doesn't record it seems. Maybe also there are any turtorials about how to record from MIDI?

I understand this has overflooded this topic, but at least the next time when someone wants to set up Vintage D, they will have easier road with this discussion I hope.

All you need to do now is arm the track (at the bottom of the track below the "S" button"), create a clip on the track (right click one of the empty slots and choose insert midi clip) and then hit record at the top.

Or search on YouTube for videos explaining all this stuff. It's full of it. Or, god forbid, read the manual

I tend to avoid manuals for as long as possible.

But - when I open kontakt I can only get kontakt to "record" sort of. Yes, I add MIDI track also, but nothing happening there. I tried to play with arming the tracks, etc. , but no luck.

When I "record" from kontakt track, I get sort of red "something" that could be the recording probably, but when I play back, no sound. I guess probably I haven't set up something correctly, as Ableton is tricky in this field.

New question for Vintage D owners. I'll be gigging, like last night using Vintage D and once in a while a note, that I didn't play will sound out at full velocity. It doesn't happen enough to stop using it, but am curious if anyone else ever experienced this?

Never happened to me Sounds like a MIDI/connection problem.

I connect using USB to Roland FP4. I have drivers installed and this is a rare occurrence, although when it's a note not in key I'm in, I get some dirty looks

I guess I could spend some money to get midi to USB but would that really make a big difference?

Now I'm able to play MIDI files in Ableton via Kontakt and Vintage D. It also seems that I'm able to record that all as .WAV file, so that's sorted. However, I still can't record directly it seems. But, I'll put some more thought into that.

One question - from your experiences, do you think it's a safe way to first record playing keyboard with inbuilt sounds and then transfering that MIDI to Ableton/Vintage D and recording final sound with that? I mean, does it transpone in a right way, because obviously there are some dynamic differences between inbuilt sounds/correspondance between keys and how Vintage D sees that... There seems to be many variations how to do the final recording and how to get to that point.

Another question about Vintage D sound - have you noticed that bi flat (si bemol) note in the second octave sounds noticabely quieter than any other notes in Vintage D?

Yep, it does. I thought I was the only one to notice it

There's really just one right way: record midi from keyboard playing Vintage D in real time. If you want to save that all into an audio file, just use export audio in the file menu.

Anything else doesn't make any sense at all.

It's strange. Is it an error or perfectly normal to be so? And are there any ways around that. I mean, it's not like it's very noticable when playing a piece, but when playing notes 1 by 1 it is.



Well, it could be. At the moment I have 2 issues with this: 1. minor latency problems (I will try to figure it out, as it's really not a huge problem at the moment, but it's noticable compared to when playing inbuilt sounds).

2. a bit more major problem - velocity/keytouch levels. You see, when playing directly Vintage D, I yet have to find proper balance between keyboard (FP7F) key touch and Vintage D velocity. At the moment Vintage D velocity is at default setting, FP7F at medium +7.

Without this balance, it's not easy to achieve natural sound levels.