Hi
I just bought a i2M and wounder if someone have well working settings for saxophone according to tracking/breath/etc. and are willing to share it to me. Just do a save as in desktop manager of the setting and e-mailing me..
Thanks for your help in advance.
Andreas
Settings for saxophone
Re: Settings for saxophone
Andreas --
Start with good miking of your sax. I don't know if you are using some sort of a pickup or not, but I will assume you are using a mic. (What are you using?) You want the mic set up close to the sax to prevent ambient noises, and aimed so that it picks up all notes as equally as possible, from the open high notes to the powerful low notes. I typically aim my microphone about midway between my hands, facing straight into the pads.
If you are able to run your sax through a mixer, try taking a separate send from the sax channel into the i2M. That way you can tweak the eq of the audio you feed to the i2M to maximize response. If playing live in a loud live situation, I sometimes apply a noise gate to make sure I don't get false triggers. Make sure you don't overdrive the i2M (indicated by a red light on the unit).
I am away from my setup now, but in the next day or two I will give you some ideas to try with settings on the i2M that I use for sax. But first start with getting the best, purest audio input from your sax into the i2M. Guitar pickups provide a nice pure tone; there can be a lot of variation coming from a sax microphone.
Start with good miking of your sax. I don't know if you are using some sort of a pickup or not, but I will assume you are using a mic. (What are you using?) You want the mic set up close to the sax to prevent ambient noises, and aimed so that it picks up all notes as equally as possible, from the open high notes to the powerful low notes. I typically aim my microphone about midway between my hands, facing straight into the pads.
If you are able to run your sax through a mixer, try taking a separate send from the sax channel into the i2M. That way you can tweak the eq of the audio you feed to the i2M to maximize response. If playing live in a loud live situation, I sometimes apply a noise gate to make sure I don't get false triggers. Make sure you don't overdrive the i2M (indicated by a red light on the unit).
I am away from my setup now, but in the next day or two I will give you some ideas to try with settings on the i2M that I use for sax. But first start with getting the best, purest audio input from your sax into the i2M. Guitar pickups provide a nice pure tone; there can be a lot of variation coming from a sax microphone.
Re: Settings for saxophone
Hi soundog
I have a Samson Airline Wind clip onmicrophone and I run it directly into the i2M. What kind of guitar pick-up are you talking about? I made a test yesterday and I got it to work very nice. But there is a lot off tweaking before it´s optimized. I will make a test and take the signal throught a mixer as you suggest.
I have my i2M connected to a SM Pro Audio V-Machine that can be loaded with VST plug ins. Right now I have somthing that is called Sampletank and have a lot of synth sound, ambient and instrument samples that are really nice.
I have a Digitech Vocal 300 that I use to get reverb, delay, wah, dubbler etc. when a play "normally". If I take the signal through this pedal I can add a noice gate and tweak the eq. I will make some adjustments with microphone placement and run it into a mixer/Vocal 300 and tweak the signal for the best result.
Thanks for your help.
I´ll be back with more information.
//Andreas
I have a Samson Airline Wind clip onmicrophone and I run it directly into the i2M. What kind of guitar pick-up are you talking about? I made a test yesterday and I got it to work very nice. But there is a lot off tweaking before it´s optimized. I will make a test and take the signal throught a mixer as you suggest.
I have my i2M connected to a SM Pro Audio V-Machine that can be loaded with VST plug ins. Right now I have somthing that is called Sampletank and have a lot of synth sound, ambient and instrument samples that are really nice.
I have a Digitech Vocal 300 that I use to get reverb, delay, wah, dubbler etc. when a play "normally". If I take the signal through this pedal I can add a noice gate and tweak the eq. I will make some adjustments with microphone placement and run it into a mixer/Vocal 300 and tweak the signal for the best result.
Thanks for your help.
I´ll be back with more information.
//Andreas
Re: Settings for saxophone
Sorry to confuse; my mention of the guitar pickup was to compare guitar input to a sax mic input. Guitar signal is very pure (electronic); sax signal has more variation (mic type, sax tone, room ambiance, etc). Therefore, it is more important to spend time experimenting to get the best sax signal into the i2M.
Wow, you have some impressive equipment, especially the Samson mic! Very nice, and lots of possibilities for getting sax blended with synth in many formats! I would experiment with different setups before you settle on one. I don't have your equipment, so I took a best guess below as to how it might be configured. For each setup described elow, start by setting your i2M using musicport software very simply:
MODE: Instrument: Wind/Voice
MODE: legato detection: off (also try "on" to see which best matches your playing style)
MIDI Config: pitch bend (set to 2, make sure your plugins are also set to 2 for pitch bend!)
MIDI Config: transpose, chromatic, scales, etc. Don't play with these until you have a simple setup working to your satisfaction. Then, use these to get some amazing chord or multi output out of the i2M. You can send output on separate MIDI channels to create horn sections, use layered plug-ins, etc. But start simple until you get good i2M response for your horn and mic.
Be sure to read the section in the musicport manual on Pre-amp Gain! This will help you set ideal audio level in.
Here are some wiring setups to try. With any of these, its nice to get a setup where you can get a pure sax tone, a pure synth tone(s), or any blend of the two that you desire. That gives you lots of sonic options for performance.
(A) Simple Setup
Samson audio out ----> i2M
i2M audio ---> Vocal 300 (for sax audio processing) ---> mixer (blend as needed)
i2M midi out ----> V-machine (for plug-in synths, etc) ----> mixer (blend as needed)
With this setup, you will need to make sure your sax audio level going into the i2M is set correctly. You want it set so that it just starts to "red light" on the Sonuus LED when you are playing your loudest.
(B) Mixer setup (similar to what I use for live performance)
sax mic -----> mixer
1. sax audio out from mixer (for pure sax tone, to blend with synth tones). can add reverb, delay as needed.
2. sax audio send from mixer (no reverb or delay!) ----> eq, gate applied (optional, if needed) ----> i2M
i2M MIDI out ----> MIDI sound module and/or DAW with plug ins ----> synth audio out -----> mixer
The nice thing about this setup is that you can fine tune the sax signal that works best with the i2M (based on your microphone, sax, playing style, etc), but still have the best pure sax tone on a separate output channel. The audio output going into the Sonuus might not sound that great if you listen to it, but it can be optimized to give the i2M an ideal signal for interpreting audio-->MIDI conversion.
(C) Experiment with the stuff you already have
For example, you could also try experimenting with using your V-machine :
sax mic -----> V-machine audio ---->VST eq/gate/compressor ---->Left channel out ---> i2M audio -----> i2M MIDI -------->V-machine MIDI ----> VST synth plug ins -----mixed in with sax audio -----> Right channel out
I don't know if the V-machine will let you do this sort of routing, and even if it will this might introduce too much latency. Worth a try, though!
(D) Another experiment, use the Digitech Vocal 300 to preprocess your sax input before the i2M (to apply eq, gate, etc). Use the audio and MIDI out of the i2M into the V-Machine to mix and blend your sounds.
Hope this helps! Let us know what works out best for you.
PS, I highly recommend Wallender Instruments plugins such as "WIVI Band" if you want to get nice horn section sounds. He has free demo software to try on his website. Works great with the i2M.
Wow, you have some impressive equipment, especially the Samson mic! Very nice, and lots of possibilities for getting sax blended with synth in many formats! I would experiment with different setups before you settle on one. I don't have your equipment, so I took a best guess below as to how it might be configured. For each setup described elow, start by setting your i2M using musicport software very simply:
MODE: Instrument: Wind/Voice
MODE: legato detection: off (also try "on" to see which best matches your playing style)
MIDI Config: pitch bend (set to 2, make sure your plugins are also set to 2 for pitch bend!)
MIDI Config: transpose, chromatic, scales, etc. Don't play with these until you have a simple setup working to your satisfaction. Then, use these to get some amazing chord or multi output out of the i2M. You can send output on separate MIDI channels to create horn sections, use layered plug-ins, etc. But start simple until you get good i2M response for your horn and mic.
Be sure to read the section in the musicport manual on Pre-amp Gain! This will help you set ideal audio level in.
Here are some wiring setups to try. With any of these, its nice to get a setup where you can get a pure sax tone, a pure synth tone(s), or any blend of the two that you desire. That gives you lots of sonic options for performance.
(A) Simple Setup
Samson audio out ----> i2M
i2M audio ---> Vocal 300 (for sax audio processing) ---> mixer (blend as needed)
i2M midi out ----> V-machine (for plug-in synths, etc) ----> mixer (blend as needed)
With this setup, you will need to make sure your sax audio level going into the i2M is set correctly. You want it set so that it just starts to "red light" on the Sonuus LED when you are playing your loudest.
(B) Mixer setup (similar to what I use for live performance)
sax mic -----> mixer
1. sax audio out from mixer (for pure sax tone, to blend with synth tones). can add reverb, delay as needed.
2. sax audio send from mixer (no reverb or delay!) ----> eq, gate applied (optional, if needed) ----> i2M
i2M MIDI out ----> MIDI sound module and/or DAW with plug ins ----> synth audio out -----> mixer
The nice thing about this setup is that you can fine tune the sax signal that works best with the i2M (based on your microphone, sax, playing style, etc), but still have the best pure sax tone on a separate output channel. The audio output going into the Sonuus might not sound that great if you listen to it, but it can be optimized to give the i2M an ideal signal for interpreting audio-->MIDI conversion.
(C) Experiment with the stuff you already have
For example, you could also try experimenting with using your V-machine :
sax mic -----> V-machine audio ---->VST eq/gate/compressor ---->Left channel out ---> i2M audio -----> i2M MIDI -------->V-machine MIDI ----> VST synth plug ins -----mixed in with sax audio -----> Right channel out
I don't know if the V-machine will let you do this sort of routing, and even if it will this might introduce too much latency. Worth a try, though!
(D) Another experiment, use the Digitech Vocal 300 to preprocess your sax input before the i2M (to apply eq, gate, etc). Use the audio and MIDI out of the i2M into the V-Machine to mix and blend your sounds.
Hope this helps! Let us know what works out best for you.
PS, I highly recommend Wallender Instruments plugins such as "WIVI Band" if you want to get nice horn section sounds. He has free demo software to try on his website. Works great with the i2M.