Frank,

I got this back from Soundtrek. Maybe it is of help to you.
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>It is a shame that Jammer Live does not seem to want to work with GS.

JAMMER Live works with GS, I'm using it with a Roland Sound Canvas which is
the definition (and originator) of GS. I've yet to ascertain exactly what
isn't working. This is why I haven't contacted Nemesys yet - I want to have
more information so that the discussion doesn't go like this:

Me: "JAMMER Live doesn't seem to be working with GigaSampler".

Nemesys: "How so?".

Me: "I don't know".

I know that the current version of Live does not pass through patch changes played live on a MIDI controller, but the upcoming update will address that issue. I'm wondering is this the issue Frank is talking about, or is he not able to get any patch changes to work at all? If that's the case he needs to make sure the bank select method is set properly (based on what GigaSampler wants) and of course to get the actual bank and patch numbers correct (depends on how the samples are loaded up).

With some sound modules, if the wrong bank select method is used or the wrong bank number(s) / patch number(s) are used, the result is silence. An easy way to check this out: First, clear the GM soundfont bank (bank 0) using the Creative Labs soundfont utility in AudioHQ. The reason I have you
clear bank 0 is that the Sound Blaster live "falls back" to bank 0 - i.e.
when an unused bank / patch is sent or when an improper bank select method is used the SB Live card defaults to playing the oundfont that is in bank 0. Not all sound modules do this. Go to Cakewalk and start a new song. Go to a track and enter a few notes in the piano roll. Now, load a sound font into bank 1. Next, set the track's MIDI channel to channel 1, assign it to bank 1 and choose a patch (the soundfont patch name for the chosen bank / patch should show in the track view). Make sure that the track's bank select method is set to controller 0 only (double click on the patch or bank field to set this). Press play and you should hear the MIDI notes.

Now, rewind and change the track to bank 2 and play again. What do you hear? Silence! Change back to bank 1. Sound again. Now change the track's bank select method to normal instead of controller 0 only and what do you get? Silence. This should illustrate what I'm talking about - given the fact that this experiment can be done with Cakewalk and a Sound Blaster Live card shows that it's likely a setup issue and not directly a problem with either JAMMER Live or GigaSampler.

Seeing that it works fine with Cakewalk, and if I understand GigaSampler correctly, it just looks like a standard Windows MIDI device to Windows applications, it should work fine in either app. Maybe Cakewalk has added GigaSampler specific support but I really doubt that Nemesys would require
applications to code explicitly for GigaSampler instead of using the standard Windows multimedia services, kinda defeats the purpose. Those should be the only two pieces to the puzzle - get the bank select method right and send the appropriate bank and patch numbers (based on the device
and style patch configuration) and all should work fine. If not, then at
least I know the configuration is sound and I then have enough information to approach Nemesys to figure out what's going on. Until then we need to make sure that his system is set up properly.

I really wish Frank would contact us about this. I've received a few emails from him a while back but none addressing this issue. If not for you, I wouldn't even know of the problem.

>Even using the Hubi drivers, MIDI communication just will not happen.

Are you sure that MIDI communication is not happening? Or is it a bank select method / bank / patch problem? It could certainly be a JAMMER Live problem, but without more information and communication there's no way to know and absolutely nothing we can do about it.

>I have no trouble at all with Cakewalk - AND - all program changes work faultlessly
>(with the full GM set pre-loaded). When a new sequence is loaded (from within Cakewalk, not by dragging it onto GS), it is ready to play instantly.
>If Cakewalk can work, it seems logical that Jammer could be made to work as well if Soundtrek were motivated to do so.

Since Cakewalk works, he might want to compare the bank select method used in Cakewalk to that used in JAMMER Live.

>While Frank is understandably disappointed that the GS/Conexant/JLive does not seem at this point to be a viable replacement for a Yamaha PSR-9000,

I'm not convinced of that yet! If there are features of the Yamaha that Live doesn't have, great let us know - they will be great ideas for the future. But it seems like the the complaints I read were about such things
as load times from GigaSampler but I hardly see how JAMMER Live can do anything about that. Maybe GigaSampler isn't the answer, but that's _not_ a JAMMER Live issue. This loading problem simply does not exist with a
hardware sampler / sound module. We should be able to get JAMMER Live
sending MIDI messages to GigaSampler though.

>I cannot agree that the Conexant GM kit suffers by comparison with the 4 meg
>Roland set or any soundcard in my acquaintance. I have been putzing around
>with GM sets for years and I can tell you I am DELIGHTED with the Conexant set!

Well, you know sounds are completely subjective

Richard Grant
SoundTrek