new sound standard

[RustoMCSpit]

im going to add a lot more plugins however i find the c note standard really bad for instruments / effects.

there should be a before vs after of a sine wave playing a standardised melody, bass, and harmony

and then after the sine wave, the instrument / effects playing the same standardised melody, bass, and harmony (so 3 + 3 = 6 audio files. the first three however will always be the same sine waves for every plugin, as it's a standard).

if it's an effect, it should be applied to the sine wave. if instrument, just play the midi.

that little song would naturally become the open audio theme song. it should be around 6-7 seconds and the midi for it should be provided.

i imagine a three track with 'swap to plugin / sine' and 'mute track' could be added to studiorack.

the point is that it'll show off three presets in a song environment with a reference to a plain sine wave, rather than a contextless middle c note. that'll have to do until people can start sending in reviews / presets (both of which should have documentation detailing how audio can be attached to them).

also if multiple sound tracks can be added, so should multiple images

#45

edit: and a percussion midi file

[RustoMCSpit]

i can make a simple diagram mock-up inage if needed

[kmturley]

I considered using a default midi melody. The issues with that are:

• Pitch: bass and cello play lower octaves, flutes and synths play higher octaves
• Length: some instruments are better at short notes, other at long notes
• Polyphony: some play one melody layer, others play chords
• Expression: you can pluck, hit, bow, attack, different instruments depending on the sound you want.
• Tuning: Drums don't have notes, some instruments use a different scale, or only have notes for major scale.

... you get the point there are a lot of possible variations.

It gets very complex to best represent each instrument to its fullest. So I defaulted to let the plugin author choose what is best to show off their plugin.

A potential long-term solution would be to do something similar to the general midi project. Where jnstruments have to choose a midi channel, which defines the instrument category it is closest to.

You could then have a midi file for each midi channel/ instrument category and generate base on that. Still would need at least 128 versions.

[RustoMCSpit]

I considered using a default midi melody. The issues with that are:

just to be clear, im advocating for three midis here. harmony, bass, melody. then on studiorack you add a pan and mute option. you select if you want to turn the sine wave on or the plugin on. i might want to hear just the plugin bass so i mute the other tracks or plugin bass with sine wave harmony. this allows for a plugin to show off its true range with three presets whilst also having a reference point. also yes i know i re-used the sine waves, i got lazy sorry sorry. this is in part also a studiorack issue, though not entirely, like some of my other issues #24 but it's important for documentation to be added.

[RustoMCSpit]

Pitch: bass and cello play lower octaves, flutes and synths play higher octaves

midi can be shifted into different octaves. also im advocating for three different midi lanes. harmony, melody, bass. also this only applies to sample based things

Length: some instruments are better at short notes, other at long notes

seven seconds is fine to show that off. it just needs to be a good general theme song. also this only applies to sample based things

Polyphony: some play one melody layer, others play chords

this would be a problem for harmony but for harmony we'd just have to add a note that it is arpeggiating / playing only the root notes because it is monophonic. i also think we should make monophonic a tag / warning label (as well as only supporting old vst2 architecture, etc.) #46

Expression: you can pluck, hit, bow, attack, different instruments depending on the sound you want.

this is a problem no matter what, there is no getting around this even in its current implementation. thats why i want this largely, because it shows off three presets rather than one

Tuning: Drums don't have notes, some instruments use a different scale, or only have notes for major scale.

this is niche and drums can have their own standardised midi. in this case just let the dev upload whatever they want as long as they include a sine wave comparison

[RustoMCSpit]

A potential long-term solution would be to do something similar to the general midi project. Where jnstruments have to choose a midi channel, which defines the instrument category it is closest to. You could then have a midi file for each midi channel/ instrument category and generate base on that. Still would need at least 128 versions.

honestly just providing a harmony, bass, melody (and percussion) midi file and letting devs move the midi up a few octaves would be fine

[kmturley]

We can consider providing midi templates for sounds later. But I don't think it's priority vs getting the plugins added and integration with StudioRack. Will add this to feature requests