vArranger Forums

Hi Dan,
I wrote to "tech support" built in form twice... Are you getting these messages?
Let me know.
Thanks.

Dan, it seems....
That you can not "program" a fill on a specific beat in Song Mode, only on first beat of a bar., but of course every physical arranger and your VA can do this when playing live, but not inputted in Song Chords. Is this something you can fix?

Hi Dan.

When I have my arrangement in Song chords, is it possible to save individual midi track instead of all channels?
Please let me know.

Thank you.

Anybody using small usb drives like Samsung Fit or SanDisk Cruzer fit for Varranger?
My experience is horrible with two above. 2 drives went bad one is giving up (turning on/off by itself, which is a prerequisite for drive end of life) Dan was kind enough to transfer the license. I think I will have to get another flash drive in the next several months to replace dying one. Can anybody can recommend a small form factor drive they personally used for 2+ years being plugged most of the time. I need a small drive to avoid breaking port or drive as I travel / move laptop often.
Any suggestions?
P.S. I wish there was another licensing way, such as computer ID or such.

Dan,
or anybody who knows can you please help me with this one. Using BIAB with newly made Midi Sync In.
Connected by LoopMidi. What settings should be here (see attached) for VA to recognize chords from BIAB chordsheet? I usually either enter chords in VA (or import them) or use a keyboard. Not sure how to do it in this case.
Kindly let me know.
Thank you.

Hi Dan.
A request...
When "saving Midi" from Song Chords, it saves all tracks even if they are muted  or there is nothing there.
Please consider a single track save if track is soloed, without "extras".
Thank you.

Not sure if I am the only one who has these issues?

I had 2 flash drives gone bad on me, the ones with the VA license.... It happens because I leave them plugged in computer, forgetting to pull them out, when not in use. They exhibit same behavior after a while...  Drive appears, then disappears.  Dan was cool and transferred the license to new flashes, BUT that required me  destroying the flash drives. So 2 drives down, third starting to go. There are two main problems:
1) Drive gets destroyed voiding the warranty.
2) It takes special request from Dan, buying another drive, taking video and transferring the license.

I used Sandisk and Samsung drives, which are better ones.

I wish there was a mechanism (like Waves for example), that you can transfer your license either to USB, Computer ID or keep online by yourself, without the need of administrator.  Ideally, I would like the license to be "attached" to computer ID and transferred to USB if needed.

Would like to know if somebody else have these issues.

Hi Dan,
since you already have a way to import SGU from BIAB to vArranger, I would like to request a two way file save.
Meaning... Many times BIAB screws up chords when importing arrangement as MIDI to BIAB. Is it possible to somehow save "song chords"  sheet so that BIAB reads it correctly and places correct chords on correct bars..and possibly a markers where the style parts (Main, fills etc) are changed?  If it is possible , how would you do as it is right now?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

Was posted on another forum, but I thought it might be useful for some VA users. Tried it for only a day, but seems to work very well. A possible alternative to Bluecat patchwork? In any case, there is a VST and a Standalone version of this. Price is right = Free.

https://kushview.net/free-vst-host/

1) There is almost  always a conflict on channel 9 "percussion" channel. If playing styles on standard GM compatible synth.
I feel this can easily be remapped within vArranger with 1-3 rules that would play correct instrument (percussion) and correct-remapped keys IF the GM or GM2 mode is selected for MIDI out, without manually tweaking things on actual Synth.

2) In song chord sheet, breaks/fills should be available for partial bar beats. Meaning, manually I can start a fill in a middle of the bar, in "Song chords" sheet I can not input the offset break.

Thought somebody might be interested.

Hi Dan.
Can you answer this for me please. Smaller VST work ok in vArranger, but I found a larger VSTs, such as Kontakt or Halion crash VA often.
The workaround I am using is: opening a standalone version of VST and using loopmidi to connect VA to Standalone VST.  Much more stable....
However one (BIG!) problem that I am having is recalling correct "VST" state of Multibank sounds. Since most of styles need re-voicing, I have to save each of those settings inside VST  and then locate and load them for particular style manually.  The longer I use VA, the more difficult it gets to keep track of all the states as number of styles and "save states" grows.

Is it possible to have this "VST state" to be saved/loaded to the style? So it loads correct multi bank when style is opened through standalone VST such as Halion?
Please let me know.
Thank you.

Hi Dan.

I have issue with starting v19.02.   (So it is clear, there are no issues starting v1.9)
Yes, v19.02 is included in Exemption list in antivirus.

When I start v19.02, it goes to initial (Black "Loading") screen, and then just STOPS.
I found a way...to click esc button and it loads, but can you please tell me how to fix this, so it loads properly.

Thank you!

Just want to voice my support for French forumers... It is very sad what happened to Notre Dame. Very painful and shocking loss...for most of us.

Folks, Dan I have couple of questions to those who use Halion Sonic with vArranger.
I use it as a standalone/main "sound module" with Varranger, using virtual Midi cable, not as VST.
It works, but every time things have to be re-voiced heavily, no matter which style it is for Yamaha, Roland etc. Is it possible to optimize it to play well with vArranger, similar to vSynth?  I do use GM mode of Halion of course. I have tried switching varranger Midi outputs to GM, GM2, XG(thinking that Halion is Yamaha), made no difference.

Any suggestions please?

Thank you.

Hi fellows.
In "Song chords"
What is 1+8 and 1+5 refers to?
Can somebody please let me know.
Thank you.

Hi Dan.
Keep getting this error on startup:
Error_WASAPI_init: 46...
See attached. After I press "OK" it starts normal. This error popping up every time I start VA.
Do you know how to fix that?

Thank you in advance.

Hi Folks, Dan.

I have a question. At "Song Chords" when I have the arrangement... I do "Export" to save it as Midi file.
When I open that midi file in Daw, it does not start from the "start" it has a few seconds of silence (all tracks)
Is this normal?

Please let me know.
Thanks.

Hi Dan.
Happy New Year!

Can you please tell me and those who are interested if any progress was made on Midi Sync In feature?

Thank you.

BIAB has released new version, which is 64 bit! and they made a VST also. Major breakthrough for them! Also, they have sale period, which ends on Dec 31. They only do these "sales" once a year. If you can pick up a valid new licence of 2018 version at a cheaper cost from third party, they will upgrade to 2019 at no cost.

Finally my "dream" composition bundle of Varranger+BIAB  is coming to life! One of the final pieces to the puzzle is for Dan to complete clock Sync In option. That way files from BIAB will sync properly to files from vArranger in DAW.    Varranger and BIAB are like yin and yang. Two very special and very diverse programs for arranging and composition. One can not substitute the other. Together, they can make magic.

P.S. Maybe one day Dan decides to make a VST also. I think, if it happens, it will be very fair if he markets it separately. One price to new users and for discounted price for loyal customers, to keep project fueled.

Hi fellows.
To whom it might be interesting...

For a long time I was trying to find an all in one solution for secondary monitor.  I have tried various wireless options direct, computer to computer and through router connections (Miracast wireless display connection). I have tried wired and wireless PC to Android connections. All of these worked to degree...of monitoring, but latency was high to consider it to be doubled as a touch controller. Finally found a perfect companion for my laptop. The brand is Magedok. They have a variety of monitors. The one I bought is a 15.6 inches USB -C gen 2  Touchscreen monitor. What does that mean... If you have a USB-C gen 2/Thunderbolt3  port on your computer, you only need a single cable from your PC for Power, Video and Touch! If you have the right port, no drivers needed for win 10, Plug& Play. Monitor is not glossy, so that made me happy too. Most important, it is very robust, almost no latency at all. Compared to other options- it is a rocket.  Built very well.  I thought it might interest  somebody.


https://magedok-shop.myshopify.com/products/15-6-inch-1920-1080-ips-fhd-touch-screen-with-usb-c-hdmi-inputt156

Dan, here are two instances where program gets stuck for me in very similar manner:

Scenario A) I use external soundcard, then close VA. Disconnect external card... to use Wasapi. VA "remembered" external card. When trying to switch to Wasapi, gives "ASIO error"

Scenario B) When switching instruments in Kontakt, sometimes Kontakt would ask something like: "changes will delete previous progress" and gets hanged...

The problem is, in both cases, you can not recall task manager to kill process, because VA is overlaying task manager screen. You can not get to task manager. Only solution for me was restart computer. It happened at least a dozen times already, so I decided to post this.

Hi Dan / fellows.

Can somebody comment on this.... I have an audio track (not from VA) and when I add exported Audio from VA I get latency, compared to the track not from VA.
When output WAV file from VA, it starting to produce latency after about 20 seconds. I have tried individual tracks, or whole mix. Result is the same - latency that starts after ~20 seconds.

I have tried WASAPI and ASIO4ALL drivers.

Can somebody please help.
Thank you.

Hi Dan.
I remember some month ago you said that there is development with taking BIAB chord sheets and importing them to VA. Can you please let me know if it was done?
If yes, how to use it please.

Thank you!

Hello Dan.
Can you please explain what was added in new version?
I see that effects save was added for some hardware users, but what else? This question was raised a few times in the thread were people are screaming "give me-give me!", but was never addressed.
Can you please explain what was added/changed?

Thank you.

Hi Dan.
It seems there had been very long time where any significant updates (like vsynth) were introduced to vArranger...
Are there any updates that are global, not just some minor things like "effects save" for small group of people that have SD1000 coming up any time soon? Or development of vArranger has stopped for the most part? I would not have asked if it did not seem that way. I am confident quite a few people here would want to know this.

Thank you.

Hi Fellows.
I decided to start a new thread on this to share the news on 64 bit VSTSynthfont plugin. During  past few weeks, developer spent many
hours on improving  the core functions and features of this VST.  This is a fantastic tool/synth for playback of  midi and GM based compositions utilizing your own SF2, Gig, SFZ files or banks.  It is far more than just a VST synth.

It has many powerful features, such as:
64 Bit! (there is also a 32 Bit version available)
GM compatible!
Mixer
Individual channel transposition
Layering
Scenario saves
Multi file SF2  bank support
Sorting instruments by "Instrument Type" with corresponding instrument icons (given bank was assembled with GM structure).
Individual or mixed output for all 16 channels. You can actually stream/record 16 independent audio channels simultaneously into Daw.
Lock channel sound
Mute / Solo tracks
And many other great features.

Varranger users can use it as a VST synth to layer additional soundfonts  if they overlap in VA synth or substitute some of the instruments. So basically, you can have 2 independent SF2 Banks.

Demo is available.

There are simply no other tool like this to work with SF2/SFZ files
that is 64 bit and has so many features. It is priced very
reasonable and most importantly the developer cares about his
creation, listening to customers  and  fixing bugs in timely manner.

http://www.synthfont.com/ 

Scroll down to the middle of the page. The plugin is called: VSTSynthFont [3]
P.S. Developer mentioned that people who bought original version are
entitled for upgrade at no cost.

Here are some screenshots of new version:

Hi Dan.
What it would take for you to make individual tracks record from TRUE starting point of the composition, not from "where the sound starts"?
You are helping people with their stuff, why not me? This issue should have been addressed as soon as you made the "feature" to start recording when sounds start, so people have an option not to use it if  they do not need it.. 

BIAB renders all tracks in separate files, including a mixed master without any latency or discrepancies that you were mentioning. Since, most likely this will never get done in Varranger, I kindly ask you at least to make it possible for individual (solo) tracks to be recorded from the start of the composition, not the start of the sound. If you do can not (do not) want to do it globally, can you please modify my version, so at least I do not suffer.

vArranger is your child. Do not be a drunkard father. Buy a small candy for your baby, you will not be broke.

Kindly let me know.
Thank you.

To those who use SF2 Banks (other than Dans).  I had done a long research on alternatives to Varranger Vsynth in a form of VST sampler... To use large SF2 banks in other software, so it plays arrangements made in Varranger midi files correctly. About a dozen of available VST have 4 main issues:
1)No bank / program changes
2)No GM support
3)Does not accept multiple file SF2 banks
4) Outdated 32bit, without a support for many years.

Then I remembered Synthfont (synthfont.com).. The owner released a 64 BIT VST, which actually works better than any other VST I have tried. Still does not have multiple file support, BUT owner agreed to give it a try and make adjustments to his 64 bit VST to support large banks and multiple files. I can confirm that mr. Kenneth started working on it as he sent me version for testing. It is not stable yet, but his words:
"I'll get it to work. I have managed very well before, I am confident."

I keep my fingers crossed and hope he will follow through. I promised him that I will post this here to see who might be interested in such VST.  If it works out, this will be in my opinion the only true software alternative to Dan vsynth to be used in different audio programs.

Kindly post your thoughts as my knowledge is limited. What features it should have besides these 4:
1) 64 Bit
2) Large, multi file SF2 file support (non encrypted)
3) Bank/ Patch change
4) GM rules.

Thank you.

Hi Dan.
I was trying to write numerous times to you directly, but there was no response.  So trying here, on the forum to see if you will respond.

I asked about this long time ago, and I spend many fruitless  hours in trying to find a workaround instead of making music.

I, and I am sure many users are using vArranger with soundfont banks. It should be possible to export
separate WAV files for each tracks.  Because your soft synth is proprietary to vArranger, it can not be used in DAWs.  Midi file exported to DAW from Varranger creates many discrepancies because it is not using the same synth.

You have the sound engine figured out already. It should be easy to have "EXPORT AS SEPARATE WAV" files option. I really (REALLY!) need this because  WAV mixes from Varranger
sound dull. Since many people agree that progressive development of vArranger stagnated, I kindly ask you in this open forum to implement this feature.

I had spent many hours trying to find a solution, using various  VST "synths" in DAWs to support SF2 banks. It does not work well. The only solution to create a more or less reasonable mix is to have these separate wav files from separate channels.

Please let me, and perhaps others know if you can make "EXPORT AS SEPARATE WAV FILES"
option in "rec" mode. 

P.s. Not sure how to appeal to your consciousness.... If you do this, I promise not to bother you again asking for any features. I am willing to pay to make this happen.

Thank you.

Hi boys and girls!
It had been awfully quiet past days. I am hoping it is not seasonal mass depression

I want to share my experience with Xotopad + Varranger. I was looking for customizable pads to trigger different functions of Varranger for WINDOWS PC. There are many options for PC+Android and PC+ apple products. But almost nothing "user friendly" for PC.   With Xotopad, you can trigger whatever you need in VA, making nice LARGE buttons / sliders that you can use as touch controls. It does not look fancy and has some drawbacks, but it has very low latency and overall super stable. It can stay on the "Top" of Varranger. See last attached photo. This is the smallest (window) size possible for XOTO. I asked developer and he adjusted "smallest" size for me. He said this is the smallest it could be, without running into issues. Ohh, did I mention>? With Xotopad you can trigger chords in VA!!! It comes with huge library of chord templates/scales. See attached photos in the scale to Varranger. Anyway, I do not get paid for this, just wanted to share my joy

DEMO is free. Full version priced reasonable. This is the site: https://feelyoursound.com/xotopad/   

Hi fellows.
Was researching different setups for mobile dual screen solution using VA. There are some very nice touch monitors out there, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
I like to experiment with harmonies, so not being a piano player, triggering / finding chords by "ear" is the only rapid solution for me to create a backing track. That said....
I tried using ipad with a program called MidiDesigner, which is amazing program by itself, but I found that connection through a semi rogue "USB' connection is not reliable and very clumsy. Over the network, even worse...  I decided to give up evil apple device and try something different.

I have connected PC laptop via USB to Android tablet to make a dual (extension) screen setup. To my surprise, $9 program called Twomon USB worked amazingly stable. Almost true Plug and Play (It has automatic start) 
What I got,  is now I can drag VA screen for "monitoring" and using "touch" of Android tablet to control VA and using PC, which is also touchscreen for triggering items such as chords for example or other parameters in VA. Or another cool thing is having VA run on laptop screen and VST controls (Kontakt & others) on Android monitor. Well, I am sure it was done before... but for mobile setup it is super compact....also only one USB wire runs from tablet to laptop... When tablet sleeps, it switches from MPT to charging mode, so I do not have to change settings for charging.  Overall very happy with setup.

A question for Dan, or somebody who understands what is going on... I am trying to use program XOTOpad (which is a windows based triggering pad program) I do not have problems with triggering most chords, but the ones "on Bass" are not recognized by VA. For example Cmaj/G  would translate into C in VA, dropping Bass... Can somebody help me with this please. See attachments.

Thank you.

Hi fellows.
Want to ask a question and share experience. There are great thousands of styles available. Some are very nice, some just rubbish. But what is interesting is that usually sets come from a collections and most often, converted collection. From my experience, there are several sets that sound good with only minor tweaking, right away.
Styles for Yamaha s970, styles for Roland BK7/9 module and styles for Tyros... are among the best and also, surprisingly Agaton's style set is also well tuned for VA.
There are a few others, but in my opinion they would require much more tweaking to sound usable. 
I would love to hear how Genos styles would sound on VA, but they are not tuned well as of now.
Can somebody share their findings?
Thanks.

Hi folks,
A nice person recommended these drums. They are for Kontakt 5 (Full and free player)
They are high end Sennheiser / Neumann Drum instrument called Drummica. Not a patch. Full scale instrument with many parameters / effects / presets available for every drum.
To my ear these drums are great and are mapped correctly to play most styles in vArranger. The best part it is FREE!!!

http://sennheiser.us/drummica.html

Site is in German, which should not be a problem to some users here, otherwise google translator is your friend. You have to register to receive NI activation code.
Download is big, 4.7GB and download already comes with Kontakt 5 free player in one package.

Their download server is slow, so be patient. Worth the wait

Let me know you thoughts.

It would be very nice to have an option to save ALL the settings related to song in one place.
Meaning, VST states and all other parameters.

Right now...you have to save states for each VST used and song separately. When opening a song, you have to locate VST "save states" of each individual VST and load them manually.
It is a bit confusing, since you have to REMEMBER which VST was used for particular project.

With "SAVE ALL" function (including VST states) in single place would help a lot.
Open song - all VST settings loaded with it.

P.S. I proposed several times in this forum to ask Dan to adapt crowd-sourcing model for CERTAIN custom features that people might want. For example, for this feature (to save all) I would gladly pay for, as it will save a lot of my time.

Any thoughts of asking Dan to do crowd-sourcing custom features on demand???

Hi everyone.
This is probably old beat up question, but I was hoping somebody can guide me in the right direction. I am using VA to write backing tracks (not to play along with it)

I have Kontakt 5 and SF2 banks that I am using. Kontakt  does not use bank change/no GM mode. So I overcame this by connecting Korg nano kontrol and assigning volume controls for example for SF2 and VST of same channel. Then, when recording track, when program changes,  manually raising volume of one instrument and increasing of the other. I hope I am making sense here

Is there a more elegant way to overcome program change which is not possible with VST as compared to the one that I am using?

Would appreciate a good thought.

Thank you.

One future feature that can be very useful is selecting between whole soundfont banks.
Right now, as I understand you can load one complete soundfont "bank", but all other instruments have to be loaded individually or as VST.
What if: You have 2 or more complete banks... It would be nice if you can choose on individual tracks to send Midi to soundfont bank 1 or 2 or 3 of your choice, to see what sounds better

Maybe it is possible, and I just do not know how? Without any special VST hosts such as samplelord or TX16WX?...

There had been some posts, including mine about channeling VA to DAW directly... it is possible, but complicated +latency. Or Midi file....but that will also require tunning for everything... extra plugins to store soundfonts or hardware.
Maybe it was discussed, but here is the idea I have:

It would be nice to be able to output individual audio tracks from VA of composition. Meaning, instead of having one file WAV, to have it broken down to audio tracks. That way you can import them to DAW of choice on separate tracks and tweak them to liking.... Like using Volume and Effects Envelope automation, VST effect chains etc. If my logic is correct, it should not be difficult to add such feature.

Anybody agree?

I believe this topic came up several times before... Many times when composing arrangement, I would encounter that accomponiment is playing in different octave than desired result. I would think, naturally you should be able to change the octave +\- in acc tracks As of now there is no option to do this.... Dan, can you please tell me and perhaps some other users who are interested in this topic if it is in plans for near future updates?

VArranger is a great program, but honestly this issue is very frustrating.

I would appriciate feedback on this. Thank you.

Hi Dan.
Can you please answer this one for me.

In the "Song Chord" section. Lets assume song is 4/4, Measure is divided by four sections.
Most of brakes are taking full measure (4 parts). In many tracks I make, I want to use just 2 sections or even 1 section
for break and then continue to another Variation part. Many songs have just a single drum hit for break...

As of now, it is possible to do this only is playing arrangement live and pressing the "FILL IN / BREAK" button in the
middle of the measure. This way, it will start the "FILL IN" section in the middle and would return to variation of
the next measure. Is there a way to reserve custom sections for "Fill Ins" sections in "Song Chords"?

For example, what I want to do:
I play arrangement through "Song Chords" and have a reserved "silence" space.
When recording,  I select drums as instruments and just play "break" using midi controller, if given "Fills" of the style do not
work well in composition. Is something like this possible?
I hope I am being clear on this...

I am not sure if anybody asked that before, but I would very much would like to know.

Thank you.

Hi Everyone. Just got myself a nice toy, Korg Nanokontrol 2. I was able to program everything I wanted except for panning knobs.
It seems there is only one option in "controller" setting, not for individual tracks  like volumes, mutes etc.
I know a few of users here have Nanokontrol. Can  somebody please tell me how to program pan (upper knobs) for multiple channels?
Thank you.

Hi.
Since 2015 there was much talk about TA Sound engine... Is it available or it is still "work in progress"?
Would like to know.

Thank you.

Hello.
  Does anybody use Sampletank 3 and vArranger? I am having some issues with playback.
I mainly use SF2 bank, which is good, but usually there is 1 or 2 instruments that I want to replace (such as pianos and guitars).  I get pops and clicks in vArranger trying to play only 2 tracks with Sampletank VST (all other tracks are muted) I tried 3 audio cards: Roland external usb card (Asio driver), Yeti Pro (Asio driver) and onboard Realtek (asio4all driver).
  Actually the best results I got was with Realtek, but still distortions such as pop/ clicks. I tried changing buffer on Asio within 3 setups from 512 to 1400+ and it did not help. Can anybody suggest something to fix this? I tried a few other VSTs in vArranger on same computer, never had this problem.

Thank you in advance.

I know, it is a dream.... (sorry for horrible design, just idea layout)

I miss Yamaha QY70 / QY100 pattern mixing. Mixing parts of various parts was extremely easy, making possibilities endless. I did not want to give up this toy
until 2012, just got too obsolete.

Maybe one day...

Hello.
Just curious if anybody had issues with VST size (scaling) on high resolution monitor using vArranger?
I have Surface Pro and VSTs in vArranger are tiny, not usable. They appear normal in Sonar (on same system)

I read that there was a known problem in FL and other systems with high resolution, but fix was made inside host programs to what is called "legacy scaling". I could not find anything useful as to how to solve this alternative way. I was wondering if anybody had experienced that and how it was solved.

I wrote to Dan a few days ago, but did not heard back...

Thank you.

To whom it may interest.
There is amazing promotion at IK media. You can buy $100 keys or MIDI adapter ($79)
and get FULL Sample tank 3 ($300 value) free.

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?item_id=10028

I thought someone might be interested.

Hello folks.
Can somebody help me figure out how to record live sound from vArranger to Sonar please. This is my scenario: I record arrangement to wav file inside vArranger.
I import that wav file to Sonar. I record my vocals in Sonar. Now I want to add a solo or such, using vArranger synth as sound source. I know there are some soundfont synths that work with Sonar, however, I would prefer to use vArranger for the ease of sound selection, etc.
Is there a way to route actual audio(not midi) to Sonar from vArranger? Meaning playing tracks in Sonar and recording a live track to Sonar from vArranger.

Please help.
Thank you,
Mikhail.

Hi Everyone!
I have used some of earlier Yamaha sequencers such as QY70 and QY100. What I trully loved about these is the fact that you can mix styles (and parts of the styles) and audition them on the fly. Separate lines of styles were interchangeable with others. There was an option creating a whole new "user" style from any parts of other styles on board of QY sequencer in the matter of minutes.

Long story short... I was wondering how many people would like to have style editor/creator within vArranger? I believe it would be fair to make this as an optional, paid update. I would gladly pay 50 to 100 euro for an update like this. Not sure how Dan feels about this, but I thought I would ask users what they think about it and maybe it will convince Dan to make style editor in the future? 

Best regards,
Mike.