No Ambience Channels

[finotti]

I usually separate the CrocellKit (my mostly used one) into subsets so that I can have individual control of the Ambience. So, I have 6 instances of DrumGizmo running on MIDI buses: one for each of kick (in and out), snare (top and bottom), hihat, ride, toms (all four), and cymbals.

I have my main drum programming in one MIDI track feeding the 6 MIDI buses, each with its own configuration file filtering only the instruments for the bus together with its Ambience (in stereo).

I already have a template with this set up in Ardour and have used it in the past. It worked quite well for me.

I recently started on a new project, but now I have the latest version of DrumGizmo and (0.9.20) and Ardour (7.1), and it all works perfectly except for the tom's ambience, which is not coming through. (All other ambiences, kick, snare, etc., do come through).

Here is the configuration file for the tom bus:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<drumkit name="CrocellKit" description="Sampled and engineered for DrumGizmo by Lars Muldjord. Drumkit setup and mic'ing by JBOSound (jbosound.com) and Crocell (crocell.dk)." samplerate="48000">
  <channels>
   <channel name="Tom1"/>
   <channel name="Tom2"/>
   <channel name="FTom1"/>
   <channel name="FTom2"/>
   <channel name="AmbLeft"/>
   <channel name="AmbRight"/>
  </channels>
  <instruments>
    <instrument name="FTom1" file="FTom1/FTom1.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="FTom1" out="FTom1" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
    <instrument name="FTom2" file="FTom2/FTom2.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="FTom2" out="FTom2" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
    <instrument name="Tom1" file="Tom1/Tom1.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="Tom1" out="Tom1" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
    <instrument name="Tom2" file="Tom2/Tom2.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="Tom2" out="Tom2" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
  </instruments>
</drumkit>

Unlike with the working ones, say kick, the green lights in Ardour for channels containing the Ambience (5 and 6, in the case of toms) don't even light up when hitting a tom, only the particular tom channel lights up.

I checked the above file against the ones working (and, as I said, I've used it in the past and I don't remember changing this file) and they seem to match. For instance, here is the one for the kick (which, again, works fine):

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<drumkit name="CrocellKit" description="Sampled and engineered for DrumGizmo by Lars Muldjord. Drumkit setup and mic'ing by JBOSound (jbosound.com) and Crocell (crocell.dk)." samplerate="48000">
  <channels>
   <channel name="KDrumInside"/>
   <channel name="KDrumOutside"/>
   <channel name="AmbLeft"/>
   <channel name="AmbRight"/>
  </channels>
  <instruments>
    <instrument name="KDrumL" file="KDrumL/KDrumL.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="KDrumInside" out="KDrumInside" main="true"/>
      <channelmap in="KDrumOutside" out="KDrumOutside" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
    <instrument name="KDrumR" file="KDrumR/KDrumR.xml">
      <channelmap in="AmbLeft" out="AmbLeft"/>
      <channelmap in="AmbRight" out="AmbRight"/>
      <channelmap in="KDrumInside" out="KDrumInside" main="true"/>
      <channelmap in="KDrumOutside" out="KDrumOutside" main="true"/>
    </instrument>
  </instruments>
</drumkit>

(Ambience comes in channels 3 and 4, as expected.)

I am at a loss on what is the problem... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[finotti]

After further investigation, it seems that I only could get the Ambience from the kick (and other) because I had bleeding... This might have been the case before as well, and I just forgotten.

The bleeding on the on other instruments is not much of a deal, but on toms is worse. I suppose there is no way to get bleeding only for the Ambience, is there? Maybe changing some configuration? (I can always record in two passes, one for the instruments and one for the Ambience. I just was trying to simplify things...)

[deva]

After further investigation, it seems that I only could get the Ambience from the kick (and other) because I had bleeding... This might have been the case before as well, and I just forgotten.

The bleeding on the on other instruments is not much of a deal, but on toms is worse. I suppose there is no way to get bleeding only for the Ambience, is there? Maybe changing some configuration? (I can always record in two passes, one for the instruments and one for the Ambience. I just was trying to simplify things...)

The bleeding is controlled with the 'main' attribute.
Settings this to true on a channel means that it will not be affected by the bleed slider. Setting it to false or not setting the attribute at all (which then defaults to false) means that you can reduce the output for this channel using the bleed slider.

In the examples you showed, the ambience channels were bot non-main channels, so they will only play if the bleed slider is not at 0.

I hope this helps to clarify things a bit?

[finotti]

The bleeding is controlled with the 'main' attribute.
Settings this to true on a channel means that it will not be affected by the bleed slider. Setting it to false or not setting the attribute at all (which then defaults to false) means that you can reduce the output for this channel using the bleed slider.

In the examples you showed, the ambience channels were bot non-main channels, so they will only play if the bleed slider is not at 0.

I hope this helps to clarify things a bit?

That's great! I could then achieve what I wanted simply by adding main=true to ambience channels. It works perfectly now, and I can record all tracks in one go.

Software can be so flexible when well though off and designed. Thanks to all developers and @deva, in particular, for the support!