g Player

N a t i v e G i g a F o r m a t P l a y e r

© 2012 soundlib.com

Special thanks to: Sebastien Metrot for his invaluable advices, John Potter for the graphics and web design, desig n, Dave Smith, Sophia Moriz Mori zet, Erwan Le Marc'hadour, Nicolas Choukroun and Tom Fratts for their precious help and support.

GigaStudio GigaStudio i s a regis tered trademark of Garritan, Inc. Inc.

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G-Player User User Ma nual

Table of Contents Part I About G-Player

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1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 2 What's ................................................................................................................................... new? 3 3 Requirements ................................................................................................................................... 3 4 Settings................................................................................................................................... 4

Part II Quick Start

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1 Main Window ................................................................................................................................... 7 2 Loading................................................................................................................................... files 8 3 Quick Edit ................................................................................................................................... 9

Part III III Database

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1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 13 2 G-Sound ................................................................................................................................... 13 3 Searching ................................................................................................................................... for instruments 14

Part IV Stacking

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1 Creating ................................................................................................................................... a stack 16 2 VCA VCA ................................................................................................................................... 17 3 VCF VCF ................................................................................................................................... 18 4 Mapping ................................................................................................................................... 18

Part V Mixer

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1 Opening ................................................................................................................................... the Mixer 20 2 Track ................................................................................................................................... Overview 20 3 External ................................................................................................................................... plug-ins 21

Ind ex

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© 2012 soundlib soundlib .com

About G-Player

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1. About G-Player 1.1

Introduction G-Player G-Player is a native Giga file player for Mac OS X and Windows. It has been designed to support the large orchestral sound libraries (streaming), the complex articulations (key switch, control switch) and the layered instruments with multiple crossfades. G-Player has 16 parts and multi outputs. The standalone version has 8 MIDI ports which gives you 96 MIDI channels.

Built-in Mixer G-Player 2 has a new Audio mixer with Compressor, Equalizer and s upport for external plug-in effects.

© 2012 soundlib .com

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G-Player User Ma nual

G-Solo G-Solo is the little brother of G-Player, it is available only as a plugin format. It has exactly the same features than G-Player but is limited to one instrument and therefore is only stereo. It is not recommended to use G-Player and G-Solo at the same time.

No conversion required Save time and hard drive space, G-Player plays your Giga sound libraries directly without any conversion.

Quick Edit G-Player allows you to quickly modify some program parameters (ADSR, VCA, VCF, Pitch Bend) without having to edit and save the giga file.


About G-Player

1.2

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What's new? G-Player 2.0 includes the following changes from version 1: 1. The standalone version has 8 MIDI ports and is therefore able to support up to 96 MIDI channels 2. A 16 track audio mixer with built-in Compressor, EQ and support for 2 external effect plug-ins. All parts are now routed to the audio mixer. 3. A new G-Sound utility that scan your hard drives and build a database of all your Giga files. 4. The stack icon in the toolbar has been replaced by individual stack buttons for each part 5. The VCA and VCF can be adjusted for each part in a stack 6. The part order in a stack can be modified by simply dragging one part up or down 7. The built-in key board displays the notes played on an external k eyboard or MIDI track 8. Each part has a new pitch transpose control

1.3

Requirements Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.5 or higher Processor: Intel 1.6 GHz or faster Processor: G4 1 GHz or faster 512 MB RAM or more 20 MB free hard drive space for the installation CoreAudio driver for the standalone version VST, AU or RTAS host for the plug-in version

Windows Windows XP, Vista or 7 Processor Intel 2.6 GHz or faster 512 MB RAM or more 20 MB free hard drive space for the installation ASIO souncard for the standalone version VST host for the plug-in version

Regarding the Processor on Mac OS X G-Player is Universal binary and will therefore works on Intel and not-Intel Mac computers. However GPlayer is more optimized for the Mac Intel platform

Regarding the Memory G-Player loads the beginning of all the samples in memory and streams the rest from the disk. For


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example, a 1 gigabyte piano instrument will only take 240 megabytes of memory. Mac OS X supports virtual memory which means that an application can allocate more memory than the available physical memory. The drawback is that virtual memory does not have the s ame performance than physic al memory. Given the size of some Giga files, we strongly recommend you to have at least 1 GB of RAM.

Installation Just launch the installer and follow the instruction to install G-Player on your computer. When you first run G-Player, you will be asked to enter your user key:

1.4

Settings The following settings are only available in the standalone version. Click on the Settings icon in the toolbar to display the Audio and MIDI settings.

Audio Settings G-Player supports the CoreAudio drivers on Mac OS X and the ASIO drivers on Windows. Select the Audio device (Audio out), t he audio device output channels and the sample rate and clic k Ok to validate your choice.

MIDI Settings Select the MIDI in device where G-Player will receive its MIDI events and click on Ok to validate your choice.


About G-Player

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Memory Settings Here you can set how G-Player will preload the samples in memory. Every sample that is shorter than the preload tolerance will be completely loaded in RAM. Every sample that is longer than the preload tolerance will be loaded at the preload minimum value. We recommend a preload minimum between 0.8 and 1.6 secondes.

Plug-in Here you can see the list of plug-ins that G-Player has found on your computer. These plugins can be used in the mixer. If you have installed a new plug-in on your computer, click on the "Rescan" button to update the list of plug-ins.


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Quick Sta rt

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2. Quick Start 2.1

Main Window

The main window is made of 3 parts (the standalone version has one more part for MIDI port selection), from top to bottom: - Toolbar : Here you can find the usual Performance functions (New, Open and Save), you can open the browser, the database, the mixer and the settings. - MIDI ports: The standalone version has 8 MIDI ports, you can select one of them here. - 16 parts: Each part is linked to one MIDI channel and can have one instrument or several (stack mode). The selected part has a blue frame around it. - Keyboard: The keyboard displays the key range and the notes being played. If the selected part has some key switches, they will also be displayed on the keyboard.


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2.2


Loading files Loading an instrument There are 4 ways to load an instrument: 1. Click on the instrument name and select "Load an instrument", then browse for a .gig file. G-Player will load the first instrument of the selected Giga file.

2. Select an instrument from an already open Giga file. To do this, click on the instrument name and move the mouse cursor on one of the previously loaded Giga files, you will be able to select one of the instruments from this file as illustrated below:

3. The easiest way to load an instrument is to use the buit-in browser. Click on the browser icon in the toolbar, this will open the Giga File browser. Select a giga file from the browser, this will display the list of instruments in the right column, you can then drag an instrument and drop it on the player (you can also double click on one instrument). You can also create favorites, just drag a folder from the browser and drop it in the 'Favorites' column. Click the browser icon again to hide t he browser. To remove a favorite from the left column, click on it and grag it outside of the favorites column.


Quick Sta rt

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4. G-Player version 2.0 has a database with a search feature which makes finding and loading instruments even easier. This new database is described in the next chapter

Unload an instrument Click on the instrument name and select "Unload Instrument". After all the instruments of a Giga file are unloaded, the Giga file will disappear from the Load menu.

Select an Instrument Click on the Instrument number (1 to 16) to select which instrument is played when you click on the on-screen key board.

Controls You can adjust the volume, panning and tuning for each Instrument. You can also Mute or Solo an Instrument. There are other parameters that you can modify in the Edit zone. All the faders and knobs share the same behavior: Click and move: Change the value Shift + Click and move: Slowly change the value Control + Click: Reset the control to its default value Moreover the knobs will change color when their value is negative (red) or positive (green). Default knob values are represented in white.

2.3

Quick Edit Each part is divided into the header (top) and the Edit zone (bottom). If you do not see the Edit zone, you can access it by clicking on the white arrow at the left side of the part. You can also click on the Expand button in the toolbar to open all the parts at once.

Mixer Zone

Edit Zone

The Edit zone (bottom) is made of 5 parts, from left to right:

Infos


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This shows you the following information about the Giga program loaded in the tone: Key range Number of different samples used by the inst rument Maximum bit depth for all the samples (16 or 24 bits). Streaming mode (on or off). The streaming mode is automatically determined according to the size of the samples.

Dimensions

The dimensions us ed by t he current instrument, every active dimension is highlighted with a bright color. The first row display the dimension that are not a MIDI controller: Velocity, Key switch and Note off. The 2 other rows display the dimensions for the main MIDI controllers. The dimensions are defined inside the Giga file and cannot be edited here.

Pitch

The first knob is the pitch transpose, It is set to 0 (no transpose) by default, turn the know left or right to transpose the entire instrument. The second knob is the pitch bend. It is the original pitch bend value as defined in the Giga file, you can change it to a lower or higher value..

Volume - VCA

Sometimes, you need to adjust the velocity response or the volume envelope. For example you want a


Quick Start

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little bit more release on a Piano instrument. In that case, you just have to move the Release knob slightly to the right and it will increase the release time of all the samples of the Piano. By default, all these knobs are set to 0 which means that you are using the parameters as defined in the Giga file. The values that you set with these knobs, do not replace the individual sample values, they are added to (or subst racted from) the original parameter values. Y ou can adjust 5 parameters: Velocity response: Increase it to have a more percussive sound (like a drum) and decrease it to have a more flat sound (like an organ). Attack: The attack duration of the amplitude envelope Decay: The decay duration of the amplitude envelope Sustain: The sustain level of the amplitude envelope Release: The release duration of the amplitude envelope

Filter - VCF

This is similar to the Volume section but for the Low-Pass Filter. This part will be activated only if the selected instrument uses the Low-Pass Filter. You can adjust 5 parameters: Cutoff: Offset the filter cutoff frequency. Velocity response: Increase if you want the filter to open more with high velocities. Attack: The attack duration of the filter envelope Release: The release duration of the filter envelope

Understanding how the controls work Having one knob for each parameter does not mean that all the sample zones share the same parameter value. In the Gigastudio format, each sample zone can have it's own parameters and GPlayer uses them all and play all the samples with the finest level of detail as Gigastudio used to do. So how does G-Player us e only one knob per parameter for all the s amples? The initial value displayed for each parameter is not shared by all the samples, it is the average value of all the samples. For example if an instrument has just 2 samples with the velocity response respectively set to 0.6 and 0.8, then the value that will displayed by default for this instrument will be 0.7 If you change the original value, it will add (or remove) an offset to all the original values. For example, with the same 2 sample instrument described above, changing the velocity response from 0.7 to 0.8 (a +0.1 difference) will change the sample velocity responses to 0.6 + 0.1 = 0.7 and 0.8 + 0.1 = 0.9 This method allows G-Player to always preserve the personality of an instrument by applying offsets to the original settings of all the samples.


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The illust ration below shows how the release time of 3 samples is affected by moving the Release knob in G-Player:


Da ta ba se

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3. Database 3.1

Introduction G-Player version 2 has a database that allows you to search for Giga instruments by name.. A separate utilit y c alled G-Sound allows you t o scan your hard drives and build a database of all your Giga files and instruments.

3.2

G-Sound G-Sound is a little utility that comes with G-Player, it is installed in the same folder than the standalone version and this user manual. On Mac OS X: /Applications/G-Player On Windows: C:/Program Files/G-Player You must run this utility first before using the Search feature in G-Player. G-Sound scans only the folders that you want him to scan. The first time you open G-Sound, it will be empty, You need to add at least one folder.

Click on the + button to add a new folder to scan. You can then click on the "Scan folders" button to start scanning the selected folders. G-Sound will then display your folders and the number of Giga files found in each folder.


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You can now close G-Sound, your database is ready to be used within G-Player

3.3

Searching for instruments To open the database, click on the Search icon in the toolbar. To search for an inst rument, enter a name and press the search button.

All t he instruments t hat match your request will be displayed in 3 c olumns. The first column display the file name, the second column displays an optional rating (from 0 to 5) and the third column displays the instrument name. You can sort the results by ascending or descending order, just click on one of the column headers. To load one of the instruments, double click on it or drag it and drop it on one of the 16 parts.


Da ta ba se

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The rating column allows you to give a 0 to 5 rating to your instruments, just click on one of the stars to change the rating or slightly on the left of the 5 stars to remove the rating.


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4. Stacking 4.1

Creating a stack You can stack up to 16 instruments per MIDI channel and select which instrument you want to play by Program Change, Control Change, Key Switching, Velocity or Random.

Stacking Instruments To enter the stack mode for one MIDI channel, click on the stack button:

By default, the stack mode will be set to "Play all parts" which means that all the instruments inside this stack will play at the same time. You can now select several instruments from the Browser (by drag and drop or double click) to load them inside the same MIDI channel. For example after loading 6 instruments, you should get something like this:

Here you can adjust the Volume, Tuning and Panning of each instrument inside the stack. The stack editor has 4 display modes that you can access with the Mix, VCA, VCF and Map buttons:

Changing the stack mode The default stack mode can be changed by clicking on the Stack Mode drop down menu, for example here we select Key Switch:


Sta cking

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Some stack modes have additional options. For example with "Control Change" you can select the MIDI controller and with "Key Switch" you can select th eKey Switch range. Here we select the Key Switch range and we see it in red on the keyboard.

4.2

VCA In VCA mode, you can adjust the velocity response and the volume envelope for each instrument.

The initial value displayed for each parameter is the average value of all the samples of each instrument. For example if an instrument has just 2 samples with the velocity response respectively set to 0.6 and 0.8, then the value that will displayed by default in the stack editor for this instrument is 0.7 If you change the original value, it will add (or remove) an offset to all the original values. For example, with the same 2 sample instrument described above, changing the velocity response from 0.7 to 0.8 will change the sample velocity responses to 0.7 and 0.9 To reset a parameter to its original value, click on it while pressing the Control key.


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4.3


VCF In VCF mode, you can adjust the cutoff frequency, the velocity response and the filter envelope for each instrument.

The initial value displayed for each parameter is the average value of all the samples of each instrument. For example if an instrument has just 2 samples with the velocity response respectively set to 0.6 and 0.8, then the value that will displayed by default in the stack editor for this instrument is 0.7 If you change the original value, it will add (or remove) an offset to all the original values. For example, with the same 2 sample instrument described above, changing the velocity response from 0.7 to 0.8 will change the sample velocity responses to 0.7 and 0.9 To reset a parameter to its original value, click on it while pressing the Control key.

4.4

Mapping In Mapping mode you can see the mapping of all the instruments:

You can change the key range and transpose each instruments with the following methods: Click + move on the left side of an instrument : change the lowest key Click + move on the right side of an instrument : change the highest key Click + move right or left : Transpose by octave Shift + Click + move : Transpose by semitone Control + Click : Reset the instrument to its original pitch and key range.


Sta cking

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You can also change the instrument order in a stack by clicking on the instrument you want to move, and while holding the mouse button down, move it up or down.


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5. Mixer 5.1

Opening the Mixer G-Player 2 has a new Audio Mixer, all the parts are now routed to this mixer. Click on the Mixer icon in the toolbar to open the Mixer.

All t he mixer settings will be saved with the performance.

5.2

Track Overview Each track has 4 inserts: Compressor, Equalizer, First Effect and Second Effect. You can turn on or off any insert by clicking on one of the 4 insert buttons.


Mixer

5.3

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External plug-ins Each track allows you to insert up to 2 external effect plug-ins. Windows: G-Player supports 32 and 64 bit VST plug-ins that are located in: C:/Program Files/ Steinberg/VstPlugins Mac OS X: G-Player supports 32 and 64 bit AudioUnit plug-ins. To access the list of plug-ins, you have to manually click on Settings in the toolbar and select the Plugin tab. In this setting window, click on "Rescan" to search for plug-ins. If there is a problem with one plug-in that causes G-Player to crash, simply reopen G-Player and it will resume the scan and skip this plug-in.


g Player

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