[PlanetCCRMA] Looking for softsynth automating capabilities

[Un Worldly]

This particular line from the rosegarden manual is what is worrying me and 
causing me to hunt for this ability:

Notice that I have controllers for the Sound Blaster, for QSynth, and for 
the Roland (the "External MIDI GS Synth"), but I do not have any controllers 
defined for Hydrogen or ZynAddSubFX. That's because, to the best of my 
knowledge, neither of those soft synths knows how to do anything with 
controllers. They both have their own control panels that must be twiddled 
manually, and that sort of thing can't be automated from within Rosegarden.

Can that sort of thing be automated withing anything else?


>From: "Un Worldly" <dj_unworldly@hotmail.com>
>To: planetccrma@ccrma.Stanford.EDU
>Subject: [PlanetCCRMA] Looking for softsynth automating capabilities
>Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:43:05 -0400
>
>I am relatively new to the linux audio programs, and still at a point where 
>I dont really know my way around all those features, but I am searching for 
>a specific functionality which I am having trouble finding. I would like to 
>automate adjustments for various softsynth parameters, do things like 
>create a composition which has a synth that adjusts say, cutoff and 
>resonance of a synth's filter during the course of a song. There doesnt 
>appear to be any capaility to do this in the sequencer programs I have 
>tried so far, but from what I have found on google it seems to be a work in 
>progress to add this ability. The closest thing I have found so far to what 
>I am looking for is in ardour, where there are automation curves that I can 
>adjust for audio effects, but ardour isnt really helpful for composition of 
>a song because I can't use it to lay out a soft synth pattern and 
>rearrange, I can only record audio from the jack output thus I cannot use 
>the ardour automation for what I need.
>
>There seems to be the ability to record parameter changes in rosegarden and 
>muse, I haven't had much chance to try out this feature though. It might 
>work for some things to hit record then move the controls by hand but this 
>isnt as precise as I would like, I also would like to be able to slightly 
>adjust the parameter movements rather then record over and over until I get 
>it right. On windows I had fruityloops do this for me, I could bring up any 
>knob on the screen and enter the "Edit Events" window to automate changes 
>in that parameter, could even bind it to some plugins that allow the 
>parameter to be controlled in various fun ways. I am searching for a 
>similar ability in the planet. I can route MIDI and audio in all kinds of 
>ways that I never thought possible before, but there doesnt seem  to be the 
>ability to do the same thing with control automations. Perhaps I could bind 
>the softsynth parameters I want to automate with MIDI controls, then use 
>some MIDI software to control the adjusting of my synths, is there a 
>program that does this nicely? I am looking for recomendations for ways to 
>automate my softsynths parameter changes other than recording myself 
>turning the knobs on my keyboard. If all the softsynth parameters responded 
>to MIDI commands to automate them then I could just use rosegardens MIDI 
>editor to control that with the MIDI messages and stuff, but I havent been 
>too succesful with this so far.
>
>I was wondering if there is something external to the sequencers which I 
>can use for synth automation for the time being until the sequencers get 
>the ability to do it, or if there is a feature or program on the planet 
>that does this which I have not found yet. I would appreciate any clues you 
>guys can offer.
>
>
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