bristol - a synthesiser emulation package.

startBristol [options]

bristol is the name of vintage software syntesiser suite. It currently emulates the following software synthesizers:

Moog Mini

Moog Voyager (Bristol "Explorer")

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5

Roland Juno-6

Yamaha DX-7 (Well, perhaps an FM-7)

Hammond (single manual)

Hammond B3 (dual manual - see below)

Vox Continental

Fender Rhodes

You should start this package with the startBristol script. This script will start up the bristol synthesiser binaries, evaluating the correct library paths and executable paths. There are emulation, synthesiser and operational parameters:

Emulation:

-mini mini moog

-explorer moog voyager

-hammond hammond module

-b3 dual manual hammond B3

-pro5|-prophet sequential circuits prophet-5

-pro10 sequential circuits prophet-10

-juno roland juno-6

-dx yamaha DX-7

-vox vox continental

-rhodes fender rhodes stage 73

-mixer 16 track mixer (-libtest only)

Synthesiser:

-voices <n> operate with a total of 'n' voices, default 16

-channel <c> initial midi channel selected to 'c', default 1

Operational:

General:

-engine don't start engine (connect to current invocation)

-port <p> connect to engine on TCP port 'p' (default 5028)

-libtest just display a GUI

-quiet redirect output to /dev/null

-oss use OSS defaults for audio and MIDI (default)

-alsa use ALSA defaults for audio and MIDI

Midi driver:

-midi [oss|alsa] midi driver selection

-mididev <dev> midi device selection

-seq use the ALSA SEQ interface

Audio drivers are PCM or PCM plug only. Future releases may add Jack support. Midi drivers are either OSS/ALSA rawmidi interface, or ALSA SEQ. Multple GUIs can connect to the single audio engine, which then operates multitimbrally.

startBristol

Run a minimoog using OSS interface for audio and midi. This is equivalent to all the following options: -mini -audio oss -audiodev /dev/audio -midi oss -mididev /dev/midi -bufsize 1024 -preload 4 -port 5028 -voices 16 -channel 1 -rate 44100

startBristol -alsa

Run a minimoog using ALSA interface for audio and midi. This is equivalent to all the following options: -mini -audio alsa -audiodev plughw:0,0 -midi alsa -mididev hw:0 -bufsize 1024 -preload 4 -port 5028 -voices 16 -channel 1 -rate 44100

startBristol -explorer -voices 1

Run a moog explorer as a monophonic instrument, using OSS interface for audio and midi.

startBristol -prophet -alsa -channel 3

Run a prophet-5 using ALSA for audio and midi (on channel 3).

startBristol -b3 -bufsize 2048 -preload 2

Run a hammond b3 with a buffer size of 2048 bytes (512 samples), and preload two such buffers before going active. Some Live! cards need this larger buffer size with ALSA drivers.

startBristol -oss -audiodev /dev/dsp1 -vox -voices 8

Run a vox continental using OSS device 1, and default midi device /dev/midi0. Operate with just 8 voices.

startBristol -b3 -audio alsa -audiodev plughw:0,0 -seq -mididev 128.0

Run a B3 emulation over the ALSA PCM plug interface, using the ALSA sequencer over client 128, port 0.

startBristol -juno &

startBristol -prophet -channel 2 -engine

Start two synthesisers, a juno and a prophet. Both synthesisers will will be executed on one engine (multitimbral) with 16 voices between them. The juno will be on default midi channel (1), and the prophet on channel 2. Output over the same default OSS audio device (/dev/audio).

startBristol -juno &

startBristol -prophet -port 5029 -audiodev /dev/dsp1 -mididev /dev/midi1

Start two synthesisers, a juno on the first OSS soundcard, and a prophet on the second OSS soundcard. Each synth is totally independant and runs with 16 voice polyphony (looks nice, but not been tested).

nick.copeland@ntlworld.com