Bandstand uses a mixture of simple menus and drag-and-drop techniques, and comprises just two main windows. There's also a useful amount of editability, but not at the expense of complexity. Once loaded, the software must be authorised on the NI web site before it can be used, and updates can be downloaded there too even while I was working on the review, an update to version 1.1 was announced.īandstand features a mixer with effects, including both synthetic and convolution-based reverbs, and there are also some sequencer-like editing features including timing quantise, scale quantise and even a choice of classical note tunings in addition to the more common equal-temperament scale. The recommended minimum CPU spec is a 2GHz G5, Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, and the software loads from a DVD-ROM so a DVD drive is obviously a requirement. It may be used as a stand-alone GM player or as a plug-in within VST, Audio Units, RTAS, DXi, ASIO, Core Audio or Direct Sound hosts, and Mac OS 10.3 and above is supported along with Windows XP.ĭirect-from-disk streaming is built in to allow long samples to be used in systems with limited memory, though having said that, I think the recommended minimum of 512MB (768MB for PC) is somewhat on the frugal side for today's machines anyone seriously interested in computer-based music production really should have at least 1GB of memory fitted, and ideally much more. Bandstand comes with a General MIDI 1-compatible instrument library comprising the 128 standard instruments plus nine genre-specific drum kits. The supplied sound library is some 2.5GB, which is rather more generous than the tens of megabytes normally offered by soundcards and GM player modules. I tend to think of Native Instruments as a company who push at the boundaries of software synthesis with products like Reaktor and Absynth, but Bandstand is more mainstream, if no less useful: it attempts to address the need for a sample-based General MIDI (Type 1) player capable of delivering optimal sound quality. General MIDI synths are rarely glamorous, but there's no reason why they shouldn't sound as good as more professional alternatives - that, at least, is the thinking behind NI's Bandstand soft synth.

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