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Hi esperdiv, great to see another Alpha player is out there, there are more and more of us :)

To change the audio device that EigenD plays through, you need to open the mixer page on the Alpha itself. To do this, press and hold the main mode key (the bottom left key on the whole keyboard) and then go into split 1 by pressing the top button in the column that lights up above the mode key (not the one right at the very top, just at the top of the small group that appears near the main mode key.). Let go of all the keys and that puts you in split 1.

Now press and hold the keygroup mode key for keygroup 1, which is in the left hand column, 1 row up from the bottom, so one key higher up than the main mode key. You should see the instrument selection lights for keygroup 1, but higher up near the top of the keyboard are the advanced controls. These controls are described on page 13 of the Alpha reference guide

About 1/3rd of the way down from the top there's a little L shape of 3 lit up keys, press the uppermost leftmost one of those 3 (which is key number 3 on page 13 above), and release it and the keygroup mode key and this is the mixer page.

It should look like 3 big groups of orange lights and some more multicoloured lights near the bottom. The mixer is on page 15 of the ref guide. Now make sure the browser is open, and press the key in the left hand column, six rows up from the bottom (this is the key labelled #1 on page 15, audio device browse). The browser should then list the soundcards on your machine, and you can pick one with the mouse or with the scroll keys on the alpha.


For changing samplers and audio units etc, you use the advanced controls again, so in split 1 as before, press and hold the keygroup mode key (left hand column, 1 up from bottom), then look at the top of the keyboard. The advanced controls are on page 13 of the reference guide, press the one for the sampler or AU you want change (they are laid out in the same pattern as the instrument selection keys, just higher up the keyboard). Let go of the keygroup mode key, and for each instrument there is a slightly different page of keys, but all of them should have a browse key in column one, 6 rows up (in the same place as the audio device browse in the mixer). Pressing this key while the brower is open lets you pick the sampler or AU to go in the slot you are editing.

Hope this helps, any other questions just reply here.

Just another quickie. Have you found, in your experience, that you improved your playing of unwanted pitch bends over time with the Alpha? This is the part I most struggle with now as the keys are so sensitive (in a delightful way) but often cause unwanted pitch bends...

I've read about this "workbench" from other forum posts but it sorta seems like a unicorn to me. Everyone talks about it but no one's every seen it!

I can assure you that it exists and that it's well on its way. It looks already very polished, lightyears ahead of what you have seen before, 0beron. We've gotten a fair amount of remarks about the barebones graphical nature of the current EigenD software. As a user, before I joined Eigenlabs, I was personally happy that the release of the instruments wasn't delayed just for software GUI reasons. For the new major version of the software though, we're taking the time required to have a good foundation for the GUI and have involved graphical designers to figure out suitable representations of the advanced concepts in Belcanto as well as coming up with a natural interaction model. Getting this all to behave correctly, feel right and be stable just takes time, but it's getting there. Esperdiv, just hang in there, I'm convinced that you'll be pleasantly surprised by the new stuff that will be coming out in the near future.

Geert
Eigenlabs Software Department

Since you would need to press something (or at least I would not want the panel to close automatically after pressing a scale and tonic as I often leave it open in a keygroup) it would seem that selecting a voice is as easy as any other way. It also seems consistent with always telling a key group to go to some mode (in the is case an instrument mode) as a sort of prefix.

That said one might imagine an 'esc' key that takes a key group to the last active instrument. where would you suggest placing such a key?

Cheers,m

we're taking the time required to have a good foundation for the GUI

geert said:

we're taking the time required to have a good foundation for the GUI

Will this new version be a simultaneous release for both Mac and Windows or is all new development done for Mac first and then ported to Windows later on when time permits?

Just wanted to say a big thank you to you, 0beron. Your explanation worked flawlessly.

If I may ask another.

I'm in this situation: Using Audio Unit 1.
I select the keygroup mode key and select the change scale key
Let go of the keygroup mode key.
Choose a scale.

The only way I have found to go back to playing the instrument is by holding the keygroup mode key, then selecting Audio Unit 1 again.

Is there a quicker way to exit out of the 'scale panel' (or any other for that matter) and return to the instrument that I was previously playing (in this case AU-1)?