1
Tips & Tricks / Using LoopBe1
It has been some time since I have frequented and posted here. I'm still active composing, and love to use NWC more than any other program. This year for Christmas, a friend and I decided to do parts of Handel's Messiah for our church's Christmas Eve service. My job is to arrange soundtracks for us to sing by. I use a Roland JV-1080 for MIDI sounds, and love the orchestral expansion module sounds they offer. I was, however, looking for a "on laptop" solution that would enable me to arrange anywhere, and not be constrained by hooking up the M-Audio Midisport 2+2 and JV for music.
I came upon the Miroslav Philharmonik, which I know some, if not most of you are familiar with. I actually bought the program before I searched the archives and found out - as many have - that the program does not work well with others. I have never been a fan of VST or other plugins, either. So, after much frustration (and prayer!), I want to share a solution that is so simple, it is elegant!
The program is LoopBe1. It connects two MIDI devices on your laptop or computer by simply offering another MIDI port in and out. And it works beautifully. I simply installed LoopBe1 and assigned "MIDI out" in NWC, and "MIDI in" in Miroslav. It was so easy I was floored. I'm sure there are other MIDI port programs like this one, but I wanted to share my success with all of you. As for the Miroslav, I use a ASIO driver, which offers much superior sound than DirectX.
Here is the link if you are interested. Some of you may already know of this, but for those that don't:
http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html
Best Regards,
Mark