bristolengine1

Usage

Overview

bristol is a vintage synthesiser software emulator suite. The application consists of an engine itself called bristol and a graphical user interface called brighton. The graphical interface is a bitmap manipulation library to present the diverse synth devices such as potentiometers, buttons, sliders, patch cables and which generates the messages to configure the synth emulator. The engine is an infrastructure that hosts the emulator code that couples together the different audio operators required to generate the audio. The engine and GUI are started together with the startBristol script which sets up the required environment for the two to connect together. It is not generally envisaged that bristol and brighton be started outside of the script however there are options to the script to only start one or the other. Bristol also has a command line interface that can be used rather than the GUI.

Currently following synthesizers are emulated:

Emulations

moog mini
moog explorer (voyager)
moog voyager electric blue
moog memory
moog sonic 6
moog/realistic mg-1 concertmate
hammond module (deprecated, use -b3)
hammond B3 (default)$
sequential circuits prophet-5
sequential circuits prophet-5/fx
sequential circuits prophet-10
sequential circuits pro-one
fender rhodes mark-I stage 73
fender rhodes bass piano
crumar roadrunner electric piano
crumar bit 01
crumar bit 99
crumar bit + mods
crumar stratus synth/organ combo
crumar trilogy synth/organ/string combo
oberheim OB-X
oberheim OB-Xa
arp axxe
arp odyssey
arp 2600
arp/solina string ensemble
korg polysix
korg poly-800
korg mono/poly
korg ms20 (unfinished: -libtest only)
vox continental
vox continental super/300/II
roland juno-60
roland jupiter-8
baumann bme-700
bristol bassmaker sequencer
yamaha dx-7
yamaha cs-80 (unfinished)
commodore-64 SID chip synth
commodore-64 SID polyphonic synth (unfinished)
granular synthesiser (unfinished)
ems synthi-a (unfinished)
16 track mixer (unfinished: -libtest only)

The default connection between the engine and GUI is a TCP socket using a SYSEX format message taken from MIDI. Optionally the code will use a unix domain socket for improved security. The GUI and engine do not need to be resident on the same system if suitable parameters are given, this feature requires the TCP domain sockets be used. The engine can also accept requests from multiple brighton interfaces and run all the emulators at the same time, multitimbraly, sharing voices between them and pre-empting where necessary. If an emulator is started in monophonic mode then it is preallocated a voice that will never be pre-empted and which runs continuously, ie, by default it will continue to run even when no piano keys are pressed. The polyphonic code will only run the voice algorithms whilst the key gate is open, the gate being derived from the voice envelope state. The engine supports minimally 32 voices per default, if an emulator requests less then its emulation is configured with a soft limit. If more are requested then more voices are created however the upper limit is imposed at 128 voices. A voice is an engine structure that allows for allocation and executing, the actual code run by a voice can be any of the emulator algorithms which is how multitimbral operation is supported. The voice allocation process is 'last note precedence' and whilst others are available for the monophonic instruments, this is the only polyphonic assignment algorithm.

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

Options

Emulation:

-mini - moog mini
-explorer - moog voyager
-voyager - moog voyager electric blue
-memory - moog memory
-sonic6 - moog sonic 6
-mg1 - moog/realistic mg-1 concertmate
-hammond - hammond module (deprecated, use -b3)
-b3 - hammond B3 (default)
-prophet - sequential circuits prophet-5
-pro52 - sequential circuits prophet-5/fx
-pro10 - sequential circuits prophet-10
-pro1 - sequential circuits pro-one
-rhodes - fender rhodes mark-I stage 73
-rhodesbass - fender rhodes bass piano
-roadrunner - crumar roadrunner electric piano
-bitone - crumar bit 01
-bit99 - crumar bit 99
-bit100 - crumar bit + mods
-stratus - crumar stratus synth/organ combo
-trilogy - crumar trilogy synth/organ/string combo
-obx - oberheim OB-X
-obxa - oberheim OB-Xa
-axxe - arp axxe
-odyssey - arp odyssey
-arp2600 - arp 2600
-solina - arp/solina string ensemble
-polysix - korg polysix
-poly800 - korg poly-800
-monopoly - korg mono/poly
-ms20 - korg ms20 (unfinished: -libtest only)
-vox - vox continental
-voxM2 - vox continental super/300/II
-juno - roland juno-60
-jupiter - roland jupiter-8
-bme700 - baumann bme-700
-bm - bristol bassmaker sequencer
-dx - yamaha dx-7
-cs80 - yamaha cs-80 (unfinished)
-sidney - commodore-64 SID chip synth
-melbourne - commodore-64 SID polysynth (unfinished)
-granular - granular synthesiser (unfinished)
-aks - ems synthi-a (unfinished)
-mixer - 16 track mixer (unfinished: -libtest only)

Synthesiser:

-voices <n>

The selected emulator will start with this number of voices. The engine will always create 32 voices but only allocate this subset to the emulator. If the selected value is greater than 32 then the greater number of voices is allocated.

-mono

Run the emulator in monophonic mode. This is not really an alias for '-voices 1' as it additionally configures parameters such as '-retrig -lvel -wwf -hnp'. These additional options can be overridden if desired.

-lnp

Select low note precedence logic. This only applies to monophonic synthesisers and all of the note precedence affect the legato playing style.

-hnp

Select high note precedence logic. This only applies to monophonic synthesisers.

-nnp

Select no note precedence, this is the default and operates as a last note precedence selection.

-retrig

Request a trigger event for each note that is played AND notes that are released. The trigger will cause the envelopes to cycle. They will not return to zero by default however some of the emulations have that as a GUI control. Without this flag triggers are only sent for the first pressed note of a sequence.

-lvel

Configure velocity inheritance for all legato notes - the first note of a sequence will have a velocity value that is applied to all subsequent notes. This option is a toggle: applying twice will disable the feature. This is important with regards to the emulators as many of the mono synths with set lvel per default. The following options may not work as expected:

startBristol -mini -lvel

The issue is that -mini enables legato velocity so the -lvel switch will toggle it off again. The same applies to -retrig.

-channel <c>

Start the emulator to respond on this MIDI channel, default 1.

-lowkey <n>

Configure the lowest note for which the emulator should respond. This defaults to '0' but can be used to define key splits and ranges for different synths.

-highkey <n>

Configure the highest note for which the emulator should respond. This defaults to '127' but can be used to define key splits and ranges for different synths.

-detune <%>

Request the emulator run with a level of temperature sensitivity. The default value is defined by the emulator, typically 100 or 200. The detune is applied to a voice at note on only and is a random value within the range defined here.

-gain <gn>

Output signal gain level for the emulator. These can be used to normalise the signal levels from different synths when played together. The default value is defined by the synth itself, this is an override.

-pwd <s>

Pitch wheel depth in semitones, default 2.

-velocity <v>

Velocity curve for the emulator. Default is 520, an exponential curve for a hard playing style. Value '0' is flat (no touch sensitivity). Values up to 100 are linear scaled maps. The velocity map is table of points that is interpolated linearly: you may only have to define the inflexion points, however if you want smooth curves you will have to define each of the 128 velocity values that are used in noteon/noteoff events. The emulation only has a single table of gain levels for each key.velocity index, the engine by contrast has two tables, one for each on/off event however that is an integer map, not a gain map.

There are several default tables if you do not want to specify your own interpolated curve. Each table is the gain for the Midi velocity value given in the note event, it has 128 entries. The following are implmented:

100-199 Convex curves for a soft touch keyboard player
200-499 Concave curves for a hard touch, linear up to quadratic function.

The next set up to 525 are repeats of the above but with less granularity. In the above range the value of 200 is linear, as is 510 below:

500-509 Convex curves for a soft touch keyboard player
510 linear
511-25 Concave curves for a hard touched player.

Then there are a couple of specific curves

550 logarithmic
560 parabolic

The values up to 100 consists of two digit numbers. The first digit defines how late the line starts (it is linear) to ramp up, and the second digit is how late it reaches 1.0. The value of 09 is almost the linear mapping above as it starts from 0 and ends almost at the end. A value of 49 would be for a heavy player, it is zero for a large part of the velocity table, and then ramps up to max gain (1.0) close the end of the table. Note that these table could also have been defined with velocityMap definitions as they are linear interpolations. A present release will include curves to smooth things out a little.

Option 520 is a squared powercurve and feels quite natural although that is very subjective. Perhaps its natural for a hard player and it could be a better default than the linear curve.

The value 1000 will invert the mapping, so:

1510 - linear from 1.0 down to 0.0 as velocity increases
1520 - exponential, from 1.0 down to 0.0 as velocity increases

The engine mapping is applied before the emulation mapping given here. There are reasonable arguments to make this table logarithmic - you are welcome to do so. There are no limits to the values here other than negative values are not mapped, so this table can also be used to compensate for volume levels.

-glide <s>

Duration of nogte glide in seconds, default 5.

-emulate <name>

Search for the named emulator and invoke it, otherwise exit. Invoking an emulation this was is currently the default, it implies extra parameters for voicecount, gain, glide, pitchwheel depth, detune, etc. The default is hammondB3. The -emulate option also implies -register to the emulator name.

-register <name>

Use a specific name when registering with Jack and ALSA. By default the engine will use the name 'bristol' however this can be confusing if multiple engines are being used and this can be used to override the default.

-lwf

Select lightweight filters for the emulator.

-nwf

Select normalweight filters, the default. These are about twice as expensive as lightweight filters.

-wwf

Select welterweight filters, this are again about double the CPU load as the normal filters.

-hwf

Select heavyweight filters. These are roughly twice the welterweight filter. Whilst their is a noticable audible difference between -lwf and -nwf, it is debatable whether the difference between -nwf, -wwf and -hwf is other than visible in the CPU load. The default filter for any -mono synth is -wwf which can be overridden with something line '-mini -mono -nwf'.

-blo <h>

Number of bandwidth limited harmonics to map. The value of zero will select infintite bandwidth, default is 31.

-blofraction <f>

The engine uses precomputed tables for all frequencies where the maximum harmonic does not exceed this fraction of the samplerate. The default, 0.8, is already above nyquist as a tradeoff betweeen content and distortion. Values tending towards 1.0 are heavily aliased at the higher frequencies naturally.

-scala <file>

The engine will read the given scala file and map it into its frequency tables.

User Interface:

-quality <n>

The color cache depth will affect the rendering speed. The lower values start showing loss of clarity, the higher values start using thousands of colors which is where the performance is affected, value is bpp, default is 6.

-scale <s>

Each of the emulators has a default window sisze, this size can be scaled up or downwards if desired.

-width <n>

The pixel width defines the smaller of two sizees that can be configured. It works with the -scale and -autozoom options for flipping between different sizes on mouse Enter/Leave of the window.

-autozoom

Minimise window on exit, maximise on enter.

-raise

Automatically raise the window on Enter.

-lower

Automatically lower the window on Leave. It is noted here that the use of autozoom, raise and lower may have undesirable effects with some window managers.

-rud

Constrain the rotary controller tracking to mouse up/down motion, not to actually track the mouse position. The value will be a fraction of the current window size.

-antialias <%>

For some window sizes there will be pixelation of the rendered imagas unless some antialias is applied. With large zoom values this is automatically set up. Value is a percentage, default is 30.

-aliastype <pre/texture/all>

There are three antialiasing options, ´pre´ will apply it to the text silkscreens, ´texture´ will apply it to the surface bitmaps and ´all´ will apply it everywhere including devices rendered. The default is pre however this parameter is only applied if -antialias has a value other than zero.

-opacity <%>

Brighton uses a transparency layer for some features such as the ARP 2600 patch cables. This is the default transparency. It can be adjusted later with the ^o/^O/^t control codes in the GUI. Default is 50 percent.

-pixmap

Use the X11 pixmap interface rather than the default XImage interface to the server.

-dct <ms>

Double click timeout for button events, etc, 250 ms.

-tracking

Prevent the GUI piano keyboard image from tracking MIDI events, small reduction in CPU overhead.

-keytoggle

The default GUI behaviour for tuning keys on with the mouse is to latch them, this allows for playing chords on the polyphonics. This option will disable the latch to that keys are played only whilst held with the mousebutton.

-neutral

Initial the emulator with a null patch, all parameters will have the value of zero to allow for a patch to be built from the bottom up, completely from scratch. This is equivalent to '-load -1', negative memory locations will not be saved, ie, you cannot save to the null patch.

-load <m>

Initial memory number to load at startup. Default is 0 for most emulators.

-import <pathname>

Import a memory from a disk file to the active patch at start time. This patch can then be saved to another location and allows for interexchange of memories.

-mbi <m>

The master bank index allows for access to extra memory ID. This value times 1000 is added to the memory ID saved/loaded by the GUI so the GUI can access for example 8 banks of 8 memories but using -mbi you can actually save multiple sets of 64 memories.

-activesense <ms>

The rate at which hello messages are sent from GUI to engine to ensure it is still active. If the transmission fails then the GUI will exit, if the engine does not receive updates it will also exit. Zero will disable active sense.

-ast <m>

The engine timeout period on active sense messages.

-mct <m>

The MIDI cycle timeout is a busy waiting GUI timer for MIDI events, used when the GUI takes a MIDI interface for direct event tracking.

-ar|-aspect

All of the emulators will attempt to maintain an aspect ratio for their windows so that they look 'normal'. This conflicts with some tiling window managers so can be disabled. It may also cause some excessive remapping of windows when they are resized.

-iconify

Open the window in the iconified state.

-window

Do not map any window.

-cli

Enable the text based command line interface to the engine. This can be used in connjuction with -window however if compiled without support for any windowing system the -window option is implied.

-libtest

Do not start the engine, nor attempt to connect to it, just post the GUI for testing.

GUI Shortcuts:

<Ctrl> 's' - save settings to current memory
<Ctrl> 'l' - (re)load current memory
<Ctrl> 'x' - exchange current with previous memory
<Ctrl> '+' - load next memory
<Ctrl> '-' - load previous memory
<Ctrl> '?' - show emulator help information
<Ctrl> 'h' - show emulator help information
<Ctrl> 'r' - show application readme information
<Ctrl> 'k' - show keyboard shortcuts
<Ctrl> 'p' - screendump to /tmp/<synth>.xpm
<Ctrl> 't' - toggle opacity
<Ctrl> 'o' - decrease opacity of patch layer
<Ctrl> 'O' - increase opacity of patch layer
<Ctrl> 'w' - display warranty
<Ctrl> 'g' - display GPL (copying conditions)
<Shift> '+' - increase window size
<Shift> '-' - decrease window size
<Shift> 'Enter'- toggle window between full screen size
UpArrow - controller motion up (shift key accelerator)
DownArrow - controller motion down (shift key accelerator)
RightArrow - more control motion up (shift accelerator)
LeftArrow - more control motion down (shift accelerator)

Operational options:

General:

-engine

Do not start a new engine. The GUI will attempt to connect to an existing engine on the host and port configuration (cq). If the connection is built then the engine will operate both emulators and voice allocations will be shared amongst them. All of the emulator outputs are folded back onto the same stereo output, excepting where extra Jack control inputs are used.

-gui

Do not start the GUI, only the engine. The GUI will attempt to connect to the engine on the configured host and port values. If it does not respond then the GUI will exit with some rather terse messaging.

-server

Start the engine as a permanant server that does not exit with the last emulator.

-daemon

Run the engine as a daemon with disconnected controlling terminal. This does not imply the -server option, nor does it imply the -log option for logging to the file system, nor -syslog which might also be applicable to a daemon.

-watchdog <s>

Timeout for the audio thread initialisation. If the thread does not activate within this period then the engine will gracefully exit rather than wait around for connections indefinitely. Default period is 30 seconds. This is not active in -server or -daemon mode. In normal operation the audio thread will be launched within a couple of seconds but if the engine and GUI are started separately then this timeout demands that a GUI be started before the timer expires.

-log

Redirect logging output to a file. The default file is /var/log/bristol.log and /var/log/brighton.log and if they are not available then $HOME/.bristol/log directory is used. The selection of /var/log is to prevent logging to root in the event that the engine is invoked by this user.

-syslog

Redirect logging output to syslog.

-console

Maintain the controlling terminal as output for logging messages, remove the timestampes for readability purposes. This can also be configured with the environment variable BRISTOL_LOG_CONSOLE=true.

-rc

Do not load any bristolrc parameter file.

-exec

The final process to be requested by the startBristol script will be called as an exec such that it maintains amongst other things the PID of the parent. This option will override the exec and leave the script waiting for the processes to exit. There implications of not using this parameter, some of the cleanup code is part of the wrapping shellscript, per default this is not called due to the exec request. This flag is default but should only really be required for LADI compatibility.

-stop

Stop all the running bristol engines. This will indirectly result in termination of any GUI due to active sensing although that can be disabled. The use case is to stop any -server -daemon engines running in the background. The back end to the option is pkill.

-exit

Stop all the running bristol engines and GUI.

-kill <-emulator>

Stop all the running bristol engines and GUI that have been associated with the given emulator. If bristol was started with '-mini' it can now be killed with -mini so that other emulators are not terminated. If there are multiple mini running they will naturally die also. If the engine is running multitimbral GUI then the other associated GUI will also exit in addition to the mini.

-cache <pathname>

The default location for new memories and emulator profiles, the default is ~/.bristol and it will be searched before the system/factory default directory /usr/local/share/bristol when emulators are started and memories are loaded. If the pathname does not exist then it is created if possible.

-memdump <pathname> [-emulate <synth>]

Create the target directory <pathname>/memory/<synth> and copy first the factory default memories for the synth, then the user private memories. This can be used with session management to make a copy of all synth memories in a session. If the target directory already exists then no copy operation takes place but the directory does replace the -cache default to make this the new location for saved memories for that session. The -emulate option is required, if it is not provided then the default hammondB3 is taken.

-debug <1-16>

Debug level, values above 12 can be very verbose and only the value 0 is arguably realtime safe as it avoids printf() in the engine compute thread.

-readme [-<e>]

Display the program readme information. Show the readme for just a single emulator if desired.

-glwf

Only allow the use of '-lwf' for all emulators, no overrides.

-host <hostname>

Connect to the engine on the hostname, default is localhost. This is used in conjuction with -engine to distribute the GUI. The hostname accepts syntax such as hostname:port to fix both the host and port for a remote connection to the engine. If the host portion is the token 'unix' then a local named socket is created rather than a TCP connection. In this instance a specific port number can be given to create the named socket /tmp/br.<port> and if the port is not specified then a random numeric index is chosen.

-port <p>

Connect to the given TCP port for GUI/engine messaging, default 5028. If the port is alreeady in use then the startup with fail. For starting multiple bristols with GUI then this option should be discarded and the script will look for a free port number for each invocation. It is incorrect to mix this option with -host parameters that take a value host:port or unix:port as the results will be indeterminate depending on the order the parameters are submitted.

-quiet

Redirect debug and diagnostic output to /dev/null.

-gmc

Open a MIDI interface in the GUI. Per default the engine will own the only MIDI interface for bristol and will redistribute events to the GUI. It is possible to disable the forwarding and attach both GUI and engine to midi devices if necessary.

-forward

Disable MIDI event forwarding globally. Per default the engine opens a MIDI interface and is connected to the physical keyboards, control surfaces and/or sequencers. It will forward MIDI events to the GUI for tracking. This option disables the feature. When disabled the GUI will not reflect the piano keybaord state, nor will it track CC motion unless the options '-gmc' is given to open a MIDI connection in the GUI and that the user connects the same control surfaces to the GUI via this alternative channel. This option is logically identical to ´-localforward -remoteforward´.

-localforward

This will prevent the GUI from forwarding MIDI messages to the engine. This is not to prevent MIDI message loops as the forwarding only ever occurs from MIDI interfaces to TCP connections between GUI and engine. This option will prevent messages from any surfaces that are connected to the GUI from forwarding to the engine.

-remoteforward

This will prevent the engine from forwarding to the GUI but still allow the GUI to forward to the engine. If the GUI is given a MIDI connection with the -gmc option, and control surfaces are applied to both processes then the -forward option should be used to globally prevent event redistribution. Failure to do so will not result in loops, just one-for-one duplication of events. It is possible to connect the control surfaces just to the GUI when the -gmc option is used, this gives the possibility to have a local keyboard and GUI but drive an engine on a remote systems. Their is admittedly additional latency involved with handling the MIDI messages from the GUI to the remote engine over TCP.

-oss

Configure OSS defaults for audio and MIDI interfaces

-alsa

Configure ALSA defaults for audio and MIDI interfaces. The MIDI interface is an ALSA SEQ port.

-jack

Configure Jack defaults for audio and MIDI interfaces. At the time of writing this option causes some issues as it selects Jack MIDI which currently requires a bridging daemon to operate. The options '-jack -midi seq' would be a more typical configuration.

-jackstats

Do not request audio parameters from the jack server, take the bristol system defaults or the configured parameters. The bristol defaults will invariably fail however the call to bristoljackstats is sometimes superfluous and this can speed up the initial startup times. Using this parameter will typically require that the options -rate and -count are also provided. TP -jsmuuid <UUID> This is for sole use of the Jack Session Manager

-jsmfile <path>

This is for sole use of the Jack Session Manager

-jsmd <ms>

Jack session manager delay before session events are distributed internally. Event execution is delayed in the GUI by a default of 5000ms.

-session

Disable all session management including JSM and LADI.

-sleep <n>

Stall the initialisation process for 'n' seconds. This is to work around what appears to be race a condition when using a session manager to initialise multiple bristol clients as they all vie for the same TCP port identifier.

-jdo

Jack Dual Open: let the audio and midi threads register as independent clients with Jack. Per default the audio thread will open as a jack client and the MIDI connection is piggypbacked as another port rather than as another client.

-o <filename>

Generate a raw audio output of the final stage samples to a file. The format will be 16bit stereo interleaved.

-nrp

Enable support for NRP events in both GUI and engine. This is to be used with care as NRP in the engine can have unexpected results.

-enrp

Enable NRP support in the engine only.

-gnrp

Enable NRP events in the GUI. This is required to allow the GUI (and hence the engine) to be driven from some MIDI control surfaces.

-nrpcc <n>

Maximum number of NRP to map. The default is 128, seen as sufficient for any of the current emulators but the mixer will require more if it is every released.

Audio driver:

-audio [oss|alsa|jack]

Audio driver overrides. Depending on the order of the switches it is possible to set a group of global defaults (-jack/oss/alsa) then have specific re-selection of components.

-audiodev <dev>

Audio device name. For Jack, this will be the name registered with the Jack daemon.

-count <samples>

Number of samples/frames in processing period.

-outgain <gn>

Output signal normalisation level, per emulator default 4.

-ingain <gn>

Input signal normalisation level, per emulator default 4.

-preload <periods>

Number of audio buffers to prewrite to the audio output on start. This is not active with the Jack drivers.

-rate <hz>

Sampling rate, defaults to 44100.

-priority <p>

Realtime priority requested by the engine audio thread, default 75. Zero will disable RT processing.

-autoconn

Automatically connect the engine input and output to the first Jack IO ports found. This can also be achieved with the environment variable BRISTOL_AUTOCONN=true

-multi <c>

Multiple IO port requests, only works with Jack and currently only the ARP 2600 gives access to these ports.

-migc <f>

Input signal normalisation level for the multi IO ports.

-mogc <f>

Output signal normalisation level for the multi IO ports.

Midi driver:

-midi [oss|[raw]alsa|jack]

Audio driver overrides. Depending on the order of the switches it is possible to set a group of global defaults (-jack/oss/alsa) then have specific re-selection of components such as in ´-jack -midi seq´. The default MIDI driver is '-midi seq' but that can be overriden with compile time options such as --enable-jack-default-midi to ./configure.

-mididev <dev>

MIDI device namee to be opened (OSS/ALSA).

-mididbg

Request MIDI level 1 debuging.

-mididbg2

Request MIDI level 2 debuging. Both can be selected for level 3.

-sysid <0xXXXXXXXX>

Configure an alternative SYSEX identifier for the engine. The default is the value 0x534C6162 for historical reasons, this is not a free development ID but it is not assigned so should not cause conflict.

LADI driver (level 1 compliant):

-ladi brighton

Execute LADI messages in the GUI only

-ladi bristol

Execute LADI messages in the engine only

-ladi <memory>

The LADI state memory for save operations. This should be unique for each LADI session.

Examples

startBristol -mini

Run a minimoog using ALSA interface for audio and midi (seq). The emulator will default to monophonic, high note precedence with retrigger and legato velocity.

startBristol -alsa

Run a hammondB3 using ALSA interface for audio and midi. This is equivalent to all the following options: -b3 -audio alsa -audiodev plughw:0,0 -midi seq -mididev plughw:0 -count 256 -preload 4 -port 5028 -voices 32 -channel 1 -rate 44100

startBristol -explorer -voices 1

Run a moog explorer as a monophonic instrument, using ALSA 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 -count 512 -preload 2

Run a hammond b3 with a 512 samples in a period, 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 out of the 32 available.

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 32 voices between them. The juno will be on default midi channel (1), and the prophet on channel 2. Output over the same default ALSA audio device. The 32 voices will never all get used as these emulators will run per default with a lower soft limit. They can be run with more voices however that would require suitable values to the -voices option.

startBristol -juno -jack -register juno -voices 32 &

startBristol -prophet -jack -register prophet -channel 2 -voices 32

Start two synthesisers, a juno and a prophet5. Each synth is totally independent with its own GUI and own engine. Each engine will register separately with the jack daemon. They will respectively register the names 'juno' and 'prophet' with Jack and ALSA so that they can be differentiated in the respective control programmes such as aconnect and qjackctl. The outputs will be visible separately in these control programs and can thus be routed independently. Each synth can use up to 32 voices and there will only be CPU contention - these are separate engine process with 32 voices each.

Files

The bristolrc file can be created in the BRISTOL_CACHE directory (default value ${HOME}/.bristol/bristolrc) and the users prefered options placed as the content. The file will be read as a single line and incorporated onto the command lines for both bristol and brighton. There is an additional variable BRISTOL_RC which can point to another location if necessary. This can be used to simply the command line for all parameters that a user provides with each invocation. The parameters can be all on a single line of the file or one per line. The parameters from this file will preceed the user specified ones such that the RC defaults may be overridden on the comand line.

Environment

BRISTOL

This indicates the location of the bristol installation for the binaries, bitmaps and related data reside. The default depends on the prefix used for the system build, /usr/local/share/bristol and /usr/share/bristol are typical.

BRISTOL_CACHE

The cache is where memories and emulator profiles (keyboard maps and MIDI Continuous Controller maps) are saved. The default is ${HOME}/.bristol

BRISTOL_RC

Location of the bristol runcom file.

BRISTOL_LOG_CONSOLE

Force debuging output to be sent to console without timestamping, log file or syslog.

BRISTOL_AUTOCONN

Attempt to automatically connect the bristol audio inputs and outputs when using Jack.

BRISTOL_AUTO_LEFT

If BRISTOL_AUTOCON is set to anything other than '0' this will be the default Jack port for the bristol left channel output. There is no default, if AUTOCONN has been requested this will be the first jack playback channel.

BRISTOL_AUTO_RIGHT

If BRISTOL_AUTOCON is set to anything other than '0' this will be the default Jack port for the bristol right channel output. There is no default, if AUTOCONN has been requested this will be the second jack playback channel.

BRISTOL_AUTO_IN

If BRISTOL_AUTOCON is set to anything other than '0' this will be the default Jack port for the bristol (mono) input channel. There is no default, if AUTOCONN is set this will be the first jack capture channel.