NATIVE INSTRUMENTS is excited to announce BANDSTAND, a highly versatile software instrument designed as the optimal solution for musicians, performers and producers that work with the General MIDI format. BANDSTAND includes a true studio-quality GM sound library that sets new standards in terms of musical expressiveness, and is equipped with a host of powerful and easy-to-use General MIDI features that make working with GM-based arrangements efficient and convenient, both in the studio and on stage. The comprehensive selection of natural instruments and the especially intuitive user interface also make BANDSTAND highly suitable for music education and similar fields of music creation.
BANDSTAND is based on a powerful sound engine that draws from more than 2 Gigabyte of professional instrument and percussion sounds. The included 128 instruments and 9 drum kits not only set new standards for a General MIDI instrument in terms of audio quality and musical expressiveness, but were also specifically selected and matched to always deliver a sonically coherent performance regardless of musical style or genre. A host of performance optimizations including full Direct-From-Disk functionality allow BANDSTAND to efficiently operate on computers that are equipped with lesser amounts of memory.
BANDSTAND can be used both as a stand-alone sound module and playback device, or as an instrument plug-in in all common host sequencers. The user interface of BANDSTAND is specifically designed to be easy to pick up and use even for beginners, and offers a new and highly visual way to work with General MIDI arrangements. All 16 instrument channels are always visible simultaneously, and instruments can be easily assigned and replaced via a convenient Drag&Drop system. A unique Quick Edit bar offers an arsenal of powerful real-time performance functions that can be assigned to any instrument to alter its playing behaviour on-the-fly, including Quantize, Harmonize, Scale, and Micro tuning parameters.
The integrated MIDI file player turns BANDSTAND into a full-featured creative GM playback solution for solo performers and all kinds of stage use. Arrangements can even be bounced to disk, making it possible to turn MIDI files into high-quality audio files. The instrument is equipped with a practical Mixer Section that gives quick access to the volume and effect settings for every channel, and includes high quality chorus and reverb effects per that are fully automatable and confirm to GM effect standards. The master section of BANDSTAND offers an additional master EQ and limiter to put the finishing touch on the sonic output of the instrument.
BANDSTAND will be available in November 2005 for a suggested retail price of $ 229 / 199 Euro from authorized dealers and in the NI Online Store.
