OOStudio
OOStudio is our in-house OOM session manager, and has been built to reduce the administration of starting an OOM project session which incorporates multiple applications.
This page contains the following sections:
- Features
- Open Tab
- Create a new session
- Create a template
- Open a session or session Template
- Status
OOStudio is a one action session manager, that automatically starts applications in a specified order, bringing up an entire OOM project session. From initializing Jackd to starting OOM with a designated project, OOStudio goes through your session profile step by step. Once up and running, OOStudio sits in your toolbar as a tray icon, and you can access it at any time to check the status of your session. As well as the OpenOctave Project core applications we use, you can also add, in the custom commands section, other external apps that you wish to run in the session.
In addition to the above, users can switch sessions whenever they wish by bringing up the OOStudio GUI from the icon in the dock, selecting a new session, and opening it. The previous sessions will be closed, and the new one will commence. Right click the icon and select Restore. If you're opening a new session while the previous one is still running, and you haven't saved, you'll get a prompt asking you to either save or not.
When a new session is created, and run, OOM opens with a project of the same name. Each session is saved as a folder, and all the files associated with that project are stored in the same folder, so an OOStudio session is completely independent of other sessions.
OOStudio also has an import a session or template feature that gives you the real security of back-up sessions. When you've created a session that you wish to backup, select it in the create new tab from the Template drop down menu, which will create a copy of the Template or Session, as you will see in the Name field, rename it with something like "My Masterpiece-backup-10-2011", then specify your backup location. Easy.
If all goes wrong in your system for some reason, you can import the backups directly into the session directory in the Open tab, and you're off and running again.
Safe.
The Open tab contains 2 panels, called Sessions , and Templates , and as common sense implies, one is for Sessions, and the other for session Templates. To start a session, go to the session panel, select an entry, and press Open Session .
To open a Template, go to the Templates panel, and select an entry to open a Template.
Note. If you're going to open a Template with the intent of saving it as a new Session, there's a dropdown list in the Create New tab, called Templates. Use that instead, as it's safer, and preserves the integrity of your Template session.
The Create New tab is your session build tab, where you put together a complete session comprised of all the apps, and their initial settings that you want. Here at the OpenOctaveProject we've build sessions based on extremely large, but fairly static session maps, as they don't change much from one session to another. Other users may have more dynamic requirements where sessions differ more markedly, and OOStudio is built to accommodate this as well.
- Template No session manager would be complete without a means to store sessions as Templates, and used as a basis for creating new sessions, particularly if your sessions, like ours, tend to use the same components from one session to another. Ours goes one step further, and allows you to select an existing session, and copy that as a new session.
A good example of the usefulness of this feature, is making session backups, then storing them somewhere else. As OOStudio has an import template or session feature, you can locate the backup and add it to the session directory should something go wrong in your system, and backups are required.
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Edit Mode You can create a new session or update an existing one using this menu. Select the option you want.
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Name This is the name of the session you are creating.
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Location This is the location of the directory where you want to store the session file, and you browse for a directory using the Browse button on the right.
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OOM This is the location of the directory where you select the .oom file you wish to use in the session, and you browse for the file using the browse button on the right.
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LSCP File This is the Linuxsampler lscp file location, and you can, using the browse button on the right, choose where you normally store your .lscp files.
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LSCP Mode Linuxsampler users will know that loading program changes in midimaps, or when a gig or SFZ file is loaded directly into a channel, can be done so using 4 modes, Default, Persistent, On Demand, and On Demand Hold.
For a more thorough explanation of the 4 loading modes, visit our Linuxsampler wiki page here: Linuxsampler
In OOStudio, whatever the mode for program change midimaps may be set to in the .lscp file, this can be overridden for the session, using the LSCP Mode dropdown mode menu. Select the mode you want, and each time the session is started, the mode specified for the session will be applied.
The Default setting will use the lscp mode already present in the .lscp file.
Here's a gif showing the three dropdown menus content.
Both Jackd and Linuxsampler are core apps in our OOM studio setups, and as such, we've given them dedicated text boxes, in which users can add their specific command line options for their own studio setup. Each has a checkbox, to run the command or not, as some users may want to, for example, keep Jackd running, outside of a session, all the time, and others not. The same is true for Linuxsampler, and the checkbox gives you the choice whether to include Linuxsampler as part of your session startup or keep it external.
This is the section where additional apps can be added to the session if you wish. As you add an app, so the Add function will add another line, so you can set multiple extra apps with the session. The panel below the Custom Commands textbox shows the apps you've chosen, so you always have a big picture of what the session will run when started up. Use the Delete button to clear the text.
Once you've added all the apps and commands to the session, and you're happy with it, press the Create New button at the bottom of the tab, or if you don't wish to save the session as new, press Cancel
You can save the New Session as a template by selecting the Save as Template checkbox. When you do this a popup window will appear, asking you if you want to run the session immediately, or not.
An important part of any workflow is the creation of Templates, those default working files that take much time and effort to build and tweak. OOStudio enables you to save sessions as Templates, so you have a Default to work from when creating new sessions, which can then be modified further if so desired.
Creating a Template is the same procedure as creating a session, but when you've completed the session as you want, check the Save as Template box, then press Create New. A new Template will be created, and a new entry for that Template will appear in the Open Tab, in the panel Templates.
To run a session, go to the Open tab, and select you session you want to run, then press the Open Session button. You can also open a session by double-clicking on the session, and it will load automatically. To open a Template, select the Template panel, and choose the template you want.
Note. If you've spent time and effort building a template, it makes little sense to run a template session. A much better option from our experience, and it's the reason OOStudio is built this way, is to go to the Create New tab, and create a new session using a template as the base for the session. Spoiling a Template is frustrating enough, more so if contains hundreds of midi and audio port connections, and with OOStudio, there's no need to jeopardize your hard work.
To Delete an existing session, press the Delete Session button.
The Status Tab is a running log of the session startup process, and documents process and errors. The first column, command denotes the application, the second, level shows a message definition, whether it's INFO, or ERROR. The third, log gives details for the message, so you have both a summary and an explanation to use if the session failed to load properly, or if it loaded correctly, and you want to check the details of the load.