Stephen Fortner Posted June 20, 2001 Share Posted June 20, 2001 This is not a post aimed at troll season, but an honestly heartfelt rant. New workstations are coming out festooned with ever more bells and whistles, like the Triton's awesome sequencer and sexy touchscreen, the K2600's triple mode, and the Karma's phrase manipulation. But here's an open suggestion to all keyboard manufacturers who wonder what pro keyboardists really want: Some killer f---ing wave ROM! Perhaps my ears have been spoiled by what RAM-based (and now disk-based) samplers are capable of, but I long for this kind of sound quality combined with the stability of ROM. I'm not an ignoramus about the cost of ROM (for market reasons much pricier than RAM), but sheesh... clearly there's a middle ground between the Platonic ideal of a ROM-based Gigasampler playback unit, and the cave-shadow reality of (just to take one example) Kurzweil's megabuck flagship workstation coming with essentially the same ROM as my old K2000. I'd gladly give up an onboard sequencer and huge display, and settle for a minimal complement of knobs, in return for 256MB of sounds that don't make me go "Where's the beef?" when I turn off the effects. To quote that guitar player with the funny plastic tube in his mouth, do you feel like I do? Note: of course, none of what I'm saying applies to DSP-based synths like VA's, only the workhorse ROMplers which always sit a tier below our flashy knobby boards on the keybaord stand. Stephen Fortner Principal, Fortner Media Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted June 20, 2001 Share Posted June 20, 2001 Preach it brother! Come on, bring it! You've absolutely right - we need larger ROM memory banks in keyboards than the pilthy, miserly little bit we get nowdays. Everything else in technology has gotten more impressive and powerful and less costly by leaps and bounds, but sample ROM sets are still 16 - 32 MB ? WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html email: pokeefe777@msn.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthetic Posted June 20, 2001 Share Posted June 20, 2001 Even better, most of that RAM is either data compressed or sample rate converted down so that they can squeeze one more squeaky unusable viola sample in there. To be fair, burning a Flash ROM costs more than a 16MB DIMM, and the market is asking for these products. The short answer is to buy a sampler or a synth with wave expansion cards that you like. (i.e. JV-5080) Better yet, go analog. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/cool.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Fortner Posted June 20, 2001 Author Share Posted June 20, 2001 Yeah, I've auditioned a lot of those expansion cards. I have a Yamaha S-80, and have listened extensively to the Roland JV and new SR-X series cards too, and have the same problem with all of them: While they do add variety, the sound quality is not far enough ahead of what's onboard to justify (at least to my pockets) the $150 to $300 a card. To make matters worse, the Yamaha cards have audible latency when you're playing more than a few notes. Analog, or VA, is a great solution for those kind of sounds. But a live gig and session whore like me is always going to need a good ROMpler as the "bottom keyboard." Another suggestion occurs: More and more ROMplers are offering RAM sample playback as an option (Kurzweil always has, Triton, Yamaha EX though the SCSI implementation blew chunks, and lately Roland XV). To make this a meaningful option in a live context, build a CD-ROM and small hard drive into the thing! A small HD costs less than a good meal out, and a CD-ROM is the price of a decent pizza these days. Or, offer an option for storing waveform data (not just patches) on something like SmartMedia cards. I don't know how feasible it is for a machine to access that data in real time, but if not, make it loadable into sample RAM. That way if something plays back Roland and Akai and Emu samples, we won't have to lug an external drive with a power supply and SCSI cable to the gig or session. I'll admit that as time passes, our ears get spoiled and technology raises our expectations. I was blown away when I first heard the 8-bit piano sample coming out of the Ensoniq Mirage, because it was recognizably a piano. "This is it" I thought, "they've done it." Given that the technology is now there, though, keyboard makers should take a cue from the guitar market, which seems to obsess over TONE a lot more. The soundsets in most keyboards and modules seem very tilted towards making novices "ooh" and "ahh" in the music store. It seems to me they could still do this... just with wave data where I can kill the effects and arpegiattor and not have loop points, phase incoherence, and other aural gremlins jump out of the speakers with flashlights under their faces. Stephen Fortner Principal, Fortner Media Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2001 Share Posted June 20, 2001 I totally agree. When they put in more ROM they add more sounds at the same time. Add ROM and increase the sound quality. God dammit. ------------------ --Smedis,-- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted June 21, 2001 Share Posted June 21, 2001 Originally posted by SteveFortner: Or, offer an option for storing waveform data (not just patches) on something like SmartMedia cards. I don't know how feasible it is for a machine to access that data in real time, but if not, make it loadable into sample RAM. The Alesis synths this, and it's very useful. They come with a free program called SoundBridge that allows you to compile and burn 8 meg flash cards comprised of your own samples, along with programs that you write to be able to use them if you wish. You can even add up to 50 SMF files per card for playback only, which can be very useful for solo gigs. This trick works on the Quadrasynth stuff, the QS stuff and on the DM Pro. Cards plugged into the card slot containing SoundBridge projects are basically loaded instantly, and remain in memory through power-off...that's because you've basically made your own waveform ROM expansion board. SoundBridge recognizes Sample Cell/Sound Designer and .WAV format samples only, though. dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teemudeepone.org Posted June 21, 2001 Share Posted June 21, 2001 I've wondered about this too. Why do they have to include hundreds (or even thousands!) of low-quality samples? There are way too many of them these days and the quality suffers. A 32MB ROM should have 128 samples at the most, as you could easily use the synth engine and the FX to make variations of the sounds. It's not that big a deal for synthesizer sounds but real instrument samples need loads of RAM. The unusable pianos, guitars and brass instruments drive me mad. I'd rather have a synth with 1 good sound than a 1000 bad ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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