Soft Synth People: Advice Sought

[Dave Pierce]

I'm thinking about taking the plunge into soft synths. That's right, me, the guy who said I couldn't imagine taking a computer on stage, is now seriously considering doing that very thing. I want so many new capabilities for my rig, and adding them all via hardware with the income stream I have available will just take forever. OTOH, given my work situation, and my ability to build systems as needed, I can probably scrounge a computer/controller rig together for around a grand.

 

However...first I need to try some stuff out and make sure this is really the direction I wanna go. That's where I could use some advice -- what free and/or cheap software can I use with my existing systems today to just get a feel for what's possible? None of this will go onstage, yet. I'll just be playing around with it at my home office.

 

I've got two choices for the hardware to use for this testing:

 

LAPTOP

* Slowish PIII

* 128MB RAM

* Onboard sound card

* 6GB slow HD, with a constantly fluctuating 200MB-1GB free

 

DESKTOP

* Faster PIII

* 512MB RAM

* No sound card, because I've got a Digi01 card in it

* Plenty of decently-fast HD space (like 50GB free)

 

The desktop is obviously a better choice, but I'd need to find a way to get a sound card in there with the Digi (either playing nice together, or Hardware Profiles).

 

What I want to do:

 

* Virtual Analog!!! (gimme gimme gimme)

 

* Some light sequencing for my cover band (which I've never done before)

 

* Better wind instrument samples than what's on my Roland RD-700

 

* I would be nice to find a way to send song-based patch changes, with a click or two, from the computer to my Roland, my softsynths, my guitarist's POD, and my drummer's Roland V-drum kit. (But maybe I'm asking for too much?)

 

I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to do any of this at all. I'm not asking for a tutorial here, just a few pointers in the right direction -- free software to try, websites to check out, etc.

 

Any help is much appreciated!!!

 

--Dave

[Addix Metzatricity]

Well, because of #4 I'll have to say...

 

Not Reason.

 

And that's the only help I'm gonna be, 'cause that's the only one I know.

[Gus Lozada]

Hi Dave!

 

* The laptop is not gonna wor properly for Softsynths, but would make a great MIDI ONLY sequencer, like SONAR (even better, an older CakeWalk version to make it lighter for the machine).

 

* Yeap, REASON would not do the trick of No. 4

 

* For both machines, a copy of a lighter than sonar sequencer from CakeWalk will work fine.

 

NOW... for siftsynths... check everything from NATIVE INSTRUMENTS, REASON and ARTURIA STORM.

[RABid]

I suggest you pick up Cakewalk's Project 5 and start learning about the world of software sound sources before considering a move to take them on stage. Project 5 comes with a decent selection of soft synths, at least one of which will respond very well to program changes from your hardware. It will also give you a host for both VSTi's and DXi's. I think Project 5 is also one of the few hosts that will allow multiple MIDI in to be directed to various synths.

 

The only software I would consider using on stage is GigaStudio, but that takes a good computer.

 

Robert

[Raymar]

Taking soft synths and a PC on stage would be a scary thing do for all the gremlins that live in live situations. I wonder if even the EKO would survive. It might be safer to just sample those sounds and use a sampler up there.

[Gus Lozada]

Dave:

 

Please read this thread at Craig's forum.

 

Even while it is not exactly what you are looking for, it's just an idea about how to survive and actually suceed while using computers onstage as your main sound source.

[Dave Pierce]

Thanks for all the pointers so far, guys. I've already got some studying to do!

 

One thing I didn't make clear in my first post: If I do go down this path, this will probably start out as the replacement for my 3rd synth on stage. I definitely plan to keep the stage piano (RD-700) in my rig, and unless I just fall in love with B4 or somesuch and it all works flawlessly, I'll also be keeping my CX-3 in the rig. So if the computer dumps core I've still got Organ, Piano, Rhodes, Wurly, Clav and a bunch of other patches to choose from. These systems would have to become pretty UNIX-like before I would use them as my *only* source of sounds onstage. In fact, I'm not even sure I'd trust a friggin' Solaris box as my only sound source.

 

--Dave

[dementia13]

Take a look at the Creamware Noah, kind of a hybrid hardware/softsynth.

[zeronyne]

As far as sending patch changes, it's very simple to do with just about any sequencer that can control outside sources.

 

When I play out (well, played out...it's been over a year), even the lighting rig gets a MIDI patch change along with my monitor engineer's Yamaha desk. The only thing that gets me nervous is that I'm not the one changing patches...yep even MY sounds get changes my the guy running the computer offstage. Luckily, I can just manually change anything if something goes wrong...not so easy for the gtr player and the drummer...hee hee...I could tell you stories...