JamesXIIC

If you want a decent MIDI controller and aren't too bothered about having tons of knobs I'd recommend the M-Audio Keystation 61ES. It's semi-weighted and I feel the action is nice. I don't know why everyone is so up about the Radium as I used one at University and it wasn't at all bad but I prefer the 61 keys and feel of the Keystation. Plus it's USB so you don't need a MIDI interface though that should pretty much be a standard nowadays.

Erm.....why the hell wouldn't it be a drum kit? That wasn't exactly the dark ages. Hell look at the synth solo in Edgar Winter Groups "Frankenstein"! That was before the MiniMoog but is still as powerful and expressive in this day and age as it was. Let's see, the mics were different and the mixers were different, the monitoring equipment was different...it's entirely possible for the sample to have been "played". Aside from that, I thought the video it was really cool and made a good point. But really how far can one go to enfore these laws? I just hope to god "Rhianna" or whatever her name is had to shell out to blatantly rip-off Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". Oh but what happens if you RECREATE the sample not using samples? Like say you programmed an analogue drumkit to play the breakbeat? Because you are not using the raw audio as is then it's technically not copywright infringement, is it?

As they said it's not about the quality of the monitoring equipment you use, it's about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your setup and having a good idea of how it will sound on a variety of speakers and headphones of differing quality. Even so, you can't really go wrong with a good set of studio monitors...providing you have the cash. They certainly make some adjustments easier. The bottom line is this though - once you find what works for you stick with it. Not that I'm well informed when it comes to the world of production however... Oh and.. Post count +1 Level up! Took me long enough...

Screw that, if you are gonna go Roland and go "D" the answer is simple - get the D50! Is it just me or do 80's synths just feel more organic...you know, alive? Maybe it's because the D/A converters are so shitty or the low bit rates give it that gritty quality I love so much. Argh who am I kiddin', I want a D50. *sob* *sob* Or even better, the V-synth loaded with the D50 card. Too bad there's no D50 softsynth either... Oh yeah, sorry for straying off topic there...but seriously what are you looking for in a synth? A workstation? A ROMpler? An analogue? A digital synth? FM or Sample and Synthesis? Remember, one synth can sound absoultely nothing like another - they are not like any other instrument in the world.

Don't mind him, he's being a bit harsh I'd say. Anyway, I own a PSR-540 which is near identical to the 550 'cept a bit older. I think the DSP chips and wavetable ROM are exactly the same though, and if not then the 550 is bound to sound even better. The good news is that the PSR-540 (and 550) and absolutely outstanding sounding keyboards in that price range. In fact, factory sound wise I say they are much better bang for your buck than all this Motif and Fantom stuff if you just want stock sounds. The bad news is that, unlike those more expensive workstations I mentioned, you can't program the PSR's sounds. Or expand on them. So you are pretty much limited to the sounds you get. It really does spank the ass off of most GM modules and has more sounds to boot, 707 for mine, maybe more for yours? I'd say it's perfectly capable of professional music when it comes to a lot of instruments like organs, electric pianoes and synths. The piano, brass and woodwind sounds may not fool most people into being realistic but they sound very nice and expressive indeed. That's just my opinion though. I think you'll find while the samples may be a bit outdated they are perfectly acceptable. If you want ULTRA realism however, I would stray from the realm of keyboards and workstations and invest in a good set of samples and sampler or ROMpler. Something like Sampletank, Sonik Synth, Kontakt, HALion are good starts. Garritan Personal Orchestra if you want expressive orchestral samples at affordable prices. Hope this helps.

Hey man, just to let you know you'll either need a DI box (direct injection) or a high Z (impedence) to low Z converter if you want that bass sounding any good. You see guitars are naturally high impedence and your soundcard accepts low impedence signals like most microphones and synthesisers etc. You need to covert this signal otherwise you will lose a lot of the high end and crispness of the bass' sound. Don't worry though, I'm sure you can get a "high Z -> low Z" for little cash and it also doesn't require power to do the conversion. Also guitars - basses included of course - are more suited to mic or instrument levels so I'd plug it into the mic input instead. Having said that be careful not to overload the signal so use the guitar's volume knob to avoid clipping, by turning it down of course. Feel free to not bother with any impedence conversion if you don't want to - it won't damage your soundcard after all - but your bass will sound like it has rusty old strings and the signal is being fed to an amp with a mile long cable. Not good.

Ah, so you use the playlist instead of the step sequencer to trigger to audio samples? It's a bit funny having the audio clips in the automation section but thanks guys, that certainly will make my life easier.

Thanks Yoozer, that cleared a lot up. I had already read the articules at www.vintagesynth.com and www.synthmania.com so had a fair idea about what was going on but now I'm totally filled in. I suppose you could use and sampler that includes effects and filters to achieve the same sort of sound but you need A) Lo-fi samples and a ton of programming. My question has been answered though - I'll definitely look into the Legacy Digi Edition, and Wardolf too. Too bad I'm broke until the summer when I get a job of some sort. Oh CompyFox, if you track down a PC version of Final Fantasy 7 you get the Yahama Softsynth thrown in free - I think it's the SXG-50 to be precise. Only catch is that it doesn't work in Windows XP as far as I'm aware as I'm stuck using the SB Live! GM modules when playing it. You should be able to find a copy on eBay but if you are using XP or 2000 (which is likely ) then you're plain out of luck I think. As you know Yamaha stopped support for the softsynths AGES ago but maybe the SXG-100 is XP compliant? I'm not 100% sure suzume but I believe the original Korg Legacy is a softsynth based on the well known KORG MS-20 - which is I'm sure you know, a monophonic analogue from the 70's. It's also more expensive but that's because you get the controller right?

Bugger me, only $150?! That's CRAZY! I was looking at the specs on the site - 900 PCM waveforms! I mean that's a LOT of waveforms...not to mention you get Wavestation and an ton of effects thrown in free. And who cares if it's based on an old sound module, this software looks like it's giving you your very own 80's Motif/Trition/Fantom...and them some! 'tis the mutts nuts I'll bet.

So I was doing some research on digital synthesisers because my knowledge isn't too great in this area and I found out that two of the most well known ones are the Roland D-50 and Korg M1, aside from the DX7 but I know enough about that at the moment. Basically I know that the D-50 uses Roland's own "Linear Arthimetic synthesis" which basically means instead of having full samples stored in ROM, it only had the lo-fi samples (i.e. waveforms with an 8 bit sampling resolution) of the attack segments of real instruments while the sustain portion of the sounds were handled by a very basic model of an analogue synth. The Korg M1 was developed later and used 16 bit waveforms and full samples. Also as this was now Korg, no more L.A. synthesis. Anyway I was wondering, which of the two synths do you feel would be better for creating sounds that feel overall synthetic, but at the same time contain elements of sound derived from real instruments? In other words which of the two from your experiences or from what you have heard, would be best at creating "hybrid" sounds that are pseudo-realistic so to speak? Like "half real" strings or a real breathy flute combined with a clean sine wave in the sustain? Maybe bright synth pads with realistic vocal textures or true ethnic instuments that sound buzzy, gritty or eerie? If you have any idea what you think I'm trying to say then please give me your opinions. I'm expecting Yoozer to fill me in as I'm sure his hardware synth knowledge is top notch but anyone else feel free to have a go. This is a result of my sudden interest in learning about S&S synths. Sorry if this question seems kind of difficult to answer guys.

Actually I am using audio clips. How would I go about doing that then? The only work about I've found is automating the volume so the start of the sample doesn't play.

Again many thanks zircon, that worked a treat and now I can get back to what matters. As for Logic, I liked but it but I still believe FL is much better value for money. I just like to be able to see the raw audio and slice it up on a channel sort of level if you know what I mean. Say you want to cut a loop in half and use the latter half only, you can't do that easily in FL unless you go into the wave editor and physically alter the sample. And the sampler plays waves like a sampler, trigger only. You can't preview sections of a wavefile like you can in Logic and Pro Tools. I know this makes sense because it's a SAMPLER plugin after all but it would be nice to have easy manipulation of raw audio. For FL 7 anyone?

Yeah, it's FL 6 alright and I've made sure none of the time stretching knobs are at weird values. I WOULD use Logic or Pro Tools but I don't have it...we got to use it in MIDI sequening at University and it was cool. As for the ESQ-1, yeah, pretty retro but it's a cover of an 80's song so it's more than ideal. What's reprazent mean?

Right, I'm doing a remix of a song for my Recording Tech module at University and I'm recording parts on my Alesis Ion, ESQ-1, guitar and bass for this. To keep the CPU usage low I'm using the "Sampler" plugin inside FL but sometimes when I import the wave file it stretches it only for playback. The actual wave file itself stays the way I recorded it but when I play it in the project file it'll stretch it to double the speed and pitch. It doesn't always happen, usually only for about one in every three parts I record. When I use Kontakt 2 it doesn't stretch it at all so that's a work around, but Kontakt 2 uses too much CPU and I'm mainly using send effects on the samples so using the built in Fruity sampler is much better in this case. Can sometime tell me how to prevent this stretching? Maybe it's because I'm trimming the audio clips in FL and it can't detect the BPM of the samples so it goes crazy or something. I just want to play the files back "as is" though. I gotta say I LOVE FL but it's shite when working with raw audio. Gimme Pro Tools or Logic any day of the week for that.

Sequncer - Fruity Loops Studio 6 Pro Software - Sampletank 2 XL - Sonik Synth 2 - Garritan Personal Orchestra - Ethno World volume 3 - Kontakt 2 - Synth1 Hardware - Jim Deacon Strat copy - Squier precision bass - Alesis Ion virtual analogue - Ensoniq ESQ-1 digital wave synth - M-Audio Keystation 61 ES MIDI keyboard And that's it...