East West Symphonic Libraries

[dannthr]

@Dannthr: Would you suggest purchasing RA or SILK? I'm going to guess SILK, and if I'm missing certain instruments, I should simply purchase another pack that has what I require?

Also, for Stormdrum, that's a mistake on my behalf: It will be the Pro version I'm getting. If I have a total of 10GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM, would my Mac be able to handle Play? And will any of this be compatible with Logic Studio?

@IBBIAZ: Does the Platinum version of EWQLSO not include the close microphones? I don't think I can purchase the Vienna Symphony Library in this package. I will purchase it separately if you suggest it. Are there any packs in particular you suggest?

Thanks again guys.

Platinum Pro comes with all three mic positions, they will be built into the Symphonic Orchestra PLAY interface where you will be able to load and mix the mic positions directly in the interface.

I own RA, there are some gems there, but I probably don't use half the library. The Shakuhachi, the Cedar Flute, the Frame Drums, the African Percussion and African shakers and African Stringed instruments, those I find myself using a lot.

Very rarely will I use more than that.

RA is divided into regions covering the entire world. But the samples themselves are quite shallow. Most patches only have one dynamic layer and are often sampled in whole tones rather than full chromatic (although for some instruments that's unavoidable, many ethnic instruments simply do not HAVE chromatic scales). Nonetheless, it is important to find an instrument that adapts to your composition, and so it would have been desireable, and with some instruments, it would have definitely been possible.

I would like to have Silk, but it does not have any percussion (SD2 is supposed to cover that). Mostly, I would get Silk for the stringed instruments.

Ultimately, whichever way you go, it will be up to you to find use for your palette.

Upgrading the RAM will be good, 800Mhz isn't terribly fast, but you'll probably get by well enough.

Also, what kind of HDDs do you have there?

You will want separate drives to store your samples--the faster the better.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

I will be going with the Platinum Pro in that case. I will be getting SILK too.

It's unfortunate, but the Mac Pro 2008 was created before the DDR3 upgrade. What gets me is the fact that right now, the DDR3 RAM for the newer model is CHEAPER than the DDR2 model. At least, according to Other World Computing. I'm considering purchasing RAM from this site instead:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/_memory-information/8GB_Kit_DDR2800_FBDIMMs_Apple_678-1x2.asp

I have a Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s . The beauty of this EWQL deal is that you get a free hard drive with all the samples installed. Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/3.5 to be exact. Heck, that's better than the one that came with my Mac Pro! I wonder if I should reinstall Logic's audio library into that hard drive... I don't think it will make much of a difference though.

Edit: I'll probably just purchase 6x2GB of RAM from Other World Computing. I know it's a reliable site, and 14GB should be more than enough.

Edit Edit: Should I go with the Symphonic Choir Bundle?

[dannthr]

I will be going with the Platinum Pro in that case. I will be getting SILK too.

It's unfortunate, but the Mac Pro 2008 was created before the DDR3 upgrade. What gets me is the fact that right now, the DDR3 RAM for the newer model is CHEAPER than the DDR2 model. At least, according to Other World Computing. I'm considering purchasing RAM from this site instead:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/_memory-information/8GB_Kit_DDR2800_FBDIMMs_Apple_678-1x2.asp

I have a Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s . The beauty of this EWQL deal is that you get a free hard drive with all the samples installed. Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/3.5 to be exact. Heck, that's better than the one that came with my Mac Pro! I wonder if I should reinstall Logic's audio library into that hard drive... I don't think it will make much of a difference though.

Edit: I'll probably just purchase 6x2GB of RAM from Other World Computing. I know it's a reliable site, and 14GB should be more than enough.

Edit Edit: Should I go with the Symphonic Choir Bundle?

The Symphonic Choir expansion includes an integration of samples from Quantum Leap's old Voices of the Apocalypse library. VotA is and of itself a very old library, but I think it picks up the slack where Symphonic Choirs lacks, though this is coming from a user who does NOT have VotA.

Symphonic Choirs, honestly there is nothing like it because what it tries to do is bigger than any other developer dreams of doing--so much so that there are a slew of new choir libraries out there now that really don't even TRY to attempt what SC tried to attmept.

The problem with SC is that it is by and far out dated as far as samples go, but it's still the only choir that attempted anything NEAR having a choir that will say whatever you want it to say.

Let me put it this way: I have been hired to program choirs in Symphonic Choirs because it has a huge learning curve and most people don't want to waste their time with it. Despite the skill, I am still hiring a live choir next month for a project.

As far as the HDD is concerned, definitely worth giving it a shot. What I don't like about their deal is this: Hard Disks fail. What do you do when you want to install your software on to a new HDD? If that drive fails, you don't have back up DVDs.

Granted, installing that many DVDs blows--it'd be like 40+ DVDs for a collection like that. But it's good for back-up.

Additionally, I personally have something like... 300+ GB of samples that I use. I spread them liberally across 6 separate RAPTORS. That means 10krpm.

But you should see what kind of performance you get out of the Caviar first.

In my current rig, my choking point is my CPU: I have a 6-core 3.2Ghz CPU with 16GB of RAM and 8 HDDs (1 for OS, 1 for data, 6 for samples).

[Pyro Paper Planes]

If I could replicate the quality of the Metroid Prime's choir, I think I should be good. Here is an example of a choir intensive song:

Will it live up to that quality? Or will I need to invest in something else?

I assumed the bundle comes with the DVDs too. Is there really no way to reinstall the content?

Also, I'm worried my specs are not good enough. Is 14GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM enough to compensate in my case? Or should I go full out, and go with 28GB? Is it worth $1000? Should I maybe get a small SSD Hard Drive for the OS? My worry with that, is Logic is tied to the Hard Drive with the OS on it. I would need to get a 64GB SSD Hard Drive I suppose.

How's PLAY? Is it really as difficult as people say? I'm assuming the library is NOT compatible with Logic Studio in any way?

[Moseph]

If I could replicate the quality of the Metroid Prime's choir, I think I should be good. Here is an example of a choir intensive song:

Will it live up to that quality? Or will I need to invest in something else?

I assumed the bundle comes with the DVDs too. Is there really no way to reinstall the content?

Also, I'm worried my specs are not good enough. Is 14GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM enough to compensate in my case? Or should I go full out, and go with 28GB? Is it worth $1000?

How's PLAY? Is it really as difficult as people say? I'm assuming the library is NOT compatible with Logic Studio in any way?

Good Lord. You seriously don't need 28 gigs of RAM. Buy enough to expand to 8 gigs, or 10 if that makes you more comfortable. If you bottleneck, buy more. And you won't bottleneck unless you're doing crazy intense stuff. Dan's system is insanely high-end because he does insanely intensive work, and he's doing it professionally. What sort of projects are you intending to do? The only way you'll run into problems with 8 or 10 gigs is if you decide you need to load every instrument of EWQL, and several huge EWQL Choir patches, and a bunch of other stuff, and put several convolution reverbs on all of it.

For comparison, I load almost the entire Vienna Symphonic SE Plus library as my orchestra template (I think roughly comparable to the size of EWQL Symphonic) on 8 gigs (1066-DDR3) without any problems. The VSL software says I still have something like 2.6 gigs of memory still available. I can play Burnout: Paradise with this entire project minimized in the background, and I could probably load four word-builder voices in EWQL Choirs in addition without any problem.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

I think I'm going to go with the 6x2GB pack, giving me a total of 14GB of RAM. Any more RAM is probably redundant for my model of Mac Pro. If I ever need more RAM, I think I would probably be better off getting an new computer than anything.

I compose full projects in Logic Studio, using solely the EXS24 instruments that come with it. I find that 10 instruments open at a time, with space designer, tends to overload the CPU quite often. I mean full orchestra sounding instruments, such as Brass Section. I have a feeling though that it's actually due to the limited RAM, and not the CPU itself. When I check the Activity Monitor, I have no free RAM left.

Otherwise, I play TF2, and that's pretty much it for intensive programs. How expensive is VSL? From what I can tell, it's $2000. I think I might purchase that on a later date.

[Moseph]

How expensive is VSL? From what I can tell, it's $2000. I think I might purchase that on a later date.

The $2000 version you're thinking of probably includes the full sample sets for some of the instruments (making it more in-depth than EWQL Symphonic). The version that I use, VSL Special Edition with the Plus expansion (the bundle listed under the standard column here) is made up of selections from the larger body of VSL instruments and is more directly comparable to EWQL Symphonic. I think I paid about $700 (USD) for it when it was on sale a year or so ago; it's currently $865 or maybe slightly cheaper if you get it from a third-party retailer. SE without Plus is $420. The Plus expansion consists of more articulations. Obviously, you'd want to check their lists and see if you'd actually use the extra articulations before buying Plus.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

The $2000 version you're thinking of probably includes the full sample sets for some of the instruments (making it more in-depth than EWQL Symphonic). The version that I use, VSL Special Edition with the Plus expansion (the bundle listed under the standard column here) is made up of selections from the larger body of VSL instruments and is more directly comparable to EWQL Symphonic. I think I paid about $700 (USD) for it when it was on sale a year or so ago; it's currently $865 or maybe slightly cheaper if you get it from a third-party retailer. SE without Plus is $420. The Plus expansion consists of more articulations. Obviously, you'd want to check their lists and see if you'd actually use the extra articulations before buying Plus.

What version would you suggest if I'm getting the EWQLSOP+? Blimey these acronyms are getting long. ;>_>

[dannthr]

To be quite honest, EWQLSC's strength is actually when it's used with the thought that most choir music is pretty unintelligible.

If you want your choir to be big and distant sounding, then you can do a lot with EWQLSC.

It's also part of your bundle, so you're getting a deal.

Additionally, other choir libraries I might suggest that would be considered "better" sounding, but not necessarily as full featured to control, would require additional software.

You see, I am still using the old legacy Kontakt versions of most of my EWQL stuff. So with Symphonic Choirs, I often am chopping up the patches, applying my 3rd party scripts, etc. Doing things you can't do in PLAY (yet).

But there are a lot of options, this last year there were a lot of choir libraries out there. EWQL will be a good start, after that, look to expanding if you really find you need choir all the time.

It's far rarer than you think.

In fact, when I was in your situation, buying my first bit of gear back in 2006, I thought I would be using choir all the time, turned out I used RA far more often than Symphonic Choirs.

Sometimes the best libraries are the ones that let you just add a little character or twist to your cue that makes it stand out. That isn't always going to be choirs. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have choirs at your disposal when you need them, but you just don't need them all the time.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

To be quite honest, EWQLSC's strength is actually when it's used with the thought that most choir music is pretty unintelligible.

If you want your choir to be big and distant sounding, then you can do a lot with EWQLSC.

It's also part of your bundle, so you're getting a deal.

Additionally, other choir libraries I might suggest that would be considered "better" sounding, but not necessarily as full featured to control, would require additional software.

You see, I am still using the old legacy Kontakt versions of most of my EWQL stuff. So with Symphonic Choirs, I often am chopping up the patches, applying my 3rd party scripts, etc. Doing things you can't do in PLAY (yet).

But there are a lot of options, this last year there were a lot of choir libraries out there. EWQL will be a good start, after that, look to expanding if you really find you need choir all the time.

It's far rarer than you think.

In fact, when I was in your situation, buying my first bit of gear back in 2006, I thought I would be using choir all the time, turned out I used RA far more often than Symphonic Choirs.

Sometimes the best libraries are the ones that let you just add a little character or twist to your cue that makes it stand out. That isn't always going to be choirs. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have choirs at your disposal when you need them, but you just don't need them all the time.

That's the strength I'm looking for in EWQLSC. I like unintelligible lyrics.

Is there a single vocalist voice in there too?

I have to admit, I'm not very good at modifying instruments. I find they usually sound good as they are. I might mess a little with the reverb, but anything else, such as EQ, I usually leave alone. Hopefully, there's a university course that can help me with this.

[dannthr]

That's the strength I'm looking for in EWQLSC. I like unintelligible lyrics.

Is there a single vocalist voice in there too?

I have to admit, I'm not very good at modifying instruments. I find they usually sound good as they are. I might mess a little with the reverb, but anything else, such as EQ, I usually leave alone. Hopefully, there's a university course that can help me with this.

SC comes with solo Treble, a solo Soprano, and a solo Alto.

If you want to be hands off in the mixing dept, then EW is the way to go, VSL will pretty much demand that you work a bit harder to mix stuff together.

I would suggest experimenting when you get them though, it'll come to you.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

SC comes with solo Treble, a solo Soprano, and a solo Alto.

If you want to be hands off in the mixing dept, then EW is the way to go, VSL will pretty much demand that you work a bit harder to mix stuff together.

I would suggest experimenting when you get them though, it'll come to you.

Thank you so much for your help. I really wish there was a way to make up for guys like you.

I'll get the 12GB of RAM, and the EWQL Complete Collection, with the following software:

- Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus

- EastWest/Quantum Leap Pianos

- Symphonic Choirs Bundle

- Quantum Leap Gypsy

- Quantum Leap SILK

- Ministry of Rock

- Stormdrum 2

Thanks again.

[Moseph]

What version would you suggest if I'm getting the EWQLSOP+? Blimey these acronyms are getting long. ;>_>

I haven't used SO Platinum, so I'm not sure exactly how it compares to SE Plus. My own experience with SE Plus, though, is that it gives a good base to work from as far as orchestral instruments are concerned, and I don't feel like I would have any particular need for an additional all-in-one orchestra library such as SO Platinum -- it would basically just give me another library that does what I can already do. I expect you'll probably feel the same way about SO Platinum, and that you may not have a need for VSL SE.

When I have the money to expand my collection of libraries, I'm going to focus on deeper sampling for specific instruments to complement the specific weaknesses I've found in SE Plus rather than getting additional generalized libraries. E.g. I would sooner spend $500 on a strings-only library than on a second complete orchestra library.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

Okay, so EWQL just came out with Hollywood Strings. I don't plan on getting this for the moment, as it's expensive. It's a beautiful library though.

The point is, I'm looking at the system requirements... and ohh boy. Recommended 8GB, Optimal 16GB... of DDR3 RAM. And an SSD Hard Drive that at least 310 GB of space. Combine the slow RAM of my Mac Pro with the slow CPU speed...

What I'm asking is this: Should I add 24GB of RAM to my Mac Pro for the meantime, and hope to run it later? Or should I simply forget about it, stick with 14GB, and worry about Hollywood Strings in three years time?

I think this might be a good time to mention that I'm a first year university student. ;>_>

Thankfully, I CAN afford all of this. But yes, what are your opinions at the moment?

[Moseph]

I'd say just get what you need for now. By the time you're in a position to buy Hollywood Strings or something like it, the price on new computers will have come down, etc. It's just not worth spending all that money to upgrade for a program that you might run at some point in the indeterminate future, because every minute you hold off on buying the upgrade makes its price fall, and you might end up not needing the upgrade anyway, or you might decide at that point that you're better off buying a whole new system.

Besides that, this is RAM we're talking about. You have eight RAM slots. If you find you don't have enough RAM, then just buy more. It's totally not something you need to do right now even if it does turn out that you'll need it in the future.

Also, consider the learning curve of these libraries. I'm not sure how complicated the Logic instruments you're used to using are, but programming good performances with large sample libraries can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you aren't familiar with using keyswitches, editing MIDI CC values, and programming automation. The thought of using Hollywood Strings effectively is daunting even to me, and I've been doing this sort of thing for several years.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

I'd say just get what you need for now. By the time you're in a position to buy Hollywood Strings or something like it, the price on new computers will have come down, etc. It's just not worth spending all that money to upgrade for a program that you might run at some point in the indeterminate future, because every minute you hold off on buying the upgrade makes its price fall, and you might end up not needing the upgrade anyway, or you might decide at that point that you're better off buying a whole new system.

Besides that, this is RAM we're talking about. You have eight RAM slots. If you find you don't have enough RAM, then just buy more. It's totally not something you need to do right now even if it does turn out that you'll need it in the future.

Also, consider the learning curve of these libraries. I'm not sure how complicated the Logic instruments you're used to using are, but programming good performances with large sample libraries can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you aren't familiar with using keyswitches, editing MIDI CC values, and programming automation. The thought of using Hollywood Strings effectively is daunting even to me, and I've been doing this sort of thing for several years.

Fair enough. If I go with the 2GB sticks, I won't be be able to upgrade the system without taking RAM out of it. That, and DDR2 RAM will probably get more expensive from here on in. As you say though, 14GB is probably enough for this model of Mac Pro.

So I'm guessing I can't simply import this library into Logic Studio? And no, I'm not familiar with Keyswitches or MIDI CC values. I do have experience with note velocities and automation though. I hope PLAY isn't as glitchy as they say it is for Mac. And PLAY is compatible with MIDI, right?

if I'm to sell my work, would I be increasing the price due to I'm using a more advance studio, or simply use this to my selling advantage?

I also have a Korg M3. I assume I can use it with PLAY. Actually, that's something I need to try with Logic too

Man, I have way too many questions, lol.

[dannthr]

Fair enough. If I go with the 2GB sticks, I won't be be able to upgrade the system without taking RAM out of it. That, and DDR2 RAM will probably get more expensive from here on in. As you say though, 14GB is probably enough for this model of Mac Pro.

So I'm guessing I can't simply import this library into Logic Studio? And no, I'm not familiar with Keyswitches or MIDI CC values. I do have experience with note velocities and automation though. I hope PLAY isn't as glitchy as they say it is for Mac. And PLAY is compatible with MIDI, right?

if I'm to sell my work, would I be increasing the price due to I'm using a more advance studio, or simply use this to my selling advantage?

I also have a Korg M3. I assume I can use it with PLAY. Actually, that's something I need to try with Logic too

Man, I have way too many questions, lol.

PLAY is a sample-software that responds to MIDI. MIDI is how you will be communicating to PLAY and you will want to explore producing MIDI mock-ups more deeply.

A lot of the gorgeous Hollywood Strings demos you hear are done by one man, and he is considered by many to be one of the worlds best MIDI mock-uppers. So you have to take the demos by TJ with a grain of salt.

I will say that a friend recently got his hands on Hollywood Strings, he's a concert violinist and a composer and whoo-boy, he really knows how to handle the library. But his background as a violinist helps him knock-out great mock-ups that really sing true to the strings natural sound.

Hollywood Strings is a beast, in fact, so is QL Pianos (if that's the regular version).

The benefits to EW over VSL are that EW is built to be essentially mixed out-of-the-box. It's going for a great out-of-the-box sound, and so, for beginners it's a great place to start.

The benefits to VSL over EW are that their samples, specifically their wood-wind samples, can be really, very fine! And more-over, to look at the other side of the coin, you are not LOCKED into a specific mixed sound, you have a little more flex as to how you want your piece to sound.

EW's deal is hard to beat though.

As far as RAM, my opinion is this. Considering that your mobo has an old skool bus speed, I would say, only get what you need for right now, and avoid sinking money into a computer that you're best replacing in a year or two anyway.

When I was like you, and built my machine in 2006, I used DDR2 800 mobos because I knew they'd be around for a while. Whenever I build a new machine, I try to make sure that what I'm using will be around in 2+ years so that parts for upgrades are cheap and accessible.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

PLAY is a sample-software that responds to MIDI. MIDI is how you will be communicating to PLAY and you will want to explore producing MIDI mock-ups more deeply.

A lot of the gorgeous Hollywood Strings demos you hear are done by one man, and he is considered by many to be one of the worlds best MIDI mock-uppers. So you have to take the demos by TJ with a grain of salt.

I will say that a friend recently got his hands on Hollywood Strings, he's a concert violinist and a composer and whoo-boy, he really knows how to handle the library. But his background as a violinist helps him knock-out great mock-ups that really sing true to the strings natural sound.

Hollywood Strings is a beast, in fact, so is QL Pianos (if that's the regular version).

The benefits to EW over VSL are that EW is built to be essentially mixed out-of-the-box. It's going for a great out-of-the-box sound, and so, for beginners it's a great place to start.

The benefits to VSL over EW are that their samples, specifically their wood-wind samples, can be really, very fine! And more-over, to look at the other side of the coin, you are not LOCKED into a specific mixed sound, you have a little more flex as to how you want your piece to sound.

EW's deal is hard to beat though.

As far as RAM, my opinion is this. Considering that your mobo has an old skool bus speed, I would say, only get what you need for right now, and avoid sinking money into a computer that you're best replacing in a year or two anyway.

When I was like you, and built my machine in 2006, I used DDR2 800 mobos because I knew they'd be around for a while. Whenever I build a new machine, I try to make sure that what I'm using will be around in 2+ years so that parts for upgrades are cheap and accessible.

Yes, when I got the Mac Pro, I didn't know too much about computers. Now that I've been around them for a while, I have a better understanding of them.

I am a self-taught pianist, who's been playing for ten years. I might not be able to play a piece as well as someone who's been trained for ten years, but I can still hold my own.

EW sounds like it's perfect for me. And as for RAM, I'll stick with the 14GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM. That should be more than enough, according to the system requirements.

[Kanthos]

And no, I'm not familiar with Keyswitches or MIDI CC values. I do have experience with note velocities and automation though.

These are just standard MIDI terms. Keyswitching is when the sample player (PLAY in this case) responds to a particular note by switching the articulation of the samples it's using instead of playing the note. For example, your string sounds in PLAY might have C0 - legato, C#0 - staccato, D0 - tremolo, etc. By default, you might get a legato sound, but send a D0 into PLAY and subsequent notes will play in a tremolo sound.

MIDI CCs are a numbered message sent to indicate the value of a particular control. For example, the sustain pedal is universally CC #64. The pedal itself can send a range from 0 to 127 (0 meaning fully up, 127 meaning fully down; some physical pedals ONLY send the 0 and 127 values), but for the receiving MIDI device to know what to do with that value, it needs the CC number. Other common ones are CC #1 for the mod wheel, CC #11 for the expression pedal, and CC #7 for volume.

Typically, you won't need to know too much about MIDI CCs, other than that they're used. Your M3 will use all the CCs I mentioned in the standard way (I have a Korg TR that I've been using for a few years, so if you've got any MIDI-related questions about the M3, odds are I can answer them for you since the MIDI implementation is virtually the same). As long as you know the basics, what a CC is, then it won't be hard to figure out which CCs PLAY cares about.

[Kanthos]

Anyone who has EWQLSO Gold: I just got my copy delivered today, and I notice they seem to have given me both Gold and Silver (the first two CDs say Gold/Silver on them). Do I actually need to install Silver as well as Gold, or is it just that those first two CDs contain the parts of Gold that are also included in Silver?

[Arcana]

So I'm guessing I can't simply import this library into Logic Studio? And no, I'm not familiar with Keyswitches or MIDI CC values. I do have experience with note velocities and automation though. I hope PLAY isn't as glitchy as they say it is for Mac. And PLAY is compatible with MIDI, right?

Note: I am not even close to as experienced with music as the others replying in this thread, but I have the Play! free edition and it loads up in Logic Studio like any AU might.

You can set up the channel strip to send the MIDI channels you want to the Play engine and trigger whatever instruments are on those respective channels. It's all MIDI. I don't have Logic open atm so I can't step through the instructions but I can guide you through it if you need more help.

As for the Play Engine itself, I find that it's "okay". I've had a couple projects though get totally corrupted when using it though, but they've upgraded the Play engine quite a bit. Word on the street is that they actually try to optimize for Mac OS more than Windows, but I don't know if that's true.

So yes it works, but as with anything you do keep backups handy (since you're on a Mac you should have Time Machine backing up your computer every few hours).

[Pyro Paper Planes]

Should I be purchasing another external hard drive as backup for the new sample hard drive? And I assume I can use the MIDI notes within Logic to use with the instruments?

[Moseph]

Should I be purchasing another external hard drive as backup for the new sample hard drive?

If you're getting the EWQL already-on-the-drive bundle, I'd email them to ask what happens if the drive fails and see what they say before you buy a backup drive. I can't imagine they'd sell the drives at all without providing some sort of backup protection -- my guess is that if the drive failed, since you already have the license, they'd let you buy the DVDs really cheap or something like that.

EDIT: This seems like it would be a common question, so they might already have the answer posted somewhere on the site.

And I assume I can use the MIDI notes within Logic to use with the instruments?

Yes.

[Pyro Paper Planes]

Hey guys, so I've made the order! I went with 14GB of RAM. It was the best price vs. performance ratio. If something requires more RAM than that, it will probably be bottlenecked by the CPU anyway.

I also went with the software I posted up above. It says it'll arrive in one day, and I'm using FedEx, so I wonder if it will arrive tomorrow or Wedneday... both will be lovely distractions for my midterm on Wednesday. :3

Thanks again guys. You really helped me out, and you are all totally this guy:

[dannthr]

Hey guys, so I've made the order! I went with 14GB of RAM. It was the best price vs. performance ratio. If something requires more RAM than that, it will probably be bottlenecked by the CPU anyway.

I also went with the software I posted up above. It says it'll arrive in one day, and I'm using FedEx, so I wonder if it will arrive tomorrow or Wedneday... both will be lovely distractions for my midterm on Wednesday. :3

Thanks again guys. You really helped me out, and you are all totally this guy:

Congratulations, man.