Mello

Real-time Software Synthesizers

I'm a new ibook owner (192 Mb ram, 500 Mhz, 10 gig), and I plan to add the M-audio quattro to my rig soon (USB 24-bit 4 in/out, 1x1 midi connection). I've got a Kurzweil SP-76. While the Kurzweil has a good feel to it, and lovely pianos, my heart has always belonged to analog synths and organs when it comes to the keyboard. I'm noticed that the software synthesizers seem to be much less expensive than their hardware counterparts. I play bass in a band, and I occasionally play a little piano, but I don't use the Kurzweil much on stage because it's built-in organ is weak. I've been thinking about getting Native Instruments B4 hammond organ softsynth. And then choosing from the amazing number of analog synthesizer softsynths out there. I've heard there can be a bit of a latency problem. People have told me that the standard apple ASIO gives an 11.6 ms. latency, but that third party ASIOs can lower this time to 7ms. Is this a problem? I'd love to hear from people who are doing this. I don't really have an appreciation for what 11.6 ms. of latency would do to live performance. I also don't know what kind of latency (if any) you get from dedicated hardware - i.e. redsound's Darkstar. Should I be messing around with these softsynths. I really am not as interested in them for recording as I am for live performance. If any of them are worth my time, which ones? I'd love to save a little cash, but if the softsynths just can't handle live performance then that's really money wasted. Thanks for the help.

Hey out there,

I'm a musician looking to get an audio recording setup going on a new ibook (500Mhz., 192 MB Ram, 10 gig drive) I just ordered. Eventually I want to add midi as I do play a Kurzweil SP-76 keyboard, but mainly I'm a bass player and need to replace an aging four track for my band. I don't have much money to spend so it looks like I'm going to be stuck with the imic audio I/O. I've read all the posts to this forum and it sounds like protools free won't work with the imic. What other good, cheap, audio recording software do you all reccommend (I'd love a MOTU 828 into Cubase 32, but I just don't have the cash). I have about $250 to spend total. Right now I'm planning on getting a Behringer eurorack Mixer and running that into the imic. Then using Cubasis VST 2.0 to record the actual tracks. The total price for this setup looks to be about $215. Should I be looking at other hardware configurations instead? The mixer is key as I need to get 2 drum mics, 2 vocal mics, guitar, bass, and keyboard in all at once. I'd love to record separate tracks, but it looks like that's not possible in my price range. Any reccommendations would be appreciated. The UA-30 and Egosys inputs don't look like they do any more than the imic, but cost 6 times as much. If I'm wrong about this, please educate me.

rtpeyton@ukans.edu