UD & Fran, I am mostly trying to have some fun at your expense. I might even be a little jealeous about all this equipment that floats around you guys.

On a serious note though - I like my software based system and if I can help someone succeed with theirs always makes my day. As you know I an getting old and infirm and it is hard getting around. This lets me get around - sort of.

Also I want to make it clear that I am advocating the software based system as only one more alternative to check out. Young people just getting into the business may find this interesting. People who primarily work at home or in a studio my find this alternative suitable, etc., etc.

I can see people having problems setting up their systems. I would venture a guess that most of these problems have to do with user understanding of the operating systems and the associated music applications. I think it takes a significant investment in time and some money to get a truly successful software based system. I can setup most peoples systems within 5 to 10 hours. This would include tweaking about 10 styles so they can at least get started.

In fact, I will likely build a system for a guy who plays in a high class night club and the local book store coffee shop. It is mostly jazz & swing with some singing. He took a look/listen at my system and wants it. So we will likely start with his laptop (don't know what it is) and his Kurzweil keyboard and add the following:

External hard drive and soundcard
B4
Kontakt with PMI Grand Piano, Scarbee 73 Rhodes, Scarbee Bass, Garitan Strings, some brass (sax, trumpet, mutes) and GM500 drum kits, Acoustic & Jazz Guitar. I will convert some to soundfont so that they can be put in a wavetable and played with LiveSynth Pro.
Host - forte
Live - Styler to occasionally play the drums with bass (the odd time a little brass thrown in). He will likely play the bass with his Roland Pk5 Bass Pedals. He will also make use of midi files - on very rare occasions.

I am sure I left out some stuff which I will discover once I start setting it up but you can get the general idea of it. Plus he is a very good musician (classically trained and then some). He played this approach on my system and as I said before was taken by the quality of it. He likes quality in the places where he performs. To set this up after acquiring all the software and hardware would only take about 5 hours for it to work reliably. This will always sound like the same band which shows up to put on a quality show. I can't get over it.

This forum and this activity keeps me excited!!!


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 10-17-2004).]

Hi ,
I must admit I sometimes wonder why young people end up buying arranger keyboards to create modern dance type music ( rap, techno all that sort of stuff, unless of course they want the keyboard for live playing ) After having a browse through some of the software available ie fruityloops, sonar, acid etc the demo's created from some of these programs are fantastic.

I like the arranger concept ( be it software or hardware based ) because I enjoy playing even if it's only to entertain myself. I personally don't record anything except for the odd backing sequencing to play along to.

On the other hand, if I had enough talent to compose/record, I'd be software based. The sequencers, the software samplers, the programs mentioned above, stuff one could have only dreamed about 10/15 years ago, and it can be a fairly inexpensive way to go provided one already owns a reasonable computer. Best part is, most of these programs have demo's , so one can try before they buy.

best wishes
Rikki


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Frank L. Rosenthal:

[B]
Also I want to make it clear that I am advocating the software based system as only one more alternative to check out. Young people just getting into the business may find this interesting. People who primarily work at home or in a studio my find this alternative suitable, etc., etc.