Hi Guys,
I'm back, my laptop's up & running.
I thought I'd fried it.
Hubby's been stuck in bed for the last couple of months, so we weren't able to make the 2 hour trip to sydney to see if it was repairable.

Rang Dell to find out where to take it. The techie had me pulling it apart over the phone, removing battery, pushing buttons, then removing hardrive , then the memory chips. Still looked dead with just an occasional flicker.
At the end of it all, I was offered an extension to my warranty & they'd fix it. $1,000AUD for the 1 year extension.
I decided no, as for an extra $400 to $500 I'd get a brand new one with 1gig memory ( instead 0f 512mb, dvd burner & double size hardrive.

Anyway with nothing to lose I kept unplugging & swapping round the memory chips. All of a sudden it sprang back to life. So fingers crossed.

Best part is , I've got all my soundfont edits back & backed up this time, so I haven't lost months worth of work.

I'll give it a few more days, ( hopefully still working) and then I'll consider upgrading the memory & try & decide what new softsynths to add to the system.

Keep the suggestions rolling.

best wishes
Rikki

Fran, I still hope that NI's updates on Bandstand will make it a very worthy contender. There is talk of being able to edit voices in kontakt and being able to replace instruments with those of your choice. So I plan on staying with Bandstand. If you play in high end restaurants or book stores then the slow loading of Bandstand is not as much of an issue but for anything else it is. In general, I like the sound of Bandstand and given I am heavily invested in NI I will stay with it.

I should add that Bandstand does have the direct from disk streaming but even with this feature turned on the loading times are to slow.


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 04-26-2006).]

Given that LiveSynth Pro is out of production, I could make a copy available to those who require it. I would agree with Bluezplayer that SynthFont is a very good choice/alternative.

Thanks guys...I am going to wait ..till Banstand is more favorable..

AJ, I downloaded the last font player and it does work..For some reason the downloaded SGM180 fonts can not be found..I must have installed it wrong..Since you recently installed it again...can you detail how you installed from the time you open the zip file?

I played the Kennith player with the small font size wavs, but want to check out the larger SGM180.

Frank I would appreciate a copy..I would like to check it out..Thanks

I simply unzipped SGM180 into it's own folder in my Vst Plug in folder ( You could use any directory you choose ). Then in Synth Font's file menu, near the bottom it asks for default Font. just go to whereever you placed SGM180 and select it.

Fran, Synth Font is a good app, but I recommend Live Synth Pro over it. It's so straightforward to use, and the SGM180 actually sounds better in it. Why ? because the SGM180 also comes with built in Reverb and Chorus effects that will be activated and adjusted as per the data each particular midi file sends it. All you need to do is check the boxes in LSP for Chorus and Reverb.

Synth Font does not automatically use the included effects in SGM180, although you could add your own Vst effects. LSP is just more straightforward to use. Set it ( pick your Soundfont ) and Forget it.

It has been a long time since I downloaded it, so I'm also not certain whether SGM180 unzips to an SF2 file or a SF ark file. If it is SF2, it should load right up in your SF player, but if it's the latter, then you will need the SF ark extraction tool to get the Soundfont into it's proper state. The tool is available at either SF2Midi.com or Soundfont.it .

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-26-2006).]

Great news Rikki. Congratulations on getting it going.
Starkeeper

AJ..success..I got the SGM180 to work with Kenneth's program..It does sound good, maybe not as full and punchy as Hyper Canvas..Very similar sounding to the VSCDXi..
Is there a way to run the fonts in the background and select from the explorer window...rather than with in the Player program window?

If Frank sends me the other program , I will give it a try with SGM180..

Fran,
You have new mail. (LSP)
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 04-26-2006).]

SGM180 Free
Hyper Canvas $169.99
Hypersonic 2 $300.00. It also comes with a standalone version. (No need of vst host).
Starkeeper