Yes, and I also agree with Clif. A number of live performers are going this route.

Clif, it is interesting that you are running forte. I have finished testing forte 1.3 Beta 3 and it seems to work very well. It does a far better job with VoiceMachine (Generator & Processer) as compared with Cubase SX. There is far less delay. There is still some and hence I prefer to use DecaBuddy.

And there are more interesting things for forte in the future.

[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 10-14-2003).]

Frank, what is the feature described for the Live-Styler Ver 4.0: "You can load a Soundblaster soundfont directly". Is this the version you are using ?
http://www.live-styler.de/news.html

oleg7, I have not tested this feature but yes you can load soundfonts or soundfont wavetables. I believe the accompaniment cannot use these soundfonts but your left hand and right hand keyboard voices can. I have used version 4.0 for a while and am currently testing version 5.0.

I guess from my perspective, I would prefer a style player which focuses primarily on the accompaniment and less on these esoteric features. With forte Ensemble or other hosts and software synths these features become superfluous. Some of the other arranger/workstation type features may be interesting, e.g., harmonies, play mp3 or midi clips, etc.

I would even take a good XG to GM conversion over some of these features.

Frank, I am using Forte thanks to you. I needed something to run VSTs. I first tried Cubasis, which cost $100. I assumed since it was Steinberg (who created the VST and ASIO specs), it would work well. But it had latencies on the order of a second! I read the earlier posts in this thread and decided to try Forte. I downloaded Solo (Free), and the Ensemble (Demo). I highly recommend Forte Solo as a free program to test VSTs for those who do not have something else. I have downloaded DeccaBuddy, but haven't tried it yet. I look forward to future versions of Brainspawn and I appreciate your inputs to them, because they serve my purposes as well.

BTW: Harmony-Central has a press release on the 64-bit NeKo (name has been changed) from Open Systems. Maybe Donny will repost the kewl picture here or in a new thread.

[This message has been edited by Clif Anderson (edited 10-15-2003).]

Clif, Akai DecaBuddy seems to do an excellent job. You can create nice rich harmonies using either midi notes or fixed harmonies. There is no noticable latency when using it in forte Ensemble (or even in Cubase SX - Amazing).

It has been a long time since I first started using DecaBuddy but if my memory serves me right there were some glitches in the demo and the purchased versions. I phoned Akai and they made an updated version available (v1.01) and everything has worked well ever since. If you go this route make sure you get the updated version and if necessary contact me.

[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 10-15-2003).]

Frank,
I hope all is progressing well.
I just read that Halion2 has program
change capability. Have you checked this
out yet and if it works properly with Yamaha
drums?

Vquestor, things are going very well. I expect to see a new Beta version for forte soon. Although for my purposes everything is working very well indeed. Further, there should be a new version of Live-Styler soon with some interesting new features. For me the harmony feature is of some interest.

I just installed an update for Sonar 3.0 and it has some problems. I noticed the update page in Cakewalk has suddenly disappeard. This is a bit of a pain. With Sonar 3.0, I have VSampler 3.01 but have not spent a whole lot of time with it as yet. It provides an option to LiveSynth Pro should I need to use it.

I have not got Halion v2.0. So I cannot say how well it will work with respect to program changes or drums. My guess is that the same issues will apply with respect to the drums, i.e., XG vs GM compatibility. Halion, however, is receiving very good reviews. Should LiveSynth Pro become a less desireable alternative then moving towards Halion for both the Accompaniment and the Lead/Melody voices looks very appealing. This would need some testing - Halion is expensive.

Frank, Thanks for you advice.
Is it still possible to get livesynth pro for purchase or for free?
I've tried live-styler. It looks promising for live use but I'm havig problems with chord recognition and with transpose.
Is this a demo limitation or a hardware conflict?
I e-mailed live-styler but I still havn't recieved an answer yet.
Maybe I sent it to the wrong e-mail address.
What is the address I'm supposed to send it to?

Jick

Jick Duck, here is my response to your questions:

I do not know of a way to purchase LiveSynth Pro. It may become available again.

I am not certain what you mean by having transpose & chord recognition problems with Live - Styler. If you want to transpose the style voices you can do that in a style editor. If you mean the right/left hand voices then that should be possible utilizing the UM1, UM2, etc. shift buttons. I generally do not use this feature and prefer instead to use Kontakt for my lead/melody voices. In this case, I either transpose in forte Ensemble or in Kontakt.

If you wish to contact Norbert Stellberg concerning Live - Styler, then the followign E-mail address should work:

Norbert Stellberg@stellberg.de



[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 10-29-2003).]

Thanks Frank, It's a shame about livesynth pro. No way to get it.
About live-Styler, I mean the transpose buttons in the main live-styler window.
The instructions state:

Transposer:
These two buttons allow you to transpose the played notes. The accompaniment is also affected by the transposition. The display between the buttons shows your actual value by which you are transposing.

I'll try it out again and see if I can sort things out.

Anyhow, Thanks for your help,
Jick