I am and have been a Ketron user & former demonstrator.. So I will give my side of how the hard drive is utilized .. I'd like to hear how every one else utilizes their hard drives.... T2 gives you audio recording, but what else ?

When the SD1 came out in 2000/2001 ... The unique thing they did was syncipate audio with midi by streamlining a audio loop directly from the hard-drive. The sample would stay musically correct, even if you slowed the tempo or changed the key in real time... I am certain that more wav.sync
stream-lining from the hard drive is key to the AUDYA...
Ketron also utilizes the hard drive to save and access additional styles from the hard drive and ofcoarse store and play midi files directly from the hard-drive..

Curios..how is everyone using their hard drives or media storage ?

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http://www.esnips.com/web/SongsfromDanO
ketrondan@yahoo.com

Hi DanO1
I think you are getting confused with the term Disc Streaming, which was introduced with the Gigasampler Software around the late 90s. (Cant remember the exact year)
Here is a general description.
Most sounds in keyboards etc use samples, which are recordings of different parts of real instruments, and so when you press the key you actually play back a recording of the instrument, the more samples that can be taken the more accurate the sound becomes, (IE instead of sampling each octave of a piano you sample each key) unfortunately this also requires more memory, (Which with high quality Piano samples can be 2GB or more just for 1 voice) now as an arranger has 100s of voices, this would require masses amount of memory (And is currently not practical) to get really top notch sounds to play in real time. (Other methods are now starting to become available)
A hard disk can have masses amount of storage capacity, but it takes time to get the sound off the disk, which means real time play is not possible.
What Giga sampler introduced was a technique that loaded the first part of the sound of each note permanently into Ram, giving the Hard Disk time to load (Stream) in the rest of the sample, which then allows the use of multiple high quality samples in real time.
All this was done on standard computer systems, and so could not be loaded into bespoke hardware arrangers, but could be incorporated into software arrangers, (Which contain a standard computer) the only physical arrangers that I know of at present that can do this, are Wersi and Lionstracs. (Disc streaming on the Wersi became an option in about 2001/2002)
Hope this helps

Bill

A hard disk can have masses amount of storage capacity, but it takes time to get the sound off the disk, which means real time play is not possible.


you can sync wav samples with SD1 ..

I think I'll post an example on You tube...

A hard disk can have masses amount of storage capacity, but it takes time to get the sound off the disk, which means real time play is not possible.
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I'm not too sure that's true. Actually doesn't the Mediastation allow this? I'm pretty sure it streams from disk as well. Or I could be completely missing the point here

Didn't Gem have something called Real Audio Synchro Style (RASS) features in the late 90's?

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http://www.myspace.com/mychrisvalenti

Chris Valenti on itunes
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=212635753

Here's what Aj had to say ...


When you press a key on the keyboard to play a sound, if the entire sound is on the hard drive and is only accessed when you press the key (AUDIO STREAMING), then there will be about 2seconds delay before you hear the sound ... not practical for Arrangers. However if the sound is copied from the refridgerator (HD) to the table (memory) and you go to play the sound (eat), it only now takes nano-seconds before you hear the sound (in most cases the delay is bearly noticeable to the human ear!!).

SD1 - The SD1 already has the AUDIO loops loaded into MEMORY. Whenever you recall a style (behind the scenes the SD1 immediatily points to the associated wave file already in memory) before you have time to play a note. The only audio product that currently fully utilizes AUDIO STREMING (i.e playing instantly from the Hard drive) is the MIDIJAY. When you go to play a wave or Mp3 (or even a Midi), the midijay plays as the song comes into memory ... in real time (which is why you see the HD light flashing as the song plays ... because it is reading and playing at the same time!!.

GEM was always a head of the game.... They had notation & lyrics displayed on the screen before anyone...
Back in 1996 - 97 -98 Chris Anthony was the demo guy for GEM.. He is one of the 1st guys I saw who could really make audio syncipation work... If you ever hear that Chris Anthony is doing a demo in your town... Go See Him !




[This message has been edited by DanO1 (edited 04-06-2007).]

My original post still stands.
When a file is requested from the hard drive, the OS of the keyboard looks in the file table to find where the file is stored, it then moves the head to the position on the hard drive where the file is located, (Each of the samples in a sound has its own location) and then proceeds to load the file into memory, (Multiple files in the case of sound samples) now as the hard drive is mechanical, there is no way this can happen fast enough to be able to play samples direct off the hard disk in real time.
Midjay just plays the wav or mp3 the same as a CD player plays a CD, which is not classed as disc streaming.
SD 1 (Like most other keyboards) has to load the complete loop or sound into memory completely before it can be played, Gigasampler does not, as it combines the 2.
As an example the Colossus VST has a sample set consisting of 160 sounds, and would require a total memory of 32 GB to load all the sounds in, which is not currently practical, (Don’t confuse MB with GB) Disc streaming solves this problem.
As in my previous post the only 2 physical arrangers (That I know of) that can perform true disc streaming are Wersi and Lionstracs.
I hope this clarifies my previous post.

Bill

Originally Posted by Squeak_D

I'm not too sure that's true. Actually doesn't the Mediastation allow this? I'm pretty sure it streams from disk as well. Or I could be completely missing the point here

Mediastation uses Gigasampler for disc streaming of the Onboard Giga Samples.
Hope this clarifies

Bill