Fran, I am doing relatively well given what I had to deal with in the last 5 or so years:

My wife passed away
My dog passed away
I had my hips replaced

You never get used to this but I think eventually I will accept this to as part of life!!!

I have fairly robust computers (General Purpose and a Music Computer). So I can put a great deal of stress on them and still don't notice any lags or latency of any kind. Both machines are powerful enough that I can set the latency at the lowest levels available in the software (ASIO, forte and so on). Bandstands takes a little longer to set up then Halion Sonic but they are up and running there are no delays with instrument changes. Also Halion is a 13 GB wavetable compared to Bandstand at around 2 or 3 GBs.

Fran thanks for checking in on me.

Frank

Fran, I should have mentioned that Bandstand has a Quickload feature which decreases the load time when you first launch Bandstand. This would not impact instrument changes during a performance. I have a feeling that the whole of Bandstand gets loaded into memory .... sssuming you have enough memory installed in your computer. I definitly have enough memory in my computers.

Frank

Hi Frank,
congratulations on your new system.

How's it all working for you? It certainly took me some time to sort out my software with win 7.

Rikki, it sounds very good indeed. The whole system is stable and could safely be taken to a live performance.

There is one area I would like to improve and that is the vocal harmonizer. I am still using DecaBuddy. It must be 20 years old and hasn't been supported by Akai for many many years. I tried Antares' Harmonizers and I get a total system crash. There are many others out there. So I will keep looking and trying. The problem with Antares could be linked with using forte as my host. These two need to work things out.

Rikki, thanks for checking.

Frank

Hi Frank,
I'm sort of putting my system back together again. Took me about 6 months to get it up & running. Dropped my laptop, broke my hardrive, discovered my usb backup was corrupt. eek

Anyway, may have to learn how to use Livestyler, I'm looking at Groove XR, apparently Livestyler is an option.

Rikki, just use software and foresake all those who use hardware based arrangers. Sadly, you will end up with fewer friends.....oh well!!!

Frank

Hi Frank,
I'm sort of dabbling with both. Software & hardware. Gives me something to do. haahaa

Frank, really nice specs! I'm on just 4GB of RAM, thinking I might need more for those Kontakt banks.

Rikki, how's vArranger treating you? Looking for a better alternative to LS / OMB.

Rikki, I to would like your views on the vArranger vs LS. Can the vArranger handle Yamaha Styles and a GM Wavetable for the accompaniment voices/instruments?

Rikki, you should just give up and use software based arranger systems!!!!

Frank

What about Akai GM Wavetables? What is an excellent GM Wavetable? Where can I acquire it?

I currently use:

Halion Sonic
Bandstand
Soundfonts - SGM 2.01

I find these to be very good. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Frank