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From: Jim Cochrane on 30 Jan 2010 03:42
(Sorry for the late response.)

On 2010-01-25, Gorril <gorril(a)mail.com> wrote:
> On 2010-01-23 07:36:52 +1000, Jim Cochrane
><allergic-to-spam(a)no-spam-allowed.invalid> said:
>>
>> After doing some research last year into the available options on Linux
>> for software-synthesizer technology, I decided that the best option
>> was to go with an external synthesizer. I'm using a Yamaha Motif XS 6.
>> It has some good sounds, especially piano and organ and related sounds.
>> Some of the winds and strings sounds are not bad - workable for me at
>> this point; but I will want something better at some point and I think
>> it's possible to purchase some better sounds for the instrument. I need
>> to look into that further.
>
> The XS 6 is good but it is external and unless you are a live performer
> it goes against the use of an uber-powerful PC as the DAW, you don't
> need all the RAM and horsepower if you are driving an external synth.

I don't think it matters, particularly, whether the sound source is
internal or external as long as it performs as expected. I've not
noticed any delay or latency with the XS as the sound source and I think
its sounds are good enough, for now, for my purposes. I'd like to get
some better sounds at some point and I think better (more realistic)
sounds for the XS can be purchased, but I need to research how good
the sounds are and how affordable they are. (And even with an external
sound source, I still have plenty of use for 64-bit power. For example,
on my P4 Rosegarden is pretty slow at rendering in music notation
a complex score. I expect the new system to be much faster at this.
Also, I'm expecting better real-time performance for MIDI recording and
playback, and audio recording.)

I suspect that the best solution, as far as quality of sounds as well
as flexibility, is to run a software synth with high-quality sampled
sounds on the music workstation (which I think is what you're implying)
and I will probably go that route at some point (not for a year or two,
I think). But for now I think the XS will suffice (although I may experiment
some with what's available on Linux for software synths).

When I start to focus on internally-generated sounds, I'm hoping that
by that time Linux will have caught up to Windows/OSX enough to be a
satisfactory solution. If not, virtualization may provide a solution (to
allow running of OSX or Windows sound software), if my system is powerful
enough to cope with the performance penalty of the extra layer(s).
If it's not and if there's still not a good solution available on
Linux, then that may be the time to look at a possible OS X solution.
(Using a Windows host is not an option - I'm allergic to it, although
I can probably tolerate it virtualized, running inside Linux.)

> Instead of wanting a 'better' external sound processor, keep what you
> have and use it as a MIDI keyboard and control surface for PC based
> soft synths. Save the money you would have spent on a 'better' external
> synth and spend it on good DAW software and some decent VST plugins
> (and either Windows or OS X).

I use an 88-key MIDI controller as my MIDI keyboard - MIDI out goes to
my sound card. MIDI out from the sound card goes to the XS's MIDI in.
This allows me to hear (on the XS) what I play on the MIDI controller
and, of course, to play back what I've recorded on Rosegarden on the XS.

Thanks for the info. re. OS X and "hackintosh". I may end up exploring
that option in the future.


Jim

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