Thats how I would be running it too, from an external DAW, in my case a laptop, using the MS for live play, and the midi/audio file I have created for the backing track.
Yeah, it really simplifies things when you do that. The VST HOST has something like 100 + Performance slots which can recall all your VSTi's setup the way you want and connecting an external sequencer to those is really straight forward. At no point do you feel things are starting to get complicated. The hardest thing to overcome to be honest when working like that is the size of the screen because all your vsti's are on one desktop when running like this. Running software designed for a DAW on a 800X600 screen is like trying to eat an apple through a letter box. At home or in the Studio using an external monitor is going to be key to being very productive on the Mediastation. Then when your out gigging you use mp3's or wave files of your sequenced data you produced at home. I think that's really the only way to go to be honest.
The media player is excellent and for speed or easy of access to songs it would put any workstation / arranger keyboard to shame. Jumping in and out of Media mode to select sounds to play along with it is also dead easy. I can jump back to my VSTi or Giga library at the press of a button and call up my sound. When I want to get back to the meida player I just press the CALL button.
So in a gigging environment there is very little to operate and you really do have instant access with zero seconds delay to any song. As you know you can even fade one in over the other if you use both sides of the media player.
I think my mistake was expecting the MS to do the whole job. Had I had a laptop system with the software I am now using back then, I may have stuck with it.
Actually I WOULD have stuck with it
Yeah, I think the key to getting the most out of it is to find a way to work with it in a productive manner even if that means using external hardware. For me I think an external monitor, mouse and keyboard are key to get control over the VST HOST when your setting up a 16 part setup of VSTi's that works with your external sequencer.
Also running Sample Lord on it instead of using it's own Giga Player hugely simplifies things when your setting up many synths to work with your external sequencer. Sample Lord is a 16 part sample playback software that supports giga files and many other popular formats, but the key point here is that it also loads up as a VSTi in your HOST. So you can have all your VSTi Synths and your Giga Files all running from one single host. No need to jump to any other mode now to complete a song. All you need at this point is a external monitor so you can productively use all that.
The only thing about all that is now I'm using the Meidastation more like how a Neko operates.
Regards
James
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