I have decided after my disspointment with Mediastation, and finding the VST options in Wersi's OAS not good enough to my liking to go to teh SOftware side. With a setup of

-OMB
-88 key masterkeyboard with as many knobs,peddals and sliders and controll keys.
-Software sequenzer
-VST plugin host
-VST instruments
-vst sampler

First i wanna use this system as a homestudion and later on i want it to replace my current system as a one man entertainer on the road

So here are my questions.

1. Will OMB(One Man BAnd) sattisfy me in the style department. I want to be able to have good out of the box styles and good own made/edited styles. Next to that i wonder how good i can controll OMB with a masterkeyboard. I have no experience with OMB whatso ever.

2. I have an organ background, but have fallen inlove with weighted hammer action piano keyboards and piano playing style. I'd love to have a natural feeling keys with preferably aftertouch. A halfdamper pedal is a must. which keyboard with or without sounds could you Advise to me (currently using roland RD100)

3. Which sequencer software could you advise me. I only have experience with old cubase on my ST1040 ATari, and currently use the sequencer on my GEM WX2.

4. What is the best program to order all my VSt-pluggin s and sounds, so i can choose them with one buttonpush.

5. What is the best SAmpler/sample player to use as base of my soundsystem. NI Kontakt, Steinberg Hallion, Propellerhead reason or Tascam gigastudio (which is supposed to run on a sepperate computer)And why do you liek that one?

6. I really like most Steinberg and Native instruments VST's (these i heard at the musikmesse) what other VST's can you advise me. I really like virtual instruments. please tell me what you like and why in the VST department

7. What are the best effect generating VST's? I have no experience with these yet.

8. Does anyone know a software vocoder, or should i use a hardware one?

I'll be happy with all in put that you guys can give me. I play at parties mainly (2 or 3 times a month) and play everything from polka to country to modern Deejay music. Also have some jazzy ballads on my repertoire and even Andre rieu orchestra like performancess and big band stuff.

I will take a stab at question 1:
OMB comes with some styles, it uses Yamaha type files, so there are all kinds on the internet. If there is something specific you are interested in just ask here. You can configure OMB to use the bottom notes on your 88 note keyboard to control the variations, fills, stop, etc.
Hope this helps (with question 1 anyways)
Starkeeper

Bachus,
Check my recent post titled Hypersonic2 demos,
also check posts by Frank Rosenthal for FLR2004, FLR2005 systems, as I think Frank Rosenthal is the first or among the first who started this softare arranger thing here. He also uses a software harmonizer.

Also check posts from Bluezplayer (not sure about the spelling, think I got it correct).

Also Bluezplayer had a very nice tutorial for software arrangers in Club Chops forum, can't seem to find it now, perhaps they relocated or closed.

Good luck,
Theodore

Question #4
This is a great software forum.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/

Bernie

Hi Bachus,
OMB can play psr .sty files. It doesn't have a specific soundsource,so the styles will need tweaking for whatever soundsource you eventually decide on.
The program has extensive style creation/editing functions.
It has a basic builtin sequencer, so no need to dash out right away and buy one. Vers 9 is going to include syncing to midi clock which is a feature I was hanging out for.
It also has an arranger page , where you simply type in a chord progression & style parts, instant midifile backing track.

I ended up getting an 18 button numeric keypad for my laptop to controll functions like Intro's, variations etc rather than assign notes on my keyboard.

best wishes
Rikki
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/makingstyles/

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bachus:
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There only pop up more questions in my head the more i read.

OMB or live-styler? what are their strong and weak sides

ANd what soundcard to use, Sounblaster or maybe EMu or even more expensive?

Hi Bachus,
as far as I'm aware,Live Styler doesn't have OMB's Style Editing functions, Sequencer etc .

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bachus:
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thanks Rikki, so i guess its OMB that will form the heart of my software setup. Maybe together with Cubase SX-3 not sure about that....have to find out more about OMB's sequencer.

I did soem research on masterkeyboards today and i came up with these 2

CME VX-8 http://www.cme-pro.com/products-list/product-vx.html

M-adio Keystation PRO 88 http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeystationPro88-main.html

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with these, as there is no local dealer supporting these.

Just shoot on all my questions, thats my idea of this post.

Bluezplayer did in fact have a great soft synths tutorial at Chops. We did not close we just moved to a mega art forum.

Metamorphized if you will to contain not only music but several of the other art forms. Which can be found here:
http://www.artisans-world.com/

Unfortunately in the domain change his tutorials were lost.

Terry



------------------
jam on,
Terry
http://www.artisans-world.com/

Hi Bachus,
I like OMB mainly because it's an all in one. I don't need to go outside of the software to edit styles. It has an arranger window where I can drop n' drag style parts & chords ( bit like BIAB ) again handy for trying out things, plus you can save that arrangement as a midifile , The sequencer is very basic, but it's ok for trying out stuff.
If you've got Cubase, you'll probably end up using it for more serious sequencing & midifile editing.
Frank prefers Livestyler. If you want to go down that track , there's plenty of style editing software available for psr's. Most of it free, written bu psr users.

The .sty files ( psr type styles) should work in either OMB or Livestyler. So if you found that you preferred Livestyler as your realtime arranger, you could still use OMB as your editor.

Controllers, I can't help, I use a top of the range Clavinova digital piano. Main reason why I didn't progress beyond soundfonts. I used the piano for melody , soundfonts for the .sty files.

At the moment , it's still a bit limited as to what softsynths you can use for the styles themselves when playing in realtime. Soundfonts, Hypersonic, Hypercanvas, Frank started using Bandstand? there could be more by now. The large streaming softsynths aren't really suitable for style parts when playing in realtime, they take too long to load ( or something, Frank's the expert) but he does use them for melody voices.

Haven't heard from Frank for a while, if you're around Frank , HELP. haa haa

best wishes
Rikki
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