i am curious if someone uses an arranger keyboard conected thru midi with a laptop that carries the sounds (vst or any other softsynth) in a live performance.
i am not talking about using OMB, but a regular arranger, but only using the sounds from the computer.
for instance, one could easily use a 200 - 300 usd arranger to play some very good sounds (be it vsti or whatever else) from the laptop to achieve a better results (speaking only about sounds quality) than using a 3000 usd arranger. and hypersonic2 for instance is not that expensive anyway - 275 pounds.

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http://adimatis.uv.ro

[This message has been edited by adimatis (edited 06-30-2006).]

Hello Adimatis
Quite a few people on the site use or have used the combination you mention live, I also used to use them in the home environment. (I now play a Wersi Abacus as this allows me to achieve the same in one package)
There is however a few things you need to know.
1. The final sound quality is determined by the sound card, (And laptops tend to have some of the worst soundcards ever made) so you will need to purchase a good quality external unit. (You will also need a powerful laptop, with plenty of memory, a fast hard disk and fast CPU)
2. To get the best from this combination you need an arranger keyboard that has a comprehensive Midi specification, (So that you don’t need to keep accessing the laptop all the time) which rules out the cheaper boards. (Manufactures don’t consider people who use these keyboards will ever bother with Midi)
3. You will need to set up the computer and any software instruments yourself. (This takes time and patience)
4. In most cases you will still need to access the laptop during a performance, which means finding a comfortable input device.
5. There are a lot of cables and equipment to set up and take down. (Therefore more to go wrong)
Providing you take into account all the above, there will be no problem playing live, and it will do as you require.
Personally, after playing the Abacus, I have to say there is no way I would go back to the above combination.
Hope this helps.

Bill


[This message has been edited by abacus (edited 06-30-2006).]

thanks! i agree completely. i would not use such a combination for live, i was just curious if someone does. because for inside, studio or home/studio (having a powerful enough desktop and alot of free time as well) seem to be an interesting system.
i used to combine the two while i still had the pa50 arranger, but was pretty complicated togheter with cubase.
i still have cubase, i sold the pa50.