hundreds of notes ?

How many notes can the human ear hear at the same time and distinguish them?

Keep in mind that PC hardware can be networked, You can allways run Omnisphere on sepparate hardware (few hundred bucks), so it gets the power it needs..

And thats exactly why i think that its better to build your own system instead of buying a prebuild... If you want prebuild, you'll miss out on the flexibillity of these systems...

Thats probably why these systems are not for everyone right now, it requires you to be a musician and an IT Technician.

But the results will blast you away...

Plenty of people claiming to max out polyphony on 128 note closed arrangers, Bachus... The thing is, when it happens, the closed arranger doesn't crash...

A grand piano sound, especially a modern VSTi, with multichannel multi-mike and multi listening position samples, ambiance samples, soundboard resonance samples, sympathetic resonance between the strings, you name it, then layered up with some synth pads or orchestral string pad, then heavy use of the sustain pedal and big long runs....

You'd be surprised how fast that can max out your polyphony, and that doesn't take into account the full orchestra backing it up,, rhythm section, etc.. Sure, if it's all being done with samples with little processing on them, things aren't too bad. But start up some modeling along with that, and it's 'where's my CPU?

And I'm afraid, the whole POINT of being a musician is so that you DON'T have to learn to be an IT technician. If I wanted that, I'd get a career in IT! I don't feel I should learn to be a piano technician before I am able to play the piano... Nor a metalworker before I play the trombone. Computer tools for the musician should be bombproof and transparent in operation, to better allow us to concentrate on what is truly important....

MAKING MUSIC...

Hi Diki.

Bachus actually has a very good point here. Custom build PC's have far greater bandwidth and speed due to higher performing parts so they don't sweat anywhere even close to what off the shelf PC's crack under.

My current PC is my first custom build purchased for 3D Rendering and Audio. For Audio I've never seen it under any sort of pressure at all, but for 3D Rendering the load is so high that I have 4 other computers connected for my own Render Farm.

What used to take a week to render now renders in hours. Custom PC's are stupidly expensive, but you get what you pay for and they are faster than you can imagine.

You don't need to be an IT expert to get one either because there are people out there who custom building these for you.


Just one example. http://www.visiondaw.com/productcart/pc/index.asp

Hi James,
all the technical stuff on the V Machine is way over my head.
What I'd luv to know is could I midi one to my PA800, just for some extra really good melody voices ie piano's, saxes , strings etc
I want to use it for playing melody with styles (not for sequencing).
With my laptop & vsti's I used to have a perceived feeling of latency ie strike a key & the sound wasn't instantaneous like a keyboard sound.
Would I have the same problem with a V Machine?

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Irishacts:
[B]

Hi Rikki.



Anything you don't understand just ask.



Yes.

The V-Machine comes preloaded with SampleTank SE on it, so the second you get it you could connect it straight to your Pa800 and start playing. When you play Upper 1 on your Pa800, the V-Machine will sound.

SampleTank SE is pretty ok to being with but if you want better sounds you would eventually need to load Sample Lord and a reverb into it, or some other VSTi.

What do you think you will want to run on it because you will need a Wizard Files to get them working.



None whatsoever. It will feel exactly like your Pa800.

Regards
James

@Rikki,

just out of curiousity, what kind of audio interface did you use with your laptop?

Are you actually running many of the very CPU intensive VSTi's James? As I said, I'm a big fan of the Arturia stuff, their CS80 and Jupiter8's are to die for, but just about every review notes they are VERY hard on the CPU... heck, even their own Origin hardware version can be layered up to the point where it only does three or four notes! And simple virtualizations only manage 32 notes.

This, from a processor I am sure could easily do several hundred sampled voices...

Hi James,
thank you.
I lost track of this post, as I originally came across it via a link from another post.

Would I be limited as to which vsti's can be loaded ie you mentioned Sample Tank.

I mainly use more orchestral / acoustic types of sounds, strings, piano's , guitars, flutes etc rather than synth sounds. I've been interested in Garriton Big Band & Garriton Orchestral, but haven't been sure whether my old dell dual core laptop would be suitable for running them.
Some of the spec requirements are confusing.

I'll have to check out Sample Tank sounds, & see if they'd suit.

The only vsti's I've tried were a couple of piano demo's 2 to 3 years ago.

again, thank you for the info.

best wishes
Rikki
Meanwhile I'll do a bit more reading, sounds like a great little machine.

Hi Hitman,
I've got an old M Audiophile.

I haven't used any of my audio stuff in the last couple of years or so.

My original Dell laptop was brilliant with the soundfonts, & arranger software (ie Brainspawn, OMB etc)that I was using, unfortunately it died and I replaced with an early dual core.
Setup didn't seem to work as well. My latency was worse.
Gave up & bought arranger keyboards again.

May try loading all my software back in. Maybe software updates have fixed the odd problem I was experiencing.

best wishes
Rikki

Hi Rikki



Yes and No.

Check out this link for a list of Wizard Files for the V-Machine. http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php?id=146

A wizard file is a file that sort of Auto Installs the Plugin on the V-Machine. So from the list you can get some idea of what is running on the V-Machine right now.

If the plugin you want to run is not listed that does not mean it won't work, doesn't mean it will either. It simply means that SmPro didn't test it. They update the list very often and some plugins don't need a wizard file. Making your own wizard files is not for the faint hearted.

The stuff that won't run at all right now or will give you lots of trouble are certain types of copy protection. For example any plugin that uses Syncrosoft protection will not work at all “Yet”. It will very soon.

With all that said, also remember that you only have a 1Ghz Processor to work with. Sample based programs will run very well, but Virtual Synths will have very mixed results.



My needs are pretty much the same as you here only I decided I would only work with Samplelord as my player. I don't know if Garritan will work.

Sample Tank XL might also be an option for you and because you get a free version with the V-Machine you can cross grade to the XL edition. A Wizard File is available too. From that one player you should have everything your after, plus it even reads AKAI disks. It's even got built in effect so you wouldn't likely only be running a single VSTi.

Regards.
James.