This is a guy from Bosnia in Germany, its from Agaton Studios, i know you guys
wont understand but take a look at the pictures, i've heard demos too.
I am very active on that forum too, its in Serbian language. The Arranger is
already released, people have it, it is made in few different versions and also
for Balkan and/or Western music. I personally think beats anything existing.
It works as a PC but not in the sense of Wersi or Audya or MS, this works same
as a regular PC, on Windows Vista, specifically designed for it and tweaked,
it is probably one of the best and most stable for now:
http://www.yumidi.com/forum/aagaton-alpha-aranzer-uskoro-u-prodaji-t13116.html
http://www.yumidi.com/forum/agaton-alpha-ass-aranzer-za-svaku-pohvalu-t17236.html
They come in Modules, few different modules with very large touch screens, if you look
at those 2 posts maybe you can see the specs and understand them, i think they are english.
There is also another arranger in Germany from a Turkish guy, very good
but i cant find the link now. When the Alpha ASS demos are available i will
try to post here, so we can all hear it, they do Western Demos too.

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 05-28-2009).]

Oh, and the prices ranges from somewhere 1500EU to 3000EU, depending on model.

Nedim thats just Live Styler, with funny letters We ahve all seen LS before ntohign new there.

Alpha ASS?

OMG, that's hilarious

I can see the adverts now... 'My ASS sounds incredible!'.... "ASS sounds phat..." 'Take an ASS to your next gig!'

As Miden says its one of the many PC based systems that use Livestyler http://www.live-styler.de/home/ as its arranger software, (A basic version which is now available for Mediastation) and yes these modules were featured on SZ some time ago.

Bill

Miden, i think you are wrong here, being LS or not its not important, thats something
that drives the engine, you should hear its Guitar Mode, trust me, lets not be as we
always are, this has nothing to do with being LS or not.
Diki, you are right, your ASS sounding incredible.
Bill, its not the same as MS, this runs on Windows Vista, it has more doors open
and also dont forget its Specs, it works in a different way.

Nothing special

Just an entry level DAW pre installed with live styler....

Sorry to say Nedim, but MS is 2 steps ahead of this system.

i know that system and i know zlatko!

that is only to `steal` some money off poor people down there!

zlatko is known as good marketing person!

It is far more than just an entry-level DAW with LS.

First of all, the components of the system are top of the line. The creator paid special attention to the cooling of the system, along with careful modifications to withstand the torture of the road. The whole operating system has been heavily modified and optimized for audio apps. The sound engine is based on 3GB of samples plus 550 MB of real acoustic guitar chords. The guitar mode picks up the chords from a style or song track and triggers the corresponding chord. The Live-play mode is located on a SSD hard disk which ensures instant recall of sounds, styles etc. There is also a STYLE Converter, which enables the conversion of the following style formats:

Korg
PA1X /Pro, PA800, PA 80/60/50, i30-i50, i1-i5, ix300

Roland
E-80, E-60, E-50, G-70, VA7 /76 /5, EXR, G-1000, EM-2000,
G-800 /600/RA-800, E-96 /86 / 66, RA-95, E-600 /500, EM-55

Ketron
Sd1 / Plus, SD2, SD5, Midijay, XD9 / 3, X1/4/8

Solton
MS100/60/50/40, MS5/4/3

Yamaha
All PSR and Tyros 1/ 2

All Technics formats

Wersi OAS format


The system also futures a fully flegged sampler along with a sample converter.
A sample can consist of up to 128 layers, which is far more than the current hardware competition offers. Drum and percussion loops can be seemlesly integrated and synched to the tempo.

The system can be controlled from any midi Keyboard, as well as any arranger. NOW, you are free to choose between 49,61,76,88 keys, synth-action or weighted.

And all that for half the price of the Audya!

AND ON, and on, and on.................


This is just a short description and honestly it does not make any sense comparing this system to any hardware arranger currently on the market.
Lets be a little bit more open to new things and take advantage of the almighty software.

@EM2000,
I think your comment is out of the line and so not true! There are some people who own the system and have nothing bad to say about it.

@ everybody,

people from the Balkans are generally very jelous and will do anything to hinder ones success.

[This message has been edited by hitman (edited 05-29-2009).]

Sorry to say it guys, i expected this, i just posted for no reason, just to share, most of
you have no clue what a machine is or a synth, i dont think this is a level for my response,
i wont fall this low, oruy comments and responses make you amateurs, look at Bachus
comment for example, where did he get that? I pitty the guy of how clueless he is.
I dont think he even knows what DAW meand and has ever seen one. And also
Bachus, you have never seen none of these models and still comparing? Sorry.
Hitman, what you have with Zlatko thats your personal thing, maybe i dont like the guy
either but facts are facts. And also as Hitman said, Balkan people are the worst ( i am one
of them) i do bussines with them, its the worst experience you can have, we were all from
third world countries once that never saw a TV, then got into foreign countries and took
computers on credit and now all became engineers without knowing to sign their name.
Abacus, no, these models have NEVER been on SZ nor you ever heard of.
But on top of all some SZ members beat that too, i really pitty them.
Oh...i know: Nedim when you post something be ready to accept the comments.
Yes i know, the STUPID comments from cluelless people...i pitty again.
Is there any comment here worth accepting or attention??? Ya'll funny!
Dikki, where are ya?

Including AUDYA and MS and maybe even WERSI for the 20 000$.
Lately i usually tend to ignore stuff like this but this is way too
stupid and hillarious to ignore, i am amazed by how they say
something even though its stupid only cuz they have or dont
know nothing else to say.

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 05-29-2009).]

Nedim,

I agree with some of your commments, but dissagree with your "choice of words". Maybe you could consider a slightly mellow approach when discussing things with the Baby-Boomers. Keep in mind that a lot of these great guys here have resentment towards change and new things, unless they see and try it themselves.

If I hadn't followed YUmidi for the past 6 or so years, I would be sceptical as well.

So how about we try a nicer approach?

This is a nice approach:
You told me that there is a nice Boeing 747 (which i dont even know what it is)
then i told you that IT SUX and you better buy a Mercedes Benz.

Hope i make sense!

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 05-29-2009).]

Nedim... Maybe you could explain why, if this thing is so good (and has been out for a while), that you don't have one?

And that you bought a FAR inferior Audya (not to mention any other arranger)?

Perhaps you MIGHT remember your initial rabid dog defense of the Audya (before you finally got one and found out we weren't idiots after all) and pull up a bit short of repeating the same mistakes...?

BUY ONE, and THEN tell us how good it is, OK?

I wont buy one nor i will buy Audya, i dont use arrangers to play live, all i do is program.
When i play live i use synths like Motitf, M3 and Fantom, currently i have over 15 boards
and dont need no more. As i can see in my comments, i dont deffend it nor bash at it,
i dont praise it neither, i just laugh at comments with no SENSE, it had nothing to do with
this machine being good or bad. If i tell you something is good or bad i need to tell you why,
which you sometimes do and give an argument to it, not just come up plain in here NO GOOD
and thats it, read some of their posts you'll know. At first i took this forum seriously but later on
i found out it was a JOKE so now i am calm, i go with the flow, i wasnt praising it at all.

Maybe it's a translation thing, Nedim (I know I wouldn't always be sure of my tone if I had to post in Turkish!) but let me assure you that, when read the way it is posted (rather than what you might INTEND), your posts come off as very aggressively pro or con what you post about.

And unfortunately, have made you come off as something perhaps you did not intend...

A joke.

Thanks Nedim.

I think we are not far off the day now when all sounds will be streamed for everything in order to give us that massive sound you only get when using huge sample libraries.

The future is for sure PC based, it will be interesting though to see who nails down the perfect concept first that is an instrument at heart and a PC transparently in the background.

The Mediastation is close, but I don't think Lionstracks have the musical ability to make it happen.

They make good software, but as musician's can't play a single note worth a listen.

But we aren't there yet, James, despite what anyone says.

Software flexibility with hardware reliability is still quite a ways off. The dynamic nature of CPU demand, given that the manufacturer has no idea what the user will put into it, nor how hard he will push it, and VSTi designers ability to redline ANY CPU given the opportunity (few of them design VSTi's that are deliberately designed to play well with others - they all want to get the most amazing sound, and the hell with CPU demand!). Put a bunch of five to ten year old VSTi's in a modern machine, you've got tons of headroom. But put today's (let alone tomorrow's) latest VSTi's in the same machine, different story.

A hardware design, closed design machine can have some VERY sophisticated voice stealing algorithms, to make exceeding the max polyphony hard to detect. But hit the ceiling on a VSTi machine, that's a different issue. Multiple VSTi's, with multiple sound generation capabilities, no way of reporting envelope status or voice priority, all fighting for the processor's attention.

It's a recipe for disaster.

Sure, at some time in the future, things might get better. But we need some kind of VSTi standard for reporting voice usage, CPU demand, envelope status and sound priority which doesn't even exist yet. Standards take a long time to develop. And VSTi designers today are designing virtual instruments that will test even the next generation of CPU's and buss technology. It's not good enough to say that at some point, it won't MATTER because CPU and buss will be so fast. Whatever is available WILL be designed to be used for ever more sophisticated VSTi's....

Because that poor CPU isn't JUST rendering those VSTi's. It running housekeeping on a sophisticated arranger and realtime loop player as well. In the studio, live on stage in a live band scenario, you are seldom CREATING music on more than a few tracks. Once the track is created. lookahead function ease some of the burden of VSTi demand, and you can always render tracks in the studio or beforehand for live.

But an arranger is 'anything all the time' scenario, with multiple different VSTi's having to run multiple inputs (style and keyboard) on multiple channels, and do it all instantaneously (no latency is good latency!) to a varying input.

I too, look forward to the day it can be done. But I'm not holding my breath just yet...

@Nedim

lets see, i can build a pC with those specs for less then €500...

Add software..
Windows €50
Livestyler €50
Free very good sounding 3GB soundfont..

Add 12" touch screen €200

Thats €800, i have to admit, i work in the software branch and i am have over a year of experience with live styler, which is actually a very good product.

Now back to the PCI audio device... which PCI audio device is build intoo these systems, as this is the part that is responsible for the sound...

If its a high end device... then the system might be word its run for the money... But since the device is named nowhere in the factsheets and specifications i asume that its just an entry level device..

You can easilly prove me wrong by telling us what the actuall PCI audio device is thats build intoo these systems?

@Diki

Any modern day keyboard is notheing more then a CPU running dedicated software...

Sadly most keyboard CPU's are lagging miles behind the current consumer hardware...

Problem curerntly is windows OS, its not created for doing things real time without LAG... But VXworks or certain Linux variants can work pretty near real time...

Media station for example is using a Linux kernel with real time processing capabillities...

Hi Diki.

I'm not really talking about a PC as such, I'm referring to devices like the V-Machine that came out at Christmas, and the likes of the V-Rack which is on the way.

Have you seen those ?. Have a V-Machine myself here and it's fantastic. The ultimate little sound module.

The V-machine itself is as stable as dedicated hardware and even though it's tiny and only has a 1GHz processor, it can still stream 64 notes of poly right now regardless of the size of the sounds you load. A soon to be released CPU upgrade with likely double that.

That's also ignoring the fact that when the V-Rack is released it will likely be able to produce over 1000 notes of poly.

If you take one good VSTi that is optimised and can play countless sample formats (Sample Lord) and stick that into a Keyboard Assembly with arranger software. Your not too far off the perfect keyboard there.

The mediastation is close as I said, but I don't believe Lionstracks have the ability to pull it all together because they lack direction and musicians.

PS:... Here's a little video I uploaded to show friends on another forum just how easy it was to navigate the V-Machine.

So don't expect good sound as I used the camera's built in mic.
http://www.irishacts.com/misc/v-machine.mpg

James great demo of the v machine....looks like a really versatile little unit.

Thank you I really enjoyed watching it!

Well Done!!

I personally think that the muse receptor allready one step further in development is...

(Receptor is also based on a Linux OS)

But this actually is the future.. we need to wayt for the first keyboard that can controll these vst's ...Vst's running on sepperate hardware, but the keyboard controlling them graphically...

Hi Bachus.

I think the muse receptor would be naturally ahead in development simply because it's been running a few years now, where the likes of the V-Machine are only freshly out the door so to speak.

Fun times ahead though for sure because one thing that stings with the muse receptor is the price. The V-Rack will be in around 1200 USD when released which is a lot less than a receptor.

As for my little V-Machine, that puppy cost me a mere 333 Euro. How cool is that.

Thats a very cool price for a ery cool device..

Personally i think that VST's running on their dedicated hardware are the near future...

But in 2 years this stuff should be imbedded in the next generation of keyboards..

The Audio device used is a E-MU 1212M or 1616M, depending on the configuration that you choose.

James on my Mediastation, I can run 8 Asio host with 8 different VST's..They can be set up in a combination of 8 different VST's in a single 8 part patch with different velocity and key range...I don't believe any other device can do this...I believe this is an advantage of running Linux...over Windows..


My question..watching your video, it does seem like V-Machine can only run a single host/vst at any time...Would this be true statement?

These are both good devices... with the 1616M being definately Semi pro(which is atleast on par with all current keyboards outputs/conenctions).... and at a very good price, i can buy the 1616M for less then €300

Bringing my ownbuild system to a little over €1100


All in all the soundquallity of the system should be really decent, but nothing a homebuild system can't deliver.

Hi Fran.

A single patch can run 21 plug-ins at the same time.

That said, remember this is only a tiny little 333 euro device with a 1GHz processor. Just because it can run 21 plugins at the same time doesn't mean it will. Same goes for your Mediastation.

Btw: It is running Linux too. It's got a separate CPU for the OS and the 1GHz processor is devoted entirely to the VSTi's your running so at no point does it get sluggish.

James,

Many thanks for taking the time to create the video demo of the V-Machine, it's the best I've seen so far! Now that the software interface has matured a bit and the Mac port is almost finished (out of beta), I would definitely be willing to give it a whirl. Hopefully, they will upgrade the CPU soon, especially with the new smaller-form Muse Receptor product on its way.

Sharp, absolutely loved hearing the Irish accent, as well as the way you have your M3 module situated on the keyboard. Nicely done!

Michael

Fascinating little machine... great price too...

My main question would be, you keep mentioning 64 voices of polyphony. How does it balance processor load to guarantee this? It sounds like you are using primarily sampled playback, which doesn't stress a CPU that much. But presumably it can run things like the Arturia stuff (I love their Memorymoog, CS80 and Jupiter8 sims) but these are processor hogs. How does it deal with this?

BTW, is the reverb a separate plug in? How does it handle effects routings?

I've read a few reports of the V-Machine being a hair buggy, but that could have been when first released. How do you find the stability (how hard are you pushing that CPU)?

I still don't see how this addresses the issue of dynamic CPU load when things get fast and furious...

I don't think I completely agree with that, Bachus. If you look inside most closed arrangers, you will see that there are MULTIPLE chips in there. Yes, there's a CPU for running the software side of things, but it is likely to be an embedded custom CPU, not a commercial general purpose one, and then you will also find chips for the voice generation and effects stuff, harmonizer, etc.. Basically, you are taking a normal synth/ROMpler's electronics, and then adding the CPU to do the arranger stuff.

But an 'open' architecture arranger, the CPU does EVERYTHING. And hence, if the voice generation gets taxed, it brings down everything else too.

One of the things that has improved the MOST on newer closed keyboards is that the faster embedded chips for voice generation have got VERY, VERY low latency. And yet, can still GUARANTEE 128 voices, no matter WHAT you are doing. On my G1000 I used to be able to hear subtle flamming even on two voice layers of very percussive sounds (say a clav and a marimba) when big chords are rapidly played, but on my G70, I can layer up to five stereo sounds on one note, and not hear the HINT of flamming any more. Ten voices per note! Thirty voices playing each chord, and NO flamming at all! I have yet to hear a software system that good that didn't get flaky as you pushed the CPU.

Will it get better? Of course... Is it good enough for demanding live applications yet, if you want to use today's most CPU hungry VSTi's? I am not yet convinced...

Hi Diki.



As you know each plugin generates it's own amount of CPU usage. Some are more efficient than others so the 64 notes I'm quoting are what I set as the limitation my Playback Sampler called Sample Lord can produce because it's not the only plugin running in at the same time.

Basically I did tests and monitored the CPU usage and then I told the plugin that it is not allowed to produce more than 64 notes. Doing this will allow it to smartly cut notes if you try exceed 64 notes, and it eliminates the chance of you reaching your CPU upper limit.




Yes I'm running a reverb plugin at the same time as Sample Lord.

You have FX slots that allow you to run more than one Effect at the same time, and by using FX slots the plugin is placed in an area that can make use of “Send” values which give you control over how much of the VSTi Instrument gets sent to the Effect sitting in the FX Slot.

In addition to that you can also fully control the effect length, type or anything you like from the V-Machine interface. When you like what you hear you press two buttons to update the preset and save the changes.

Pretty straight forward setup actually.



The V-Machine was never buggy, it was always rock solid and reliable as dedicated hardware.

The problems you where reading about are to do with the program you install on your PC / MAC which allows you to load new VSTi's into the V-Machine. It's a program called VFX and yes that certainly has it's problems.

It's not all that bad though in it's current state, and you can workaround it's problems simply by not connecting it to the V-Machine at all and just using a Memory Stick to transfer the data instead.



If you have any specific questions just let me know. For the most part it's up to you to workout how much freedom you give a Plugin to use the processor by limiting the Poly Count.

It's only a tiny 1Ghz processor, but I do believe the upgrade kit will double this for in around 100 to 150 USD.

2Ghz inside this tiny box will be hilarious. Can't wait to take that for a spin.

Sounds great, James, especially the Mac port.

I am going to keep a VERY close eye out on this as it progresses.

Couple more questions... when you restrict polyphony, does it cut notes if you exceed the limit on a first note basis, or can you use more sophisticated rules (like lowest level, or decayed layer) like hardware samplers (like my K2500) can? Or does it simply not play any more notes until some get released?

And also, is the latency adjustable, and what figure for it are you usually using?

I appreciate the answers... this thing looks pretty good for the price (especially when the dual proc comes out)

Hi Diki



Sorry but I don't know full the answer to that.

I can't tell how it's managed but I can say it's done extremely well. There's certainly no problems with laying down new notes at any point when you do exceed 64 notes.

It is very transparent and I've never felt like I could hear anything cutting off.



Yes it's fully adjustable and what works for me with Sample lord is a latency of 4.8ms for my sounds. You can go down to 2.4 but that's overkill in my opinion. Better not to run the risk of the sounds breaking up and to go with the 4.8ms

[This message has been edited by Irishacts (edited 05-30-2009).]

Very nice little box! I still would prefer a unit that gives me the flexibility to upgrade the hardware as I please. The currently available computer technology certainly eliminates the issue of latency and flexibility.
Finally, I am very pleased to see that topics of this type are given more attention.

[This message has been edited by hitman (edited 05-30-2009).]

@ Diki

You seem to forget the sheer power of modernday quadcore CPU's..

If an instrument can play 1000 notes of polyphony (Thats true) when CPU pressure/Memmory bandwith becomes a problem, it can cut off some notes and your ears will not even notice that

Your fears date back to dates from before quad CPU's and 8 gigs of memmory...

After all its just a process and it doesn't make a difference wether i controll a process with hardware, or controll it with software.;.. as long as i controll it.

Trust me, Bachus... go and try the Arturia stuff, or Pianoteq3, or Omnisphere.... There's no way you can get those to give you hundreds of voices with any modern CPU (let alone at a low enough latency to feel like hardware).

Sample playback is stupidly simple for a CPU, but virtualization, and modeling is an altogether different thing. The thing is, most VSTi's designers look at the CPU as just THEIR plaything, and use as much of it as it takes to create the most complex sounds you can possibly imagine. Good for us as musicians. Bad for the CPU. Seems that it doesn't matter how powerful he gets, someone writes something for him to do that truly taxes it!

The thing I particularly notice is that latency makes a dramatic difference on how well you feel 'connected' to playing a sound. From playing around with my soundcard's settings, and comparing the immediacy of the sound and the impression you are playing an instrument, rather than triggering a sound, to the latest hardware, I honestly don't think that 5-6ms cuts it. That's 90's hardware numbers. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if my G70 tops out at 2-3ms (twice as fast). It certainly FEELS far snappier than any software instrument I've played.

I realize that GIGA sampler can run hundreds of voices in realtime from a pretty average CPU. But the minute you start asking it to virtualize old analog gear, or model acoustic instruments, polyphony goes out the window....

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.

Hi James,
I'll definately do some more checking up on this.

We're off to Sydney in afew weeks where I should actually be able to see one, so being armed with the relative info certainly won't go astray.
I heard about them last year.

It's great to be able to talk to someone that actually owns one.

Thank you very much.

best wishes
Rikki