I'm pretty new to making music on my computer, and after reading an excellent debate on the merits of the sw1000xg versus the SBLive, I'm pretty convinced that the yamaha is the way to go. However, i still have some questions. I do a lot of work with ACID. Do the effects on the sw1000xg work on wav files or only on midi? If they do work on wav files, is it possible to use a controller like the Keyfax Phatboy to adjust effect parameters in real time (for example, increasing and decreasing the delay on a certain channel, dub style)? Really any advice or discussion around the use of this card would be helpful. The people at yamaha are useless, someone there even told me that the card doesn't have a MIDI port. Also if anyone knows where to find this card for less than $530 American (guitar center price) let me know! Thanks for reading---please reply!

SW1000XG can apply effects to any sound that it is producing - wav, midi whatever. There are restrictions though, that I haven't quite got my head round yet. e.g when you use midi, you can apply individual (and different) levels of chorus, reverb etc. to each and every channel. When it comes to your channels of stereo audio, you have insertion effects and variation effects. From my understanding you set the insertion effect to one of the dozens of effects (e.g. phaser) and you set the variation to another effect (e.g. celeste). Then, insertion can be applied to ANY audio channel (e.g. your .wav file being played), and the variation can be applied to (I think) a couple of channels. If anyone knows more on this, please post.

As far as I know, the knobs on the Keyfax Phatboy can ONLY affect MIDI signals. Midi is completely seperate from the playback of audio wav files, so it wouldn't work.

The only way I could see this kind of thing happening (again, i'm guessing) is if your wav files were put on a sampler. Then, because the sampler is MIDI controllable, you could set the PhatBoy up to controll the midi signals for filters etc.

Any help?
Rob

It is quite easy to change fx parameters on the MIDI channels in real time on the sw1000xg.If you are using xgworks then you can split the channel into several parts using the scissors, if you double click on the part that you wish to change a new window will open. Here you can set instruments and fx changes, for instance if your echo is assigned to the var channel then simply scroll down the entry list to var and type in the new echo settings, alternatively use the pencil tool to set a new level in the area to the right and then fine tune it by clicking on the level line and type a new value in the field to the left of the line. You can do this on different channels so you can have different echo settings at various points in your track ie: more or less echo or none.

[This message has been edited by Alvinc (edited 05-04-99).]

[This message has been edited by Alvinc (edited 05-05-99).]

Thanks a lot! Both of your responses have been very helpful. However, I assume that no-one has found a better price than $530US....They do carry it at B&H Photo Video in NYC for $529 (no sales tax for interstate orders....) Let me know if you see a better price!