Hi,
well, my laptop up & died on me a few weeks back ( or so I thought ) taking with it my One Man Band softsynth realtime arranger setup. I was using soundfonts for my OMB styles.
The only laptop I had left was my old win98
64mb celeron. Hardly capable of running OMB, let alone a soundfont.

Anyway I managed to midi the old laptop to my Ketron SD1+, & used the Ketron as a controller & soundsource for omb. Apart from some "xg to gm " drum issues,and some tweaking, the sounds were great with the omb .sty files. Or at least the few I've tried to date.

Why bother when I've got a top of the line arranger keyboard.
Well, my ketron isn't all that portable. I can pick up my laptop & play around with it anywhere in the house, take it on trips, etc.

Why not just convert the OMB ( psr ) styles to ketron? Mainly because when using EMC, it doesn't really convert 100% accurately.
The styles still need a fair bit of tweaking. Minor chord intro's & endings don't always convert properly.
So with the option of being able to use OMB to play psr styles, I can hear how the styles will sound in the ketron. I can then use OMB to record the style across to my SD1 via midi. I don't end up with some of the problems when doing a straight emc conversion. I still luv my emc, wouldn't be without it, but some keyboards styles convert better than others.

OMB is basically my second arranger keyboard.
Found out a few weeks ago , that Ketron is bringing out a tiny usb soundmodule, called an sd2, perfect for laptops.
Sounds are based on their new sd5 arranger keyboard. Hoping that the sounds may be similar enough to my sd1 , so that I can use it for my omb styles.
Means I'll be totally portable again.

Doesn't mean the end of my softsynth system, just adds more sound options.

best wishes
Rikki


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/makingstyles/?yguid=69517899

[This message has been edited by rikkisbears (edited 05-06-2006).]