Using a PC as a sampler with a Mac as the sequencing front-end CPU?

[pisces7378]

I am getting a Mac soon to run my Logic Audio Platinum on. I have recently gotten a bit into Samplers and am anxious to go a bit deeper than just using the EXS24. The EXS24 is a great program for the money and if you are not really needing to recreate something very organic like single violin solos (which is probably impossible with a sampler anyway) then the EXS24 is a fine program. But I have my eyes on the GigaStudio 160 from Tascam.

Now, I have heard from countless people that in order to really get the milage out of a program like GigaStudio you should have it running alone on an independent machine instead of trying to have your Sequencing program running natively beside your sampler on the same machine.

The price for TWO Mac's would definitly make that impossible with my budget. However, I might be able to swing purchasing a descent Pent IV PC with loads of DDRAM and a truck load of 7200rpm data storage.

Now, my question(s) is... what about getting a PC and Mac to work together? Would I have to go and get a high end sound card like a Delta 1010 or a MOTU for the sampler machine? How do people who have dedicated sampler machines (not like Akai, but like a PC running software) get their sampling machine to interface with the host sequencing machine?

I don't want to run an audio out (one D-A conversion) from the Sampler into the input of the host (an A-D conversion) and then back out through some speakers or headphones (yet another conversion.) Those rich samples would sound like a pile of shit after being put through that ringer.

Is there someway to use an independent sampler PC and run it into the host Mac machine without buying a high end soundcard?

Thanks,

Mike

P.S. Also, will there be any problems using two platforms like that? A PC sampler into a Mac sequencer?

 

[cordura21]

hey Mike. I can think of some solutions that I know, though I am not an expert.

You have to address 2 issues here: the communication from and to the sequencer, and the communication from the sampler to Logic.

The first one is resolved (afaik) with Midi. You need to connect you midi controller to the midi in of the mac - and catch that info with Logic - , and the midi out of your mac to the midi in of your pc - and catch that info with your sampler. This would be great since you'll have all the midi data in Logic, along with all the other data of the song. The bad thing about it is the path from the controller to the sampler is longer, so you can experience some midi latency.
So a second way of resolving this first issue would be to connect your midi controller to the pc sampler and if you want you can send the midi out of the pc to the midi in of the mac. You can also throw away the midi data and not save it anywhere if you just want the audio, though having it can be good for editing.
The last thing you can do is to use a sequencer on your pc along with the one of the mac, linking them thru Midi Machine Code.

Anyways, it's all just a trade between flexibility and usablitiy (proper latency).

Now on the second issue, the audio stuff:

If you want to record digital from one to the other, you'll need some kind of digital protocol (which is not on any of them by default). The only one I worked with is s/pdif. For that you need a card on both machines that can talk spdif. I think that's the cheaper digital choice. Sorry if I don't know much about actual cards that have this feature, I only use it to record my JStation to my Digi 001.

A cheaper (though a little cumbersome alternative), is to just monitor the output of the sampler while tracking, and then exporting your tracks to a sound file and then importing them into Logic on the mac. This way you won't need any soundcards at all, and the quality of the audio will be perfect when you finally import your digital mixdown into Logic.
Now for doing this, you need some way to communicate the mac and the pc. I think OSX for mac already talks directly to a pc network, though I am not sure. If not, you have many ways, some of them free and some not. I recommend you using ftp or hotline between both machines. Here's a link that will explain you everything about it http://www.atpm.com/network/files/index.html

Cheers, Andrés