2 newbie HS questions - pricing & softsynths

  • Thread starter Thread starter notCardio
  • Start date Start date
N

notCardio

I walk the line
OK, first of all, the pricing. I went to the CW site to make sure I was getting the right one, in terms of my needs, and to see how much it would cost to upgrade if I decided later that I needed more power, and it looks like it's about $70 cheaper to buy HS and upgrade to HS XL than to just buy HS XL. Is this true, because it obviously doesn't make any sense to me.

Also, being softsynth illiterate, is the soundfont player that comes with HS an actual softsynth? What I mean is, if you have a file of soundfonts, you can use the sf player to play them, like a synth, correct? :confused:

And if I have another softsynth that requires a Dxi capable host, I can use it in HS, correct?

Thanks
 
I am not sure what versions of Home Studio you are looking at. The newest version is Sonar Home Studio 4, and that is the one you should get. It comes in the regular and XL versions, and personally I would go for the XL. I don't own either (I have Sonar 5. Sonar Home Studio 4 is basically a light version of Sonar 4, but it is still pretty powerful).

It would probably be cheaper to get this from an online music retailer (SamAsh, Kelly's Music and Computers, Studica) than directly from Cakewalk.

The SFZ (and the Dyad, if you get XL) are both soft synths, ie software programs that produce sound. They are capable of playing Soundfonts (incidentally, Soundfonts are basically just a particular format of samples). There are other software samplers that are also capable of playing soundfonts.

Sonar Home Studio 4 can play soft synths in the DXi format and the VSTi format. Also you can use ReWire to connect to other programs such as Propellerhead's Reason.
 
Let me rephrase the question

First, I already bought Sonar Home Studio at GC the other day, I just haven't opened it yet because I wanted to make sure that XL wasn't what I really wanted instead. looking at the Cakewalk site, it still looks like it's cheaper to buy Sonar HS and then upgrade to XL, than to just buy XL in the first place. This doesn't make sense to me.

I don't think I need XL because the main thing you get with XL is a couple more synths, which I don't think I'll need for awhile. But what I wanted to know was, is the Sfz soundfont player an actual softsynth, or is it just a way to interface, or load, soundfonts into another softsynth, which in this case I would guess would be Virtual Sound Canvas? I guess you just answered that question. Sfz is an actual softsynth, not requiring anything else to run it.


Thanks. Canadians are such nice people.
 
Yes it is an actual softsynth. It's purpose is to play Soundfonts.

SFZ itself is a little cumbersome to use because there are no visual controllers. They want you to upgrade to SFZ+. However, if you read the accompanying html help file, you will see that most of teh parameters (like an amp ADSR envelope, for example) can be controlled using MIDI controller messages. You just don't have the immediacy of turning a virtual knob on the screen.

Of course, if you have an outboard MIDI controller keyboard, or something similar, you can program a knob to send the appropriate message to SFZ.
 
what would you recommend

as a good, user-friendly (as in novice) softsynth for playing soundfonts that's compatible with Sonar HS? I have Live Synth Pro, but I haven't loaded it up yet, so I don't know how user-friendly that is. At the moment I'm really most concerned with real instrument sounds (strings, piano, organ, percussion, etc.) than I am with electronica-type filter sweeps and that sort of thing, although I'm sure that will come in due time.

Thanks again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top