Soft Sampler (GigaStudio) Question

[mark4man]

Crew,

Looking to expand my instruments capability; & may go the way of a Software Sampler (more than likely Tascam's GigaStudio.)

I am presently used to deriving many of my sounds from a sound module (Roland JV-1010); & have become set in my ways...(so please forgive the following questions if they seem too obvious):

[& sorry for the parallel post...but I think I've got my direction now]:

1) Is it (GigaStudio/Solo) compatible with SONAR XL 2.2...& does it operate as a typical plug-in?

2) I would like to use it (for now) in place of my sound module [to obtain (from what I've heard) more "realistic & varied" sounds]; & so I would like it to operate in the same manner...so:

Does it play individual sampled notes as triggered by a MIDI source? (in my case, MIDI sequences of pianos, keyboards, drums, horns, synths, etc., composed in SONAR MIDI tracks.) If so, do conventional libraries (such as for piano) contain these note samples (of various length & velocity) along with their standard loops & riffs? (Can libraries of notes only be obtained?)

3) One of the advertisements I saw, read: "ReWire - MIDI from DAW software is routed to GS3; GigaStudio audio is sent to the DAW, where it shows up with its own mixer section".

I know that seems to answer question 2 (except for the individual notes part)...but I thought that ReWire was an audio application in & of itself. Do they mean that app, or was that just a routing term?

Again, forgive the obvious...but GS3 would play the sampled notes as a plug-in module, whereby they could be recorded directly into the SONAR audio track?

4) GS3 streams exclusively from the hard disc? Isn't loading & streaming from RAM faster (less latency)? (I have lots of RAM.)

5) Existing libraries (I'm most interested in piano, right now)...do soft-sampler samples sound better (more depth, ambience & realism) than those generated by sound modules?

Thanks very much,

mark4man

 

[acidrock]

I have Gigastudio 32 and presently it's not installed.It was my experience that you could run Gigastudio with Sonar but it's not as stable or covenient as a DXI or VST with a wrapper running from within Sonar.
I bought Kompakt and have'nt looked back.
Another option would be to upgrade to the Sonar version that includes V-sampler,you would get the Sonitus plugs and enhanced functionality as well.

 

[James Argo]

Let's answer one by one...

1) Is it (GigaStudio/Solo) compatible with SONAR XL 2.2...& does it operate as a typical plug-in?

Actualy, Giga Studio 3 is rather stand alone sampler than DXi / VSTi. That means, you can run it without even opening Sonar. In order to use it with Sonar, you must use Re-wire to virtualy connect both applications. But in simple english, the answer is YES they are compatible with a little help of Re-wire

2) I would like to use it (for now) in place of my sound module [to obtain (from what I've heard) more "realistic & varied" sounds]; & so I would like it to operate in the same manner...so:

Does it play individual sampled notes as triggered by a MIDI source? (in my case, MIDI sequences of pianos, keyboards, drums, horns, synths, etc., composed in SONAR MIDI tracks.) If so, do conventional libraries (such as for piano) contain these note samples (of various length & velocity) along with their standard loops & riffs? (Can libraries of notes only be obtained?)

Again, the answer is YES. You can use Sonar to play sequenced MIDI, and route it to GS3 to make the sound (triggered by Sonar). And as GS3 is also stand alone application, then you can even run GS3 with your MIDI keyboard controller without Sonar runing. Unlike softsynth, GS3 does not have any sound of it's own, you must load samples to it, name it piano, drums, horns, etc. But don't worry, you'll get plenty of samples bundled when you buy GS3.

3) One of the advertisements I saw, read: "ReWire - MIDI from DAW software is routed to GS3; GigaStudio audio is sent to the DAW, where it shows up with its own mixer section".

I know that seems to answer question 2 (except for the individual notes part)...but I thought that ReWire was an audio application in & of itself. Do they mean that app, or was that just a routing term?

Again, forgive the obvious...but GS3 would play the sampled notes as a plug-in module, whereby they could be recorded directly into the SONAR audio track?

Re-wire is a virtual MIDI port. It connects -for example- two different applications that communicate though MIDI within PC. So, when you install Re-wire, it will add some kind of virtual port to select in Sonar's MIDI IN and OUT option. Like I said above, GS3 is stand alone application rather than DXi or VSTi, so you can not insert it as DXi track on Sonar. To use GS3 with Sonar, you must open GS3, load samples, and select -for example- Re-wire MIDI In #1 as it's MIDI IN. Then you run Sonar on same PC, select Re-wire MIDI OUT #1 as it's MIDI OUT. So it's:

SONAR -->Re-wire MIDI OUT#1 ----> Re-wire MIDI IN#1 --> GS3.

See... both application (Sonar and GS3) linked MIDI wise thru Re-wire.
Reffer to Tascam GS website for details.

As it's not DXi, then you can not use "Bounce to track" to print GS3's audio into Sonar's audio track. You need to route audio from your soundcard's out to audio in, and record in analog way (or digital way if you use SPDIF).

4) GS3 streams exclusively from the hard disc? Isn't loading & streaming from RAM faster (less latency)? (I have lots of RAM.)

5) Existing libraries (I'm most interested in piano, right now)...do soft-sampler samples sound better (more depth, ambience & realism) than those generated by sound modules?

GS3 is power hog. It eats much HD bandwith. It's strongly advised that you run it on separate machine, specialy when you record it's audio out. Even on faster 7200RPM dedicated audio HD, you'll get drop out pretty quick. I mean you let GS3 reads samples directly from HD, and let SONAR record audio to HD at the same time. It's not realy good option to run on single unit PC. I dunno how it work with SATA or SCSI HD. But hey... why bother?

I strongly agree with acidrock. Just upgrade to Sonar 3PE or 4 PE, and you'll get VSampler3. It plays GIGA libraries (and so other formats such like soundfonts, AKAI, Halion, LM4, etc.).

Sound quality is not an issue anymore! As long as you do it right, no ears can tell the difference! (well, maybe very few ears, but deffinitely none of ours)



Jaymz

 

[Sklathill]

Are you sure vsampler3 is included in Sonar 4 Prod? I was just checking to make sure on the website, and I'm not seeing it. It does come in S3P...

Vsampler3 isn't perfect with Akai, but I've been using it with my Halion libraries with 0 problems.

 

[James Argo]

Sorry for missleading info...

VSampler came exclusive with Sonar 3PE.

BTW, I don't use Giga with Sonar in same PC, but if I remember correctly, you can virtualy route Giga's audio output to Sonar audio in (using re-wire) and use effects etc within Sonar, so it doesn't need cable at all.

Be very careful, I've had some problem back then installing Giga and Sonar in same PC. I'm not sure, but you need to tweak here and there somewhere to make 'em run. If you're not sure with Giga, go with Kontakt / Kompakt.


Jaymz

 

[mark4man]

Jaymz & everybody,

Thanks for your help...it's very much appreciated...

(& I feel bad that Jaymz' post was so thoughtful & detailed)...but...

well...let's just say that it was a f_ _king short-lived excursion. It tried to blow up my PC. Crashed it bad trying to license the product...crashed it bad tyring to open the app on its own...crashed it bad trying to open the app within SONAR. Real bad "Windows is recovering from a severe malfunction" type crashes.

Shouda' listened to acidrock.

!#&*$@^ thing's goin' back.

mark4man