Using DXI synths

[Toki987]

Hi yall, its me again.. I am on an athlon 1700+, 512 mg ram, 40gb ide hd, Live! card, DW8000 only as an midi input controller, occasionaly 1 or 2 tracks of audio, Sonar 2 XL.
I like using some DXI synths however, the only way to utilize them while recording in realtime due to the latency, is to record using an onboard midi patch from the SB card, then route the track to the DXI after the recording is done. It works great but it sure takes a bite out of the imagery until I put it back later by re-routing. Is there a trick or tip out there that might get me back in real-time with the DXI`s ?

 

[brzilian]

Hi yall, its me again.. I am on an athlon 1700+, 512 mg ram, 40gb ide hd, Live! card, DW8000 only as an midi input controller, occasionaly 1 or 2 tracks of audio, Sonar 2 XL.
I like using some DXI synths however, the only way to utilize them while recording in realtime due to the latency, is to record using an onboard midi patch from the SB card, then route the track to the DXI after the recording is done. It works great but it sure takes a bite out of the imagery until I put it back later by re-routing. Is there a trick or tip out there that might get me back in real-time with the DXI`s ?

Your best bet is to ditch the Live! card. When I did that and bougth the Audiophile, latency dropped way down and I am now able to play DXi's in real time. My latency went down to 8.7ms and this was on a PII-400!!

 

[Toki987]

thanks dude..
I haven`t priced the audiophile yet. This is has been a major attempt at economics in setting up a midi work station so the SB was the ticket at the time. Does the audiophile have onboard wavetables, or will I have to rely solely on DXI and 3rd party packages for sounds?

 

[Doug H]

No wavetables. I just upgraded from a Montego II and am working at getting the midi back online.

 

[brzilian]

thanks dude..
I haven`t priced the audiophile yet. This is has been a major attempt at economics in setting up a midi work station so the SB was the ticket at the time. Does the audiophile have onboard wavetables, or will I have to rely solely on DXI and 3rd party packages for sounds?

No wavetables but even the Virtual Sound Canvas DXi that comes with Sonar/HS2002 sounds better than anything on my old SB Live...

You can even still use SF's with the Audiophile. All you have to do is run the LiveSynth Pro softsynth and load you SF bank of choice.

 

[bamboo]

It is now considered fashionable to berate the Live! card and lavish praise on Delta or similar cards. I have both and I think it is a very well-balanced combination.

No wavetables but even the Virtual Sound Canvas DXi that comes with Sonar/HS2002 sounds better than anything on my old SB Live...

It only means that the SFs you used were low-quality. The Virtual Sound Canvas is crap indeed, but the quality of SFs is only as good as the quality of the underlying audio samples the SF is made of. For instance, I use multi-megabyte multi-layered stereo SFs converted from AKAI or Gigasampler libraries and I am quite happy with the sound.

You can even still use SF's with the Audiophile. All you have to do is run the LiveSynth Pro softsynth and load you SF bank of choice.

Yes you can, but keep in mind that each softsynth consumes CPU cycles. Using Live! costs you nothing in terms of system resources and latency is practically zero. Besides, an owner of a Live card can edit/create SFs using Vienna or another similar utility, whilst the user of LiveSynth is stuck with the ready-made SFs.

My advise is, don't throw away your Live! cards folks. Instead, connect it digitally to your Delta, disable the wave drivers and enjoy the best of the two worlds.

@ Toki987
You can buy Audiphile 2496 online for about $150.

 

[brzilian]

It is now considered fashionable to berate the Live! card and lavish praise on Delta or similar cards. I have both and I think it is a very well-balanced combination.



It only means that the SFs you used were low-quality. The Virtual Sound Canvas is crap indeed, but the quality of SFs is only as good as the quality of the underlying audio samples the SF is made of. For instance, I use multi-megabyte multi-layered stereo SFs converted from AKAI or Gigasampler libraries and I am quite happy with the sound.



Yes you can, but keep in mind that each softsynth consumes CPU cycles. Using Live! costs you nothing in terms of system resources and latency is practically zero. Besides, an owner of a Live card can edit/create SFs using Vienna or another similar utility, whilst the user of LiveSynth is stuck with the ready-made SFs.

My advise is, don't throw away your Live! cards folks. Instead, connect it digitally to your Delta, disable the wave drivers and enjoy the best of the two worlds.

@ Toki987
You can buy Audiphile 2496 online for about $150.

Have you ever used VSC in GS mode?

There are a ton more sounds (probably around 500) and they are far superior to the standard GM mode sounds.

If your system is powerful enough, you can run several softsynths at once. I would run FM7, VSC, and Dreamstation at the same time with no problems on a PII-400. There were several Dxi effects patched into AUX busses as well.

Yes, you can load hundred's of megabytes od SF on a SB, but all you are doing there is taking away precious system RAM that could be used elsewhere...

 

[Toki987]

Ahhh Soooo... I sea

I haven`t had a problem at all with the way the SB plays samples, it is really the quality of the sample to begin with. I have noticed the Roland dxi samples are a bit meatier than the sb sf`s.
Vienna can edit the instruments in the fonts but is is a bit of work.

Based on what I've heard from most of you, I`m sold on the 24/96. But, I think it might be a good idea to hold onto the sblive for quick, easy, and not really bad sounding fonts (most of them anyways).

Bamboo, connecting the live and the 2496 digitally sounds interesting, I will be prodding you before long on how to do this..

 

[brzilian]

Ahhh Soooo... I sea

I haven`t had a problem at all with the way the SB plays samples, it is really the quality of the sample to begin with. I have noticed the Roland dxi samples are a bit meatier than the sb sf`s.
Vienna can edit the instruments in the fonts but is is a bit of work.

Based on what I've heard from most of you, I`m sold on the 24/96. But, I think it might be a good idea to hold onto the sblive for quick, easy, and not really bad sounding fonts (most of them anyways).

Bamboo, connecting the live and the 2496 digitally sounds interesting, I will be prodding you before long on how to do this..

Don't get me wrong - my SB Live is still in my system. I just don't bother with with any type of SF's - I have more fun with softsynths.

 

[Toki987]

Have you ever used VSC in GS mode?

There are a ton more sounds (probably around 500) and they are far superior to the standard GM mode sounds.

If your system is powerful enough, you can run several softsynths at once. I would run FM7, VSC, and Dreamstation at the same time with no problems on a PII-400. There were several Dxi effects patched into AUX busses as well.

"VSC in GS mode": you lost me here... what is this condition and how do I get there from here? remember.., I`m just an old picker trying figure out how to use the other end of a shovel...
Is it another software synth? and what is GS mode?

 

[Toki987]

jus a note... I`m might have Momma knit a few a yall a lil christmas stocking for being so daggum nice..

I do appreciate the patience with an old dog.

 

[brzilian]

"VSC in GS mode": you lost me here... what is this condition and how do I get there from here? remember.., I`m just an old picker trying figure out how to use the other end of a shovel...
Is it another software synth? and what is GS mode?

GS is Roland's expanded sound set that adds to the General Midi standard - very similar to Yamaha's XG standard.

You can switch VSC to GS by clicking on the 'SETUP' button on the main VSC screen. You will get another window which lets you adjust various settings. The GM/GS mode selector is at the bottom

 

[Toki987]

Bartender...., bring that man another saspirilla..., on me.

Thanks dude.

 

[bamboo]

Have you ever used VSC in GS mode?

...

Well, my GS days are long past. I only load instruments I need for specific piece, and I try to use good (i.e. large) ones. I never use ready-made instruments either - each one is hand crafted.

There are a ton more sounds (probably around 500) and they are far superior to the standard GM mode sounds.

There's no such thing as standard GM mode sounds. You can, for instance, construct a GM bank with a good 100 Mb piano and 126 crappy instruments 10Kb each. Or do you mean GM soundfonts shipped with SB cards?

Yes, you can load hundred's of megabytes od SF on a SB, but all you are doing there is taking away precious system RAM that could be used elsewhere... [/B]

No, you can't (unfortunately). A SBLive can play 32 Mb worth of samples simultaneously. This means that I can load, say 64Mb tops in hope that polyphony limit will not be reached. I have 512 Mb of RAM, so this is not an issue.

As for digital connection, I use SPDIF. The only limitation is that a Delta card should be synced at 48 kHz (SBLive standard), therefore all Sonar projects should be based on this frequency. I can live with it though.

 

[brzilian]

No, you can't (unfortunately). A SBLive can play 32 Mb worth of samples simultaneously. This means that I can load, say 64Mb tops in hope that polyphony limit will not be reached. I have 512 Mb of RAM, so this is not an issue.

There are ways around that and the Audigy does not have the 32Mb limitation.