I know it's subjective but I think I found a better GM soft synth than the Coyote Forte or the Roland TTS-1. I was at Guitar Center yesterday and saw the M-Audio Key Rig on sale for $50. Eurika! So far I've been very pleased and just wanted to pass the info on.

This is also what I use. Just a tip that you might have missed, Channels 1,2, &3 are set to the separate synths above the GM module. When you un-mute the 3 channels in the GM module and turn off the 3 synths, it will run a lot faster & smother...at least it does on my system.

Hope this helps!

Does it work with a 64-bit OS?

R.

Isn't the M-Audio Key Rig a keyboard?

I think it is a keyboar, that comes with a software GM synth, that you are referring to.

However, I think that synth will only work with that keyboard attached to the computer's USB port. (Kind of like an ilok device, but much larger.)

So, if you are suggesting that people buy the keyboard just to get the GM synth, they will have to realize that they will need to have that keyboard attached to their computer, any time they want to use that synth.

Or--does M-Audio now sell that synth separately, and not require a particular hardware connection?

If so, any demos, etc., that one could hear? Even for $50, I don't think people would want to shell out the money without hearing it.

Yes, since Bandstand has been discontinued, there isn't really much available in the way of plug-in GM synths, other than TTS (comes with Sonar), and Coyote Forte. Garritan had once announced that they would be releasing a GM synth, called GEM,but they apparently dropped the idea.

M-Audio's Key Rig (and a companion product, Drum & Bass Rig) was originally a software package, available for both PC and Mac. There was a favorable review of both products in the July 2005 issue of SoundOnSound magazine -- that's when and (mainly) why I bought them. You could use them as standalone synths or as plugins, and they had some nice sounds -- GM was covered, but only part of the package. I used them for a while, then Bandstand came along and (personal opinion) I thought it did a better job with most GM sounds. It looks like M-Audio now ships KeyRig only with a couple of its small controller keyboards, and only for PC. But you can still find the software package online here and there for about $70 (or apparently, $50 through at least one Guitar Center). And M-Audio's support page shows that drivers are available for Vista and for Mac through OS 10.5.2. Is it worth $50 - 70? Maybe. The review is still online at soundonsound.com, and I thought it was pretty accurate. It's a legacy product, but so is Bandstand, and while I was never bowled over by its GM sounds, it had some other synths and sounds that were fun to play with.

Hi,

I posted something about this topic the other day, but couldn't find it.

Anywho.......There are a couple of good options other than that mentioned above.

1. The Roland TTS-1 softsynth. This is bundled with Cakewalk Sonar, which can be a little pricey. Now Cakewalk has an entry level product ($35) called "Music Creator 5", which bundles the TTS-1. Not a bad deal, and the sounds are much better than that of the Roland sound canvas, about equal to Forte Coyote, but more control. Music Creator is actually a great program for the price, there are tons of good features as a DAW. Here is a link to a video explaining the features>

http://www.cakewalk.com/products/musiccreator/videos.asp

2. If you are really picky about the quality of your samples, and still want full GM compatibility, you should look into the VIR2 "One". Although the price is more ($199) the quality is fantastic, and you don't have to worry about manually loading each patch per song, as you have to do with Kontakt. Here are some demos and info>

http://www.vir2.com/4DCGI/vir2/products/vione/index.html?1198

Hope that helps,
Ed

Wow! The VI.One is brilliant! It's added to my wish list.

maiki, I got the KeyRig software with my KeyRig49 keyboard. It does not require that the keyboard be connected to the system for the software to work.

(I also own the Bass & Drum software, and really like some of the bass sounds)

Overall I like it a lot better than the VSC, and it's sounds blend better with the RT/RD also. I just got the 2010 UltraPlus Pak, so if you want to post the names of a few styles you would like to hear I will record them & post them for you.....:)

I have not tried out any of my soundfonts thru the SFZ+ player yet with the 2010 pak, so this might change over the course of this next year!

And Edward Buckley, Thanks for the V1 link!

I think you should be careful about VI One. The sounds are great (according to the demos), but it isn't merely a GM module. In fact, the GM section looks pretty weak to me.

From the manual:

"The General MIDI is a highly compacted and optimized General MIDI bank featuring the 128 standard
GM instruments plus 8 GM kits. The entire bank totals only 32MB in size, so is very quick to
load and is intended for quick MIDI mockups."

So, if you want to spend the time to assign each MIDI track to a VI One instrument, you'll get great sound. But I doubt their 32mb GM subset sounds any better than the other GM softsynths mentioned here.

If you want a good GM module, I'd recommend using hardware. And the Ketron SD2 is the best currently produced one I've found (I own two).

I also have Key Rig, though I never used its GM module. But it is handy for live playing on a laptop when you want a large assortment of sounds in a small system resources footprint. It has some nice pianos, eps, organs, and synths, all of which sound fine in a live (MIDI backup) mix. Not so good for solo piano work.

Hello,

I happen to have the m-audio software lying around unused. It installed into my steinberg vst folder but is there a way to select it in band in a box instead of the vsc dxi as I can't see it there?

Thank you

In the VST/DirectX Instruments/Plugins (select synth in list) window, Select "Add VSTi Plugin..." from the list, and then find the M-Audio KeyRig.dll and Open it....

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much for your reply. I am having trouble loading the keyrig, if anyone would be good enough to let me know if the proceedure I am doing is correct.

1 In band in a box I open the "midi/audio drivers setup" (currently I have the soundcard set to "soundblaster live synth" (my souncard) and ticked the box "use vst/dxi synth" and also ticked the box "route midi Thru to midi driver"
2 I now click on "vst/dxi synth settings"
3 The "Vst/directx instruments/plugins" dialog opens with the vsc dxi being the Edirol
4 I now click on options and when the dx/vxt box opens I click "register a new dx plugin"
5 I now browse to the location where the keyrig is installed and click on the keyrig dll but I get an error message.

If anyone can give me guidance as to what I am doing wrong as to installing the keyrig or for that matter if I have setup the normal vst/dxi correctly?

many thanks for your kind help.


Musiclover

Thanks...think I got it sorted, I was doing the wrong thing at step 4.


Musiclover

It appears that the Cakewalk "Music Creator 5" is only for 32-bit systems... Has anyone tried it on a 64-bit system yet?

LJ

Quote:

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Hi,

I posted something about this topic the other day, but couldn't find it.

Anywho.......There are a couple of good options other than that mentioned above.

1. The Roland TTS-1 softsynth. This is bundled with Cakewalk Sonar, which can be a little pricey. Now Cakewalk has an entry level product ($35) called "Music Creator 5", which bundles the TTS-1. Not a bad deal, and the sounds are much better than that of the Roland sound canvas, about equal to Forte Coyote, but more control. Music Creator is actually a great program for the price, there are tons of good features as a DAW. Here is a link to a video explaining the features>

http://www.cakewalk.com/products/musiccreator/videos.asp

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