Originally Posted By: jford
Agree with the Ketron (but I'm biased, since I have one).

The sounds really are great.

I have a dozen synths and synth modules by Yamaha, Edirol, Roland, Korg, and Ketron. The collection includes an SD90 with some fantastic, realistic sounds and an XV-5050 with thousands of great synth sounds. I also have a few software synths (I prefer hardware but I explored softsynths).

Of all of these, Ketron has the best General MIDI bank.

I export from BiaB and work in a DAW. I can assign different tracks to different sound modules, and I almost always include many SD2 tracks, sometimes more than any other synth.

I can even change the sound of an instrument. My SD90 has dozens of guitars, Tele rear or front pickup, 335, LP, Strat, and others with more generic names. Plus sometimes that piano might sound better as a Rhodes, the guitar as a Clav, the brass as synvox, and so on.

I always 'explode' the drum track so I can put the kick on a channel with no FX, assign different modules to different drums, and again, there are usually at least a couple of SD2 drums in there.

I mix Real Tracks with MIDI tracks, and use the RTs when they are just right for the song I'm doing. But if they aren't just right, I'll prefer a MIDI track because I can edit it, doing thousands of things that aren't available with RTs.

BiaB and a DAW are my toys, and I like to pay with my toys. MIDI gives me thousands of ways to play with the music that RTs don't.

We have a few tools in our musical took kit. Sometimes the RT is right for the job, and sometimes MIDI is right for the job. Using the right tool for the job ends up with the best results for your music.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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