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Joined: Apr 2009
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Are there any EXCELLENT DXi or VSTi alternatives to Roland VSC and Forte that are modestly priced or free downloads from the web?
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I don't know if you'd consider it "modestly priced" -- probably not -- but I have just recently installed Native Instruments' "Bandstand." Sounds great, but it does cost close to $100.
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"EXCELLENT" sound and "modestly priced" -- not to mention "free" -- are likely to prove to be mutually exclusive terms.
At the moment, great sounds cost money, give or take the amount of subjectivity involved with whether or not someone likes a certain MIDI synth.
If you want very good MIDI sound, the Ketron SD2, sold by pgmusic, is a VERY good choice, it is a hardware synth, so it features zero latency among other things.
--Mac
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I forgot to add, I'm using a Toshiba laptop with Vista 64 bit OS.
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I have the Ketron SD2 and it's a gem. If you can find a used Roland JV1010 or equivalent or even the external soundcanvas that's not bad either. There is a dare to compare with sounds of different synths here on the pg website.
Be aware that if you plan to use both a synth and Real sounds you need a mixer in the end. A cheap 4 input Behringher is around $50 to $60 bucks, with preamps and mics and a way to send the signal back into the computer for recording.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Since the Ketron will almost neatly fit in your shirt pocket, the use of a laptop isn't a big deal. You will need a midi interface that supports the Vista 64, but I wouldn't see why most of them wouldn't do that.
If you are going to use the Real Tracks, I would suggest that you invest in a better USB audio interface. There is a problem with Vista, though, when it comes to USB interfaces, and that is that if you record a 16 bit, 44.1kHz file, it will not play back as that. Its playback is dependent on the settings in the audio properties for the USB interface under the mixer. It will be 24 bit, and either 44.1, 48 or 96, not even an option for 88.2! Whatever application you are using has no effect on it, either, Vista (and the upcoming Win 7) has total control.
Gary
I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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EMU PROTEUS VX ?
Google it. It's free and has some good sounds. Don't know if it works with BIAB or PTW so you might ask. Works in all the rest of my programs.
DTuna
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The edirol um1 installs on vista without drivers and works fine with band in a box.
btw, so does my old Creative USB mp3+ player which surprised me. The minijack from the back of my HP desktop was to noisy and the creative uses rca out and in and that seems much better.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Checked out the NI Bandstand website - could not justify another $100 since I just sent a check for ForteDXi. Got the Forte key by email this afternoon and gave it another try - it sounded better than I remembered it. I think I'll go with it - it solves serveral of my problems - keep it simple - as they say. Thanks so much for ya'll's expert and thoughtful input. I'm sure I'll be back again with more novice questions.
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D. Tuna,
Downloaded the Free Proteus today. So far, I haven't been able to get it to work with RB. I don't know why. Furthermore, it's not a General MIDI compliant synth, which makes it all that much harder to use for people without lots of experience.
Thankfully I have a hardware synth.
Gary
I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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Quote:
D. Tuna,
Downloaded the Free Proteus today. So far, I haven't been able to get it to work with RB. I don't know why. Furthermore, it's not a General MIDI compliant synth, which makes it all that much harder to use for people without lots of experience.
Thankfully I have a hardware synth.
Gary
In this picture I have tracks routed to Proteus AND VSC AND Cakewalk TTS.
Proteus is showing the 16 channels available to you to route midi tracks to. This is the 2nd tab. The 1st tab is the single instrument tweak page. The little yellow arrows next to the 1-16 tracks show when the track and instrument are playing.
It's really not terribly hard to set up. It may be in PTW, I don't know, I just use BIAB.
DTuna
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Yeah, that's about what it looked like when I started, so I don't know. You're doing this IN BIAB? If so, how do you get VSC and TTS involved?
Gary
I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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There are lots of VSTis tht do not work well in RB and BiaB for me, SFZ, Proteus, Jamstix, Jeskola, all have features that are not available. Either the volume control does not work, or something.
I think PG needs to really address the VSti capabilities of thes and PT so that there are more options.
One i have found that does work very well is sampletank
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Quote:
Yeah, that's about what it looked like when I started, so I don't know. You're doing this IN BIAB? If so, how do you get VSC and TTS involved?
Gary
Im sorry Gary for the way I said that I don't use PTW, just BIAB and that that lead you to believe that I've used Proteus in BIAB. I have not. My screenshot shows a sequencer using Proteus (TTS and VSC). It's not PTW or BIAB.
Sorry for not being clearer.
DTuna
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Quote:
Quote:
For some reason I can not get the EMU Proteus VX to "stick" when I try to add it as a VST instrument (free download by the way at www.emu.com) . I click on "Add VST plugin" and it finds the Proteus .dll just fine. It just will not load into the Direct X Plugin window. I am a little new at this this so any help would be appreciated.
Hi
When I used Proteus VX as a Direct X plugin it freezes and crashes BIAB.
The way I use VX now is in 'standalone mode' rather than VST plugin and it works fine for me.
To do this you have to install the Midi Yoke http://www.midiox.com/ on your computer which gives eight virtual midi inputs and outputs,it looks all rather daunting at first but once setup its very easy.
1.Install Midi Yoke on computer
2.In BIAB midi output driver select Midi Yoke:1
3.Run Proteus VX in standalone mode
4.In Proteus VX options/preferences/midi select Midi Yoke:1 as the input
5.Play BIAB and you should see midi activity in Proteus
6.Its now a matter of choosing your sounds in Proteus
The Proteus Composer X soundset which comes with it has some great sounds to use.
Brian Cadoret
I pulled this from the other thread so it wouldn't get missed.
Seems Brian has found a was to use it in BIAB.
I agree with Robh that PG needs to address this.
DTuna
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D.,
Just out of curiousity, what is that host?
Gary
I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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Shhh....(R*****r).
Last edited by D. Tuna; 04/23/09 02:29 PM.
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I'm sorry to be dense, but I just got a new HP/DV7 laptop with Vista/SP2-64-bit on it, and now I'm trying to install all the stuff, and not having any luck with any of the VST files. (I also bought the Creative X-Fi Express-54 card, and installed that, thinking that would show up in the selections for MIDI choices--and it doesn't.)
So, does the ForteDXi work on Vista/64-bit? How do I find a better solution than "MS wavetable"?
Thanks!
"You play pretty good--for a girl."
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Quote:
So, does the ForteDXi work on Vista/64-bit? How do I find a better solution than "MS wavetable"?
I wouldn't be much help on the installation routines, but yes, the ForteDxi is working on my Vista?64 bit machine.
Good luck,
Don S.
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LadyJazzer said Quote:
not having any luck with any of the VST files
i would suggest you disable UAC by using the following methods:
hold the window key, usually bottom left hand side of kboard, down and tap the R key
type MSCONFIG in space next to open then press enter
Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAC" . Click on that line.
Press the Launch button.
A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.
Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.
You can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAC" line and then clicking on the Launch button.
after the reboot try again
if you're still having problems then include the vst\vsti and its error msg
Last edited by pghboemike; 06/03/09 03:22 PM.
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit M4 pro Mac mini 1tb HD 24GB mem casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface
casio wk-7500
biab & realband 2025 everything pk both with Current builds
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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