Quote:

WOW!
What a difference to my ears between the Ketron and Roland examples and the VSC example.
Makes the VSC sound like something from Toys R Us!

Would there be that same difference if you were using the sound banks from a Casio or Yamaha midi keyboard if that's possible (new to midi)?

How about a midi keyboard, external synth, shoot out to determine which is the best value for a newbie (price vs sound quality) all playing the same song with the same or no effects?



Here's the thing about comparing other midi synths. Most of the best ones either don't have a GM soundbank or if they do it's no better than what we just heard. People forget or don't realize the difference between using GM and not using GM. I'm assuming all these Biab demo's are using the default GM patches. I know the Roland and Ketron hardware sound modules have non GM ie 'higher banks' sounds that sound much better than the GM sounds you just heard in most cases. The problem with that is it puts the onus on the user to set up each instrument track manually. You get much better sounds that way but it stops Biab from being simply "a pick and song and hit play" thing. At least it does until you've set up and saved each song. Once you've done that then yes all you do is pick one and hit play.

When you're asking for a keyboard comparison you have to specify are you asking simply for a test of each keyboards' GM soundbank only or do you want to hear the best each unit has to offer? If you want to hear the best and then consider buying one based on that, you have to know you will be setting up each individual Biab song differently.

My Kurzweil PC3 for example only has what sounds to me like a 20 year old GM soundbank that's about the same as the TTS-1 while the other 1,200 sounds are killer. They are some of the absolute best sounds available at any price. Those sounds are what the Kurz really sounds like not the crap GM bank. If you want a grand piano, I have like 10 of them (not GM) so which one do you want to hear for your test? That smooth jazz song Peter posted has a string pad. My Kurz has the orchestral soundblock with a whole bank of 128 string/synth pads. With that many choices it's impossible for me to post an example and then say this is what a Kurzweil sounds like. It's what it sounds like using that one patch only. You or someone else may very well think a string patch I didn't consider sounds perfect for that song. A couple of these songs use a fretless bass. A GM bank only has one fretless, one acoustic, one finger and one picked for bass. My Kurz probably has 20 of them in those four categories plus I have various sliders to control elements of the bass sound and performance. GM doesn't give you that control. That's the difference between using a keyboard with 1,200 sounds vs using one GM soundbank with a couple of patches for each instrument, because a GM bank only has 128 slots and 29 of those are taken up by sound effects like a gun shot, helicopter, door slam, etc. That means you only have 99 instrument patches to pick from while I have 1,200. The Ketron is the only hardware synth I'm aware of that really put some effort into their GM bank. Everybody else like Kurzweil could care less about GM because frankly pro players don't care about GM either and these pro level keyboards are designed for well, pro's. You can get very good GM sounds in the high end arranger keyboards like a Korg PA3XPro or a Yamaha Tyros 4 but you don't even want to know how much they cost (over 4K).

The point of my little rant is it's much more complex than you think when you ask about who has the best midi sounds. If you want the best, forget about GM and get used to rolling your own setups with your Biab songs. If you want the convenience of using GM that's fine I do too but understand you're severely compromising the sound quality. I don't bother setting up all my songs using my Kurz because I play it all the time anyway and a combination of the RT's and a few midi tracks using the Forte or TTS-1 is good enough for what I use Biab for.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.