Virtual instruments etc

[gmcgmusic]

Does anybody use any of the virtual instruments currently appearing everywhere. I currently use a proteus 2000 for alot of sounds, but i want to improve my drum sounds and some synth and piano sounds, etc. Does anybody use sampletank? Or battery? Theyre two ive heard about. And wot about amplitube? I need a bit of advice on these if anybody knows about them. I use a Mac, G4 400mhz, 128mb ram, would this need upgrading? All these questions! Any help and suggestions welcomed.

[hyphen8]

gmcgmusic -

You're in a similar situation as me, I'm using a G4 400, and the first thing I'd say is yes, you'll need to do some computer updating. Get as much RAM as you can - it's cheap. And consider getting an upgrade in your processor, they've come down in price recently (from 400 mhz to 1 gighz for $500).

I'm getting ready to go 90 percent virtual instrument, 10 live audio. (vox and guitar).

I've messed around a little bit with the Sampletank demo and was impressed with the sounds. Another very cool drum sample player I've heard is Stylus Groove for beats, and the demo for Amplitube guitar sounds very cool. I'm also checking the Pluggo v3 collection of plug ins which has some virtual instruments in a modestly priced package.

You may want to consider Logic 6. I'm going to compose songs in Logic, and finish them in ProTools.

My ever-evolving plan for an upgrade looks like this at the moment:

MBox for PT6 LE and 2 track audio input.
Logic Gold for composing and working with virtual instruments.
EXS 24 mk II sampler
Stylus Groove
Amplitube
Cycling 74 Pluggo v.3 (where else can you find a virtual theramin?)
Oxygen8 controller
Powerlogix 1 ghz upgrade
More RAM (up to approx. 1.25 gig)

-- hyphen8

[gmcgmusic]

Nice one for that, I must admit I was thinking very much on a similar line. I'm gonna be looking into upgrading cpu and ram on the mac, as i think i need to in order to do wot i want it to do. Im a guitarist too, so the amplitube is just an idea, to be honest I'm getting great results from my boogie Mk IV right now.

[Eiko]

Amplitube is amazing. Really amazing. And it makes things so much easier
G4/400 too, and it rocks!

[gmcgmusic]

excellent! I was starting to worry about my g4 400 being too old and too slow in today's rapidly moving technology market.

[Phillip Stein]

hyphen8,
Do you have an Oxygen 8, or is that just hopeful for the future? I've been thinking about one for midi input for virtual instruments and wanted to hear some user reviews.

[hyphen8]

Hi Phillip, actually I haven't got one yet. Based my intent to purchase on informal survey of bbs with lots of raves, along with some magazine reviews. I do have a concern about velocity sensitive keys, I don't think it has any, so I'd still have to keep another keyboard around. The Edirol is a wee bit pricier, and bigger. But it could fill that gap. I may end up with both of them.
And if I had a bigger budget, I'd also have a Studio Logic with 88 weighted keys, wouldn't need the one with the wheels, I'd have 'em on the Oxygen. Right now, all I have is an Alesis QS7.

[hyphen8]

Hi Phillip, actually I haven't got one yet. Based my intent to purchase on informal survey of bbs with lots of raves, along with some magazine reviews. I do have a concern about velocity sensitive keys, I don't think it has any, so I'd still have to keep another keyboard around. The Edirol is a wee bit pricier, and bigger. But it could fill that gap. I may end up with both of them.
And if I had a bigger budget, I'd also have a Studio Logic with 88 weighted keys, wouldn't need the one with the wheels, I'd have 'em on the Oxygen. Right now, all I have is an Alesis QS7.

[The Mighty Burner]

I'm currently running PTLE, Reason, Kontakt, and a Roland JV-1010 on a Mac G4 AGP dual 450 (1.25Gb RAM) with good results. Kontakt is a great sampler with very good sounds, but only runs as direct connect, so I've had latency issues to deal with....wish it was RTAS (I'm thinking about springing for the NI studio collection just to get the RTAS versions of Battery and the B4). When I want to record Bass or Guitar direct, I either use an FMR RNP/RCP combo as a bass DI or a Yamaha DG-stomp preamp for guitar (which works quite well and doesn't use any CPU obviously).

I really like Battery, but it has to be the RTAS version which is overpriced IMO. I was also thinking of running another DAW (like Logic or DP) for the same reasons as you...I would love to hear some thoughts about those apps...

[GORILLA]

Hey gmcgmusic, I use a G4/400 896mb and it's been cool! Also, use the Pro-52, Sample Tank, and Battery with a midiman 49-key controller on my 002. Amplitube ROCKS!! They all run good on the lil G4/400!! I do mostly hard rock so here's where I get my drum samples.I'm eye-ing an dual 1.4, but I think one of those $500 1Ghz upgrades will do until later this year and the G5's!!!
Anyone using the Avid Xpress DV NLE program by any chance, with their LE systems?