On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 09:52:17PM -0500, Joseph Dell'Orfano wrote: > Steve, > > [...] May I ask what you used for synthesis? > > -Joe D --- Hello Joe-- My gear consists mainly of: * a Yamaha P-90 digital piano for MIDI motherboard (great action--I prefer it to my much more expensive Kawai MP9500 which I have decided to sell); * several rack-mounted tone generators--an older Yamaha MU90R and a GeneralMusic RealPiano Expander, and a new Roland FantomXR, which has some really nice sounds mixed in with all the less pleasant, gimmicky ones (from my perspective); * a Rane SM26B 1-rack-space splitter/mixer that is one of my all-time favorite pieces of gear, extremely versatile with clean-sounding circuitry, exceptionally good design and very sturdy; * an M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI MIDI/digital-audio soundcard with rack-mounted "breakout box"; it's a great soundcard that works well with Linux, but my only complaint is that the powered breakout box doesn't have an on/off switch. If it's plugged in, it will come on with the computer whether or not one intends to use it at the time, and it gets considerably hot. (I give it an empty rack space above and below it, after reading of some other people's difficulties with the Delta 1010 failing because of overheating. The versions after the first generation 1010 supposedly don't have as much of a problem with this.) * a dual-CPU Athlon 1900+ computer (Tyan motherboard) that runs the Agnula/Demudi Debian-based Linux distribution. The sounds on the short piece I mentioned were the "mellow piano" from the "Concert Piano" expansion board for the Roland FantomXR, with a piano/choir combination voice from the GeneralMusic RealPiano Expander at a lower volume. The flute sound was the "Pan Pipes SRX" on the "World Collection" expansion board for the Roland FantomXR. Those are the only sounds on that short piece. I have never tried using a sofware synth yet, nor using Timidity or a soundfont to provide the sounds for MIDI data. I'm interested in exploring that territory, but just have felt daunted to do so yet. The quiet, clean sound of the file I uploaded is the result primarily of two factors: a) I use no microphones (I'm not a singer, just a piano player), so no ambient noise is picked up (including my very noisy computer with 8 fans!), b) the analog audio signal from the tone generators is converted from unbalanced "line level" -10dB (as it comes out of the tone generators) to balanced cables at "pro" levels (+4dB) as soon as possible using short cables to connect them to the Rane SM26B mixer and/or the M-Audio Delta 1010, which are both capable of using balanced cables (Tip-Ring-Sleeve 1/4") and cleanly boosting line-level signals to +4dB). This is a lot more information than you asked for. Sorry-- -Steve D -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Standing in judgement of others is a diversion from judging ourselves. -Eli Khamarov ----------------------------------------------------------------
