Juhana recently posted: (A) Someone who makes great songs with commercial synths should replace the synth track with a track made with an open source synths. For the demo purposes only. (B) Someone could create a MIDI file which plays great with commercial synths. The output should be recorded for us. Then we try to create the same with open source synths, possibly improving the software at the same time. -------------- While at first I thought: "I don't want to do this, but I'd like to hear the results." But when Flo responded so negatively, I began to examine my own reaction. This is a good idea. All of the synth manufacturers that I'm aware of create numerous tunes to show off the synth. It would be nice to have something that allows one to compare sounds between synths as well. These demo tunes usually show off advanced features of the synth, whereas sometimes all I want is to hear a simple phrase. The Roland XV-3080 has a function wherein by merely pressing in the volume knob, a phrase is generated so the user can hear the tone (patch, instrument, performance, combination, etc.). I use this function all the time to simply hear the difference between patches and performances. It doesn't always work well, but it does help. Now doing this will not be easy. The phrases chosen need to be chosen based on the type of intrument and so on. For some instruments, it just isn't possible to audition like this using MIDI files. But many synths can do this. I'll probably start with variations of the Roland phrases. I'll see what I can do to create a set of phrases for comparisions, then ask that others add to it. If some sets of recordings could be posted for popular synths, then users (esp. newbies) could decide whether or not it would be beneficial to try and install it or go elsewhere. Now I fully realize that one needs to hear tones in context and all that, but surely people would admit to using audition functions for comparisons. And it's possible to create audition phrases WITH context, too. Thanks for that suggestion Juhana. I have my own instrument-creation programs and will probably find audition phrases more useful than my mere hacking on the keyboard. Regards to all, Dave.
