On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Joshua Boyd <jdboyd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > BTW, every one is entitled to like what they like, and want the tools > they want to use, but based on those two files (and I know only one was > done on the XG) I'm not clear on what the fascination with the > Yamaha DB60XG (NEC XR-385) is. Do you have other files that better > demostrate it? How hard is it to get the card to do the flamenco guitar > type stuff that the wikipedia page refers to? I'm sure it's around -- in general, all the Yamaha XG demos are quite amazing for their ability to cram an amazing amount of sound into a relatively small midi file. Yes the db50xg emulates guitars nicely, if that's what you're into. I'm more interested in the fact that this card is basically a "postcard sized" rave ... just be careful licking the stamps :-) A single grand piano is probably the worst and stupidest use of this card, unless you just happen to be listening to MIDI as a radio, which I like to do, and which this card makes very easy, due to its all-encompassing compatibility with every major midi standard. With no setup whatsoever, I can click on any web or filesystem-browser MIDI track, and if it's general-midi MIDI tracks, most Roland GS, and all Yamaha XG tracks, it will generally sound close to the original performer's intent. The fascination is that it's a dirt-cheap full XG synthesizer for $10-20 card ( http://cgi.ebay.com/XR385-YAMAHA-DB60XG-DB50XG-MIDI-Synth-Daughter-Board-/270594950044 ) that fits inside your computer... which means you can have a slow and outdated computer and a USB keyboard and a controller and perform glitch and worry free. The load to your computer is absolutely negligible even with mad amounts of midi-controller data being sent to this synth. It never crashes. It is rock-solid. More important than being a full-XG synth, is that it's a fully controllable TG300B synth when using http://qxgedit.sourceforge.net ... making it much closer to a Yamaha AN1X (analog modelling synth) or a CS1X or a QS300 ... for details, see http://www.dancetech.com/item.cfm?threadid=328 http://webspace.webring.com/people/jt/the_qs300_website/ Speaking of the db50xg's negligible load, FYI, the recordings done below were done while my son was playing UrbanTerror at 60-80FPS on his linux box (since that's where the synth resides as I'm out of slots). Qmid was running on my computer "gnulem" using jack to route the MIDI via qmidinet to the computer named "coggie" housing the Yamaha and the Terratec Dmx6fire soundcard breakout box that houses the db60xg. The digital output from the Terratec DMX6fire is feeding my "poor mans digital matrix switch" composed of radio-shack 4 way passive video switch feeding the SPDIF on my computer's M-audio delta66. The recording is of this SPDIF input.... The way I have things setup, I can simply click on http://www.megatrade.ru/Midi/Isummer.zip and then click on the enclosed file Intelligent_Summer.mid and immediately hear this playback through kmid: http://nielsmayer.com/npm/Intelligent_Summer.ogg (which is also a better demo of this card, IMHO). Or for piano-based music "Skyline\ -\ Herbie\ Hancock\ -\ TG300B.mid" from http://www.blueman.name/Jazz.php becomes becomes http://nielsmayer.com/npm/Skyline_Herbie_Hancock_TG300B.ogg Next step: The -75db noise floor (per jnoisemeter), ancient D/A converter (AK4510), ancient analog output stage (JRC 4570), as well as the input analog stage (JRC4580) and input A/D converter on the Terratec DMX6Fire will be completely bypassed when I tap into the TTL SPDIF in on the AK4510 and connect it to the TTL-level CD input on the DMX6Fire ... if it works, it will be quite the hack due to the ease and $0.00 implementation cost (now, if I could only find my 25W soldering iron so i don't burn the PC board and lift the copper pads). -- Niels http://nielsmayer.com _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
