What’s the BEST MIDI DEVICE?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys… I’m really dumb when it comes to this stuff.

I have really crappy midi devices on my computer. I’d like some more realistic sounding synth. Anyone know where I can download a good midi device free?

What’s, in your opinion, the best midi device out there today (in terms of realism).

[Anonymous]

“good midi device” and “free” are words that do not co-exist

Roland has great synth mods with decent sampling capabilities, but if you want the best sounds you need to by the best samples which can run a couple hundred dollars. Emu has the best samplers.

Even then, there is not a definitve sample library. Some have good strings and crappy brass. Some have decent brass and crappy strings, so then you buy both. But then sometimes the damned things aren’t tuned the same, so you can’t use them both till you tune them!

Just give up and become a professional deep-sea diver instead.

[Anonymous]

The best samples? Try a couple THOUSAND dollars: http://www.ilio.com/vienna/complete/index.html

You’re gonna’ need a good comp. and a good soundcard to run those puppies. I’ve heard of people running their samples on a totally different computer than the computer running their sequencer! Yeah, it can get expensive. VERY expensive. Although, professional deep sea diving gear probably is, too.

[Anonymous]

The best sampler is not a hardware one:

Gigastudio

Every film composer that does anything with midi usually has at least one computer running Gigastudio, if not 4 or 5 of them. The difference is that the samples can be HUGE and they stream directly from your harddrive so there is no limit with the exception of your harddrive space. Goto http://www.sonicimplants.com and listen to thier Symphonic Strings demos, they will totally blow you away. But the best is gonna cost you, Gigastudio is about $700-900 depending on where you get it, and that is just the program. The above mentioned strings samples run at about $1,200, but if you want quality, that is your best bet.

If this is too high for you, get a Sound Blaster Live! soundcard (about $50) and use soundfonts. These are NOWHERE as good as the giga stuff, but you can find a ton of free soundfonts on the web (though you are gonna need to sift through alot of sh*tty samples before you find any good ones, and don’t expect to find any good brass).

Then your gonna need a sequencer to use. I know Cakewalk is compatable with both soundfonts and giga, and that is what I use but you could probably get a different one for cheeper (though it might not support too many things). Word of advise: GET DEMOS. That is the best way to figure out what sequencer is right for you, and if they don’t have a demo, don’t bother with the product because it might not even be compatable with your computer (for example, I went out and bought Cubase SX and tried to run it on my Win98SE machine that I have giga on, and it said it needed XP, so I went out and bought XP, found out that Giga didn’t support XP and Cubase wouldn’t even run on XP, just got a bunch of error screens).

Finally, you are going to need something to master your audio with. This is REALLY up to you though, as there are alot of people who prefer different programs. I use Cool Edit Pro with a ton of plug-ins.

Hope that helps you, even though I wrote way more than you asked

Knight (The MIDI guy)

[Anonymous]

Holy @!#$.

[Anonymous]

Too much info?

Knight (hehe)

[Anonymous]

you dont need gigastudio

just get an old dual g4 and get the Logic EMI 6|2m production package…its cheap and it comes with everything you need.. ( Logic sequencing program, EMI 6|2m audio/midi interface ( I own it, VERY good ), and the GREAT instruments, the EVB3 organ and EVP88 electric piano ( rhodes, etc..)s etc etc…

I have Logic platinum but Logic gold would be fine for anyone, even pro’s.

get an exs24 sampler for $250 new and get 10’s thousands of free samples online…many of them very good… I use the Akai japan website one’s alot!

get a Studiologic weighted 88-key keyboard. ( $cheap!$ )

there you go EVERYTHING you need, no more questions!

[Anonymous]

the best samplers…try the symphonic string collection….couple of thousand?try $10, 000

[Anonymous]

Actually the whole set is $995. And the mini set is $500.

[Anonymous]

poj: That collection is not a sampler, it is a collection of SAMPLES for Gigastudio (which I talked about before) and Dantz has the price right (I don’t think anyone would pay $10,000 for it).

jeffro: I never said anyone NEEDS Gigastudio, just that it is the best sampler available. And building a system like you are talking about would cost alot more than building a giga system. The reason? You can use Gigastudio on a computer you already have, and all those Akai Samples that you get for free can be easily converted to Gigasamples (with a program that comes with gigastudio no less). It can also convert Soundfonts as well. But for a budget, I don’t think that anyone can deny that Soundfonts are the cheapest way to go.

Knight (and there you have it)

[Anonymous]

I have a Korg N1 that I just use with Cakewalk Home Studio 9 and my e-machine etower | 500ix and it works pretty good. I use Finale to write and that’s easy to find in p2p sharing networks. I don’t understand midi that much, just the basics, but I want to be a film scorer also and would like to know more if anyone wants to put on here a thing or two about MIDI. You can e-mail me if u want 2 also I am open to any comments and tips on my hardware etc.

B

[Anonymous]

if you want real sounds youre lookin at pro-tools sickeningly enuff, but if you have access to conventional musical instuments an people who can play them… well you really cant get realer than real really can you?

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I’m probably a little late on this one, but might I make a suggestion? There is a wonderful little program called Melody Assistant at http://www.myriad-online.com. For $15 you can do about all you ever wanted to do with scoring. I think it is a lot better than Finale. Finale had too many submenus and whatnot to work through. Anyways, Melody Assistant, coupled with their Gold Sound Database for $35 is really a cheap way to make pretty darn good sounding MIDIs. Mind you, the Gold Database isn’t perfect by any means, but I find it to be an excellent alternative to spending hundreds and maybe even thousands on samples. But, I strongly encourage anyone out there who is interested in composing to check out this great program. I have never regretted my purchase of it. Support is great and they have even implemented some features that I have requested. Updates come out about every two months and they are free, unlike Finale. I’ve done enough rambling about this, so I’ll just be quiet now. Have a great day!

Travis Clark

[Anonymous]

Ummm…..
Sorry to the mac user, but I don’t think you’ll have an easy time making logic sound like gigastudio. First off, I went and bought a new copy of GigaStudio for $70, comes with only one instrument (an awesome piano), and then you have to buy the other stuff as everyone else said. Soundfonts are in abundance for free, just a matter of getting a good sequencer. There actually are some really good free gigasamples, too. My sincere suggestion…don’t know if this is taboo on this board or not, but….piracy. Pirate your ass off. KazaaLite, or anywhere else you can get your hands on some software that’s supposed to cost money. Under one condition though. If this hobby ever graduates into a profession, and I mean the VERY FIRST TIME you get money off of it, go out and buy the stuff that helped you get where you are. If you go this route, get a cable modem, and you can download those $10,000 strings for free. I don’t know the moral standing of this board, but my philosophy is this:

You cannot afford this stuff. That means you are not a potential consumer.
If you can get this stuff now for free, use it until your demo gets you some work, then buy it. You have not taken any potential revenue from the company, you have created revenue were it previously didn’t exist.

If you go this route, get some soundfonts (one good one is at http://www.titanicsf.com), download cakewalk sonar, any plugin you can find, and gigastudio, and some samples. Compose. Get rich, and then pay back nemesys for making awesomeass giga. I bought it, but if I couldn’t afford it…I’d still have it.

hope this was helpful.

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