On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 11:59 AM, Craig Parmerlee wrote:
Solution 1: Multiple software synthesizers. I haven't seen a software synth that does more than 16 channels. However, if you have several different software synths on your machine, you can assign one of them to 1-16, another to 17-32, and so on. It does seem to work, but the latency is too slow to use for note entry and impossible for Hyperscribe. Also I don't know if two different synths will synchronize their output very well.
Q: is there any software synth out there that has very low latency and is designed for more than 16 channels?
Sure. Software synths usually allow multiple instances of themselves. For example, Unity DS-1 can be used (I believe) up to 8 times simultaneously, giving you 128 midi channels of DS-1. Of course, actual usability depends on your hardware. Try any of the top name soft samplers and synths and you should get excellent results, depending, of course, on your computer setup. The top software samplers seem to be Native Instruments Kontakt (and now Kompakt too), Bitheadz Unity, Emagic ESS something or other, IK Multimedia SampleTank (a player only, but v. 2 just released is supposed to be quite nice), MOTU Mach Five, and of course on the Windows side of things, Gigasampler. Add to that Reason, and lots of other soft-synths and sound fonts, and it's a wide open world out there. New stuff is coming out every day.
Solution 2: Multiple hardware sound engines. This costs some money, but should work. I have a little Roland box that attaches to the PC with USB and gives me 4 MIDI in and 4 MIDI out. I don't use it presently, but I believe this will work -- and give me very low latency. So if I don't hear any better ideas, I'm going to pick up a cheap used 16-channel sound engine so that I'll have 32 channels. But that means I'll also need to upgrade my mixer setup. Definitely a viable solution.
If upgrading mixer, consider a FireWire or USB interface that also acts as a mixer. These are starting to pop up like popcorn. A surprisingly affordable one considering its capabilities is the MOTU 828 Mk. II.
Solution 3: Hardware synths that support more than 16 channels. I remember seeing specs for a synth that supported 64 (or maybe even 128) MIDI channels. I can't seem to find that product now. Can anybody make recommendations here?
For orchestral instruments, the E-mu Virtuoso 2000 is pretty nice, and supports 32 parts (32 MIDI channels of input). Less than a grand US.
Thanks, Craig
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