Software Samplers Live

[mrkam]

Anybody doing this? (touched on in earlier thread regarding hardware samplers, but thought I would start a seperate thread...)

I am considering this, with the Battery (Native Instruments) software ($170), NI drum samples ($100), and buying a dedicated computer just for this.

What about latency. I'm told by the NI people to get an ASIO driver sound card, such as M-Audio products, but the cheapest I can find for those is $300. What is the minimum latency you need for this kind of setup live?? Would std. SoundBlaster type work??

[molson]

The Soundblaster Audigy is ASIO compatible, but I don't think the Live is.

I'm using Battery with an OEM Soundblaster Audigy ($60) and the Drumkit From Hell sample set. There is no audible latency to my ears. My only check is to play internal drum module samples(ddrum4) simultaneously with battery, and it merely sounds layered with no "flamming" at all. The setting I have in battery is for 2ms, although I doubt it's really that low.

I've often thought of upgrading soundcards, but the Audigy is perfectly acceptable so far. It has the added benefit of getting along well with the rest of your computer - something many pro audio cards are notoriously bad at.

Mike

[mrkam]

Thanks!, and more??

Great suggestions. I have a Audigy OEM coming at $60. Not bad!!! Did you use the std. driver that comes with the card, or did you use another one?

Also, what to you folks use for a mixer. Is there a software mixer that works with Battery? I'm new at the whole VST instrument thing, although I do record a lot with Ntrack, never monkeyed with VST. Audigy (and others) only have a stereo out as I understand it, which is not much to send to the sound man. I was wondering what you do to mix prior to your send? would be great if there were a software mixer that we could send each midi note to and mix all to a stereo pair.

[molson]

Re: Thanks!, and more??

Originally posted by mrkam
Great suggestions. I have a Audigy OEM coming at $60. Not bad!!! Did you use the std. driver that comes with the card, or did you use another one?

I'm using the driver that came with it. They just updated it, although I haven't tried the newest one yet - it's supposed to be optimized for XP/2000. Every version of the Audigy uses the same driver, whether it's the "gamer" or the "platinum ex". They're all the same card with the same EMU chip. You can always buy the breakout box later (they're all over ebay) to essentially make the OEM version a "platinum" model.

For the money, the OEM version is a pretty decent card. Although, don't let the 24/96 thing fool you - that's playback only, these cards can only record 16bit.

My only real gripe is no Giga GSIF support

[Snills]

Molsen,
Just Curious...
Have you tried the KX driver http://www.kxdev.com/ ? I've been following SBLives since the beginning and from what I've read, creative ASIO drivers aren't even close to the KX drivers ASIO performance...let me know if your getting good results i.e. soft synths, Cubase ASIO etc...

Are you loading DrumKit from Hell in battery or as a soundfont. Soundfonts are not ASIO related so it wouldn't be a test of latency.

Bill

[molson]

Bill,

I'm using Battery exclusively now. I started with Gigasampler, but that's just too much program for me, and it had a lot of funny glitches. Battery is very simple and works very well for drums. I've never tried soundfonts.

I thought about using the KX drivers, but I honestly haven't had any latency issues with Battery and the standard ASIO driver. I'm using the standalone version - I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Mike