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anyone who hates softsynths? (pg. 4)
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| Pjotr G |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7
They are the future for sure in my opinion, coupled with maybe a hardware controller, there isn't nothing you can't do with them.
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can it make me a sandwich? |
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| Lunar Phase 7 |
The Cheese Machine Soft Synth Can.
As the name suggests however, fillings are limited. |
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| Pjotr G |
| ha! so still I win! |
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| Bedlam-UK |
I use them when they work, I find some of them take too much time fiddling around and loading patches...etc. With hardware I can just press one button and instantly have a patch playing.
Most of the good soft-synths use way too much CPU which then limits the amount of effects I can use. I think the way forward with soft-synths is Hardware DSP soft-synths.
I'm just waiting for someone to develop a VST to DSP conversion plugin so I can use a Hardware DSP card to process the VST plugins. |
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| DJDIRTY |
| quote: | | I'm just waiting for someone to develop a VST to DSP conversion plugin so I can use a Hardware DSP card to process the VST plugins. |
We need a dsp card that runs any vsti 2.0 compatible vsti or vst effect plugin.
I am suprized they didn't do that yet, it would be very nice, and no I don't mean something like TC powercore, I mean any vst acccelerator card, that would run any vsti synth you throw at it,Not just the ones developed for the platform. Of course it would have to be a someting of equal power to an amd duall core 4800+ casue it woud be kind of pointless for it to be slower, with the new systems comming out. And a price under a grand :) I would really do wonders for a vsti synth musician. I sold my powercore + virus plugin casue I mostly use hardware synths, and sometimes use a vsti or two, And for that my intel 2.6 ghz is capable of running what I need. I do have a amd 4000+ in my other systems and sometimes it's very tempting to switch the mobo cpu. But than my gaming machine would cry hehe, but that's whole another thing :) |
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| Bedlam-UK |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJDIRTY
We need a dsp card that runs any vsti 2.0 compatible vsti or vst effect plugin.
I am suprized they didn't do that yet, it would be very nice, and no I don't mean something like TC powercore, I mean any vst acccelerator card, that would run any vsti synth you throw at it,Not just the ones developed for the platform. Of course it would have to be a someting of equal power to an amd duall core 4800+ casue it woud be kind of pointless for it to be slower, with the new systems comming out. And a price under a grand :) I would really do wonders for a vsti synth musician. I sold my powercore + virus plugin casue I mostly use hardware synths, and sometimes use a vsti or two, And for that my intel 2.6 ghz is capable of running what I need. I do have a amd 4000+ in my other systems and sometimes it's very tempting to switch the mobo cpu. But than my gaming machine would cry hehe, but that's whole another thing :) |
Yeah...I'm surprised this technology isn't available yet. Programming a DSP card is heavy stuff compared to the lightweight task of developing a VST plugin where most of the code is already completed by steinberg programmers.
Steinberg should get working on a VST to DSP plugin for DSP audio card owners.....I would most certainly buy it. |
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| Diginerd |
Unfortunately, as you may have suspected by the lack of such a thing, this is far from easy, also not too practical..
Basically by a bigger computer is the best strategy
DSP based systems require DSP code, and that's something very different to the regular VST and VSTi code.
Basically to get it to work you are talking about sticking a computer on a PCI card. You'd need an x86 compatable CPU on there, some ram and a bunch of other glue just to get the thing to start to run. At that point you run into PCI bus limitations real quick. Doing it as PCI-Express (Not just a graphics slot you know!) would eliminate that bottle neck, but by the time you've designed and bult such a thing it would be too expensive and out of date, and you may as well have bought a bigger comp..
Sucks, but I'd love for someone to do it to... |
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| Bedlam-UK |
Your right about the DSP code being much harder than your average C++ and Win32 api code.....but it's not too much of a task to use the CPU to do the basic tasks of loading the VST and GUI etc....but then off-loading all the audio processing code onto the DSP card.
The DSP chip is designed to accelerate audio processing only which is what causes the excessive CPU usage with VST plugins. Programmers would only need to convert the algorithms to DSP op-code.
The reason why it's probably not available is because there are not that many low-level programmers who have the skills to program a motorolla DSP chip compared to the native high level C++ x86 programmers. If the VST to DSP plugin was created by Steinberg then most of the VST programmers would have to convert their audio processing algorithms to pure DSP op-code which would be beyond their skillset. So if existing VST developers cannot develop DSP compatible plugins then Steinberg would not see a viable reason to create the technology.
There are far fewer Low level programmers than high level programmers
and without low level programmers there would be no higher level programmers.
That's what I think anyway ;) |
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| Pjotr G |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJDIRTY
We need a dsp card that runs any vsti 2.0 compatible vsti or vst effect plugin.
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atm this is the closest:
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| Diginerd |
Which is basically an expensive rackmount PC.
It's pretty cool though.. |
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| Prototrance |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lepanto
anyone would prefer hardware to software but good luck paying for all of that. |
+1
I got a phat processor and loads of RAM, then bought a load of softsynths and crossed my fingers that CPU loading would not degrade the sound output from the VST's.
Running Absynth 3, Albino 2, Vanguard, Rob Papen Blue, atmosphere and Sytrus on Cubase SX2.
So far, so good. Though its taken 7 years of production in various forms to get a set up and sound quality as good as with VST's and a PC based studio. |
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| Bedlam-UK |
| I read about that muse thingy......I was thinking more along the lines of a PCI audio card with a DSP chip and software to convert the VST plugin to run processing through the DSP chip. |
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