Better sound?!

[starbright]

Hi everybody there... I'm pretty new to sounds on synths and keyboards. I use a triton LE with my band but i'm currently not really satisfied with the kind of acoustic sounds it's giving me. I am aware the triton has it's strengths on electronic and dance sound... I find the piano sounds kinda cheesy although i tried my best to tweak it... Can i attach a rack to my triton to get the sound from an external device for better sound? or should i change my equipment? please advise...??

 

[soft]

Triton has pretty good piano sounds already. Which piano sound are you using? (Combi#)

Which is the other external device do you have in mind?

 

[Cheez]

I agree with you - Korg's acoustic sounds are not too good. Good for electronic and dance. Roland still has the best acoustic sounds, in my opinion. The XV modules are pretty good. The new Fantom XR has lots of RAM (1GB) with a new piano. If all you want are good strings and piano, an XV 2020 may suffice (with 2 SRX expansions) - get the piano expansion card and you're set.
If you really want ultra-realistc samples, go for software samplers and use a laptop.

 

[starbright]

Hi... Thanks for replying... Im using the plain Acoustic piano sound on my combi and tried re-equalising to get the best sound to my preference... I am looking at external modules like the Alesis Nano, Kurzweil Micro-Ensemble or the NORD Lead Rack... If I choose to use software samplers, which software is good? Any recommendations? I connect the laptop to Triton with midi?

 

[Cheez]

Hi... Thanks for replying... Im using the plain Acoustic piano sound on my combi and tried re-equalising to get the best sound to my preference... I am looking at external modules like the Alesis Nano, Kurzweil Micro-Ensemble or the NORD Lead Rack... If I choose to use software samplers, which software is good? Any recommendations? I connect the laptop to Triton with midi?

Depends what you mean by "acoustic". If you want pianos and strings, better just go for a sound module. Honestly, I'm not that impressed by the Alesis Nano and Kurzweil either. Forget about Nord unless you want analog sounds; polyphony also quite limited. As I said Roland XV are pretty good.

If you're thinking of softsamplers/ VSTis, there are quite a number out there but you'll only be getting one piano in most cases. Check out Sounds online. The Steinway and Bosendorfer are pretty good.

May I suggest you to have a look at this: http://www.garritan.com/GPO.html. Garritan Personal Orchestra has all the orchestral sounds (better than any hardware modules I know) and a very good Steinway Piano. The strings are really good too. Check out their demos. For that price, you can't go wrong.

 

[starbright]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I really appreciate it... yar i mean piano and strings when i say 'acoustic'. I'll check out those softsamplers you recommended... I personally witnessed Roland's piano and strings and found them impressive... Haha... But i got a budget problem now and I'm still seeking out the best solution... Could you give me a gauge on roughly how much these soft samplers cost? compared to the hard modules... which do u think is more worthy?

 

[Cheez]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I really appreciate it... yar i mean piano and strings when i say 'acoustic'. I'll check out those softsamplers you recommended... I personally witnessed Roland's piano and strings and found them impressive... Haha... But i got a budget problem now and I'm still seeking out the best solution... Could you give me a gauge on roughly how much these soft samplers cost? compared to the hard modules... which do u think is more worthy?

If you want piano AND strings in softsampler format, then the Garritan Personal Orchestra will be a good choice. You can the entire orchestra template for 250 USD (includes Cubase, although you will not need that if all you want is to play live). BUT there are other costs incurred - midi and audio interface for your laptop. You don't want to use the build-in audio for your laptop - too noisy.

As for sound modules, perhaps others can help. I've left the hardware world for a long time that I've got no idea.

 

[starbright]

May I know what sort of MIDI and audio interface setup i have to have on my laptop? Isn't the in-built sound in the laptop sufficient to handle things? Or Do i have to get a external device to my laptop again?

 

[Cheez]

You have the option of integrated audio and midi devices or getting them separately. They come in many forms - firewire, USB, parallel/ serial, PCMCIA.

The brands: M-audio, Echo, Motu, RME, ESI (Ego System).

Perhaps the cheapest option: a 2x2 USB or parallel midi interface and Echo indigo for audio.

The build-in audio in laptops are not recommended - they usually use the Windows build in MME drivers instead of ASIO and has siginificant latencies + they are very noisy.

 

[veganbleu]

Usually you'll be putting in a soft synth on the laptop to use as a sound source. That's when the entire latency issue kicks in becuase the onboard sound output sucks. High noise floor.

But, if you're just sticking it into any old PA system, then it should be fine, but you must use your own judgement. Unless you've got spare cash this should be the way first. As for drivers, you can try out the ASIO4ALL drivers to see if they can give you better performance in latencies. So far it looks like it does for my laptop, but haven't stressed it out much.