I need Info on Softsynths

[Rjthakid]

How exactly do they work?

How would you use one in a live setting?

Where do you get them?

What are the advantages?

[under13]

http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/virtual-instrument-guide/craigarticle.php

[elio]

http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/virtual-instrument-guide/craigarticle.php

U13,
That was very informative - thanks.

If you have a good soft synth (Logic/Reason), you can just go and play at another church with your laptop and nothing else (assuming that a MIDI-capable keyboard is available) and still have all your sounds...
That's quite attractive - at least to me...

[under13]

U13,
That was very informative - thanks.

If you have a good soft synth (Logic/Reason), you can just go and play at another church with your laptop and nothing else (assuming that a MIDI-capable keyboard is available) and still have all your sounds...
That's quite attractive - at least to me...

I've, never used one. My home-girl just sold all her equip to get a macbook, midi controler, mpc and some soft synths. But she does production. I'll see how that works out,  I'd prefer to have the actual hardware boards.

But I heard that you can get all the sounds from all the major boards onto your computer, so you will never need to buy another synth again

It would also be very useful, in case you are going to a church with no organ, You can just get the native B4 software, and run it thru whatever they have

[jlc4703]

Soft synth vs hardware synth: They both do similar things, but in the soft synth, you buy a program that runs on a (modified) general purpose computer instead of the program being built into a keyboard or module.

They are more like a hardware module than a keyboard - MIDI in to play them, but no keyboard.

The computer - some for PC, some for Mac. Notebook computers used frequently for more portability. Many of the soft synths need a powerful computer with high processor speed and considerable RAM.

Modifications: Very few notebooks come from the factory with full MIDI capability. Some keyboard controllers have USB connections, which will work with most standard notebooks.  However, the built-in audio in most notebooks has too much latency to work well with a soft synth in live play.  Latency is the amount of time betwen when MIDI sends a "key depressed" signal, and sound comes out. It is usually meausred in milliseconds (one thousandth of a second). Latency over 30 or so milliseconds becomes quite noticable, and most standard notebook audio systems have latency like several hundred milliseconds (example 500 milliseconds - push a key down, it sounds half a second later - that is a LONG time in a fast song).

I used Native Instruments B4 software for Hammond/Leslie simulation for about a year and a half. Had a powered docking station at the church with the special ASIO midi/sound card, carried the notebook computer to church; used an eMu XBoard 49 for control.  Sounded good, but logistically - I had to boot up the computer, load the software, select the presets - all this took time.  Changing sounds on the fly when playing live - I could program the knobs on the eMu (usually had them set to simulate "drawbars"), but no where near as convenient as selecting another preset on a hardware keyboard.

I have retired the system, and currently use a Kurzweil PC2 keyboard with the KB3 module to simulate the Hammond/Leslie sound.  I just turn it on - 20 seconds later it is ready to go, it is easier to control in live performance (and I have lots of other sounds available instead of being limited to just B3 type sounds).

I also had PRO52, which emulates a Prophet 5 vintage synth, and eMu Proteus X, which emulates the vintage Proteus synth.  Couldn't run them all at one time in a live environment.

My own conclusion: soft synths work very well in a recording studio environment; they have considerable drawbacks in live performance situations.

Jim