sound cards vs RA 800 roland arranger
alandav123
well.
recently i bought an Acer laptop computer and have thought about
linking the RA directly to the laptop to sort some midi files out etc.
My question is this, would the sounds in the RA 800 be better quality
than either the wave synthesis thing inside the laptop?
OR would it be worth buying a small card slot sized sound card that
will fit into the laptop that will sound better and be more
conveinient and would the new card be much better sound quality than
the RA 800.?
I have been using the RA for so long I am a bit out of touch with the
modern stuff and just looking at all the possibilties give me a
headache.
Regards Alan
PSThe laptop runs vista home premium
SSMusic
RA-80 is tabletop version of Roland G-800 keyboard.
It has SC-88 sound engine in it (pre 8820/50).
There are lots of SW synths with more advanced sampling.
And if you are not using automatic accompaniment on RA-80
(you would need controller keyboard to do that), and just
playing back MIDI files, there is no reason to carry it around.
Laptop can do that much better.
--
Serge Stodolnik.
Production Music for Film/advertisement/production
libraries/multimedia/web sites.
http://www.ssmusic.us
http://www.myspace.com/stodolnik
http://www.youtube.com/ssmusic214
E-MAIL: sergestodolnik@NO SPAM tx.rr.com
reason to carry it around at all. Laptop can
The Real Sid
If you want to play MIDI via RA-800 then your sound card is pretty
much out of the loop. If you desire to do what you said with laptop
then I'd say go with a USB MIDI cable will probably be the easiest
route (if not the only route).
Once the USB MIDI cable software is installed, it should present you
with an additional MIDI device. All you need to do is change the
laptop windows (and cakewalk) setting to use this new MIDI device.
Sid
alandav123
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Hi guys, thanks for the replies.
I do us the RA 800 linked to a Roland FP-8 stage piano and have used
this set up successfully for years, but I am now thinking about making
up a load of midi file backing (drums and bass only) to allow me to go
back to playing guitar gigs. I wanted to get the best sounding drums
and bass bringing me to this point in time.
It would seem that I can get batter sounds from the laptop and bypass
the RA 800 as a midi file sound source altogether, things have moved
on it would seem.
Last thing, in order to get the better sounds from the laptop would I
need to buy a card type slot in sound card OR would a synth wave one
be good enough?
If its a card that is needed, if anyone could point me to a card that
would do the job then please do.
I dont need Dolby surround sound, DVD sound or anything like that,
just good drums & bass sounds for gigging music work.
Regards again
PS I bought a delta 66 card a few years back and could never get it to
work properly and the desktop PC just would not function.
Ernie Garner
The RA gives you arranger and I assume Serge is right regarding the
soundset.
I don't know of any available PCMCIA card that has a soundset i.e.
samples. Anyone that knows different should feel free to correct me.
What you get with a card is better sound, i.e. better frequency
response, and s/n ratio. Laptop audio is notorious for the digital
background crap on the outputs (try using a ground lift).
What you won't get is sounds, i.e. a GM softsynth. There's a good
chance that your laptop audio will do the job by itself so for the
moment you can save your money.
The soundset will have to come from a softsynth. The issues with any
GM set are sound and balance and it's a matter of taste. I have yet
to find a free or commercial soundfont that I would use at a gig. The
discontinued Yamaha XG softsynth has proven itself, I haven't used it
but Leo has. I posted a link to a download source awhile back. Let
me know if you can't find it. I think it should be comparable to the
RA, it's roughly the same generation. Roland has the Virtual Sound
Canvas. I have it and I don't think the guitars are anywhere near as
good as the hardware units even though it's supposed to duplicate an
SC88. These two pieces of software have the advantage of very low cpu
overhead. If you are willing to get a more powerful laptop then you
should consider Native Instrument's Bandstand. Some people love it,
some hate it. I suggest you look in the Native Instrument's forum and
Google | Groups and make up your own mind. Guitar Center has had
sales where it goes as low as $49. Throw away. If your audio system
is WDM drivers rather than ASIO consider installing ASIO4ALL (free)
for better performance. Don't use the MMIO drivers (Do they even
exist in Vista?).
If all you need is better sounds you may want to consider setting up a
search notification at Ebay for the elusive SC-8820 or SC-8850
hardware modules. Same sounds as the RA and more in a smaller USB
powered package. Since they include the same sounds as the RA you can
use your current midifiles with minimal editing (patch bank) and since
they have the SC88pro and sc880 sounds you have the option of
re-editing to better sounds. Serge turned me on to the sc8820 and I
liked it so much I picked up two of them. If you need a rack mount
near equivalent there's the SC880. The XV units are good but your
sound will go down if you go directly to them. To get to the XV's
better sounds you will have to re-edit your midi files. Feedback on
the Edirol SD units has been that the drums are anemic.
I have thousands of dollars worth of softsynths and I can't use them
for normal GM playing. GM soundsets have to be tonally balanced so
you can't just take great string sounds from Garritan, drum sounds
from EZDrummer, Native Instrument's B4 organs, Quantum Leap bass &
guitars and combine them with the Ivory piano to get a predictable
output. The individual instruments may be great but, as with live
musicians, they may not work in ensemble. Unlike a Sound Canvas
module, where you can crudely pile up tracks with all the volumes at
100 and velocities centered around 100 and still get a decent basic
mix, softsynths take a lot of editing. The results may be phenomenal
but depending on the size of your repertoire the time involved may be
prohibitive. Most of the softsynths also have a tremendous CPU, disk
and memory overhead and are slow to load patches. I'm still waiting
for someone to come out with a decent Kontakt GM2 multi.
The above solutions, used with a sequencer (Powertracks, VanBasco,
Cakewalk, Showplay), work for playing midi files. If you need the
RA's arranger capabilities you are pretty much shit out of luck. I've
got both "One Man Band" arranger software and RMCA and I'm frustrated
by them both. IMHO the OMB interface and midi handling sucks. The
good part is it plays all of the Yamaha styles and there's a bajillion
of them on the internet for free. The interface isn't entirely the
programmer's fault. With an arranger you really need the front panel
with lots of buttons. PC laptop keyboards or unused keys on a musical
instrument are a poor substitute.
As far as Vista goes, I havn't done much with it, but as long as you
have drivers it shouldn't be a problem. My little experience points
toward doing the DAW (digital audio workstation) optimizations.
Turning off all the visual geegaws and dropping down to the classic
interface helps.
Frankly, I'd keep the RA.
$.02
Ernie
Jerry
check your manual. the ra800 has the sc88 sounds plus many new at the
time ra800 sounds such as pedal steel guitar wich is not in the sc88.
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