Standalone PC synths (was: Re: [sdiy] Bass generator synth DIY)

[Andre Majorel]

On 2006-01-16 20:50 -0800, Sean Costello wrote:

> What about a Mac Mini? Not quite fanless, but it is very small, has a
> fairly quiet fan, and can run in kiosk mode if you know what you are
> doing (I don't know how to do it, but I know it can be done). Slap a
> USB LCD on there, put it in a rack, and there you go. Use MAX/MSP to
> host VST plugins however you would like. Or run GPL software like
> Supercollider.
> 
> I know that there are some inexpensive Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX
> motherboards out there, that can run fanless with the VIA processors.
> However, these have pretty low clock speeds (around 800 MHz for the
> fanless version), and apparently have fairly poor floating point
> performance. Nevertheless, if you want to throw together a dedicated
> synth based on PC plugins, using one of these boards with a Flash hard
> drive could get you a VST host with no moving parts. Not sure if the
> hard drive would be big enough for the programs that use huge sample
> banks.

I'm typing this on a 800 MHz Cyrix/VIA C3 system, the same
processor that is on the Mini-ITX VIA motherboards. It's not as
fast as the clock frequency suggests. You can watch films, play
Quake 3 (at least the not-too-complex maps), but it's roughly an
order of magnitude slower than a middle-range current
processor[1].

I think you'll get the best results by having two machines. A
powerful one, locked away in another room and a diskless X
terminal based on a VIA C3 or some other fanless processor.
Substitute "VNC client" for "X terminal" if you're running a
non-Unix.

[1] Quick comparison between C3 800 and Athlon 64 3200 :
C++ compilation    :  5.7 times slower
primes(6)          :  9.5 times slower
additive synthesis : 12.7 times slower

-- 
André Majorel <amajorel at teaser.fr>
http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/