[sdiy] Sampler or turd polisher?

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:43:15 +1030
"Batz Goodfortune" <batzman-nr at all-electric.com> wrote:

> Y-ellow All.
>          While I'm here, I was wondering if I could garner some wisdom.
> 
> In short, I am on a quest for a sampler.
> 
> I don't suppose anyone here has a copy of A3Kdisky by chance? That would 
> allow me to actually talk to my Yamaha A4000. "Apparently?"
> 
> I have tried nearly all of the software solutions. They can pack as many 
> bells and whistles into them as they like, they're all still polished 
> turds. None of them can do something as simple and basic as a patch change. 
> So the sequencer can't control them. What's the point of having the best 
> sampler in the world if all it can do is play the one sound?
> 
> The A4000 would be an adequate solution but for the fact that you can't 
> talk to it's proprietary file system. A3Kdisky allows you to do that 
> apparently but it's nowhere to be found on the net. I even tracked down the 
> guy who wrote it. He said even he didn't have a copy. There was also some 
> kind of legal issue with Yamaha over the proprietary nature of their file 
> system.

There was some software out there that allowed you to mount the A3000/A4000 filesystem on Linux.  I can't remember what it was called offhand.  I do know I have it somewhere.

> I spent months researching linux audio. They all seem about 10 years behind 
> the curve. Really big on rinky software FM synths at the moment it would 
> seem. I could never get the linux-sampler-project working so I couldn't 
> even evaluate it. When you ask the linux people if it can do a patch/bank 
> change, they just look at you side ways. They don't seem to understand the 
> concept. Besides, any real-time, mission-critical app written in Java is 
> just asking for trouble. (Oops. Sorry about that Android lovers.)

Oh well, as one of those "linux people", I'll just stop helping now, then.

Linux audio is in much the same place as Windows or for that matter Mac audio.
There are a few extremely good soft synths, but the majority of them are utter cack.  With Windows, you've got the choice of a few hundred identical-sounding bleep synths, which will work in Linux if you restrict yourself to a 32-bit version (since VST is a decade or so behind everyone else).

I have noticed that Reason on the PC *does* rip off pretty much all the Linux synth plugins (mine included) and stick them into one bizarre-looking unstable blob.  If you're happy with using pirate software, I suppose it's okay.

-- 
Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>