AW: Software vs Hardware, Laptop vs Oldskool

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

> I for one would never go out without my dedicated hardware 
> Vox Tonelab.  A) I love it.  B) it's bulletproof in terms of 
> a setup and has a looper on board.  Laptop goes down?  I've 
> got an 8 second looper patch all ready and the show goes into 
> ambient mode.

That's what I was thinking too, and I also thought about the tonelab there 
-
with the other option (as mentioned) to have a DD20/OD-2 as a fallback
solution.

> Second, you need some sort of MIDI controler for synths, why 
> not  have one that is a synth as well?  Do you have the Nord 
> Micromodular with the keyboard? 

The Micromodular is the really small box with only one DSP, a two-space
7-segment LED display and four knobs (one of them hardwired). So no, can't
use this as a controller. The Waldorf Q is great in that role with its
zillions of rotary encoders (and its keyboard is the best synth keyboard
I've ever experienced, but with that I'd lose portability. On the other
hand, the BCR2000 is great value for the money...

> Anway, that's the plan that's gelling in my head right now.  
> If I were a real "pro" I'd probably think about adding some 
> midi syncable looper to that setup as a failsafe for laptop 
> meltdown.  Sadly tales of the RC-50s poor sound quality while 

I don't get it. Why do you need MIDI sync for your backup solution when the
laptop fails? This would be more of a hardware with additional laptop setup
rather than the laptop plus... setup I imagine?

> should arise.  My real hope is that eventually the laptop 
> will be solid enough to run a requencer, Stylus RMX, Battery 
> and Mobius.  If I could get a softsynth in there as well that 
> would be a bonus.

I've disbanded the idea of Stylus RMX (too much of a resource hogger) and
replaced Battery with Kontakt (less CPU-hungry).

> I hope I can resist the temptation to go crazy with the VSTs 
> and end up with issues similar to Krispen's. 

What do you mean by "go crazy"? Do you mean a setup where you'll have 70
plugins like I have? >;-)