Quote:
Originally Posted by ttoxique
Not yet, but I watched some youtube demo/tutorials. I'm really loving how much modulation you can do, between the 16 wavestages, the ... knobs, and the matrix. You could make some pretty gigantic sounds... four 11 voice oscillators being modulated all over the place? Amazing!
As a side note, I had an idea to build a VST keyboard- basically, just a PC inside a keyboard shaped box with a MIDI keyboard and MIDI knobs routed internally to the motherboard, with attached LCD, keyboard, trackpad mouse etc. It wouldn't be too hard to do and I could do it for less than the price of a virus polar ¬.¬
A virus would still be awesome though.
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Believe it or not, I honestly believe that there are certain categories of sounds that Zebra will be able to accomplish that the Virus cannot, simply because of the editing mechanisms available in Zebra versus what is available through Virus control or knob limitations (not due to hardware limitations on the Virus's part).
Maybe not the best example, but I once wanted some complex cutoff envelopes like you hear in the "Ferry Mix" version of Ferry Corsten / Howard Jones - Into the Dark (link to video here, you can hear them at the beginning quite well)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghreT1MNJ4Y.. It was so easy with Zebra because you need lots of complex slopes across multiple envelopes that are perfectly tempo synced, and to do it right you need to apply them to more than just cutoff.
Anyhow about your idea, someone already had that idea early on in the softsynth movement and has been doing it very successfully including a built in touchscreen monitor for display. Look at
http://www.openlabs.com/ at their Miko and Neko line. Only problem is they are very expensive for what you really get versus your own PC plus software, and just like the Virus or any other keyboard solution I can see the advantages for live play or if you travel a lot but for studio production you can do so much more with just a PC, DAW, Midi controller and a few softsynths.
11.03.2011, 04:33 PM
I know about Open Labs. I was just thinking about how easy (and relatively cheap) to make my own- especially considering how a end Core2Quad could handle a lot but the price has dropped with i5/i7. For the keyboard and controls I could just hack apart some on the market MIDI boards, and if there's no direct mobo interface I could use I could put in an internal usb bracket. I'm pretty sure newegg sells thin LCDs as well, so I could stick one of those in. Once it's done, it's just a matter of purchasing the softsynths I want and a DAW.
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