What do you think about big companies joining the VST world?

[Cabinfever]

i hear from a good source that korg got badly burned with the legacy release. the world is awash with warez versions, not legit versions.

so i think it's not worth their while. if they concentrate on hardware then that means sales. if they release the same as software and its ripped off, then that devalues the hardware.

that's the real cost of warez imho.

[Hypertone]

If Roland really gave a damn, then where is the D-50 VSTi/DXi already?

They made one for the VariOS. They won't ever make one for vst because it would be pirated.

[greendoor]

I would buy Roland hardware at the going rate - provided it had a USB port and appears in my VST list. I can't be stuffed with midi cables and audio cables, losing my zero noisefloor and sample accurate timing ... So considering I don't actually need the steel box, the power supply or the a/d/a converters, I think the new 'hardware' could be a cheap USB box with a non-copyable ROM. I think anyone who says that the samples could still be stolen is missing the point. The samples can be taken from analog anyway. I can see why Roland don't want to give us the samples in wav format on a CD - that would be pirated instantly. But companies like Wizoo are actually amassing arguably better libraries than Roland & Korg anyway. So it doesn't have to be the old companies. But for nostalgia sake, i'd have a lot of the old sounds if they were for sale ...

[Hypertone]

I would buy Roland hardware at the going rate - provided it had a USB port and appears in my VST list. I can't be stuffed with midi cables and audio cables, losing my zero noisefloor and sample accurate timing ... So considering I don't actually need the steel box, the power supply or the a/d/a converters, I think the new 'hardware' could be a cheap USB box with a non-copyable ROM.

I think that's basically what the Varios is. I don't think it shows up as a vst though.

[atomota]

I associate big companies with quality.

I associate big companies with being good at making money. That's how they got big. Quality may play a part in that, but not necessarily.

In my industry, the biggest company is Microsoft, and believe me they are way better at making money by milking users for all they are worth through a protracted series of upgrades, than they are at making software. They, and some other big companies I've had to deal with, are not very responsive to bug reports and usability feedback. For my work, I prefer using open source or source available software, and just like in the VST world there is a lot of crap out there, but the cream rises to the top and is very very good. Look what software this forum is running on: the Apache web server and PHP, and I'll bet it's using MySQL as a database, all open source or source available. Ok, PHP's not that great, but still . . .

I've got no problem with anybody getting into the VST space. If somebody puts out something good, raises the bar or whatever, that's great, if they don't, it doesn't really hurt anything, but I don't see size and quality, or lack of it, necesarily being related.

[MacQ]

Well, I'm with Greendoor, I think. I love Roland sounds, not because they're particularly high-fidelity or ground-breaking, but because they're familiar and they make great filler in tracks. Oh, and they load instantly. I want more of that in the VST rompler world (instant loading of patches). Ravity, Hypersonic, both great, and I use them both quite often. But I want more of that. SampleTank? Boo, takes too long to load patches.

I'm a patch surfer, and I want that hardware speed. I've got Roland, Alesis, Korg, Yamaha, and Emu synths in my studio, and they still get used now and then. I'm sampling them over time, however, and soon I'll use them less and less (except the MicroKORG, since it's so bad-ass). Give me "that module" in software. Heck, Roland's doing deals with Universal Audio on old effects units, why not go that route and have a synth engine run (or authorize dongle-style) from a UAD-1 card? I haven't seen any cracked UAD-1 or Powercore plugins, so there's merit there. Even if it eats all of the DSP power of one card for 16 parts of Roland XV sounds ... that's still a heck of a lot of sound potential for the DSP cost.

It's a shame about Korg and the Legacy Collection. I'd really love to see more from them, especially since I was one of the first to buy the software in the first place (specifically to support the concept). I personally think that the Oasys will FLOP in a big way, and possibly sink Korg. It's ridiculous what they're trying to pull off with this thing. Well, maybe not SINK Korg, but at least lose them a lot of money.

Yeah, that's about all I had to say.

~MacQ

[John Vulich]

Three words... Sony - Sonic Foundry.

[No name]

Three words... Sony - Sonic Foundry.

Yea, but we all know quite well that sony isn't and should never have become a company that creates things for the music production stage. I think they are best at consumer hardware. Things like CD players and what have you, not synths and VST hosts and all. That would be like Roland releasing Discmans, it just wouldn't work out right. I think when it came to both FL and acid, I was there from the beginning, with FL 1 and Acid music 2.0, I seen them both grow, unfortunately I can't say the same for both because FL has become a giant, it is a brilliant piece of software. On the other hand, once Sonic Foundary abandoned Acid to sony, I totally seen more and more complaints, and rightfully so. I wonder what else Sonic foundary could have accomplished, just close your eyes and imagine .

Edit: I have to share with all of you a story I find funny, a memory actually. When they updated FL to 3.0 and introduced the piano roll, I recall it being as foreign to me then as synths were to me a year ago, when I first tried it out I thought it was this huge burden to the creation process, but after understanding it all now I realize it is ingenius. What had drawn me in about FL is the first time I d/l the demo for 1.0 I made a beat on it, and the thing is I didn't understand hardly ANYTHING about software and creating music with it, nor did I know my notation well. Yet that instrumental was a big hit at my school, people freestyling over it and all at that time. The program instantly took me in. So this is a word for FL, Sheesh I love that program.

[soulkraka]

i beleive the great philosopher d.ream once said "things can only get better"

LOL...utterly random...how can you possibly even remember songs like that?

[Draagen]

Solution is connect it to hardware. UAD or Powercore (POCO). Match in heaven.

[No name]

I think we will see a lot more of that in the future. I'm not totally up on how UAD works and all, but if i'm not mistaken then things like the EQ would work off of a chip or card right? It makes it sound better if i'm not mistaken? Sort of like a hybrid between the VSt and hardware world? If so, I do think we will see plenty more of that in the future, and it seems that if any major company will release some stuff that will be the way to go for them.

[morelia]

i beleive the great philosopher d.ream once said "things can only get better"

LOL...utterly random...how can you possibly even remember songs like that?

I thopught it was the great hair model Howard Jones.

[MacQ]

So here I am sitting with the XV5080 software editor open flipping through patches, and realizing just how clever these patch designers were. How do you get past static and short loops? Stack on LFOs and time-based effects to modulate the signal into a "living" sound. Drop the effects and modulation, and watch the magic fall apart.

So what are the options? Sample the dead sound, and try to recreate that "magic" with effects and modulation after the fact (in Kontakt 2 for example), or sample the "living" sound and sacrifice the fast load time and short loops? Oh, and then there's velocity-to-filter response matching. What a nightmare!! I wish I had these sounds in software without the hassle. Oh do I ever.

~MacQ

[tetraplan]

I'm wondering if a Roland rompler VSTi wouldn't cost as much as, say, a second-hand JV-2080.
Sure, it's more fiddly to edit and you'd have to use a few more leads, but it used to be so popular I can imagine there's a wealth of patches out there, commercial and otherwise.
The same can be said about the various Yamaha and Korg modules from the mid-late '90s.
And looking at my now mainly computer-based setup, I still drown in chords and leads, so nothing changes there.

Groet, Erik

[Hink]

i hear from a good source that korg got badly burned with the legacy release. the world is awash with warez versions, not legit versions.

so i think it's not worth their while. if they concentrate on hardware then that means sales. if they release the same as software and its ripped off, then that devalues the hardware.

that's the real cost of warez imho.

Korg is a funny company, they're hit or miss with their R&D....more like they're like the ol' heartbeat on a screen...flatline...spike...flatline...spike...korg n series (flatline) Triton (spike). But one thing is their repair service that bears mentioning. FWIW Marshall is also Korg, they lik eto encourage you (even with non-warranty repairs) to go to one of "their" shops. But independant repair companies go through hell to get Korg to sell them parts.

My Marshall pre-amp (tube) is pretty old now, 'bout 8 years ago I sent it to the repair shop we used where I worked. The jacks were worn out for the input, fx and outputs...they were beyond repair.

After about 6 weeks of trying the shop called me to explain that they could not get the proper jacks. I had two choices, pay them for the work they had done and send it to Korg's place, or have them use non-factory jacks....well c'mon they're only jacks so I had them replace the worn out ones.The Marshall jacks had plastic nuts and sleves (with a groundplate on one side), the new ones are much better, metal...cost me 40 bux...Korg would of charged me more then the amp was worth.

They're customer service is quite good, but that's as long as you pay them...