Honest opinion for a newbie

[strawinsky]

I'm new to this forum,being linked here by my interest in the Receptor.I'm after unbiased opinions about this,preferably by real-world users.I have a Receptor on the way (UK).It's a 40 gig version,but I've been in touch with Muse and they'll be providing me with a 200 gig HD to fit.

I'll not bore you with my life history/kit list,but ,suffice to say I'm running 2 Mac G5's : DP 2 & DP 2.5 ( with a dual core to be added when available) and a PC (Giga Studio). I do quite a lot of big production, full orchestral and orchestral / techno / electronic (a la Don Davis) hybrid stuff. Sometimes,though, it's just a piano (sigh). The Receptor came to my notice via the Sounds Online forum and the offer they've got on,bundling their sample libraries with the device. It sounded a great idea.I already own Platinum Orchestra and Storm Drum (amongst a lot of other stuff,which is only indirectly relevant here),and am about to get the Pro XP ugrade,along with Ra and Symphonic Choirs.

Receptor looked like an ideal way of "spreading the load" : I'm not yet on RAID,though it's a possibilty, and even with the two Macs and PC things can can get congested (VSL,Altiverb,Absynth,Albino,Korg Legacy,etc),so the Receptor looked like a efficient and trouble-free way of augmentation.

However,there was a detractor on the Sounds Online forum,who suggested that the Receptor may be good as a stage device,but would be lacking in gas for the studio "power user". Bearing in mind that I would not be expecting it to do everything,since my setup is quite powerful,I think it would be a great addition. My intentions would be to put things like Atmosphere,Stylus,Absynth and some East West stuff on it. Surely it can handle that?! I do know that 16x16 MIDI channels is on the way,and that Uniwire is imminent,so I'm very excited by it.


To be fair, the skeptical poster did change his tune somewhat when Ted Rackley entered the fray. This guy was clearly knowledgeable, but his reference point was Windows and not the super lean Linux installed in the Receptor.He also cast doubt on the power of the "out of date" chip onboard,too.Real world and theory sometimes don't line up, though. So,my is question is ,if you've managed to get this far : what are the experiences and opinions of the practical,everyday users? Is it up to the job? Can it do what I expect (as described further back)? Any pros and cons feedback would be really appreciated.Thanks for your time.

[DanTimis]

I am clearly biased, since I work for Muse Research, but I think you'll find what I am about to say helpful.

It looks like you are using a lot of large sample libraries. Most of the East West/Native Instruments products need DFD. The big bottleneck with DFD is the data transfer rate of the hard drive. A serial ATA drive would give you a little bit more bandwidth, but only RAID would give you significantly more bandwidth. Yes, you could build a very powerful PC with RAID that would perform better than Receptor, but it would be more expensive, less stable, and harder to maintain than Receptor.

[strawinsky]

Hi,Dan;many thanks for the reply.Don't wish to appear rude: it's 2:15 over here in the UK and I'm feeling pretty rough with laryngitis,but I only found part of what you said helpful.Some of it actually raised more questions.

Yes,I do run a lot of those types of libraries,but yourselves and EW are obviously confident enough to bring out a joint venture package of that type.However,are you saying that I would benefit from the acquisition of a Receptor, in particular, if only to run softsynths and the like? RAID is something I'm looking at,also.

Actually,I've just reread,and I think I see what you're driving at.

Thanks for the reply,my brain has gone.I'll be back in the morning...