Going hardware???

[Cimbasso]

So what I am asking is if I wanted to sequence a "complex" orchestral music (eg. hans zimmer soundtracks with Zebra) , what and how would I do it?

There are only 2 ways: sample libraries or a real orchestra.

[HanafiH]

The easiest way to sequence hardware synths is from a DAW using MIDI out.

[Uncle E]

And sequencing stuff with the W-30 must have been "keyhole surgery" nightmare, I guess you needed to plot out your sequence on paper before you punched it all in step by step. With the layout luxury the common DAW offers these days, that kind of "torture" is luckily long gone

The K2000/K2500 allowed you to assign your midi sequences to keys, allowing you to play your arrangements live. For me, that's really the appeal of hardware sequencers and only Ableton and Maschine have bridged that gap in the DAW world.

[Numanoid]

The easiest way to sequence hardware synths is from a DAW using MIDI out.

It took 12-13 years but finally Reason also has reached that point

[cryophonik]

The easiest way to sequence hardware synths is from a DAW using MIDI out.

True, but the OP wasn't asking which way is the easiest...at least not the way I interpreted it.

[ZenPunkHippy]

The easiest way to sequence hardware synths is from a DAW using MIDI out.

True, but the OP wasn't asking which way is the easiest...at least not the way I interpreted it.

I haven't tried it for a while since I now use a dedicated hardware sequencer for hardware synths and drum machines, but in my past experience it was a total nightmare trying to integrate multiple hardware synths triggered by MIDI from the DAW / host. The main problem being poor timing of notes + audio due to round-trip latency.

Sync Gen II by Innerclock Systems may be one solution for this, most people seem really happy with that one.

Peace,
Andy.

[Uncle E]

I haven't tried it for a while since I now use a dedicated hardware sequencer for hardware synths and drum machines, but in my past experience it was a total nightmare trying to integrate multiple hardware synths triggered by MIDI from the DAW / host. The main problem being poor timing of notes + audio due to round-trip latency.

Agreed. Even if the perfect solution presents itself, I'm way too shell shocked to ever put myself through that again, especially when Maschine, Spark, MPC Studio/Renaissance, etc. have covered the gap.

[kritikon]

I haven't tried it for a while since I now use a dedicated hardware sequencer for hardware synths and drum machines, but in my past experience it was a total nightmare trying to integrate multiple hardware synths triggered by MIDI from the DAW / host. The main problem being poor timing of notes + audio due to round-trip latency.

Each to his own I suppose, but I never had any issues with DAW midi and h/w synths or FX units. I've had up to 11 devices all daisy-chained with no problem. An OSCar I used to have, was quite particular about whereabouts it was in the chain, but otherwise, seriously no issues whatsoever. I even used to use a fair bit of sysex editing (although, obviously you set that to a lesser priority than midi notes etc). I vaguely remember trying out a midi multiway splitter (5 way, I think) but had problems with that, so I simply chained everything after that. Never looked back. At present I have less midi, but I still have 4 synths on midi, 2 via a midi/CV converter, a sampler and up to 2 FX units on midi. Still no timing issues whatsoever.

Of course, there are things you can do to help, such as if you're using midi on your mixer (for muting etc) then you edit them so that they don't clash with notes, put FX unit control away from notes and set a lesser priority - same with CCs etc. And any decent DAW can compact CC info such as pitch bends etc to reduce the amount of garbage midi.

All of that's gotta be easier than some godawful h/w sequencer. (IMO)

[thecontrolcentre]