Survey: do you use hardware or software synths or both?

[autostatic]

True, I'd put it there too. I love the Optigan by the way, amazing instrument.

[j_e_f_f_g]

when the USB is connected the A-PRO shutdowns the midi port

On the Roland units I own, it's true that when the keyboard is switched to usb midi, then the keyboard no longer outputs directly to its MIDI Out. But what it instead does is output (of its MIDI Out) all messages sent from the computer. See if your DAW has a "MIDI thru" feature, and turn it on. Then, whatever the A-PRO sends to the computer, your DAW will spit back at the A-PRO, and it should pump out of its MIDI Out.

[bmarkham]

I use the latest Ubuntu Studio distro as my core.

I started off with Agnula Demudi, then Fervent's Studio in a Box then 64Studio and finally Ubuntu Studio. I have tried doing stuff on windows but having worked with Linux so long, Windows feels unwieldy and difficult even with pricey software.

Core Software
I use Qtractor for recording keyboard midi, Hydrogen for midi recording and creating percussion, and Ardour + Jammin for audio mixing/mastering/automation. (I love ardour and have contributed.) I've played with LMMS but I'm not ready for it yet. I use Rosegarden occasionally for creating music in notation form and translating that into midi.

Soft Synths
Fluidsynth (via QSynth). I have a number of soundfont libraries for Fluidsynth, some free and some commercial, and I use Fluidsynth a lot.
PhaseX -- too cool for words. I love to use this "live." I play my keyboard straight into it and capture the audio with Ardour.
Hydrogen -- after reading a couple of books on drumming so I could appreciate it better and make better fills and stuff, I love Hydrogen. Some of the kits are insanely phenomenal. One of these days I'll figger out how to do triplets on hydrogen.

Other Software
I use a lot of other software -- linux is such a goldmine for audio. QmidiArp, jsynthlib, etc.

My overall hardware setup is as follows:

USB-connected Alesis Multimix 8 for sound in/out and mixing, inserts, etc.
2 x USB-Midi 1x1 cables

Midi Hard Synths
Yamaha TX81z (I have a commercial library of 2000 patches for this).
Proteus 2 Orchestral (This is amazingly good, especially for $100 on ebay.)
DSI Mopho (I use their windows software under Wine to upload and download patches.)

Midi Controllers
Alesis QX25 connected via USB
Alesis Controlpad (percussion) via USB

Hardware Effects
Alesis 3630 Compressor/gate (Also a DBX Expander/Compressor)
Behringer Virtualizer Pro DSP 2024 (A multi-fx device.)

Other
Various dynamic and condenser mics and stands, add-in pickups for acoustic guitars, etc. Nothing terribly expensive.

What I record
Okay ... I record a LOT of acoustic instruments -- acoustic guitar, mandolin and banjo along with electric guitar, bass and even accordion. I also sing though not very well. (I have a face for radio and a voice for vocoder.) These are usually my core. I'm thinking of getting a guitar-to-midi box so that I can easily move lead lines and harmonies to synthesized instruments. I record electric guitars both directly (using a direct box and Guitarix which is *amazing*) and by using a mic on an amp. (I use tube amps that I built from plans on www.ax84.com, both the October and the Hi Octane.)

The styles of music I record range from rock to folk to electronica. In folk, I'm all acoustic. In rock, it is mostly acoustic except drums and sometimes keyboards are synthesized. In electronica, 90% of things are synthesized except sometimes I do guitar or bass parts acoustically and (of course) voice.

What this shows is that Linux can really do anything an amateur/hobbyist like myself needs for making and recording music.

[paperplastic]

Since I'm just starting out...

Mainly I use:
Hardware: Eowave Domino, Akai Miniak. Other toy keyboards are Yamaha Pss-10 and Casio Sa-5. Two gameboys
Software: Hexter, Zynaddsubfx, Sineshaper
I will try to master this, before I go buying other stuff. Although, I'm looking at those semi-modulars from MFB and Doepfer, or a Moog Sub Phatty,...

I also have a few guitar effects, mainly distortions, overdrives, diy fuzzes which I use with my synths or the diy instruments. When on the pc, I use puredata patches (homemade) and a few ladspa plugins (mainly eqs).

Midi controllers: 2x Akai Lpd8, which is sometimes used with Hydrogen or with a Puredata sequencer to controll the synths. Hercules DJ console, which worked fine as a midi controller, but currently doesn't.

[Frank Carvalho]

My signature basically says it. I am mainly a "real" instrument musician, and use my setup as a recording and mixing system. Timing should be done by musicians, not by MIDI.
But when I make demos, I may use Hydrogen now for a basic drum track. Beside samples, I very rarely use software synths, as I like the real, and slightly more unpredictable, thing more. I am also a big fan of the Mellotron.
I ticked "other" as well, as I also use external effects processors.

Edit: Thought I actually didn't say anything about the gear I do use. So. Ubuntu Studio, since 7.04, now with added KXStudio. Two chained M-Audio cards; a 1010 and a 2496. A Soundcraft mixer (as the inserts can be used for channelwise send and return to the sound card, and the mic pre-amps are OK). Different sets of speakers, Warfedale and Dali, as sound always should be tested on different speakers. An HP 6112 - which I will upgrade in a not too distant future. Also a notebook and a laptop, both with Xubuntu+KXStudio. The software I use most is Ardour 2.8, Jack, Cadence, Jamin, Rosegarden, Audacity and all the plugins available from LV2, LADSPA, C*, Invada:: etc. I prefer K3B for disc burning, though it is a KDE program. Most everything else is outboard gear, amps, guitars, keyboards, effects.

/Frank

[GraysonPeddie]

Software synthesizers all the way and I am writing my work-in-progress song by inputting musical notes into a piano roll by using a mouse. I do use ZynAddSubFX as my main software synthesizer and created my own instruments and banks from scratch (mostly warm-sounding instruments). I sometimes create my own drum sounds which gets exported to Hydrogen for creating a pattern or a song.

It would be nice to have a hardware version of ZynAddSubFX with its own processor that is heavily optimized for that to take the load out of my AMD A10-5700 APU (CPU and GPU in one).

Of course, I'd consider software synthesizers just a preview of what I will hear before I record each individual instruments into Ardour from MUSE Sequencer. Trying to play all the complex instruments at once will just drown out of my CPU resources. But once I record each individual instruments and close ZynAddSubFX, that should take the load off of my CPU for processing effects or whatever I want to do with it.

I once drooled about having a Yamaha MU128 (I'm a huge fan of Yamaha XG in S-YXG50 but was always thirsty for more instruments, drum kits, and effects -- oh, Final Fantasy for the PC did include Yamaha's S-YXG70 software synthesizer; it's got S-YXG20 for low-end computers and S-YXG50 for decent computers back around 1996-1997) in the past, along with Yamaha CS6R, FS1r, EX5R, etc. but when these synths have discontinued (gee, I'm a huge fan of Yamaha -- LOL!), I once started to drool about having Yamaha Motif 6 or Motif RACK, Korg OASYS, Korg M3, or Roland VSynth or a rack version of VSynth. I just did not have the money to afford it. I'm a poor musician... Linux does have QMidiArp, but it's a very poor substitute for Korg's KARMA or Yamaha's arpeggiator features found in professional keyboard workstations.

And oh, yes. I do love anything vintage (not like earlier than 1990s but perhaps as far back as early 2000s). I was born like around 1982 whenever I feel like I want a hardware synthesizer for Christmas, my god my mom could not afford it but only consumer keyboard (a Yamaha PSR) with no hardware controllers (no pitch and mod wheel) and it came with speakers... UGH! I don't want consumer-ish crap just to make music--heh... But at least I should not hurt my mom's feelings. (sigh)

Maybe my drooling will come to and end once I get myself a job and buy that $3,000 prosumer keyboard. Time will tell.