[LAD] Has anyone ever played a plugin in realtime ... [related to:] hard realtime performance synth

[Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas]

On Thursday, February 4, 2010, Emanuel Rumpf wrote:
> Has anyone ever played a plugin in realtime ( live )...
>
> ...and I don't mean a one-finger melody, but a mutli-polyphonic piano
> piece, eventually with sustain held down, which resulted in about 20 to 40
> simultaneusly processed voices.
>
>
> I just realized, that I've never been able to do that. Neither almost.
> Frustration.
> But on my digital piano, I can to it.
> That thing is some years old and definitely doesn't have 2 x 2 GHz
> processors available.

A musical instrument is something designed and built for playing music. You 
can certainly produce sounds with a computer, but a general purpose computer  
is best suited for computing... anything.

> Anyway.
> The answer so far has been: That system is more dedicated, thus it
> can, while my PC cannot.
>
> The conclusion:
> I'm working with a wrong system !  -  It doesn't allow me to work the
> way I intend.
>
> Damn. What did I buy this system for ? I don't need those 2 x 2GHz for
> word processing - right ??
>
>
> This makes me wonder:
>
> Which one is the system for my requirements ?
> Which one is able to make some softsynths / samplers
> process 30 voices in less than 9 milliseconds ?
>
>
> Could my system be extended or modified in order to suit ?
>
> How then ?
>
> We have dedicated hardware for graphics, why not for audio ?

Exactly. Better start with a good audio interface. You should not expect to 
convert a laptop with a cheap integrated Intel HDA sound interface into a  
good musical instrument.

Regards,
Pedro