[LAU] Building an Open Source keyboard rig

[Ben Bell]

On Wed, Mar 02, 2016 at 10:32:04PM +0100, Ffanci Silvain wrote:
>> LinuxSampler, a reasonable low-latency multiple output soundcard... some
>> leftoevers for good quality sample libraries...
> Exactly, what I would have gone for. Perhaps the Banana Pi may serve you. I
> think it has an SATA slot and a quadcore 900MHz CPU, which should be fine for
> LinuxSampler. I've had it running on a slower machine without issues. The
> only caveat: RAM. But with an SSD, LinuxSampler doesn't need too many samples
> buffered.
I've tinkered with this sort of thing a couple of times (though Raspberry
rather than Banana) and I think I'd like to go for something a bit beefier
and have the scope to run new instruments on it. A quite like the Calf Organ
for one thing.

> For sounds: Sampletekk should still have a few nice pianos. I enjoyed the
> acoustic sound of the Yamaha 7CG (7 sea grand). Take your pick really. The
> Salamander and Maestro free pianos are good too.
Thanks, I'll check them out.

> Mellotron: QGB's/Taijii guy's Gigatron gigasample sounds good. The sound
> range is limited. You can buy samples on CD and hack them into SFZ format.
> It's not that bad. Perhaps there's even some nice software for that.

> Organ: I love setBfree.
It looked good, but I have a Hammond XK3c in my rig so I'm covered :)

> I suppose you have enough MIDI keyboards. :)
Yes, plenty. Though I could perhaps do with figuring out some custom control
surface stuff. Part of the appeal of the Nord Stage is the physical layout
which puts everything there in front of me when I'm playing.

bjb