Re: [LAU] Building an Open Source keyboard rig

On Sat, 5 Mar 2016 08:11:04 +0000, Ben Bell wrote: Ok Ben, you're a realist who has got real stage equipment and now you wants to try something else. I won't recommend an iPAD for stage usage, regarding solidity and the fact that it depends on battery, even if you connect it to a power supply, but OTOH compared to a Linux solution, you could put the iPAD on top of a master keyboard and get a perfect GUI and you could purchase all kinds of synth for around 5,-€ per synth, some as the CMI are a little bit more expensive, but most of those synth are far better than the quality we know from Linux synth. Linux might provide a few outstanding FLOSS exceptions, offhand only Yoshimi comes to my mind and indeed Yoshimi is a good reason to build a stage set-up based on Linux, but OTOH Yoshimi is not a competitor to a piano related sample player, a vintage emulation or modern granular synth you could get by iStore and at least not a replacement for your stage proved Nord piano. It's simply not the domain of Linux to replace stage gear. Imagine you would follow Len's tip, to use an USB "Qwerty"-keyboard as the remote control. On stage? A 20 meter long USB cable, IOW longer than USB norm allows and in addition it would be another cable on stage, a computer data cable, not an audio signal cable, so think over shielding, anybody playing a Clavinet or single coil guitar might not like additional electric smog. It's the summa of things to consider for stage usage, not alone the will to handle experimental gear. 2 Cents, Ralf