Hello all.
I have been posting mainly in the audio/midi section of this forum and a couple of other spots within HW forum while building on a budget my home VPO. Most of my hardware is now in place (scattered somewhat around the room awaiting final assembly before designing a console.) I have successfully converted an Allen 32 note princess pedalboard to MIDI via Roman Sowa board (Pedalboard was advertised as a "Princess" but when it arrived I believe it is a full concave 32 since it nearly exactly matches the one on my Rodger 320 Trio organ upstairs and nearly killed an old guy like me to carry it downstairs). The new computer is installed and running beautifully (i5 processor, 10GB ram, 9 USB ports), my two midi keyboards are functioning just fine, and my speaker system (so far two Rodgers MC-10's (6 6x9's and 4 tweets each) hooked to a sherwood amp are putting out acceptable sound tho a bit sparce on the bottom end, and I am awaiting the arrival of an Allen speaker with a 15 and 12 inch speaker inside hopefully by July 1-5). I'm about to click the "buy now" button on an additional used amp to run the expected Allen speaker, and have decided pretty much to connect an external ESI gigaport HD+ as my external audio interface (8 channels). I am using the free edition currently to get things going and intend in the near future to upgrade to at least the basic edition of HW.
Now comes the sought after opinions and advice. I will have 8 channels of audio available. Doing this mainly because I want to have control over for example boosting the base (which I plan to be cafrried by the Allen15/12) and thru adding speakers as deals become available to create at least some semblance of a surround sound atmosphere in my space. I am under the impression that in order to do this I MUST have the advanced edition of HW to gain that much control.
Is this correct or am I missing something? I am so impressed and pleased with HW in general that I have NO problem uspporting it by purchasing the full license, but its gonna take a little time for my little black organ money box to be replenished after relatively heavy spending on hardware and equipment and those darned shipping costs thru EBAY so I was wondering how much actual sound manipulation I can achieve thru the free version to tide me over to a few months til I can afford a license.
I also seem to have great confusion about other software packages that might be able to manipulate sound from HW before outputting it to the audio interface -- I think they are referred to as DAW's. The Gigaport HD+ comes with something called Deckadance but I seem to be thinking that these are more for recording than for live output of sound as you actually play live but I don't know if that is fact or just my lack of knowledge. I hear a lot about "Repaer" and "Pro-Tools" and don't have a clear understanding of what these types of software are capable of in terms of assisting me in my goals.
Sorry for the length of this but I am hoping someone here in the free support area may have had the same type of confusion and might be able to nudge me in the appropriate direction.
AGAI -- I really wish to thank HW for making the free version available. It has served me wopnderfully in making me feel confident that the investment in a license will be well worth the price when all is said and done. I'm just trying to make sure I'm making the most informed decisions on these final pieces of hardware before I hit that infamous "BUY NOIW" button.
Thanks for any input you might feel inclined to give. (Oh I forgot one more piece of hardware I have yet to get -- a swell shoe) - while not immediately necessary I know I'm gonna what at least 1.
Tom
I have been posting mainly in the audio/midi section of this forum and a couple of other spots within HW forum while building on a budget my home VPO. Most of my hardware is now in place (scattered somewhat around the room awaiting final assembly before designing a console.) I have successfully converted an Allen 32 note princess pedalboard to MIDI via Roman Sowa board (Pedalboard was advertised as a "Princess" but when it arrived I believe it is a full concave 32 since it nearly exactly matches the one on my Rodger 320 Trio organ upstairs and nearly killed an old guy like me to carry it downstairs). The new computer is installed and running beautifully (i5 processor, 10GB ram, 9 USB ports), my two midi keyboards are functioning just fine, and my speaker system (so far two Rodgers MC-10's (6 6x9's and 4 tweets each) hooked to a sherwood amp are putting out acceptable sound tho a bit sparce on the bottom end, and I am awaiting the arrival of an Allen speaker with a 15 and 12 inch speaker inside hopefully by July 1-5). I'm about to click the "buy now" button on an additional used amp to run the expected Allen speaker, and have decided pretty much to connect an external ESI gigaport HD+ as my external audio interface (8 channels). I am using the free edition currently to get things going and intend in the near future to upgrade to at least the basic edition of HW.
Now comes the sought after opinions and advice. I will have 8 channels of audio available. Doing this mainly because I want to have control over for example boosting the base (which I plan to be cafrried by the Allen15/12) and thru adding speakers as deals become available to create at least some semblance of a surround sound atmosphere in my space. I am under the impression that in order to do this I MUST have the advanced edition of HW to gain that much control.
Is this correct or am I missing something? I am so impressed and pleased with HW in general that I have NO problem uspporting it by purchasing the full license, but its gonna take a little time for my little black organ money box to be replenished after relatively heavy spending on hardware and equipment and those darned shipping costs thru EBAY so I was wondering how much actual sound manipulation I can achieve thru the free version to tide me over to a few months til I can afford a license.
I also seem to have great confusion about other software packages that might be able to manipulate sound from HW before outputting it to the audio interface -- I think they are referred to as DAW's. The Gigaport HD+ comes with something called Deckadance but I seem to be thinking that these are more for recording than for live output of sound as you actually play live but I don't know if that is fact or just my lack of knowledge. I hear a lot about "Repaer" and "Pro-Tools" and don't have a clear understanding of what these types of software are capable of in terms of assisting me in my goals.
Sorry for the length of this but I am hoping someone here in the free support area may have had the same type of confusion and might be able to nudge me in the appropriate direction.
AGAI -- I really wish to thank HW for making the free version available. It has served me wopnderfully in making me feel confident that the investment in a license will be well worth the price when all is said and done. I'm just trying to make sure I'm making the most informed decisions on these final pieces of hardware before I hit that infamous "BUY NOIW" button.
Thanks for any input you might feel inclined to give. (Oh I forgot one more piece of hardware I have yet to get -- a swell shoe) - while not immediately necessary I know I'm gonna what at least 1.
Tom