Reaktor's MetaSynth — complete with eight oscillators, four filters, four ADSR envelopes, reverb and echo.
I have just upgraded from a Power Mac 8100, using Digidesign Session 8 hardware and an 882 studio audio interface to a new G4 with MOTU 2408 hardware. I am looking for software that could turn my old 8100 into a sampler which I could integrate with my other synths, using the 882 as an eight‑in, eight‑out interface. I realise that there are now a number of PCI cards which offer sampling facilities to computers, but unfortunately the 8100 has the older NuBus expansion slots rather than the modern PCI type. Is there anything on the market that I can buy to put this computer to good use?
Philip Vella
SOScontributor Paul Wiffen replies: Over the past few years, I've made software synths and samplers something of a pet subject of mine, not least thanks to my occasional role as UK distributor for some of the companies that manufacture them — an interest which I happily declare at the outset of this reply, so that my cards are firmly on the table [For the record, Paul distributes Native Instruments products in the UK — Ed].
Unfortunately, none of the software‑only synths currently on the market would be capable of producing more than a couple of voices from an 8100. The only sampling solution I know of which will work at all on the 8100 is Digidesign's old NuBus SampleCell card, which you can probably find dirt cheap on the second‑hand market. However, I don't think the 882 can act as an interface for this!
Having said this, your G4 probably has the power to run either BitHeadz Unity (a standard sampling synth) or Native Instruments Reaktor (which combines sampling with a dozen other types of synthesis) at the same time as your sequencer, and both retail for under £300 in the UK. You can connect them through VST or Logic with Propellerheads' Rewire, or put them through MAS 2.0 in MOTU's Digital Performer to get separate outputs into your sequencer with all the outputs (32) you need for plug‑in effects and/or EQ.
You have to remember that your new computer is approximately 30 to 40 times more powerful than your old one. If I were you, I would retire the 8100 to word‑processing or Internet duties. The G4 can handle more things at once than the 8100 on a single application!
Bitheadz Unity DS1's new mixer layout.