Hello, all, It has been some time since I have frequented and posted here. I'm still active composing, and love to use NWC more than any other program. This year for Christmas, a friend and I decided to do parts of Handel's Messiah for our church's Christmas Eve service. My job is to arrange soundtracks for us to sing by. I use a Roland JV-1080 for MIDI sounds, and love the orchestral expansion module sounds they offer. I was, however, looking for a "on laptop" solution that would enable me to arrange anywhere, and not be constrained by hooking up the M-Audio Midisport 2+2 and JV for music. I came upon the Miroslav Philharmonik, which I know some, if not most of you are familiar with. I actually bought the program before I searched the archives and found out - as many have - that the program does not work well with others. I have never been a fan of VST or other plugins, either. So, after much frustration (and prayer!), I want to share a solution that is so simple, it is elegant! The program is LoopBe1. It connects two MIDI devices on your laptop or computer by simply offering another MIDI port in and out. And it works beautifully. I simply installed LoopBe1 and assigned "MIDI out" in NWC, and "MIDI in" in Miroslav. It was so easy I was floored. I'm sure there are other MIDI port programs like this one, but I wanted to share my success with all of you. As for the Miroslav, I use a ASIO driver, which offers much superior sound than DirectX. Here is the link if you are interested. Some of you may already know of this, but for those that don't:
A solution that will negate the effects of any operating system is an external midi engine. I know I've said it before, but I REALLY love my Roland Super JV-1080 synth module. A bit pricey (I think I paid $285 on Ebay), but you can also get the JV-1010, which is a stripped down version. The 1080 allows 4 expansions via their expansion boards. I use the Orchestral I, Orchestral II, and Vocal expansion boards. There were 1,000 different patches without the boards, about 1,700 with them. The point is that a stand alone box hooks via MIDI to whatever computer you use, as long as you have a MIDI connection. Some engines use an external USB connection. I've never regretted going this way. It allows so much more versatility in what I compose. As a side note, I also have the Yamaha XG software synth (I bought it before it was discontinued). I use it for my laptop (which doesn't have a MIDI connection). It works pretty well, but doesn't compare with Roland's sounds. We use a CVP-900 Clavinova at church (it also has the latest XG, along with a generous array of instruments), but the instruments don't sound as good as the Roland. Well, the exception would be the guitar. The CVP-900 has a wonderful classical guitar! Years ago, I used an Ensoniq AudioPCI, but these were designed to work under windows 9x, and maybe 2000. I know that Creative bought the rights and that their standard "Sound Blaster" essentially used the AudioPCI card design and waveset. I now use an Audigy 2 Platinum in my computer, but I rarely use the internal MIDI engine, opting instead to MIDI out to the Roland. Perhaps others can chime in as to another solution or stand alone box they've used. I'm sure there are others. I only wanted to share my own perspective about what has worked for me and how it has compared with other things I've been exposed to.
Yamaha? I used to think so -- until I bought a Roland Super JV-1080 Synth module. WOW! And it's basically an older one. It works beautifully with the NWC2 interface and midi windows, and it's very configurable. I also use the Orchestral 1 and 2, and the voice expansion modules. Man, what a difference, and I have an Audigy platinum 2 with the Aux faceplate! An advantage with a separate midi engine is that it is no longer dependent on the PC platform to perform.
Same here....really threw my compositions for a loop! No triplets, and all former triplets are gone! HELP! I have to finish and record them by the weekend!
