Re: [LAU] Building an Open Source keyboard rig

From: Jonathan Brickman <jeb@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Wed Mar 02 2016 - 23:37:49 EET

On 3/2/2016 2:53 PM, Ben Bell wrote:
> I've been considering upgrading part of my keyboard rig by getting a Nord
> Stage 2 EX. I figure it would give me a much better piano sound than my
> aging Yamaha P90, authentic mellotron (very important), and some back
> compatibility for the synth section of my old Nord Stage Compact.
>
> But it's £2500. £2500 could buy an awful lot of Stuff. So I started thinking,
> what could you build that would be Open Source and broadly equivalent to a
> Nord?
>
> Extra points for surviving unexpected power outages and booting fast (damn
> those dodgy festival power supplies) and for being the sort of thing that
> you can operate easily having left all your geek credentials in the bowl
> of brown M&Ms.
>
> I figure some sort of Mini/Nano ATX with SSD, stripped back systemd boot, Jack,
> LinuxSampler, a reasonable low-latency multiple output soundcard... some
> leftoevers for good quality sample libraries...
>
> Let your imagination run wild... how would *you* build a Tux Stage 2 EX?
>
> bjb

I'm curious what people will come up with for the physical
keyboard/controller! I'm thinking something like US$700 used, US$1600
new, if you want something which will last and be good to your hands.
(The Yamaha MO8 and MOX8 are great examples, there are lots more, do be
careful about key feel.) And you're absolutely right about the rest. I
remain amazed at how fast my new Arch Linux installs have booted, they
have really got their act in gear. If I were building anew I'd probably
want to try one of these for audio:

http://www.esi-audio.com/products/juliaxte/

But I do wonder, if anyone has managed to get LinuxSampler to run well
on one of the really smokin' RPi-compatibles? Save lots of money that
way, and reportedly there are superb-quality sound cards for them now,
some of them with RCA jack options too. Of course, if you want more
than just piano, you'll probably need something more.

-- 
Jonathan E. Brickman   jeb@email-addr-hidden   (785)233-9977
Hear us at http://ponderworthy.com -- CDs and MP3 now available! 
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Received on Thu Mar 3 00:15:02 2016

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