From claire_trikes_aust@iprimus.com.au Mon Oct 13 20:04:58 2003
Subject:Re: Dedicated Clone vs. PC/B4

Kevin,

My experience is that B4 works like a dream. It has been 'rock solid'
running under Windows 2000 in live gigging situations. It is not very
processor intensive. I run it on an older 550Mhz Pentium III with 128M Ram
and it runs great. The lowest latency I can get with the Yamaha sound card
I have available is around 20mS but I don't notice this (others may - YMMV).

You can control every parameter of B4 with midi CC codes (including all
upper, lower and pedal drawbars and Leslie upper and lower drum acceleration
and even "mic position" - to very content of Leslie AM, FM etc.).

To solve the drawbar problem, simply use a midi controller keyboard that has
sliders as well as knobs. There are many available (I know of Edirol and
Evolution). I would be first to agree that some small sliders are not
nearly as nice (tactiley - if there is any such word) as grabbing a handful
of real drawbars but the functionality is identical. Lets face it - the
reason you'd do this is because the midi keyboard is small, weighs maybe a
Kilo (2Lb) and B4 is technically weightless .

It works for me !

(By the way - the Edirol Keyboard that I use (PCR-50), that I chose because
of the lovely key action, uses a USB port (but it has regular midi in and
out too) and FPT Fast Processor Technology (whatever that is), but I do
notice that when I first start up the action is slightly detectably slower
for the first say half dozen notes, then it picks up speed noticeably. It's
as if it does some kind of self learning setup thing..... Perhaps because
of this and the USB connection I do not notice the 20mS latency that might
otherwise be annoying.......Any comments or observations ?)

Best regards,
Claire

----- Original Message -----
> Hello,
>
> I have been told that there are potentially a lot of opinions on the
> question I'm asking here.
>
> I'm trying to decide if I should put together a dedicated clone rig
> (dedicated hardware), or a PC/B4 setup.
>
> If I go the PC/B4 route, I can build a rig for about $640, including
> the B4 software - that being the case, the system is based on AMD
> Duron 1.6Ghz/128Mb/20Gb HD/3D Stereo Sound with DirectSound 3D/XP
> Home/2USB/1 Serial
>
> The alternative would be a dedicated rig, probably used from E-Bay
> like the Voce V3 or V5 or even a Micro B or Blue Chip OX7
>
> Obviously the latter is a much more portable alternative, and more
> dynamic to operate while playing (working the drawbars, changing
> presents, etc.), but the former can be tailored as new software
> updates are made available.
>
> Also, does the system I'm mentioning above have enough guts to do the
> job? Is the B4 CPU intensive, memory intensive, I/O intensive or
> some combination of all three - that is, what, if anything needs to
> be upped from the base system above to do the job.
>
> Any opinions are welcome especially those from hard-won experience!
>
> Best regards,
> Kevin
>
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