On 6 Apr 2006 at 10:57, Eric Dannewitz wrote: > David W. Fenton wrote: > > I cannot find any such method. In any event, the best synthesizer on > > my system is my soundcard, and iTunes can't capture its output, so I > > can't use iTunes for this purpose. > > > Lets see, a quick Google search of "midi to wav" ended up with with a > ton of results.
I don't lack the software to do this on Windows -- I've already purchased it (very cheaply), and it works quite reliably. I was just asking what I'd have to buy it again if I were using a Mac, or if there were free alternatives. I, too, could Google, but I thought I'd ask a community of Mac users before doing so, since it's a very theoretical problem. > > Well, then lets call the synthesizer on my soundcard > > a sample player, one that is hard-wired to the samples in that > > soundcard's ROM. > > It's not in the same class as a Sample player. It's like saying your > 64 VW bug is a race car. You seem to be determined to miss the point. I don't dispute that they are technically different. But they are completely identical in regard to the issue of offloading processing and RAM. > > If the soundfont was produced from samples, it *is* the same > > thing. The technical differences don't matter to me because the > > issue for me is offloading the processing to a dedicated card > > rather than bogging down the system's CPU and RAM with the same > > processing. > > But you are missing the point. A soundfont has a sample, but then > it uses that to synthesize. It's different that what GPO does. I DON'T CARE THAT IT'S DIFFERENT. The point is whether or not the computer's CPU and RAM are used, or the processor and memory in an off-board device. > Did you READ the article? What article? > A sample player does not do this. I DON'T CARE. > > > Which is what a sample player does. But it is cheaper to > > > dedicate a separate computer to doing playback. Cause, > > > basically, you are trying to load as much stuff in memory > > > and/or access it from a disk to allow for seamless playback. I > > > don't see how a card is going to help with that, as it's really > > > a memory/cpu thing. Unless you are proposing some sort of card > > > that holds its own storage medium, and processor to allow you > > > to upload and store all the samples. > > > > Oh, puh-leaze. For years Creative has sold $100 soundcards that > > do exactly this. > > Again, you have it wrong. Creative doesn't do anything like that. They > are not producing a Sample player. If you equate Soundfont=Sample > Player then, yeah, sure. But they are two separate things. Not from the standpoint of the problem I'm discussing, which is offloading processing/temporary storage to a dedicated device. > > > For me, since I work with this stuff for a living, I dedicated > > > a whole computer to do it. I can easily run 30+ instruments on > > > my Pentium 4 machine, and they sound great. > > > > Well, I *don't* do it for a living. A $100 hardware device that > > could load and play samples would be much better for my needs. > > Which was my whole point all along, that I think it's a mistake > > that the industry has moved away from that model. > > And we come to the issue again, . . . No, this is the only issue I've ever been talking about. > . . . since you DON'T know what you are talking about, how can you > say the things you do? \/\/HATEVER. > The industry has moved the way it has because it simply does not make > sense to have a card that would do what you think a $100 Creative card > does. To be a SAMPLE player, you'd need a card that has it's own RAM, > storage for gigabytes of samples, and a CPU to handle it. It is just > simpler, faster, and cheaper to have a dedicated PC for that. So you say. The results are that computers are being tasked with too much and the only option is to run multiple PCs. That's bloody stupid for the kind of user that I am. You can have the last word. I have nothing more to say to you. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
