Anyone with a working Wami Box?

[thesoundsmith]

Still looking for solutions, does anyone have a working Giga laptop with the Wami Box PCMCIA interface? What system config (OS, Wami drivers, etc.)

Thanks.
Dasher

[thesoundsmith]

:bump - It appears that a new laptop with DDR Ram and 233 or 400MHZ mobo and 5400 RPM drive should handle Giga quite well. After looking at lunchbox proce quotes I don\'t want to spend that much for that heavy a system (27-30 lb, not bad but 8 lbs sounds much better these days... images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Has anyone had any luck running Giga with a Wami Box on ANY laptop system? Or have you tried and failed?

Please advise, I\'d like to get this going before I start recording in Tahoe next month.

Dasher

[MrArkadine]

Originally posted by thesoundsmith:
:bump - It appears that a new laptop with DDR Ram and 233 or 400MHZ mobo and 5400 RPM drive should handle Giga quite well. After looking at lunchbox proce quotes I don\'t want to spend that much for that heavy a system (27-30 lb, not bad but 8 lbs sounds much better these days... images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Has anyone had any luck running Giga with a Wami Box on ANY laptop system? Or have you tried and failed?

Please advise, I\'d like to get this going before I start recording in Tahoe next month.

Dasher<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Dasher,

I thought I\'d bump your post up to see if someone who knows can give you good advice.
As far as laptops, other alternative is the Mona or Layla with the laptop interface. Jacksmusic.com has them for good prices (Never ordered from this site, but Kingidiot recommended it).
I used to make GSampler 64 work on a Toshiba Tecra 8100 reasonably well (pops gallore though) images/icons/smile.gif
Good luck with finding a nice setup for your laptop! You might consider ordering from some place with unconditional money back guarantee though, to ensure that if you run into compatibility problems, you\'ll be covered (Check out americanmusical.com . It\'s been a while since I ordered last from them, but I think they had a pretty liberal return policy).
So, are you gonna play in any of the casinos at Tahoe?

Take care,

Ruben

[thesoundsmith]

Ruben,
Thanks for the bump (but I thought for one glorious instant that maybe someone had some actual INFO... images/icons/grin.gif )

I have not been getting anything from anyone (other that the manufacturers, of course!) to indicate a rational price-point solution. Soundchaser has a system, but it\'s well over $4K.

Other issues: I don\'t want to carry a rack-mount interface, and I don\'t want to spend $999 (discount price $600+) for the privilege. THe Wami box seemed like a reasonable solution for this, but nobody on the list has admitted to success. I\'d rather be sure, than be the guinea pig at this stage in my life, so I\'m probably going to have to go with a lunchbox system. Built in PCI card, 2 7200RPM drives, it should be simple to assemble. Of course, these are still WAY too much money, but they\'re cheaper than the laptop solution and I feel more confident I can get it to work.

As far as Tahoe, I don\'t know quite what\'s going on yet. I\'ve been invited to play the \'Save the Lake\' festival with \"Prophetz of Time and Space\" featuring Ndugu on drums and Larry Williams on sax. The bandleader is looking into getting a gig for either the band or the trio at one of the hotels, but he\'s currently in LA mixing their latest album (the one I was expecting to be laying tracks for, but time ran out,) which features one of my compositions, \"Tangishaka\" (shameless plug! images/icons/wink.gif )

But when the biz is set, I\'ll keep you posted. I really wanted to have this box available for the trip, but I may have to settle for my new (arrives today) Roland strap-on with pitch ribbon for \'true\' vibrato and VL-70m physical modeling box with breath controller linkage (the MIDI melodica images/icons/grin.gif .)

Dasher

[rolando]

This from egosys\'s web site:
Q: Is the Wami Box compatible with Nemesys\' products such as GigaSampler or GigaStudio?

A: The Wami Box support GigaStudio from E-WDM driver ver. 1.0.
However, still can\'t support Giga Samler.
You have to use GigaStudio ver 2.20.48 or higher which is based on WDM\"

I have the same problem trying to get gigasampler work with my laptop that doesn\'t have a compatible sound card. I think I\'m get a Wamibox and try. Need to upgrade to Gigastudio.

[thesoundsmith]

Rolando, thanks for the response. I know what the web site says, and I emailed them directtly and got a similar response. But they want to sell me something, which means the trust factor goes to well below 50%. I need positive responses from actual users, not salespersons.

That having been said, it looks like I\'m still not going to get any joy from a laptop solution. I can build a desktop Giga box that\'s reliable, 160 voices no clicks or pops AND run a sequencer from the same box for well under $2K. To have to spend $3500 plus for a 40 lb lunchbox, or $4500 for a laptop seems ridiculous. I finally found one place that sells lunchbox cases with no mobo, just the case, power supply and display, for $1975.00!

I\'m now looking into the single-space rack with laptop KVM option, to see what that might run. Stay tuned-the truth is out there-way out there...

Dasher

[thesoundsmith]

TO further update-no joy. There appears to be no rational and professionally safe way to use the laptop/KVM/rack box. If something ever goes wrong, and the box won\'t boot, you have no way to find out WHY! images/icons/frown.gif

The search continues (I\'m apparently a retentive sort!)

Dasher

[Buckman]

Are there no USB2/FireWire or hell, even USB1 (at 11Mbps) devices that can be used outside of a PC for recording and playback but also offer ASIO and GSIF drivers for Win2K/XP? I\'d love to use a laptop with GigaStudio and an external device that I Can hook up to the laptop or a desktop. Laptops are cheap these days, at least the no-namers. At $1500 or so for a PIV 1.6Ghz system, 512MB RAM, 15\" tft, and I think 5400rpm drive, that isn\'t bad.

question, a bit off this topic, but if you bought a USB or FireWire HD (they have 40 and 60GB 7200rpm drives, even 80GB I think now), can\'t you use that on a laptop to store all your sounds and get the 7200rpm speed?

[thesoundsmith]

Buckman, that was my assumption when I started this quest-get a nice 233MHZ mobo and DDR with a 5400 RPM internal drive, and Firewire to an 80GB external.

There are SO many ways this doesn\'t work, and only a few that do, if you start tracking the relevant posts. I wound up pricing a lapDAW from Soundchaser, and it came out at $4300, almost twice what I wanted to spend.
Currently I\'m looking at building a lunchbox computer, ATX mobo with internal 40 and 80 7200 RPM drives. Will cost around $3K if I do it myself, around $4K thru Soundchaser.

The folks at SC were very helpful and generally seem to know their stuff, but I just can\'t justify the extra expense, so I\'m doing my homework and specing a P4 system. ABout all that\'s left is getting the fan and HD noise down, and I\'ll be ready to rock - er, fuse - er, orch - oh, whatever the funk I want to do with it! images/icons/shocked.gif
Dasher

[Chadwick]

Guys, check this post out:

http://www.tascambbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=21;t=000082 (\"http://www.tascambbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=21;t=000082\")

He may be looney toons - but who can be sure?

[MrArkadine]

Originally posted by thesoundsmith:
Ruben,
Thanks for the bump (but I thought for one glorious instant that maybe someone had some actual INFO... images/icons/grin.gif )

I have not been getting anything from anyone (other that the manufacturers, of course!) to indicate a rational price-point solution. Soundchaser has a system, but it\'s well over $4K.

Other issues: I don\'t want to carry a rack-mount interface, and I don\'t want to spend $999 (discount price $600+) for the privilege. THe Wami box seemed like a reasonable solution for this, but nobody on the list has admitted to success. I\'d rather be sure, than be the guinea pig at this stage in my life, so I\'m probably going to have to go with a lunchbox system. Built in PCI card, 2 7200RPM drives, it should be simple to assemble. Of course, these are still WAY too much money, but they\'re cheaper than the laptop solution and I feel more confident I can get it to work.

As far as Tahoe, I don\'t know quite what\'s going on yet. I\'ve been invited to play the \'Save the Lake\' festival with \"Prophetz of Time and Space\" featuring Ndugu on drums and Larry Williams on sax. The bandleader is looking into getting a gig for either the band or the trio at one of the hotels, but he\'s currently in LA mixing their latest album (the one I was expecting to be laying tracks for, but time ran out,) which features one of my compositions, \"Tangishaka\" (shameless plug! images/icons/wink.gif )

But when the biz is set, I\'ll keep you posted. I really wanted to have this box available for the trip, but I may have to settle for my new (arrives today) Roland strap-on with pitch ribbon for \'true\' vibrato and VL-70m physical modeling box with breath controller linkage (the MIDI melodica images/icons/grin.gif .)

Dasher<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Dasher,

It\'s been a while, how are things going with you?
I might have some good news: I probably mentioned that I was using a Toshiba Tecra 8100 with GigaStudio 160, getting good results capturing to audio, but with lousy clicks and pops on live audio.
Well...due to problems with my new desktop setup (Win2k), I went back to the laptop, and started changing some things. It turns out that when I changed the sampling rate to 32 Khz, the popping and clicking dissapeared. Also, I could reach 160 voices with no sweat. HOWEVER, I just found out about 1 hour ago, and this is only with one instrument loaded, so I\'m going to try now with more instruments, and see if it still works.
The quality is 32 Khz., and 16 bit. It sounds good on my headphones, and it is close to CD quality.

I feel your frustration trying to setup a reliable and capable mobile giga system, but I think that time is on your side, plus the results that I\'m getting here are very promissing.

When is that \"Save the lake\" festival? It sounds real cool, let me know about it and if you score a deal with any of the hotels, because my sister in law lives in Lake Tahoe, and we go up there occassionally. Good luck with everything man!

I\'ll let you know how things work with my laptop.
If we can establish that it is a good solution, you can score one of these for less than $700 in eBay.

Note: I just remembered that the Toshiba Tecra 8200 is noted in Nemesys website as a good solution, reaching 160 voices in Gigastudio. Mine is Tecra 8100, but things seem to be going in the right direction!

[thesoundsmith]

Howdy, MrA. Nice to hear from you.

Tahoe looks like a bust. My former bass player had been pestering me a couple of times a week, \"Come ON, Dasher, I\'ve GOT to get you up here for this.\" Loop. SO I finally said, \"OK, Steve, I\'ve got it set up so I can leave. Tell me about it. Steve? Hellloooo Steve???\" Not a word since. As one of his \"strengths\" (and he even admits to it) is \"talking out of his beast of burden\" [love that phrase, Chad!] he may have discovered HE\'S not on it either-or any of a hundred things that happen trying to book good people. I don\'t know, if it changes, I\'ll post.

RE - the laptop quest: I had given up, and was literally about to dial to order a lunchbox, when I saw a post at the Tascam site about an Italian guy with 160 voice live Giga running on a Sony Vaio. I got enough details to determine that it once again should be possible to configure a full-bore laptop. So, back on the trail (\"The game\'s afoot\" is the quote, I believe...)

I called American Computers to check on their laptops (their website has several that claim USB 2.0, Firewire, 2.4 GHZ P4, everything but 5400RPM drives, for $1700 or so. The president of the company eventually picked up the phone, and spent two HOURS dicussing how (in the laptop segment) there is NO SUCH THING as 5400 RPM drives running ATA100, and THERE IS NO SUCH THING as USB 2.0 (although we are getting really close on both accounts, it\'s kind of like HDTV, there\'s not total agreement on the spec, so no actual product. images/icons/rolleyes.gif I couldn\'t tell if he was blowing smoke or being honest, so I asked him to \'get as close as he could.\' He specced a system that was overkill on the top end (2.4 GHZ P4) and underkill on the bottom (4800 RPM actual HDD operation, 5400RPM stated) for $2250. Higher than I planned, but in my budget. I told him I HAD to have a 14-day money-back guarantee that it would do my job, and then he DID start blowing smoke, but said he\'d see what he could do with his Chinese/Taiwanese partners. images/icons/rolleyes.gif images/icons/rolleyes.gif

So I\'m back to this eventual scenario: get the external Firewire drive with the proper chipset, get the Echo Layla24 laptop, and then start hitting on Circuit City\'s return policy.

I\'ll keep you posted.

Dasher

[MrArkadine]

Originally posted by thesoundsmith:
Howdy, MrA. Nice to hear from you.

Tahoe looks like a bust. My former bass player had been pestering me a couple of times a week, \"Come ON, Dasher, I\'ve GOT to get you up here for this.\" Loop. SO I finally said, \"OK, Steve, I\'ve got it set up so I can leave. Tell me about it. Steve? Hellloooo Steve???\" Not a word since. As one of his \"strengths\" (and he even admits to it) is \"talking out of his beast of burden\" [love that phrase, Chad!] he may have discovered HE\'S not on it either-or any of a hundred things that happen trying to book good people. I don\'t know, if it changes, I\'ll post.

RE - the laptop quest: I had given up, and was literally about to dial to order a lunchbox, when I saw a post at the Tascam site about an Italian guy with 160 voice live Giga running on a Sony Vaio. I got enough details to determine that it once again should be possible to configure a full-bore laptop. So, back on the trail (\"The game\'s afoot\" is the quote, I believe...)

I called American Computers to check on their laptops (their website has several that claim USB 2.0, Firewire, 2.4 GHZ P4, everything but 5400RPM drives, for $1700 or so. The president of the company eventually picked up the phone, and spent two HOURS dicussing how (in the laptop segment) there is NO SUCH THING as 5400 RPM drives running ATA100, and THERE IS NO SUCH THING as USB 2.0 (although we are getting really close on both accounts, it\'s kind of like HDTV, there\'s not total agreement on the spec, so no actual product. images/icons/rolleyes.gif I couldn\'t tell if he was blowing smoke or being honest, so I asked him to \'get as close as he could.\' He specced a system that was overkill on the top end (2.4 GHZ P4) and underkill on the bottom (4800 RPM actual HDD operation, 5400RPM stated) for $2250. Higher than I planned, but in my budget. I told him I HAD to have a 14-day money-back guarantee that it would do my job, and then he DID start blowing smoke, but said he\'d see what he could do with his Chinese/Taiwanese partners. images/icons/rolleyes.gif images/icons/rolleyes.gif

So I\'m back to this eventual scenario: get the external Firewire drive with the proper chipset, get the Echo Layla24 laptop, and then start hitting on Circuit City\'s return policy.

I\'ll keep you posted.

Dasher<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hey Dasher,

Sorry to hear your plans for the lake are a hold for now.

Regarding the laptop, I think it is more than possible to get very good performance without spending too much. I just did a test, and at 80 voices, 8 instruments, no pops or clicks. I\'ll keep adding instruments, but this looks like a dream so far. Also, note that my HD has not been defragmented in more than 2 months probably, and that I only have 10% of the 12 Gb of hard drive free.

If I were you I would utterly avoid getting a no brand laptop, and instead get a second hand laptop with some warranty left on it. Avoid USB (2.0 too) at all costs, because USB doesn\'t work well with performance critical applications such as audio. (Live audio specially) images/icons/smile.gif

What specs do you need for live work as far as sample rate/bit depth?
I\'m working this at 32 Khz and 16 bit, and it sounds more than decent.

I\'ll keep you posted about the process, my friend.

Take care.

[thesoundsmith]

Hi again, Mr.A

I plan to use this both live AND in the studio-Lalya 24 with ADAT and /or S/PDIF out, I need 16-bit minimum, 44.1 absolutely. 32K sounds OK when you\'ve got an audience to cover, but not for digital direct input. I really want to have a full 160 voices at 44.1, so nothing but the speediest disk stream will make me happy. images/icons/grin.gif

I\'ll be moving on this real soon (Circus City and Guitar Showoff here I come!) so I\'ll keep in touch. Good luck with your rig, too.

Dasher

[MrArkadine]

Originally posted by thesoundsmith:
Hi again, Mr.A

I plan to use this both live AND in the studio-Lalya 24 with ADAT and /or S/PDIF out, I need 16-bit minimum, 44.1 absolutely. 32K sounds OK when you\'ve got an audience to cover, but not for digital direct input. I really want to have a full 160 voices at 44.1, so nothing but the speediest disk stream will make me happy. images/icons/grin.gif

I\'ll be moving on this real soon (Circus City and Guitar Showoff here I come!) so I\'ll keep in touch. Good luck with your rig, too.

Dasher<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hi Dasher,

I have been seeing lately a lot of commercials about Circuit City\'s no restocking fees, and price protection for 30 days (If you find somewhere the same product cheaper, they\'ll reimburse 110% of the difference to you).
So, that sounds like a good plan. Regarding Layla, I think one of the cheapest places has to be Jack\'s Music Store, but probably the return policy isn\'t up to par (just guessing here).

My needs so far are just hobbyist amateur ones, so I understand you need for a more powerful setup.
Why don\'t you check out the Motu firewire units? You could use those with your laptop or desktop as long as you have a firewire interface. I\'ve heard they work very well with GigaStudio (Motu 828, and the newer one, what\'s its number, 946?)
With the Layla, if you want to use it in both your laptop and desktop, you need to buy both interfaces (PCMCIA, and PCI).

Good luck, and let us know how it goes. Me, I\'m trying to solve a very strange problem with my desktop setup (Win2k), that is causing cut notes, random notes and echos when I press a specific key on the midi surface interface directly in Gigastudio (No sequencer, no keyboard), in a specific instrument of the Prosonus Orchestral library. Tascam said they had never heard of that before... images/icons/smile.gif

Take care

[thesoundsmith]

Jack\'s IS the best new-in-the-box price. I have located one that I can try out, but I\'m not ready YET AGAIN images/icons/shocked.gif .

At work today, I brought up the subject with BOB! , our local computer guru\'s guru. This is the guy who keeps up with all the latest gadgets and can tell you over the phone how to hack the registry with regedit WITHOUT being in front of the computer himself...

Bob \'s comment: why not just get a flat panel LCD monitor and tie it together with either a standard PC-in-a-box, or a 1U server unit.

It struck home, and I went to the local Office Depot, where I found an LCD unit less than 1.5\" deep.

I\'m looking at a PC Power and Cooling Slimline 1800 with 2 drives and the monitor attached somehow (probably initially duct tape images/icons/grin.gif !) That should fit in a 2U case and go anywhere I need it to... THe only drawback is there is only room for 1 PCI card (but that\'s all I actually need for a dedicated GigaGigger.

Here\'s hoping...

Dasher