absolute beginner needs advice

[hans jugger]

Hi folks,
What a great site.I\'m hoping some kind and patient soul may take pity on me.Not only am I new to the concept of Gigasampler Im new to the concept of using my computer to make music.I know that must be shocking to you.
I\'ve always been a hardware man you see:I record on the Yamaha AW4416,using guitars,bass keyboards,Korg Trinity and Roland xp30 and sample CDs for a realistic drum sound but recently Ive been hankering after a real piano sound.I considered buying a digital piano but then I heard the demos on the Digital Piano shootout and I was mighty impressed,but as I say have no idea where to begin.
Would any kind soul consider helping me out?
Computer wise i have an Apple i-book 800MHZ PowerPC G3 with a 30GB Hard Drive(whatever all that means).
Can I use this to access these great piano sounds?What do I need?Please feel free to treat me like an idiot.I know nothing of soundcards etc.I cant even see where my leads would go!
Any info would be really,really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[TEMPS]

OK, here\'s my advice. First, getting a good computer, constantly updating it to fit my evolving gigastudio needs and trying to get everything working in XP has been one of the most difficult, frusterating, expensive things I\'ve ever done. That being said, it is also one of the most rewarding. The sounds are the best you can get and I have loved making recordings with them. The trick is to learn as much as you can before you start buying stuff (it is easy to waste a lot of money on stuff you either don\'t like or don\'t need). Some things you will have to learn along the way...It\'s inevitable. I\'ve been told you need at least 512 mb of RAM to run gigastudio properly. Also, you will need two hard drives, one for the instruments and one for the programs and other storage. Then you will need a an audiocard that is compatible with Gigastudio (I believe they call it GSIF). I recommend taking a look at Midiman.com I have the audiophile 2496 which finally works in XP! (Very recent driver update). You will want a great deal of hard drive space. Also, listen to all of the demos you can. My favorite instruments are from Michiel Post. I only use keyboard instruments. Other than that I would need to know more about what you plan to do in gigastudio in order to give you more advice. At any rate if you go down the gigastudio path I promise great pain and excellent rewards. Let me know if there\'s anything else I can tell you.

John

[Adam Frechette]

If you get a pc you should get the fastest available with the most ram also. Here would be a monster setup for example (a few of these babies and no more worries images/icons/grin.gif ):

-PC:
3.06 GHZ
Some kind of ultra quiet pc fan
1.5 GB ram - I think you can expand to like 2 Gb or more, though I am not sure.
3 hds 200 Gb a piece
Delta 44
*Windows ??? (your choice)

-Some nice sample libraries to check out:
VSL
EWQLSO
Dan Dean Brass
Dan Dean Woodwinds
SAM Horns
SAM Trombone (when released)
Roland strings
Garritan Giga harp
Garritan Strings
London orchestral percussion
Steinway B
Hollywood Edge Effects
Quantum Leap rare instruments

1 or 2 hds for samples or leave one for other stuff like games, the other for aps and system files etc. The reason I say 3 is because if you feel like taking a break and playing a pc game go to your 3rd hd where the other pc stuff would be kept.
*Your OS is optional as many people work most comfortable with different one, as for me I like Win 98 SE.
As for a soundcard, I read the delta 44 is nice and I plan on purchasing one.

My current setup (compare this to the one listed above):
500 Mhz ... roflol, what a disgrace.
2 hds: 10 GB (software), 80 GB(samples)
Win 98 SE
Sb live value
320 Mb ram.
I can get 122 voices max without it dropping out.

Now you see even with a horrible outdated system you can get somewhere.

Hope this helps

[hans jugger]

Thanks guys for replying so swiftly.
I realise I didnt explain myself very well in my previous post.When i say I am a beginner,I mean I am an ABSOLUTE beginner.I know nothing of using computers to make music though I am quite experienced with hardware gear.
Im after the most realistic piano sound I can find to add to my existing demos.At the moment I dont require strings,horns and all the other great sounds available(I know once I get started I will want them )
Anyway,Id love to know what I need to run a great piano sound on the i-book I mentioned above,from scratch.
Sorry for being so dumb and thanks for the advice so far.

[Adam Frechette]

Like I listed in my previous post:

\"Post Steinway D\" (my fault)
That is a great piano library (if not the best sounding piano library out there I believe). I have never used it since I rarely use piano in my music. But I have read rave reviews for it in many places.

As for software and the such you will want Gigastudio 160 3.0 (when it is finished). I am not sure if GigaStudio runs on mac or not. Anyways there are a slew of sequencers to check out, I use Cakewalk 9.0 at the moment. Here is a list of some nice sequencers to check on:

Cakewalk
Cubase
Digital Performer
Encore
Logic
Sonar

I am not sure if all of these can be run on the mac and I think there are alot more sequencers out there then listed above.

Hope this helps

[Daedalus]

Adam,

I\'m wondering about your 500 Mhz system. I have a 600 MHz computer and I\'m wondering whether I can convert it into a Giga system. All it needs is a sound card. I\'ll be running the sequencer on another computer.

Do you think it would be a good idea? I\'d be happy if I could get 122 voices from it.

Thanks,
Ben Ripley

[Joanne Babunovic]

hans,

Here is a forum survey on setups. Click on the link in Jerry\'s first post to go to the thread with four pages of various configurations.

http://www.northernsounds.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=001539 (\"http://www.northernsounds.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=001539\")