Low-cost computer-based keyboard instrument
From N-Track Wiki
Q: How much does it cost to set up a computer-based keyboard instrument for use live or in the studio?
A: Almost nothing, if you already have a MIDI keyboard (controller or instrument) and computer. If you have neither, total cost is well under $1000 and possibly much less.
All the necessary software is free or cheap, and excellent hardware is available at very low cost. Let's consider building a system from scratch.
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Keyboard
Let's start with the keyboard. Radio Shack now sells the DP-4073, which is a very good digital piano with 88 fully-wieghted keys, for $300. This is a re-branding of one of the Casio Privia pianos. It's lightweight and has very good action and tone, especially considering the low cost. They're flying off the shelves, because pro keyboard players are snapping it up to use as an extra keyboard, to lighten their load, or so they can keep their expensive units set up at home for practice and studio work. A nice feature of this keyboard is that it has a USB interface for MIDI, so you don't need a MIDI interface for the computer.
If this will be your only keyboard, it's advisable to use a keyboard that has a good enough sound to use if the computer crashes, while it's rebooting.
This is best if you're a piano playing keyboardist. If you rarely use piano, an unweighted or semi-weighted keyboard would probably be better, and they're even cheaper. Better yet, get the RS/Casio and learn!
Computer
This is where the widest variability in cost comes. The good news is that you don't need the hottest, latest computer to do the job. Of the first 3 plugin instruments listed below, I ran two of them (Organized Trio and MrRay) successfully on a 750MHz P3 laptop. (The third, sfz, I didn't try at that time, it may or may not have worked but it does generally use more CPU power.)
One of the very nice things about a computer is the ability to play large sample sets. This is the only way to get a good piano sound from a computer. To play them, you need to have either lots of memory or else a disk drive with low seek times (i.e., fast).
Only relatively new and beefy laptops are capable of streaming data from disk successfully -- it takes a more streamlined disk system than most laptops have even today. RPM is one of the issues; many laptops have 4500 or 5400 RPM drives, whereas most desktops have 7200 RPM drives. That's only one aspect, though. Note that it's not the throughput difference between them, but the track seek time that really matters. 7200 RPM drives just happen to usually have faster track seek times. (It's not sector seek time, which is well under 1 msec for all these speeds.)
If you can find an older laptop and can replace the disk drive with a new fast one, you may have hope for DFD. But you won't know until you put the parts together, so it's a risk.
The alternative is memory. Running W2K on 512M I had about 200M available for soundfonts (which I use live, along with NIB4). YMMV, and Win98 should leave more memory available. XP leaves less, but is better for audio in general. When selecting a laptop, pay careful attention to max memory allowable.
I recommend shooting for 1G minimum. Of course, you can always add memory (up to the limit), so it doesn't have to be installed on the laptop when you get it. If you're buying new, you can often save money by getting the computer with the least possible memory and buy the memory on line, from a reputable dealer with lifetime warranty, and get the memory at half cost or less. If you don't know what you're doing, have your friendly neighborhood nerd help.
Total cost TBD, but should be under $400 for a used laptop, and less for a desktop. Best if it has a line output, but headphone outputs can be used. 30GB hard drive is enough. 256MB RAM absolute minimum (W98 only), 512 much better, 1G recommended. 750MHz Pentium3 minimum, and any Centrino Pentium M would be very good. You'll need USB, but note that USB Cardbus cards are cheap if you find a cheap laptop without USB.
Software
The necessary software is free (or nearly so). My recommendations, for the cheapest possible solution:
- vsthost to run the VSTi plugins. Free.
- OrganizedTrio and MrRay73 (Hammond and Rhodes sims). IIRC, $15 "donation" so nag screens go away for all soundfont.it programs.
- sfz soundfont player. Free.
- jRhodes3 soundfont. An alternative Rhodes sound to MrRay73. I recommend the stereo version.
- ASIO4ALL driver for low latency. Free.
A 750 MHz P3 should handle any of these, as long as you're playing only one at a time; possible exception being sfz.
So, total cost, $315 plus tax & computer, so well under $1000 and impressive sounds at that price. Also, easily upgradable by getting a more powerful used laptop in a couple years, at which point you'll have ample processing power and memory.
There are also some pretty good analog synth imitations for free. Purists who really know the sounds of the originals criticize most for not being authentic and they're right, but who cares, they're still nice hot sounding polysynths. Plus you can run cheap and free VST FX on top of them (though control of the FX is limited using the software mentioned above).
Note
Of course, this is just the instrument. Note that you'll need something to play it through, such as a keyboard combo amp or small PA. And since there are two separate sound sources (the computer and the keyboard), you'll either need a small mixer or use one built into a keyboard combo amp.
