Edirol Sound Canvas 20.

[old git]

Bear in mind that I do not need an all dancing and singing module which would only baffle this old fool, what do you think about this Edirol/Junior Roland.?
Thanks in advance for putting up with this amateur,
Old Bill.

[waxxy]

id avoid sound canvas if you can they sound very dated now ..do you want an extrnal hardware module or do you want a vst plug in for your computer?theres lots of choice now it depends on how much you want too spend and what type of music you want too do

[old git]

Thanks Waxxy, being dated comes naturally to me.
I am a real amateur when it comes to these things, used real instruments all my life and baffled by VST. Googled it but no wiser. Just want to make realistic alto and baritone sax, trumpet and trombone sounds and that is probably it. I can makes reasonable tenor sax sounds on my tenor sax and the EWI makes several strange sounds but whether they are old or new, I haven't a clue.
I want 'A Jazz Sound Module for Idiots', preferably cheap, easy to work, four natural sounding instruments, to work with an Akai EWI400s, new or very reliable. Might be advisable to have an armoured case, just in case I lose my temper.
Old Bill.

[waxxy]

have you tried saxlab?i posted the link in another post..its a really good sax vst and an be controlled with your akai.if you can find the link post back and ill give it too you.

[andyspiller]

Hi Bill

Perhaps if you are prepared to run a software synth in your computer you should consider Garritan Big Band - it's reasonably priced and offers good(real) samples - there are very few tone generators out there that offer realistic brass samples - I could recommend a Yamaha Tyros 2 but it is really expensive compared to a Sound Canvas and may be overkill for what you want to do

[url=http://aux.music.yamaha.com/tyros2/demo/index.html]YAMAHA Tyros2 Special Site[/url]

for a demo of the Tenor Sax.

All the best

Andy

[Dave Boulden]

For natural sounding instruments, from my experince the best is the Roland Fantom range. You'd probably be able to get a Fantom XR at a good price by now since the follow up Fantom G range was released. I've had my Fantom X7 (6 octave keyboard version) for a few years now... it's giged regularly, slung iun the back of a van (albeit safely housed in a flight case!) and driven across the country once or twice a week. Never had a single problem with it. As long as you can map the continuous controllers to the right choices on the Fantom you'll find it very expressive too.

Alternatively, the Yamaha Motif range will probably handle the EWI better as it already has a breath controller inpuit and some sounds are progranmmed with it in mind. However, I never felty that the Motif ever sounded as natural as the Fantom... indeed I sold mine after I bought a Korg M3-88 to replace it.... though I do still miss the breath controller aspect!

[JAYDMF]

I have an SD20 its a pile of shite to be perfectly honest. bought it as a back up so that if i had to reboot and lost all my plugins i could still do my coursework, but now im out of uni it serves no purpose. Generally a terrible piece of gear especially for £280

[old git]

Thanks again gentlemen for the advice.

Very impressed with Fantom, Motif and Tyros, wondered who was playing my sax with the breath intakes but out of price range and I've promised the magistrate that I've given up mugging teenagers for this season at least.

Garrattan Big Band, again impressed but will stretch my Mac a bit and if that is updated, goodbye module.

Only have GarageBand 08 so cannot find any information of the usability of VST therein.

Quite like Arturia's Brass but need a dongle to check demo version. What a wimp I am!

Have now been attracted by a Roland JV880 at an affordable price by my standards, please let me down gently.
Ancient Bill.

[waxxy]

the jv880 is very old too and i dont think youll find any stores selling new ones youll probably only get one second hand on ebay..and if you are dont get the jv880 get the 1080 or the 2080 there much better in my opnion but samething again youll not get a new one only second hand and your looking at 80--150 pounds on ebay for them.

[old git]

Thanks for your very helpful replies. Took Dave's advice and have ended up with a PLG150VL plugged into a CPS6x which is far too complicated for a duffer like me but cheap, so I'm happy except for the hernia each time you try to move it.
After hunting this lot down and feeling smug, a VL70-M appeared immediately afterwards on the Devil's Junkyard in the UK. Does anybody ever win in this game?
Old Bill.