Keyboard sample software with ProTools LE

It has been forever since I used my piano/keys midi trigger, partially because I lost my old computer to an internal electrical fire (that's how all computers should die - with a bang) and upgraded to a new one and just haven't gotten new software for keyboards. I used to have a hacked version of Reason, which never worked very well but sounded great on the two things that did work. I mostly just need pianos and electric pianos, maybe some nice Hammond organs, and I'd like for it to play nice with ProTools LE 7.4.

I'm googling, of course, I just figured someone here might have some strong suggestions.

Thanks much.
maple art, popcorn, colonel season

new song at Part Time Songs




Life changes, fast sometimes. Brilliant ideas fail, progress is lost, chaos and stability fight each other, with chaos coming out slightly ahead. Careful planning for the unknown might help. If it doesn't help, at least it keeps us busy, thinking, occupied awaiting the next change.






     Careful Planning (MP3, 4.5 MB)
maple art, popcorn, colonel season

new song at Part Time Songs





I was playing around with a free VST synth and came up with the bassline for this one first, and built everything else around that. The lyrics came really easily after that. It's a short one but I like it. At first my idea was to have a few different song snippets with the theme of the sky, but I've just got this one right now.



As an aside, I'm turning 30 next weekend and I think it'd be cool if the Facebook Part Time Songs page could reach 30 fans by then. We're already up at 27, so if you're on Facebook and haven't "fanned" me, feel free to do so!





     Under Some Sky
maple art, popcorn, colonel season

part time songs



so i have this new "label", which is really just way for me to put out music. all my stuff i've done so far is up here. please take a listen. i think it'd be appealing to people into the shins, built to spill, pavement, neutral milk hotel, they might be giants, and other bands that do melodic indie-pop type stuff with interesting lyrics.

PART TIME SONGS
maple art, popcorn, colonel season

new recording laptop

looking to buy a new laptop for audio recording. some questions:

a) anyone have any bad experiences using an AMD processor (vs. Intel) for recording and playback?

b) anyone have any bad experiences using Vista vs. XP or vice versa? I am leaning towards trying to get a machine already preloaded with XP, because it's what i'm used to and it's older and tried and tested. plus i use it on my desktop recording machine with no issues at all.

however, only a few new machines are available with XP lately. Dell's got one Inspiron model (AMD processor) that you can get with XP.

c) what other factors should i look into? i bought my desktop PC on a whim and turned out pretty lucky that it plays back many tracks at once with no lag, the recording is great, etc. i did go all out on that machine (3.2 ghz pentium 4, i BELIEVE... i'm not at home to double check) a few years ago. i'd like to not drop as much money this time, and this laptop will be my SECONDARY recording machine (mainly to record drums at my friend's house). i know disk speed is important and RAM is too.

let me know if you've got any tips out there!
maple art, popcorn, colonel season

vocal booths

anyone ever build their own vocal booth?

my aim is not really to get great sounding recordings in the vocal booth, but rather to practice and work out my singing in the booth so as to not disturb neighbors or my wife. and to not feel as self conscious (due to my loudness -- it takes a bit of volume for me to hit the right notes... just my singing style, i guess).

anyway, i've looked at booths at http://whisperroom.com/bigEAP.html and http://vocalbooth.com/products/sil… ... but they're very expensive. i've seen some people on various forums having built them, but wanted to ask here just to see if anyone's got any special tips or ideas (or whether you've found it was worth it or not)...

lemme know! thanks.