Composer and the Yamaha DSR 2000

[Sherry C]

Howdy,

Originally Posted by Crochetty

I suspect that to get the best results I had better buy a decent modern keyboard. At 20+ years old the DSR 2000 is a lovely instrument but perhaps not up to the performance needed (memory, speed etc.) in conjunction with today's much more advanced computers and software.

Perhaps, but not necessarily Memory shouldn't be an issue at all. The biggest problem might be latency - how long between when you press a key (if you're playing into Composer) and you hear the note sound. If the latency is too long, then yes it may well affect how you play.

If you use it for playback of files, you can adjust for the latency by
1. clicking Setup/MIDI Configuration, and
2. right-click the device ("USB MIDI cable", which you can also rename so it's easier to remember).
3. select "Properties"
4. in the "Anticipate playback delay" box, enter your best guess (most of us can tell if something is more than 50 msecs off) unless you have an established value (a quick Google didn't reveal anything to me, but you may have better info).
5. Click "Ok", and try it out. You can fiddle around with that setting til you get it right.

This won't help for recording into Composer, but it will help if you're using the DSR 2000 as a playback device in conjunction with other devices, or if the latency is so long that the notes are highlighting too far ahead of the actual sound.

To think that it cost me £1200 all those years ago and I could probably buy today's equivalent for a tenth of that price.

Technology is a funny animal. From what little I've read, the DSR 2000 has some very cool features for varying sounds, which could quickly make things very interesting. You could do your own Mannheim Steamroller imitations


ttfn,
Sherry

[Crochetty]

Thanks for that information Sherry. Perhaps I had better become more familiar with the laptop and DSR 2000 before I start getting more ambitious. Composer already gives me far more scope than I had been expecting, so I am very happy with the setup and simply need to spend time learning to make better use of it. Even so, it is good to have technocal aspects explained and I am grateful for that.

Regards,

Crochetty.