[Rosegarden-user] Looking for advice on putting together a good MIDI sound configuration

[Jim C. <ml...@bu...>]

(Sorry this email is so long - I think I need to provide some
background so that anyone responding has a clear idea of what I'm
looking for, though perhaps I'm erring on the side of too much
background.  [If you want to cut to the chase - my actual questions,
skip to the end.] Also, I'm hoping this post launches a discussion that
is beneficial not only to me, but also to others who want to know more
about how to find good sounds on a Linux-based system.)

First, I'd like to say that I very much enjoy using Rosegarden -
especially because of its power and its sophisticated music notation
and sequencing capabilities.  I donated $50 to the project a few weeks
ago and hope to donate more when my budget allows - it's worth it.  I'm
looking forward to the new QT4-based version when it comes out.

I'm trying to determine what my options are for putting together a
system with relatively high-quality sampled sounds (using Rosegarden,
of course).  [Some people, reading my description of what I'm looking
for, might suggest moving to Windows for this system; but that is not
practical for me, mainly because I very much dislike Windows and the
pain of using it would greatly outweigh any advantage that might exist
of using Windows for a music composition system with a good sound setup.
Maybe OS X would be a possibility, but it would add more expense, and I
prefer Linux.]

I've tried, I believe, most of the standard solutions for Linux, such
as timidity, fluidsynth, and linuxsampler; but so far I've not found
anything that produces the quality I'm looking for.  What I am looking
for is (probably not surprisingly) standard orchestral-instrument sounds
that are as close as possible to the sound of the actual instrument the
sample was based on.  This is obviously a demanding requirement and I
realize that I can't be overly picky - that finding something very
close to the ideal is either impossible or extremely expensive.
However, I think it's possible to find something significantly better
than what I've found so far.  And I'm willing to pay for good sounds,
as long as it's not too expensive.  (An example of too expensive would
be, say, paying $2000 for one sound.)

I should perhaps mention that the reason I'm being picky with respect
to quality of sounds is that, using this system for composing (mostly
classically-oriented) music, I find that I cannot get very inspired or
creative or energized when what I play (or compose and play back)
sounds funky and/or cheap and/or very artificial.  I need something
that actually sounds good in order to compose something worth
listening to.  (I wish I could be like Mozart or Beethoven and simply
hear a new composition in my mind and "write" it down; but I can't - I
need to actually hear it, and, of course, I end up making many changes
until it sounds right.) 

As I said above, I've tried linuxsampler.  It was the option I thought
would be the most promising, of what I've tried so far, but from my
current experience it looks like it will not provide what I need.
(I'll not go into the reasons for that here, but I'm willing to in a
followup post, if there's enough demand for that.)

So, at this point, I'm only aware of two solutions I've not tried that
seem to have a chance of meeting my expectations: Use an external
synthesizer or use a VST-based solution.  The former, for truly good
sounds, looks like it would cost several thousand (perhaps $7000 to
$12000 or something like that).  The latter, I think, would be cheaper,
but I would either need to use a Windows emulator (I don't think VST is
supported natively on Linux - please correct me if I'm wrong) or (to
lessen the load on the "Linux music workstation" by assigning the
sound production to an external system) use a dedicated Windows box as a
sort of black-box or external (from Linux's point of view)
synthesizer.  (Yes, I said I don't like Windows, but I may be able to
tolerate this setup, with Linux/Rosegarden as my main music tool.)

So, after this long email post, I guess my questions are: What have
people found to work well in terms of getting good sounds on a
MIDI-based system on Linux?  Have you gotten good results with VST
software running on Linux with Windows emulation?  What is the quality
of a good VST-based system in general (say, running natively on
Windows) - can it actually provide good-quality sampled sounds?  Has
anyone tried using Rosegarden with a Windows/VST box as an "external
synthesizer"? Have people had much luck - getting good sounds - with
actual MIDI keyboard/synthesizers (and, if so, how expensive was it)?
Is there another potential solution I'm not aware of - that I've not
mentioned?


Thanks very much.
Jim Cochrane

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