Best sampling rig for live performance - not Mainstage!

[Sean Beresford]

Wondering if anyone out there has recommendations for the most reliable live rig for playing samples/soft synths. I've been playing keyboards live with a band I produced last year and have taken all of the samples and synth sounds from the record and made them into EXS24 patches in Apple's Mainstage app and I run it on my Macbook Pro with an Axiom, keyboard. The problem is on the last two shows either the Mainstage or the audio interface stopped working right in the middle of the show and I no longer trust it to work reliably (I have latest versions of the app and all drivers etc.).

I've looked at the Muse Research Receptor box and it looks like it will do everything I want it to do but I have no idea on how reliable it is, has anyone here used one and can they vouch for it? I'm wondering what other alternatives might be out there, maybe an integrated sampling keyboard/synth that I can import the raw samples into saving me from having to have a separate usb keyboard.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Sean

 

[b3maniac]

I have a Receptor Pro, and I would describe it as a specialized rack mount computer running a version of linux. I also have a laptop which I can use live to run VST's. In my opinion, the laptop and Mainstage are much more user friendly as the Receptor has a learning curve. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Since you already are using the laptop set-up, I would recommend going thru all of your settings to see if you can find the reason it recently glitched. Many people are using that same set-up and don't have much trouble with it. Don

 

[b3maniac]

PS - My Receptor has been 100 percent reliable and has very clean audio. Be aware that you have to run VST's that have been "Receptorized" so all VST's will not necessarily run on the Receptor. Don

 

[Sean Beresford]

PS - My Receptor has been 100 percent reliable and has very clean audio. Be aware that you have to run VST's that have been "Receptorized" so all VST's will not necessarily run on the Receptor. Don

Don, Many thanks for the good advice. I dunno, I think I just like the idea of something super reliable that doesn't also do your email! And if you say the audio quality is really good, I think I'm sold. So I guess my question now is which model to get. I have my whole current show in EXS24 as I figured that would be easiest to use in Mainstage but obviously Audio Units won't work in Receptor. Originally I had built the sample banks in Kontakt 4 so I could easily build them again in Kontakt and buy the NI Komplete version of Receptor or maybe there's a better way? I just found a used NI Komplete Receptor on Ebay for what seems like a really good price.

Thanks again

 

[b3maniac]

I would suggest downloading a Receptor manual and doing some reading to see if it will do what you want. I don't do any patch changes or loads on the fly with my Receptor. I typically just load up two instances of Kontakt and use it for piano/strings/some brass. It does sound good. Don

 

[MikeyParent]

After several years of cautiously "phasing it in" to my rig I am now using an original Receptor (demo model) as my sole sound source and it has been reliable. A nice feature is if you do get into trouble that you can triple-click the power button and it just resets the host software and reloads your plugins in just a couple seconds.

Be aware that you have to run VST's that have been "Receptorized" so all VST's will not necessarily run on the Receptor. Don

Also, it runs *windows* VSTs so if you bought Mac ones you may have to cross-upgrade or whatever.

Good news is there are a *ton* of great free VSTs. I have only *bought* two so far (Slayer 2 and OP-X)

 

[goz211]

@OP Sorry to hear about your computer crash. Had that happen to me on stage too. I'm now back to all hardware but looked into this and Muse's Receptor is still the best option for live gigging (July 2012 if someone's reading back over this).

 

[b3maniac]

Mikey, I am running Komplete 5 on my Receptor Pro, (which includes Kontakt).
Do you have Kontakt on your Receptor, and do you know if you can load
more Kontakt samples without somehow "registering" them? I have quite a lot of samples on my DAW that I would love to be able to copy over to the Receptor but don't know if I can accomplish that. Any idea if that can be done?
Don

 

[MikeyParent]

I don't have Kontakt... I am not even sure if my model will run it...