Need Experienced Info

[mixy]

hm, though Totty's made me a pretty good case for just trying out the Virus KB alone, i'm curious...

other than USB1, what are the disadvantages of the Snow? honestly, it almost seems quite worth it to get a SL61 as controller running through a new Motu, w/ the virus hooked up via the USB to the mac for sound in studio.

That might cost around 2200 dollars, total - that's excellent! Am i missing something with this plan? The Motu is a firewire interface (w/ wicked sound to boot), so i could connect it to my mac AND conenct the snow to my mac, and as far as i know i should be able to control the integrated virus software using the SL61 in studio situations like any AU. That's all i really need - the SL61 is going to be used mainly as a controller/loop trigger in live situations; my guitar is the real focus instrument.

p.s. what are the limitations of the Snow? i have yet to do any research on it whatsoever (i will shortly)

[teethofgold]

the snow has less polyphony and less parts(4 instead of 16) than the bigger models... but I think the snow/motu/controller approach is a good one!

[blairwillis]

While the Snow is indeed limited in parts/polyphony, I don't ever see a real-life issue with it. I run mostly live, most often with a single part, but sometimes multis. If you're playing multiple parts via the sequencer, then you might reach the limits more easily, but you can always freeze tracks to audio to work around this.

If you want to run multiple audio sources in and out of the computer at the same time, with the least latency, then the MOTU would be preferable. Remember, you don't need a multi channel audio interface just to physically hook up a bunch of things (guitar rig, bass, mic, etc.)... you can use a mixer then run that into the computer via the Snow's inputs. But a multi-channel interface will keep it simple, and support multi-track simultaneous i/o.

I'd try it first with just the Snow and pick up the MOTU down the line if you really need it. You can run both of them hooked up at the same time, but only activate the MOTU audio ins/outs and just the Snow USB/MIDI for TI control.

If you end up not needing serious multi-track capability, that's money saved... or money for other gear!